Thank you for your help to help others
International Organization
for Emergency
Humanitarian Services
The New Wave in the World
Our Mission
IOFEHS improves lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good.
We all have a stake in what befalls our fellow man. We all benefit when a child succeeds in school, when someone finds a job that will help them provide for their family, or when more people are able to access quality, affordable health.
The solutions we create for communities around the world go beyond short-term charity for a few. When IOFEHS’s support for Community Schools helps more graduate, it’s not just the students, or even just the families of those students who benefit. Those proud graduates now have a much better chance of landing a job that pays a livable wage, and of living longer, healthier lives — and that translates into a safer, healthier and more prosperous community for everyone.
We rise together. With your support, we are reaching for great new heights.
What's your mission?
Our Vision
Around the world, IOFEHS Members and Affiliates are raising awareness, engaging the public and bringing the needs of people to the attention of politicians. If you are interested and want to become engaged, contact the IOFEHS Corporate Office in California.
Our Focus
We put women and girls in the center because we know that we cannot achieve our vision until all people have equal rights and opportunities.
Principles
Independent of political, commercial, military, ethnic or religious objectives IOFEHS promotes the protection of humanitarian space. We provide assistance on the basis of need, regardless of race, creed or nationality addressing the rights of vulnerable groups, particularly
IOFEHS follows a set of Programming Principles in our emergency, rehabilitation and long-term development work. IOFEHS's principles are aligned with those of many other humanitarian agencies, and include:
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Promote empowerment
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Work in partnership with others ·
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Ensure accountability and promote responsibility
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Address discrimination
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Promote the non-violent resolution of conflicts
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Seek sustainable results
Get Involve
Get involve and help other IOFEHS Members like you around the world to help in raising awareness, engaging the public and bringing the needs of people to the attention of politicians. If you are interested and want to become engaged, contact the IOFEHS Corporate Office in California.
Donate Now
To donate to the IOFEHS International Secretariat in USA, please use the following wire instructions:
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Bank Name: US BANK
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Address: 42198 Paseo Padre PKWY Fremont Ca 94539
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Swift Code: USBKUS44IMT
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Account Number: 157518913882
If you want to make a donation in another country, please contact us.
Our Six Programs Outcome Areas
Contact Us
IOFEHS International is committed to being accountable to our stakeholders, notably people living in poverty. An important part of this commitment is ensuring that we share information in a transparent way or, where we are unable to satisfy an information request, we provide a reasonable justification why we are not able to provide information. You can find out more by reading our Information Disclosure Policy.
You may contact us and our members using the contact details below.
Job Inquiries
We cannot accept unsolicited job or internship applications and we will therefore not reply to such applications. For work opportunities, we advise you to contact us.
Volunteering Inquiries
Unfortunately, IOFEHS International is unable to accommodate volunteers looking to travel overseas. But we will happy to talk to you about opportunity in the USA.
Funding Inquiries
In order to save costs and capacities we regret we cannot reply to speculative inquiries about funding. The IOFEHS International Secretariat is not a project or individual funding organization.
Student Inquiries
We welcome general requests from students, please contact us.
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SEXUAL, rEPRODUCTIVE AND MATERNAL hEALTH AND RIGHTS
Around the world, women and girls continue to have a high risk of illness, injury, and death during pregnancy or childbirth. Despite numerous commitments to address issues that fuel this risk, health systems often do not prioritize maternal health and violations of women’s rights are common.
Globally, 800 women die every day due to largely preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth – which amounted to an estimated 289,000 maternal deaths in 2010. Approximately 47,000 maternal deaths worldwide are due to unsafe abortion. Additionally, for every woman who dies in childbirth, about 20 more suffer injury, infection, or disease – about 10 million women each year. Almost all (99 percent) of the world’s maternal deaths and injuries occur in developing countries.
Women and girls must have access to comprehensive maternal health care that includes: family planning; essential medicines; skilled, rights-based, and respectful maternity care; HIV prevention and treatment; and, safe voluntary abortion services.
Young women and girls are at heightened risk of complications and death during pregnancy and childbirth. These complications are the leading cause of death among girls 15-19 in low- and middle-income countries. Child marriage and taboos on adolescent sexuality contribute to teen pregnancies by denying girls the power, information, and tools to postpone childbearing.
Food and Nutrition Security and Climate Change Resilience
The effects of climate change on food security and nutrition
All regions of the world are experiencing, and will continue to experience, the effects of climate change with varying magnitude and consequences. Climate change is already affecting the four dimensions of food security (i.e., the physical availability of food, its economic and physical accessibility, its use, and the stability of these three dimensions over time), and its implications extend across all determinants of malnutrition. Moreover, from the outset, accounts presented at the Symposium revealed several analogies between situations that initially appear to be very different, and also underscored the essential lessons that can be learned from practices that have been adopted in different territories to mitigate climate change.
Climate change, nutrition and health
Climate change exacerbates the multiple burdens of malnutrition as a result of its effects on food security, public hygiene, water supplies and quality, food safety, and maternal and child health IOFEHS . The most vulnerable are, and will continue to be, the most affected: those who depend on natural resources, as well as women and children. IOFEHS is working on the barriers that limit access to a healthy and diversified diet thus involves not only considering the food system as a whole, but also the health, social protection, risk management, and agricultural extension systems.
Climate change, conflicts and food insecurity
Conflicts can increase the risks of food insecurity and malnutrition due to the damage they cause to agricultural land and food systems, crop and livestock looting, and the resulting loss of assets and revenue for local populations. The consequences of climate change, such as natural disasters and the disruption of ecosystems, hinder food production and food systems. Access to sufficient quantities of quality food is consequently hampered in several parts of the world. This can aggravate existing social tensions and sometimes even cause massive displacements of populations deprived of water and food, thereby increasing the risk of an open conflict. It is however important to note that because conflicts are characterized by their complexity and the multitude of causes that spark them it is impossible to establish a linear causal relationship between climate change, food insecurity, and conflict.
Humanitarian Response
Our global plan facilitates effective, rapid and coordinated responses to humanitarian crises, supporting prompt life-saving action, generously financed by governmental, private and individual donors.
Conflict remains the main driver of humanitarian needs, while natural disasters continue to cause many people to need emergency aid. Overall, more than 134 million people across the world need humanitarian assistance and protection – and more funding than ever before is required to help them. IOFEHS is committed to become more effective, efficient and cost-effective in order to respond faster to crises and in ways more attuned to the needs of those they are trying to help.
For example, At least 1.9 million Palestinians experience, or are at risk of, conflict and violence, displacement and denial of access to livelihoods, among other threats. The most vulnerable Palestinians are currently denied or restricted in their access to essential services such as water and health IOFEHS . A recurrent cycle of shocks, natural and manmade, has eroded the resilience of vulnerable households to cope with the prolonged nature of the humanitarian crisis.
Right to a Life Free from Violence
Gender-based violence is one of the most pervasive and yet least recognised human rights abuses in the world: One in every three women worldwide will suffer physical or sexual violence from a male partner, or sexual violence from a non-partner, during their lifetime. Gender-based violence kills and disables as many women aged 15-44 as cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined. Between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Gender-based violence can be a cause and a consequence of poverty and gender inequality.
IOFEHS is committed to supporting the empowerment of women and girls in their challenges to confront gender-based violence. IOFEHS responds to sexual violence by helping women to recover physically, psychologically and economically. We provide health support, counselling, and livelihoods support to help women start to rebuild their lives. We don't stop at helping survivors of sexual violence. We aim to address – and change – the attitudes that make gender-based violence possible. That means building the capacity of local organizations and communities to respond to gender-based violence in the local context. It means empowering women and girls through education, health and livelihoods opportunities. It means supporting women to speak up for their rights. And it means engaging men and boys to break the cycle of violence.
Women's Economic Empowerment
Investing in women’s economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth. Women make enormous contributions to economies, whether in businesses, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees, or by doing unpaid care work at home.
But they also remain disproportionately affected by poverty, discrimination and exploitation. Gender discrimination means women often end up in insecure, low-wage jobs, and constitute a small minority of those in senior positions. It curtails access to economic assets such as land and loans. It limits participation in shaping economic and social policies. And, because women perform the bulk of household work, they often have little time left to pursue economic opportunities.
Our Solution
Many international commitments support women’s economic empowerment. IOFEHS’ Women support women’s economic empowerment in line with these, and with the growing body of evidence that shows that gender equality significantly contributes to advancing economies and sustainable development.
Working with a variety of partners, our programs promote women’s ability to secure decent jobs, accumulate assets, and influence institutions and public policies determining growth and development. One critical area of focus involves advocacy to measure women’s unpaid care work, and to take actions so women and men can more readily combine it with paid employment.
In all our economic empowerment programs, IOFEHS’s members reach out to women most in need, often by engaging with grass-roots and civil society organizations. Particularly marginalized groups include rural women, domestic workers, some migrants and low-skilled women. Our aims are higher incomes, better access to and control over resources, and greater security, including protection from violence.
Community Focused from the Start
IOFEHS’s mission is to provide community leadership, compelling advocacy, and practical solutions to prevent and end homelessness in the world. We will collaborate with government partners, educators, business leaders, communities of faith, and community members to create an effective, efficient, and humane response to homelessness.