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Aid extremely vulnerable individuals and families

The consequences of conflict, war and natural disasters forces people from their homes, separates families and compromises their ability to protect their lives and those of their loved ones. While displacement is a challenge for all those forced to flee, some individuals and families struggle with particularly acute needs that may be further exacerbated by personal circumstances, isolation or inability to access basic services.

Exposed to exceptional risk or suffering, these 'Extremely Vulnerable Individuals' (EVIs) and families may suffer from a chronic or severe illness, severe torture or trauma or physical or mental disability, and often include frail or unaccompanied elderly, at-risk women, single heads of households, members of ethnic or religious minorities or unaccompanied minors. Typically, they do not have the means to obtain care with the resources at their disposal and have only limited access to resources available to the majority of the community, including health care, education and training, employment opportunities.

ICMC is deeply committed to serving those who are most vulnerable, and has developed an effective casework approach to serving individuals and families whose specific needs are not met through existing aid programmes. Together with our partners, ICMC facilitates rehabilitation by working with extremely vulnerable individuals and families to provided referrals, support livelihood activities and rebuild their confidence to play active social and economic roles within their families and communities.

ICMC seeks creative, community-based and sustainable solutions by working directly within local communities to establish networks of leaders and service providers that can better identify extremely vulnerable individuals and families that have otherwise gone unnoticed, provide them with immediate specialised services and increase awareness within the community of the collective role in reducing the causes and effects of extreme vulnerability.

 

Combating gender-based violence (GBV) among urban refugees in Malaysia

The threat of GBV towards women and children is heightened significantly among refugee populations living in urban settings.  In Malaysia, ICMC is working in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and local NGOs to prevent and combat GBV against women and children from numerous Burmese ethnic groups within the refugee communities, and to offer emergency protection and assistance to GBV survivors.Read more

Humanitarian assistance for vulnerable Iraqis in Syria

ICMC's implementing projects in support of Iraqi refugees in Syria provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable Iraqis in Syria, and provide services in areas which place excessive burdens on families in extreme need.  ICMC's support also enables vulnerable Syrians to access essential services.Read more

2011 UNHCR Annual Consultations with NGOs

Triple jeopardy: Young, migrant and stateless

GENEVA, 28 June 2011—Speaking as part of a panel of experts at the UNHCR Annual Consultations with NGOs, ICMC U.S. Liason Officer, Jane Bloom, discusses the intersections of migration and trafficking, of demographic imbalances and mobility, of cross-border marriages and lapses of nationality, all of which are "unfinished pieces" of the rapidly expanding globalization puzzle.Read more

Annual UNHCR consultations with NGOs

Boat people: Different people, different needs and rights to protection

GENEVA, 1 July 2010—Stressing the need for a first focus on immediate response to all individuals who have undergone dangerous border crossings, and a secondary focus on differentiation for the particular rights and responses that many are entitled to under international and regional conventions, ICMC DRIVE Referral Coordinator, Alice Bloomfield chaired a hearing on boat people among key NGO, IFRC, UNHCR and UNODC representatives. Read more

UNHCR Standing Committee

NGOs to governments: "Birth registration vital for safeguarding family unity"

GENEVA, 3 March 2010—ICMC joins with like-minded NGOs in stressing to governments that birth registration is an essential element of both child protection, and the protection of families, at the March Standing Committee meeting of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.Read more