We’re putting our Hands up for Health Workers! Are you?
Almost 12,000 signatures where collected through Merlin's Hands Up campaign and the team is now at United Nations summit handing the petition to world leaders and demanding urgent investment in health workers. A big thank you to everyone who added their name to our campaign for change
THIS ACTION IS NOW CLOSED
As an organisation of predominately health professionals working daily with torture survivors in the UK from countries including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sri Lanka and Sudan, Freedom from Torture recognises the essiential need for worldwide healthcare provision. Year on year, Freedom from Torture has seen survivors whose suffering was increased due to lack of access to rehabilitative treatment in their countries to help them deal with the immediate physical and psychological consequences of torture.
Health workers are the daily lifeline for all of us. By encouraging governments to support investment in health workers and training thousands more, people living in crisis countries - including torture survivors - will have access to much needed frontline care and treatment.
Over 50,000 torture survivors have been referred to our health workers in the organisations 25 year history, many having fled countries fearing conflict, crisis and further persecution.
Freedom from Torture also provides training to health professionals, internationally and in the UK, and knows that health workers offer physical and emotional support to torture survivors; hear the raw accounts and witness the consequences of torture; and provide long term care, often in dangerous conditions and once humanitarian aid has dried up and the world's attention has moved on. Through our own work and by listening to the experiences of other health professionals, we also know that raw and unprocessed accounts of torture can have an impact and lead to trauma for many health workers themselves.
In September 2010, health workers plan to submit a 12,000 strong petition to world leaders gathering in New York, demanding they direct health funding towards health workers otherwise global health targets – the Millennium Development Goals - will never be reached and thousands of people will continue to suffer needlessly. Help health workers reach their goal of 12,000 signatures.
Recognising the crucial role that health workers play for all of us, including torture survivors, Freedom from Torture is supporting Merlin's 'Hands Up for Health Workers' campaign. Are you?
Join us and add your voice to the call for world leaders to urgently reallocate aid to health workers in countries in crisis, so they are sufficiently trained, paid, supported and championed - Act Now! [THIS ACTION IS NOW CLOSED]
