Pregnant mothers and newborn babies evacuated from Gaza with urgent medical needs will receive life-saving healthcare and support from Save the Children and partners in Egypt, in an initiative funded by Community Jameel

• ‍This Gaza Mothers and Children Fund will support care for mothers and newborn babies evacuated from Gaza for urgent medical attention in Egypt, and the treatment of up to 100,000 children in Gaza injured by explosive weapons.
• Save the Children and Community Jameel have a long-standing partnership and are already collaborating in Jordan, Kenya and beyond. 

Thanks to this initiative, paediatric and maternal medical equipment and supplies will be provided to frontline staff and ambulance services in Egypt, enabling the Egyptian authorities to meet the critical needs of pregnant mothers and newborn babies who have been evacuated from Gaza. Save the Children continues to support the Ministry of Health and key Egyptian health actors to save lives in the region. Save the Children will also be supporting frontline health workers with some of the basics to cope with the immense psychological trauma emanating from the crisis in Gaza.  

In addition, up to 100 clinical staff in Gaza will be trained to provide specialist treatment and care for up to 100,000 children injured by explosive weapons. 

Community Jameel’s funding will help to train and equip cohorts of clinical staff in Gaza, initially remotely via webinar as Save the Children facilitated for medics in Ukraine earlier this year, to support on specialist care for children impacted by blast and trauma injuries. In addition, 1,000 first responder packs for civilians will be distributed in Gaza to enable the community to respond to children injured by explosive injuries with basic control of heavy bleeding packs (CatCH Pack). 

The need for this initiative is pressing. The death toll from the conflict in Gaza is now reported to be around 6,000 children and is continuing to rise at a rapid pace. Tragically, that means that one child is being killed every 10 minutes and many more are experiencing life changing blast and crush injuries.   

Community Jameel’s contribution will also distribute 2,000 Paediatric Blast Injury Field Manuals. 

Medical staff need to make complex decisions in the horrors of war and the Paediatric Blast Injury Field Manual supports clinicians to make informed decisions by providing a durable, easy-to-use, illustration-based guide. Training on the application of the manual for clinical staff in Gaza through this initiative will help inform these decisions and take life-saving action through an approach already being used in 13 conflict zones around the world, including Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan.  

Community Jameel’s donation will also support the Centre for Paediatric Blast Injury Studies, launched at Imperial College London in March 2023, as it continues its pioneering research.

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James Denselow, head of conflict and humanitarian at Save the Children UK, said:  

“The UN Secretary General himself has described Gaza as a ‘graveyard for children’ and the fact that those with the smallest shoulders have borne the heaviest brunt of this brutal conflict should shame us all. All we can do in the face of such horror is to make sure that Gaza’s medics have as much help as possible to save children's lives – and this generous support from Community Jameel will ensure we do that.” 

George Richards, director of Community Jameel, said:  

“Children are seven times more likely than adults to die from blast injuries, and the horrifying toll in Gaza reflects this. Building on the pioneering work of the Paediatric Blast Injury Partnership, Community Jameel is supporting Save the Children and its partners to equip first responders in Gaza with the tools and training to treat children injured by explosive weapons – and to save children’s lives.” 

Matteo Caprotti, country director of Save the Children in Egypt, said: 

“Injured children and families who flee to Egypt to seek medical treatment must be allowed safe passage into the Rafah crossing. Children who have endured four weeks of bombardment now find themselves in a different country to receive humanitarian assistance for healthcare and access to basic necessities. Supporting the efforts of the Egyptian government to provide these services is possible due to this promising partnership with Community Jameel.”

Dr Paul Reavley, consultant paediatric emergency physician at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, a former UK military doctor, said:   

“Children continue to face the very real threat of conflict injuries on their vulnerable growing bodies and we know that children with these injuries are more likely to die than adults. It is too late for many children caught up in this conflict but access to the focused information in the Paediatric Blast Injury Field Manual will help clinicians deal with the horrors of blast injury and each of these bleed packs has the potential to save a life. Thanks to Community Jameel, we will reach many more children in conflict.” 

Save the Children and Community Jameel’s long-standing partnership has seen the delivery of the Ejada programme in Jordan since 2019 with the Ministry of Education, providing mental health and wellbeing support to teachers working with Syrian refugees and Jordanian children to overcome trauma. In Kenya, Save the Children, Community Jameel and partners launched the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action to mitigate the threat of famine and hunger in East Africa. 

About Save the Children

Save the Children exists to help every child get the chance of a future they deserve. In more than 100 countries, including the UK, we make sure children stay safe, healthy and learning – finding new ways to reach children who need us most. For a century, we’ve stood up for children’s rights and made sure their voices are heard. With children, for children, we change the future for good.

Since its founding more than 100 years ago, Save the Children has been advocating for the rights of children worldwide and to-date has changed the lives of over 1 billion children. Working alongside children in 115 countries, Save the Children has provided essential services and support to Palestinian children impacted by the ongoing conflict since 1953 and have had a permanent presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1973. Save the Children has been working in Egypt since 1982.

About Community Jameel

Community Jameel advances science and learning for communities to thrive. An independent, global organisation, Community Jameel was launched in 2003 to continue the tradition of philanthropy and community service established by the Jameel family of Saudi Arabia in 1945. CommunityJameel supports scientists, humanitarians, technologists and creatives to understand and address pressing human challenges in areas such as climate change, health and education.  

The work enabled and supported by Community Jameel has led to significant breakthroughs and achievements, including the MIT Jameel Clinic’s discovery of the new antibiotics halicin and abaucin, critical modelling of the spread of COVID-19 conducted by the Jameel Institute at Imperial College London, and a Nobel Prize-winning experimental approach to alleviating global poverty championed by the co-founders of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT.

Community Jameel is separate and distinct from Community Jameel Saudi, the civil society organisation registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in Saudi Arabia.