Iraq faced numerous difficulties in 2022, including the social and economic repercussions of the Corona pandemic and other difficulties like climate change and others that continue to be very difficult for the poor sectors.
According to unofficial statistics, Iraq has a population of 42 million people, and reports claim that it has the highest poverty rate in the Middle East, which varies from (12% to 51%) depending on the situation in each governorate. In addition, the number of crises, the fragility of the economy, and the high unemployment rates, which are projected to reach 30% in 2022, constitute a very concerning sign of the rise in the proportion of vulnerable groups in the community.
More than a million displaced people still experience a lack of services and have significant difficulties getting access to their daily food, so the Iraq Red Crescent Society focused on increasing the resilience of the most vulnerable and affected groups in order to help them overcome these difficulties. Over the duration of 2022, the Red Crescent distributed 4,500 food parcels and helped more than 500 impoverished families. As part of the livelihood initiative, cash distributions of (1-6) million dollars were given to (6348) impacted and vulnerable families as well as cash grants to (37) families in Dhi Qar and Nineveh to fund minor projects.
According to the United Nations classification, Iraq is one of the top five countries in the world that are most impacted by climate change. This is demonstrated by the sharp increase in temperatures that has occurred as a result of the decline in precipitation rates and the sharply declining water supplies from the source countries.
Due to the fact that the Iraqi Red Crescent is considered as one of the institutions that have an effective and role in providing humanitarian aid, especially the activities which related to water provision ,however, the provision of water is one of the main projects that aim at improvy the humanitarian and health situation of community. During 2022, (5-19) million liters were produced by (36) water stations distributed in (11) governorates, that all covering the water needs of more than (500) thousand people. Moreover, the Red Crescent exploded its services to include drilling (3) wells in remote areas with a production capacity of more than (63) million liters/ year to supply the local population, which is estimated at more than (13) thousand people, with water in each of Basrah and Nineveh governorates.
As part of the infrastructure rehabilitation programs implemented by the IRCS in cooperation with its partners, the water facilities have been rehabilitated in (25) schools and (8) health centers in order to provide a healthy environment for more than (16) thousand students and the teaching staff, where the number of beneficiaries from the rehabilitated health centres services are more than (1200) patients per day, and based on the IRCS role in
supporting health institutions, the IRCS has intensified the health care efforts provided to groups who are exposed to epidemic diseases and those affected by climate change, also the groups whose areas of residence lack health centers or are far from them by running (8) mobile medical clinics provided Its medical and treatment services for more than (337) thousand sick cases divided into (10) governorates.
The IRCS has also expanded the services of the first responder program that has has been applicable since 2015 which has contributed to saving lives and had a clear impact on the targeted communities by deploying (10) ambulances operating 24 hours a day and with trained cadres distributed over four governorates, as (12835) urgent cases were transferred by the IRCS ambulance evacuation service during the year 2022.
The IRCS is paying a great attention to psychosocial support programs, health awareness and promotion of personal hygiene, as it dealt directly and on a daily basis with the local community through delivering lectures, distributing awareness posters and folders, adding to distributing sanitary vests, personal protection materials and detergents, and the number of beneficiaries from the health awareness campaigns and psychosocial support programs have reached more than (690) thousand beneficiary from the local community, the displaced and the returning refugees.
It is remarkable that the number of views on social networking sites of the IRCS has reached more than 8,450,743 million views.
It is worth mentioning that the great experience possessed by the IRCS volunteers in managing crowds during the annual activities that it supports from its own resources, also the acceptability of the IRCS among the Iraqi community which made it present in all occasions of large human gatherings, such as the Muharram and Al-Arbaeen pilgrimages, and during the year 2022 the IRCS has provided its various services for more than (6) million pilgrims.
The IRCS has also invests in all occasions, events and activities that it implements to spread and teach the principles of the International Movement of Red Cross and Red Crescent, and the concepts of the international humanitarian law, and as an important result of these activities, new volunteers have been recruited to support the IRCS in its humanitarian work.
