Milan, 1994: EMERGENCY, a humanitarian organisation founded to help civilian victims of war and poverty, was born.

Since then we have worked in 19 countries, building hospitals, surgical centres, rehabilitation centres, paediatric centres, health centres, outpatient and mobile clinics, a maternity centre and a cardiac surgery centre. At the request of local authorities and other organisations, we have also contributed to the restructuring and strengthening of existing health facilities.

Our first project was in Rwanda, where we restructured and reopened the surgery ward of a hospital in Kigali, as well as redeveloping the obstetrics and gynaecology wards.

Banning landmines

One of the first things we did was launch the campaign that resulted in Italy banning the production of anti-personnel mines. Our doctors, surgeons and nurses had seen – and continue to see – the horrors of war and its effects: that’s why we were compelled to advocate for peace, solidarity and respect for human rights.

Meanwhile, our programmes grew, and so did the number of countries we were working in: Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Serbia, Eritrea…

‘A rag of peace’

In 2001, because we knew what war really was, and because we knew very clearly what the consequences of an armed intervention in Afghanistan would be, we asked citizens to express their repudiation of war with a ‘rag of peace’, which became a symbol of the Italian anti-war movement.