Care and surgery
Training and skills transfer
Building and equipping hospitals
Prevention and screening
Emergencies and humanitarian crises
Maternal health
World NGO Day
World NGO Day was formally introduced and endorsed at the Baltic Sea Council NGO Forum in 2010. It was officially inaugurated by Finland's Minister of Foreign Affairs on February 27, 2014 in Helsinki. Since then, the day has been celebrated by international leaders and numerous organizations around the world.
What is an NGO?
Generally speaking, an NGO, or non-governmental organization, is a non-state entity financed mainly by private donations. They play a crucial role in humanitarian aid in a number of ways:
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social assistance,
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helping the most disadvantaged,
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emergency response in the event of natural disaster or war,
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etc.
Why a World NGO Day?
The aim of this day is to pay tribute to the work accomplished by NGOs working in various fields such as the environment, education, health, social justice, sport, and other causes beneficial to society. Each non-governmental organization plays a crucial role in mobilizing resources and implementing initiatives aimed at solving social problems at different scales, whether local, national or international.
What can you do to mark International NGO Day?
According to the World NGO Day Foundation (WNDF), over 10 million NGOs are active worldwide.
Since 1994, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has been active in over 30 countries. With our teams, volunteers and local partner organizations, we work to make healthcare accessible to vulnerable people, with a particular focus on children and women in fragile contexts.
For example:
– In Madagascar, we support the development of pediatric cardiac surgery. The aim is to reduce the mortality rate among children suffering from heart disease, by strengthening the treatment capabilities of the Centre Hospitalier de Soavinandriana (CENHOSOA), a healthcare facility located near the capital, Antananarivo.
– In Jordan, we are rolling out nationwide screening campaigns to detect developmental hip dysplasia in children.
– Famine is gaining ground in Afghanistan. In response to this humanitarian emergency, we have opened a nutrition unit within our Kabul hospital, the Institut Médical Français pour la Mère et l’Enfant (IMFE), to care for these malnourished children.
