SCM Medical Missions
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SCM’s volunteers have completed their distribution of humanitarian aid in Morocco to the survivors of the massive earthquake in that country. The team traveled south and east of Marrakesh to provide food, clothing inlcuding warm coats, socks and scarves for the coming winter, and other supplies to three villages hard hit by the earthquake. Thank you to all who donated!
SCM is organizing a large purchase of generators for the flood victims in Libya. The generators will be purchased in Egypt and trucked across the border into Libya. Our regional director, Basel Sawalha is overseeing this effort. He will travel from Jordan to Egypt to buy the generators, hire the truck, make sure it gets loaded up and will work with the recipient organization on the other end for delivery and distribution.
Your donation will help us get these generators and pay the costs to get them to the people who need them to power lights, refridgerators, fans, pumps, etc.
Read more about the tragic flooding in the article below. The photo used in this post was taken by Yousef Murad.
BY YOUSEF MURAD AND JACK JEFFERY
Updated 7:54 AM PDT, September 14, 2023
DERNA, Libya (AP) — The wall of water several stories high smashed into apartment buildings, drowning entire families in minutes.
One man lost at least 13 members of his extended family. Fadellalah has yet to hear about the fate of another 20, several days after two dams burst above the Libyan coastal city of Derna, unleashing epic floods that killed thousands, wiped out neighborhoods and washed some of the dead into the sea.
Thousands of others like Fadellalah are frantically trying to find out who survived the rain-swollen rampage.
As a powerful storm bore down on his hometown, the information technology worker in Libya’s capital of Tripoli called his family Sunday to urge them to move to higher ground.
SCM has had a busy 12 months helping resettled families from Syria with 23 families welcomed and helped by you, our amazing supporters. In February the devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey took all our efforts for several months, as we continued to welcome more families to Lynnwood, Spokane and Federal Way. Again, our supporters stepped up and we had an amazing response to help the people get shelter and building supplies, medical supplies, solar panels and electrical systems, fans to combat the heat, food, and they were even able celebrate Eid!
Then, on September 9th, another major earthquake hit, this time in the mountainous region south of Marrakesh, devastating outlying villages and damaging historical monuments in Marrakesh. Oh, but mother nature was not done yet! Daniel, a Mediterranean storm, hit the eastern part of Libya, particularly the area around Derna. Due to years of neglect during the civil war there, two dams collapsed and the torrent swept away thousands of people in its path, wrecked buildings and flooded a wide swath of land. SCM is stretched too thin but we continue to try to put people and organizations together that can help Libya. We are helping to find mental health professionals that can help with PTSD, and will be launching a campaign to buy drones that can find land mines – mines from the civil war that had been previously mapped but are now scattered all over the landscape. This will help keep recovery personnel safe as they work on clearing away debris and cleaning up. More details on our Libya efforts coming soon.
Your support means more now than ever. From helping families begin their new lives in the United States to getting essential supplies to survivors of natural disasters, and supporting our free clinic in Saida, Lebanon, we can’t thank you enough. Please donate today to help us continue our mission of providing humanitarian and medical aid to those in need.
Thank you!
We have been receiving photos of the devastation in the villages hit hard by the earthquake, and they show that there will be a long road to recovery and rebuilding. We have also recieved a couple of stories of what happened in the moments of the quake. One is a story of a woman who was giving birth just as the earthquake struck. A baby girl came into this world just as it must have seemed to be falling apart all around her. We received a video of her being pulled from the debris, a clump of afterbirth and the umbilicle cord still attached, caked in dirt. She is alive, but unfortunately the mother did not survive, as far as we know.
There is another story about a very small village that was completely destroyed but had very few casualties. A woman in the village was having a dinner for the entire village in a big tent she had set up. When the earthquake hit, everyone was at the dinner in the tent and not in their homes. They ran out of the tent to see their homes destroyed, but their lives were saved by the charity of the woman hosting the dinner for the village.
In the photos included here, you can see the level of destruction caused by the earthquake. SCM has partnered with a local NGO to help get supplies to these villages that have lost so much. Please donate today.
Yesterday, a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco, just south of Marrakesh in the High Atlas Mountains. This earthquake was devastating, with more than 2,000 people killed according to the latest reports. The number is expected to go higher as villages in the worst-affected areas are reached and rescue efforts begin. Many of the Berber villages in this mountainous region have been cut off, so news is slow to get out. But early reports and photos and videos getting out are showing widespread destruction. Villages have been ruined, homes and other buildings are piles of rubble.
SCM is working with an NGO partner in Morocco to get aid directly to the villages for relief and rescue efforts, and to begin rebuilding. We are raising funds to send to to them, which is the fastest way to get the help to the people of Morocco. Money will be used to buy medical supplies, food and water, temporary shelters and more.
Please join us in supporting the people of Morocco who have been affected by this devastating quake.
SCM's free clinic in Lebanon is open and helping people in the community right now. Help us keep it open and serving refugees and disadvantaged Lebanese people in the area of Saida. The clinic is important to community development and the wellbeing of the residents. Your support will help so many people!
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