Emergency 
Health Unit

Tima* (26) found out she was pregnant in July 2023. She was excited to be having her second child and decorated a room in their home in preparation for the new baby. She thought about how she would spoil her new baby and how she would provide it with the best food and nice clothes. Then in October 2023, the war in Gaza started and everything changed. Tima, her husband, her son Hani* (19 months) and her parents, including her mother Eileen* (49), were displaced multiple times as fighting expanded across the Gaza strip. Tima says the most terrifying night was when they were sheltering in a greenhouse and bombs were falling all around them and bullets were slashing the plastic of the greenhouse. Tima says it’s been hard being pregnant during the war. They now live in a tent in central Gaza, and they do everything on the ground – cooking, washing, eating and sleeping. Tima’s back ached and she was exhausted. She was also very worried about where she would give birth safely, given the continuous attacks on healthcare facilities during the war. Tima visited the hospital where Save the Children is providing life-saving services for children and their families and had pre-natal check-up. Tima liked the facility and asked if she could give birth when she was due. Baby Lana* then arrived on 26 April 2024 and was the first baby to be born at Save the Children’s new maternity unit in the Gaza Strip, which was set up with the Emergency Health Unit. Tima and Eileen were so relieved when Lana arrived safely. Tima says her husband has red hair, so her daughter definitely looks like her. Although baby Lana was healthy when she left the hospital, after three days she developed a fever, refused to breastfeed and had blood coming from her umbilical cord. Tima was quick to bring her daughter back to the hospital where she was admitted to the inpatient ward and was treated by the Emergency Health Unit’s Dr Ana Paola Cardenas. Dr Cardenas said baby Lana had contracted sepsis (infection of the umbilical cord) due to the tough living conditions in Al Mawasi where her family lives in a tent and has very limited access to clean water and washing facilities. If left untreated, sepsis can easily kill a baby. However, thanks to Tima’s quick actions, a course of intravenous antibiotics and close monitoring in the inpatient facility, baby Lana has made a full recovery. Sacha Myers / Save the Children

Save the Children staff who visited northern Gaza on a scoping and security mission shared photos of the destruction. Save the Children

Muna, 42, has dedicated years of her life to helping some of the most vulnerable children to access healthcare. In 2003 her family was forced to flee their home due to conflict and drought. Now almost 18 years later she is still living in the same camp for displaced people. She says new families arrive every day. The most recent influx is due to the severe water shortages and drought currently gripping many parts of Somalia. “Children living in the camp are at risk because the living conditions are so bad and sometimes families cannot afford clean drinking water. Sometimes they cannot afford to send all of their children to school,” Muna says. “Children have a lower immunity, and they get sick quite often and when there is an illness, they get it first. For example, when COVID-19 came, many children had flu-like symptoms.” Muna is a Family Health Worker with Save the Children. “Because I have some education, I wanted to do something for my community,” Muna says. “I was nominated to be the community health worker and I did that for 16 years. Since Save the Children opened the Maternal and Child (MCH) clinic I have been working with them for the past two years.” Muna goes door-to-door each day visiting families and assessing children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women. She screens children for malnutrition and refers them to Save the Children’s MCH clinic for treatment, provides medication for illnesses such as pneumonia and diarrhoea and informs families about how to keep safe from COVID-19 and about the importance of vaccines and breastfeeding. Sacha Myers / Save the Children