- Gino Strada
- Surgeon and founder of EMERGENCY
Gino Strada is an Italian surgeon who has devoted himself to providing medical and surgical care in war-torn countries around the world over the past 28 years.
Dr. Strada has helped save lives by providing free-of-charge medical treatment to 9 million people and has led an anti-war campaign
to protect human rights and dignity.
Providing emergency medical aid on the front lines of conflict in Africa and the Middle East
Gino Strada is an Italian surgeon who, for 28 years, has been providing emergency medical aid to refugees and victims of war and poverty in conflict areas of Africa and the Middle East.
He began his career as a war surgeon with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1989, and in 1994, he founded EMERGENCY, an international humanitarian organization. EMERGENCY’s mandate is to provide high-quality, free medical and surgical care to the victims of war, land mines, and poverty. Over the years, EMERGENCY has been working in 17 countries, building and operating hospitals, medical and surgical centers, rehabilitation centers, pediatric clinics, primary health clinics, a maternity center, and a cardiac surgery center. EMERGENCY currently works in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Iraq, Italy, Sierra Leone, and Sudan.
In Afghanistan, EMERGENCY runs two surgical centers for war victims in Kabul and Lashkargah and one hospital in Anabah (Panjshir Valley), which includes a maternity center. In 2007, EMERGENCY established the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery, a Centre of Excellence in Sudan (Africa) providing free high-quality heart surgery to patients with acquired or congenital heart diseases. The center also serves as a hub for regional cardiac surgery programs and receives patients from 27 countries. At the center, EMERGENCY has performed more than 6,500 surgeries and more than 56,000 cardiac examinations. The center received world-class ratings for its work.
Since 2009, EMERGENCY has operated the only free-of-charge pediatric hospital in the Central African Republic. In 2014, when the Ebola virus (EVD) spread in West Africa, EMERGENCY established a 100-bed Ebola Treatment Centre in Goderich, Freetown, Sierra Leone, in cooperation with the British Government's Department for International Development.
Since July 2014, EMERGENCY has also been actively responding to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. It operates 6 primary healthcare centers in refugee and IDP (internally displaced persons) camps. Since 2006, EMERGENCY has been running a program in Italy to respond to the increasing needs of the migrant population.
EMERGENCY cooperates with the United Nations to effectively respond to the needs of populations in danger. In 2008, EMERGENCY became an official partner of the United Nations Office of Public Information and, since 2015, has obtained a Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Taking the lead in protecting human rights and dignity by guaranteeing the right to be cured
Dr. Gino Strada has actively promoted the values of peace, solidarity, and human rights by providing high-quality, free-of-charge medical treatment without discrimination under the firm belief that the right to be cured is a basic and inalienable right of all people.
In Africa, where awareness of public healthcare is lacking, Dr. Strada focuses on spreading the perception that healthcare is a basic human right and that the state should take the lead in guaranteeing medical rights. Through his efforts, in 2008, the governments of 12 African nations (Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda) have signed EMERGENCY's "Manifesto for a Human Rights-based Medicine" (a medical declaration of human rights) that recognizes "the right of people to receive medical treatment" and promises to make efforts to provide healthcare services free-of-charge.
In 2010, the principles of the Manifesto were developed into the African Network of Medical Excellence (ANME), a project to build Centres of Excellence to strengthen the national health systems of the African continent. The network involves 11 countries.
EMERGENCY medical staff provide free medical and surgical care to all those in need without discrimination under three key principles: Equality, high-quality health care, and social responsibility. EMERGENCY also provides thorough medical education and training to local medical staff with the goal of handing over its facilities to local health authorities, whenever operational and clinical autonomy is fully achieved.
Promoting a culture of peace through anti-war campaigns and campaigns for the prohibition of production of anti-personnel landmines
Emphasizing that war is a source of force and violence that cannot be justified for any reason, Dr. Gino Strada engages in anti-war movements taking the moral and political position that war must be abolished completely from Earth.
In 1997, Gino Strada, who for over decades has seen civilian casualties and human misery caused by landmines in conflict zones, passionately campaigned to ban the production of landmines in Italy. That goal was achieved in 1998. In addition, he strongly opposed and campaigned against Italy's intervention in the war in Afghanistan in 2001, and in Iraq in 2003. In 2002, EMERGENCY organized a campaign with the support of half a million people protesting the war.
In 2003, as the war in Afghanistan worsened and the war in Iraq began, EMERGENCY started mobilization of the civil society and collected signatures for the anti-war movement, asking government groups to stop the fire “before hatred and violence become the only language of mankind." The appeal was signed by world-renowned figures including MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, Le Monde newspaper diplomatic editor Ignacio Ramonet, Former President of Italy Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (1992-1999), 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchù, 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine Rita Levi Montalcini, 1997 Nobel Prize winner in Literature Dario Fo, and 1988 Nobel Prize winner in Physics Jack Steinberger among others.
When, after intervening in the war, the Italian Foreign Ministry offered support to EMERGENCY's hospitals in Afghanistan, Dr. Strada declined the proposal stating that EMERGENCY could not receive funding from the Italian government, which was actively contributing to the war.
Dr. Gino Strada appeals to the world that "the best thing the present generation can do for future generations is to work together to make a world without war."
EMERGENCY has come to believe that the abolition of war is the only realistic and humane solution to end human suffering and promote universal human rights. With this objective in mind, EMERGENCY is working to launch an international campaign involving world-renowned personalities as well as ordinary citizens. It might sound utopian, but in fact it is a realistic and achievable objective. It is up to the world citizens to take action and conquer peace. Renouncing the logic of war and practicing fraternity and solidarity is not only desirable but urgently needed if we want the human experiment to continue.
Acceptance Speech
Ladies and gentlemen, It is an honour for me to receive the Sunhak Peace Prize, particularly in times increasingly marked by war and violence when speaking of peace is perceived as unrealistic and utopian. I wish to thank Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon for devoting their lives to achieving universal peace and promoting the fundamental values of peace, dialogue and cooperation in the name of the human family.
Now more than ever, there is a compelling need for building a better world for future generations and sustainable peace. I have personally seen the atrocities of war and its devastating impact. I have spent the last thirty years of my life in war-torn countries, operating on patients in Rwanda, Peru, Ethiopia, Somalia, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan. In these and other countries, EMERGENCY – the humanitarian organization I founded 23 years ago - is committed to providing free and high-quality medical and surgical care to the victims of war, whose effects are not limited to the wounded and refugees, but have severe repercussions on the future of entire generations.
Many of the conflicts that are currently ravaging countries reducing populations to misery and hunger are often undeclared or deliberately silenced. The massacres are increasing, to the point that it is hard to remember them all. For most of us, they seem so far and alien from our daily life. It is so easy to listen to the news without realizing that after every bomb, after every shell there are people struggling to survive. Ninety percent of the victims of the wars of our time are civilians, people equal to us, with the same needs, the same hopes and the same desire for their beloved ones: living safely, staying together, and being protected.
According to recent estimates, “eight individuals own as much as the poorest 3.6 billion people. Meanwhile, every day 1 in 9 people go to bed hungry.” Are we still surprised that people increasingly embark on perilous journeys and strive to find a better future? Last year over 60 million people were forced to leave their homes, looking for protection and safety. They had the dream of living in peace, but we are deaf to their hopes. “What did I do wrong?” a Somali guy landing in Sicily asked me. I could not give him an answer.
Even though migrants arriving in Europe represent a small portion of the migrant population scattered across the globe, the so-called “migration crisis” has shed light on the hypocrisy of the European approach to human rights. On the one hand, we firmly promote the principles of peace, democracy and fundamental rights, while, on the other, we are building a fortress made of walls and cultural barriers, denying access and basic help to thousands of people fleeing war and poverty.
The case of Afghanistan serves an emblematic example. In the last 15 years, Afghanistan has been devastated by a new war. Every year in our hospitals around the country we register a new record of war wounded, one third of them are children. Afghanistan has been the source country of the second-highest number of refugees worldwide (only recently surpassed by Syria), with almost 3 million Afghans living mainly in Pakistan and Iran. This tragedy has been ignored for many years by the Western countries and has become a priority only when Afghan refugees have turned to Europe as their final destination. In response to this increasing flow, rather than investing in welcoming and integration programs and addressing the root causes of the conflict, European leaders have signed an agreement with the Afghan government to legally deport asylum seekers back to Afghanistan in exchange for financial aid.
The broken lives of all of them urge us to reflect, ask us to take action to get out of the spiral of war and violence. If we wish to work for the survival of humankind, the abolition of war is necessary and inevitable. It falls within the mandate of the UN, founded over 70 years ago, but still today very little has been done to fulfill their core mandate.
EMERGENCY has come to believe that the abolition of war is the only realistic and humane solution to end human suffering and promote universal human rights. With this objective in mind, EMERGENCY is working to launch an international campaign involving world-renowned personalities as well as ordinary citizens. It might sound utopian, but in fact it is a realistic and achievable objective. It is up to the world citizens to take action and conquer peace. Renouncing the logic of war and practicing fraternity and solidarity is not only desirable but urgently needed if we want the human experiment to continue. Today I am very happy to have the chance to warmly invite all of you to join us in this effort.
Thank you.
Remark Upon Announcement
“I am honoured to receive the Sunhak Peace Prize. It encourages EMERGENCY and me to multiple efforts to pursue our mission of promoting peace and human rights worldwide.
In 1994, I founded EMERGENCY with the aim of guaranteeing high standard, free-of-charge care to the victims of war and poverty.
For 22 years, EMERGENCY has been treating over 8 million people in 17 countries, in the firm belief that the right to be cured is a fundamental human right.
We work tirelessly in Afghanistan, where the number of war-wounded keeps increasing after 15 years of war.
In Iraq, we contribute to the reception of tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people. We provide medical care to entire families that have lost everything fleeing the war.
In Italy, we treat hundreds of migrants that every week risk their lives in the Mediterranean Sea, looking for a better future away from home.
Confronted daily with the suffering of war-victims, we have come to realize that war is the worst disease affecting humanity.
In 1932, at a press conference gathering journalists from all over the world in Geneva, Albert Einstein stated “War cannot be humanized. It can only be abolished.” Some years later, in their 1955 Manifesto, Einstein and Bertrand Russell wrote: “Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”
There is no alternative, especially today, when technologies with a mass destruction capacity million times higher than the bomb of Hiroshima are available. Humanity must renounce war.
It may seem utopian, but, before the XIX century, even the abolition of slavery seemed utopian.
As long as war remains a possible option to deal with severe crises, it is likely that someone will eventually resort to it. The abolition of war is the only guarantee for the future of humanity and our planet.
Nov 29, 2016
Dr. Gino Strada
.jpg)
