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Dear friend, I'm Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, a pelvic medicine reconstructive surgeon and a USA for UNFPA Leadership Council member. I’m emailing you because I've been to Gaza twice in the last year, and I need to tell you what I saw. Women, girls, and newborns are facing devastating conditions right now.
My trip in December couldn’t have been more different than the time I spent in Gaza in July. The first thing I noticed was how eerily silent it was. Everything felt dialed back—almost like everyone was holding their breath and waiting for the nightmare to begin again. Bombings continued every day, bringing a steady stream of trauma patients through the doors of Nasser Hospital, my workplace and home in Gaza. A 21-week pregnant woman arrived with shrapnel through her uterus. Another patient, with a significant brain injury, came for help, but began miscarrying in the middle of her first night. She was stabilized when I left, but last I heard her condition was still critical. Many of the children I met in July who needed to be medically evacuated were still waiting to leave—or worse. A significant number of them didn’t survive to see the winter. UNFPA is one of the only organizations still permitted to operate in Gaza, and they continue to do so even through a blockade and under extreme risks to their clinics and staff. That’s why your support is so important. You are actively delivering medical supplies, training midwives to respond in emergencies, sustaining clinics and mobile health teams, and keeping some of the few lifelines open to women, girls, and families in Gaza.
The winter in Gaza was brutal. Several of my colleagues treated women and girls for frostbite. Newborns were dying of hypothermia and of “Wet Tent Syndrome,” a flu-like virus that devastated the enclave. Personally, I treated many pelvic infections. The number of cases has increased significally due to the limited availability of menstrual products and proper sanitation facilities. Even though there is improved access to food, every day, babies are born with defects because their mothers were starving through pregnancy. It will take months of adequate nutrition and medical care to create a real drop in the number of miscarriages and infections. We still have a long way to go to meet the needs of women and girls in Gaza. But powered by your generosity, dedicated UNFPA staff are working toward a better future. And they’re not going anywhere until every woman and girl in Gaza gets the care she needs.
Thank you for standing alongside women, girls, and the staff who care for them in Gaza and around the world. I am deeply appreciative of your support. Warmly, Dr. Ambereen Sleemi |
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