Dear member of the MedGlobal community,

Reaching the end of 2024, we are filled with pride and inspiration as well as dismay and outrage. As humanitarians, our purpose is to bring a measure of healing and humanity into spaces of pain and violence.

Spaces like the overcrowded camps in southern Bangladesh housing over a million Rohingya stripped of statehood and violently persecuted in Myanmar.
Spaces like the migrant shelters briefly hosting Venezuelan, Guatemalan, Haitian and other asylum seekers denied access to healthcare in Colombia and at Mexico’s northern border.

Spaces like Sudan, where violence has forced 12 million people to flee their homes, and where children are starving.

Spaces in Ukraine, where Russian attacks continue to flout international norms by targeting civilians and hospitals.

Spaces like southern Yemen where women must travel for days to reach hospitals capable of dealing with maternal health complications.

Spaces like Lebanon where Israeli bombing recently hit civilian neighborhoods and displaced thousands of people. 

Spaces like northern Gaza where genocidal warfare knows no limits, where civilians are deliberately starved and where hospitals are bombed. Every day.

Few among us embody our humanitarian purpose more persistently and courageously than Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a MedGlobal doctor who risked everything to walk through the rubble-filled streets of Gaza nearly every day this year to Kamal Adwan hospital. Over the past few months, this legally protected medical space was besieged and relentlessly assaulted by drones, tanks and explosives-wearing robots. Just a few days ago, the hospital – already badly damaged and nearly out of supplies – was forced to close as Dr. Abu Safiya and over one hundred healthcare workers were arrested by Israeli forces. Their crime? Being humanitarian and heeding the call of their medical profession.

We are profoundly outraged by the cruelty on full display in Gaza, and in so many other spaces of war and repression. And yet MedGlobal exists precisely as a counterweight to such inhumanity. We believe in our shared humanity. We believe in the power of medicine to heal bodies and build communities. We are inspired by colleagues like Dr. Abu Safiya, by the communities we support, our partners, and people like yourselves who make everything we do possible.

And we are hopeful. Recent historic political changes in Syria remind us that even the most tyrannical regimes topple. After five decades of repression, Syria now has a chance to heal, reunite and reconstruct. MedGlobal is there at the heart of it, and we will work with local communities pouring every bit of our will and medical expertise into rebuilding Syria’s broken healthcare system.   

As we reach the end of 2024, we are proud of what we have accomplished. Recognized as a leading humanitarian responder and a voice for humanity, MedGlobal more than doubled its supporters and humanitarian activities in 2024. We know that people are looking to MedGlobal’s leadership and action more than ever.

Looking to 2025, we will be in those spaces where people are exposed to violence, climate-related calamities and repressive policies. We will use our voice to protest and press for change, and we will use healthcare to heal and demonstrate our solidarity. With your support, we will humbly and relentlessly bring a measure of humanity to those pockets of suffering where it is most needed.

Thank you!

Dr Zaher Sahloul – President and Co-Founder
Joseph Belliveau – Executive Director