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A new report, published today by charity Handicap International, reveals the high degree of weapons contamination in Syria and warns that the lives of 5.1 million Syrians - including more than 2 million children - are at risk. Handicap International is calling on all the parties to the Syrian conflict to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and immediately end the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The international community must also urgently respond to address the harmful effects of these weapons on civilians.

Every 4 minutes, somewhere in the world, a child is the victim of a road traffic accident.  The Child Road Safety in the Americas Congress, organised in collaboration with Handicap International and the United Nations, is to be held in Costa Rica on 7 and 8 May with the aim of improving road safety to better protect children.

According to the World Health Organisation , Nepal is likely to experience a shortfall of staff trained to provide post-trauma care to people with injuries. Handicap International has been working in the country for fifteen years, where its field programme team has been providing support to five rehabilitation centres and forms part of Nepal’s rehabilitation network. However, following the earthquake, there has been an increase in the number of people with injuries, and the organisation has had to deploy additional staff to oversee professionals already working in the field in order to ensure they provide adequate emergency rehabilitation care.

Following the devastating earthquake in Nepal on Saturday 25th April, Handicap International’s teams immediately began distributing equipment to two hospitals in Kathmandu on Saturday. A team of emergency specialists left for Nepal on Sunday evening, followed by a second team on Monday to provide care for injured people and help them avoid developing permanent disabilities.

Salina, 8, still appears to be in a state of deep shock. When the earth began to shake on 25th April, the little girl was playing with friends outside her home. She lost her balance and was thrown to the ground, hitting her head hard and breaking her right arm.

When the earthquake struck Nepal on 25 April, Handicap International immediately mobilised teams to help injured people and distribute medical supplies. In the following hours and days, hospitals were filled by people with fractures, spinal cord injuries and head injuries, many of which were caused by collapsing buildings or falling debris.

The day after Nepal was hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Saturday 25 April, Wesley Pryor, Handicap International’s rehabilitation adviser, travelled to assess the situation in Gorkha, an isolated region very close to the epicentre. He travelled in conjunction with International Medical Corps.

Handicap International’s teams, already present and active on the ground in response to the disaster, will be joined from Monday by several emergency specialists, to evaluate and meet the immediate needs. The first aid distributions were already made on Saturday by the organisation, which is also providing care to injured people.

On Saturday morning, 25th April, a powerful earthquake struck Nepal. So far the disaster has killed more than 1,000 people. Nepal has declared a state of emergency, and Handicap International teams are already on the ground, delivering direct aid and evaluating the need for a large-scale emergency intervention.

Jehad is 24. She was evacuated from her home on the first day of Eid after a warning missile hit her neighbourhood, and she moved to her uncle’s house.

Despite the hopes raised by a sharp drop in the number of contaminations in January, the Ebola virus epidemic is not over yet. Bruno Leclercq, Handicap International’s Field Programme Director in Sierra Leone and Liberia, talked to us about the problems still facing the region and the exceptional commitment shown by the people of Sierra Leone.

Sumaira, 8 years old, was born with the congenital development disorder Spina Bifida . Despite her parents' best efforts to provide her with care, Sumaira is unable to stand up and walk unaided. Before she started receiving care from Handicap International, she was fully dependent on her parents for all her day-to-day needs.

Seng Ly, 52, lost the use of her legs in 1989 after she was hit by an anti-tank mine. At the time, she was living in a camp for Cambodian refugees in Thailand. More than twenty years on, Handicap International is still at her side. 

After recently returning from Sierra Leone, where she coordinated Handicap International’s emergency operations, Nathalie Derrien talks to us about her experiences and the situation in the country worst affected by the epidemic.

In the wake of the conflict in Iraq, more than 2 million Iraqis have left their homes and everything they own behind them. A large proportion has suffered physical and psychological violence. Over 900,000 of them have been displaced to Iraqi Kurdistan, notably in the governorates of Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah. Olivia Nevissas is one of the staff members deployed by Handicap International to help the families made most vulnerable by the crisis.