UN Information spoke with Elena Panova, UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt, and Neveen Alqabbaj, Vice-President of the Egyptian Pink Crescent Society and Egypt’s Minister of Social Solidarity, about how 1000’s of tonnes of help and lifesaving companies get delivered in occasions of disaster.
Neveen Alqabbaj: The Egyptian Pink Crescent Society was on prime of the occasions in Gaza from the primary day. We’ve greater than 31 emergencies centres, 10 warehouses, 175 rescue groups, 36,000 emergency volunteers and vans. We’ve extremely outfitted operations rooms that monitor the state of affairs and coordinate with the Palestinian Pink Crescent, so we’ve a real-time provision of knowledge between the 2.
We had been getting ourselves prepared in El Arish [where many international aid shipments arrive by air, about 50 km from the Rafah border into Gaza] and the encircling governorates. We coordinate with native and worldwide non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to make sure we’ve the products.
Elena Panova: With the crises erupting in Gaza and Sudan, the UN crew in Egypt, which consists of 27 UN companies, needed to refocus on scaling up our work. These crises pressured us to rethink the best way we function as a result of we’re in emergency mode.
The UN in Egypt is working hand in hand with the Egyptian Pink Crescent Society and has deployed a small humanitarian technical crew to El Arish, together with logisticians and people supporting help coordination and data administration.
The crew works to helps the Pink Crescent Society handle its warehouses in El Arish, the UN World Meals Programme (WFP) supplied further cellular warehouses, and UN companies donated vans, forklifts, mills and pallets. Out of the greater than 4,008 vans that reached Gaza, round 35 per cent [contain] help mobilized by the UN because of the generosity of donors.
![Injured Palestinians are taken in ambulances from Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Injured Palestinians are taken in ambulances from Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Collections/Embargoed/10-11-2023-WHO-Gaza-Rafah-02.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg)
© WHO
Injured Palestinians are taken in ambulances from Gaza by way of the Rafah crossing into Egypt.
UN Information: What’s the strategy of managing and opening the Rafah crossing and the restrictions you face, and what position does the UN in Egypt play in supporting help deliveries?
Neveen Alqabbaj: We’re guaranteeing that all the things is channeled by way of the [Rafah border] gates, that we’ve a complete imaginative and prescient and are responding as quick as attainable. The Rafah crossing was the only real supply of passing main help into Gaza.
At the start, it was solely 20 vans a day, after which it elevated regularly to those 200 vans per day, though the necessity for the Palestinian individuals is round 500 to 600 vans per day. Which means we’re reaching solely 30 per cent of the particular wants.
We’ve issues in that we [face] so many calls for on the Israeli authorities’ facet. Every truck should journey about 50 kms from El Arish for inspection at Israel’s Nitzana border crossing, then return to Rafah. As time passes, we now know the guidelines that they want. We’re additionally automating all the data and information that’s supplied by way of Rafah.
![As part of an inter-agency convoy, the World Food Programme (WFP) picked up lifesaving aid at the Rafah crossing, delivering it to hard-to-reach areas in Gaza City during a pause in fighting in November. (file) As part of an inter-agency convoy, the World Food Programme (WFP) picked up lifesaving aid at the Rafah crossing, delivering it to hard-to-reach areas in Gaza City during a pause in fighting in November. (file)](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Collections/Embargoed/13-12-2023-WFP_Gaza-04.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg)
© WFP/Ali Jadallah
As a part of an inter-agency convoy, the World Meals Programme (WFP) picked up lifesaving help on the Rafah crossing, delivering it to hard-to-reach areas in Gaza Metropolis throughout a pause in combating in November. (file)
Elena Panova: It’s certainly a really complicated operation, and the complexity ought to completely not be underestimated. From the UN facet, we attempt to give attention to enhancing effectivity and predictability.
We wish to guarantee that no matter will get on these vans is what is required in Gaza. Prioritization is likely one of the areas the place we assist the Egyptian Pink Crescent based mostly on the data we get from colleagues from the opposite facet of the border, primarily the UN company for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Pink Crescent Society.
One instance of enhancing effectivity is developing with a QR coding system for help vans. Anybody with a cell phone can scan the code and see who’s donating the help, who’s the recipient and what sort of help, which is extraordinarily necessary for managing the transportation and transparency of help delivered to Gaza.
![The World Health Organization (WHO) led a second UN and Palestine Red Crescent Society mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza in November. (file) The World Health Organization (WHO) led a second UN and Palestine Red Crescent Society mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza in November. (file)](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Libraries/Production%20Library/19-11-2023_Shifa_WHO_Evacuation.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg)
WHO
The World Well being Group (WHO) led a second UN and Palestine Pink Crescent Society mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza in November. (file)
UN Information: In regards to the medical evacuations – together with of a number of untimely infants – that occurred lately by way of the Rafah crossing, are you able to clarify the method? What sort of assist Egyptian authorities present to the sufferers and the injured on the Egyptian facet?
Neveen Alqabbaj: The Egyptian authorities, per the President’s steering and suggestions, are to just accept individuals in medical want or these with severe accidents. Round 10,000 injured individuals are looking for medical assist, 4,000 of them youngsters. We’ve 38 hospitals prepared in El Arish and the encircling areas and in Cairo, and transportation has been supplied by way of the Egyptian authorities and NGOs, particularly for incubators, inhalers, anesthesia units and different gear.
The untimely [babies] obtained in El Arish Hospital aren’t but named and don’t have beginning certificates. We’re doing the case administration for every youngster. In Palestine, we’ve round 52,000 girls who’re pregnant, and we’ve about 183 deliveries per day. We additionally obtain individuals right here who’ve amputations and others who might be quadriplegic.
Throughout the disaster, 90 per cent of Gazan hospitals have been utterly out of order, round 250 medical staff had been killed and there’s a lack of apparatus and plenty of different provides. We’ve severe accidents that should be evacuated very quickly.
Elena Panova: Our groups, particularly the World Well being Group (WHO) and the UN Kids’s Fund (UNICEF), work very intently with the Ministry of Well being and Inhabitants. They’re those that lead the medical evacuations. All of the groups assist to reinforce the capacities of the hospitals in Egypt which are receiving injured individuals from Gaza.
The UN in Egypt additionally has an necessary position on the subject of the rotation of important humanitarian employees. We’re facilitating individuals moving into Gaza. These are our UN colleagues, actual heroes, and courageous NGO employees that enter Gaza to assist the groups there. To date, there have been greater than 100 important humanitarian employees which have entered Gaza.
![Local authorities in Aswan, Egypt, and UNICEF opened a child-friendly space to provide support to children and their families fleeing Sudan. Local authorities in Aswan, Egypt, and UNICEF opened a child-friendly space to provide support to children and their families fleeing Sudan.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Libraries/Production%20Library/15-05-2023_UNICEF_Egypt_Support_03.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg)
© UNICEF/UN0836043/Mostafa
Native authorities in Aswan, Egypt, and UNICEF opened a child-friendly area to offer assist to youngsters and their households fleeing Sudan.
UN Information:Transferring to the disaster in Sudan, what number of Sudanese refugees are in Egypt proper now and how much assist is being supplied?
Neveen Alqabbaj: Generally, 45 per cent of the 9 million refugees in Egypt are Sudanese. Within the newest disaster in Sudan, we obtained above 300,000 households. The Egyptian Pink Crescent was there from the primary early moments, serving to individuals to cross the border safely and transporting them to the totally different places in Egypt. Sudanese in Egypt aren’t clustered into camps, however they reside all through the nation.
We established service centres on the entry factors. We offer humanitarian reduction companies, hygiene kits, meals and important provides, challenge papers for these with out identification, and psychosocial assist for kids and ladies.
Elena Panova: Quickly after the primary refugees began arriving right here in Egypt, the UN Emergency Reduction Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, allotted particular funds from the Central Emergency Reduction Fund (CERF) to our crew to allow us to scale up the response rapidly. On the route the migrants [are traveling], we put in water and sanitation services, primarily by UNICEF, easy issues like bogs. WFP supplied meals, money help to 270,000 of the brand new arrivals. The UN reproductive well being and rights company, UNFPA, and Egyptian companions established protected areas for ladies, a lot of whom had been fleeing sexual violence in the course of the battle.
Going ahead, we’ve new arrivals, about 300 every day. We’re going by way of the method of assembly their quick wants. We additionally work intently with the Authorities to know what the wants are for extra long-term resilient assist on the subject of livelihoods and particularly speaking about training and well being companies. Help is unquestionably wanted for the host communities, but in addition to the Authorities of Egypt to construct its response to those mounting pressures.
Take heed to the complete interview here.