At first sight, 11-months-old Nour* looks like any other baby girl. Her black hair frames her round face and her curious almond-shaped eyes explore her surroundings as she nestles in her father’s arms. But unlike other newborns her age, Nour has already fought her first battle, and won.
FILE PHOTO: Syrian refugee baby born in Jordan. © UNHCR/Christopher Herwig
Born to Syrian refugees who fled the war in their native country and settled in the Coastal City of Alexandria in Egypt, Nour was born with congenital heart anomaly, a birth defect that causes breathlessness and hinders growth among newborns. For months on end, her weight stagnated at three kilograms and her tiny body would succumb to wheezing fits that strained her delicate lungs and cast a bluish tinge across her skin.
“As a parent, it is heartbreaking to watch your children suffer and there’s nothing you can do about it,” her mother said.
In need of urgent surgical intervention, Nour was hospitalized in the newborn intensive care for around three months while the search for a hospital that would admit her was ongoing. The process proved futile when a number of hospitals rejected her case out of fear of postoperative complications on the one hand, and the cost of the operation on the other.
Nour’s case was brought to the attention of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in Egypt through the agency’s health partner, Caritas. Doctors at Caritas consulted a cardiac surgeon from Cairo who agreed to perform the surgery at one of the medical centres in Alexandria, fully covered by UNHCR.
Enduring nerve wracking hours, Nour’s parents clasped their hands in prayer for their daughter as they stood outside the operating room at the hospital. Hours later, a doctor in blue scrubs prised the door open and announced that the surgery was successful. Nour’s heart finally started beating regularly to the relief of her parents.
Ensuring access to health care is a key component of UNHCR’s protection activities and programming. In 2016, UNHCR and the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) signed two Memoranda of Understanding granting refugees and asylum-seekers of all nationalities access to public primary, secondary and emergency health care on par with Egyptian citizens.
In addition, UNHCR supports the provision of primary healthcare services for communicable and non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiac diseases and chronic respiratory disorders, as well as mental health services and reproductive health services for complicated pregnancies, HIV and Tuberculosis through its partners.
In coordination with MoHP, UNHCR, through its partners, provided over 100,000 primary healthcare consultations to refugees and asylum seekers from all nationalities and covered more than 6,000 referrals to secondary and tertiary healthcare.
Nevertheless, funding for the world’s forcibly displaced people is becoming increasingly squeezed, with barely more than half of needs being met worldwide, and worsening hardship and risks for many refugees, other displaced people and the communities they live among.
This funding shortfall is concurrent with an increase in health care costs and an increase in new registrations with UNHCR in Egypt. Inability to keep up with this steep rise means that refugees and asylum-seekers bear the brunt of under funding, forcing them to resort to desperate measures such as going without healthcare or education, child labour and early marriage.
In 2018, only 56 percent of UNHCR Egypt’s funding have been met, meaning that a number of humanitarian and medical services are continually at risk of being cut off. This includes access to lifelong healthcare and essential cash assistance for families that keeps kids in school.
In light of this, UNHCR reiterates its appeal to donors, who provide generous contributions to the the population of concern in Egypt and the host government, to increase their support to maintain the services provided to refugees and asylum-seekers and other members of the host community.
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