A life vest is not enough – Medu with ResQ in the Mediterranean sea to save lives

A LIFE VEST IS NOT ENOUGH – MEDU STARTS A CROWDFUNDING TO SAVE LIVES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA WITH RESQ.
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A serious humanitarian crisis that has been going on for years in the central Mediterranean sea has led to death by shipwreck thousands of migrants and refugees trying to reach Italy and Europe; over 17,000, according to IOM data, in the last seven years. Today, human beings, laws and rights continue to die in the Mediterranean. It is necessary that Italy and the European Union take action to make rescue at sea possible and to prevent men, women and children from returning to the same places they are fleeing from.
This is why many citizens have joined ResQ, a civil society organisation that has the aim of deploying a new ship in the Mediterranean as soon as possible, in order to add to the currently inadequate humanitarian fleet that carries out rescue operations in the stretch of sea between the African Coast and Italy.
However, a life vest is not enough: rescue operations must include comprehensive medical and sanitary assistance, providing for both physical and mental health. This is why Medici per i Diritti Umani (MEDU) has decided to raise its hand to support this project, whose objectives – to save, cure and testify against indifference – have always been at the heart of its action.
“Over the past few years, MEDU health workers have brought medical and psychological assistance to thousands of people who have survived the migration routes from Africa and Asia to Europe. These are men, women and children who have seen and experienced ‘all the evils of the world’. Our operators have collected their stories and shared some of their suffering” says Alberto Barbieri, MEDU’s general coordinator.
When the ResQ humanitarian ship becomes operational in the coming months, a team of MEDU doctors and psychologists will be engaged in constant liaison with the crew to ensure medical-psychological support to the rescued persons and training activities for the operators, in particular on psychological first aid.
To make the activities of its team fully operational in supporting ResQ, MEDU has launched a crowdfunding campaign dedicated to sea rescues. Thanks to your contribution, it will be possible to support our operations of medical-psychological assistance to rescued people and training to the operators working on the ship.
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