Meet Merlin the 21st of January 2010
Merlin is JCI London’s Networking partner for the JCI London Networking Thursday the 21st of January.

Merlin
Merlin is a UK based charity specialising in health, providing medical care to save lives in emergencies and helping to rebuild collapsed health services. Merlin’s vision is of a world that provides basic health care to all, responds immediately to save lives in times of crisis, and looks beyond emergencies to safeguard long term health.

In 2009 we have been running programmes in 15 countries worldwide, throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Medical Relief
In October 2009 the island of Sumatra in western Indonesia was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale. The Merlin Response Team rushed to the country, and our specialist surgical team worked long hours in challenging conditions to save the lives and limbs of many of the survivors.

Natural disasters, conflicts and other crises cause health services to collapse at the moment when health needs are at their greatest. Merlin specialises in treating the sick and wounded during humanitarian emergencies. Since our beginning in 1993 we have responded to some of the most humanitarian crises, including the Rwandan genocide, the Asian Tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake and the conflict in Darfur. Our Merlin Response Team will support disaster struck communities wherever and whenever they are needed.

Lasting Health Care
More than a year after the 2008 cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe, during which we treated over 10,000 patients, we are supporting the health system prepare for future outbreaks, equipping health clinics with medicines and providing vital training for health staff. Midwives in a remote corner of Afghanistan have received training at a Merlin-supported midwifery school, and in the isolated town of Boma in southern Sudan school children have been taught the importance of hand washing.

Health is one the greatest challenges facing the countries where Merlin works. Wherever we work, Merlin helps to build the capacity of existing health services to ensure sustainability, ensuring that vulnerable communities will continue to receive the health care they are so badly in need of.

In October 2004, Merlin opened a midwife training school in Takhar province, northern Afghanistan. Since then we have worked closely with local communities to select students from remote areas, who undergo an 18 month intensive hands-on training at an all-female residential school. We set up a second school in the neighbouring province Kunduz, in 2007.

Fatima was selected for the course, because she was the only girl in her home village that could read and write. “I am so happy to be studying here” she says. “I would be so happy if others like me could have the same opportunity”.