"The current humanitarian crises are characterized by a dramatic increase in internal conflicts in countries, which are increasingly complex, more violent and more difficult to resolve". This was stated at the University of Navarra by Cristina Deleito, president of Pharmacists Without Borders Spain (FSFE), who offered students a lecture under the degree scroll "Why the humanitarian financial aid ?". This event served to present a campaign with the same name that FSFE has launched in partnership with the Office of financial aid Humanitarian of the European Commission-ECHO and whose goal is to bring students closer to the reality of the attendance to countries in emergency situations.

Cristina Deleito spoke of the characteristics of today's humanitarian crises and pointed out that "in conflicts it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between combatants and civilians. The latter are not only caught in the crossfire but also become targets. He also stated that today "another feature of humanitarian crises is terrorist actions".

According to the data he offered, "in the year 2000 there were 12 million refugees and 25 million displaced persons in the world". In his opinion, "wars cause the level of development to go back decades, as indicated, for example, by the decrease in life expectancy: in Rwanda in 1987 it was 49 years and eleven years later, in 1998, it stood at 40". On the other hand, he stressed that wars "contribute to increasing poverty and increase vulnerability to future disasters".

attendance, relief and protection actions

Cristina Deleito, who graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Navarra in 1971, explained in her lecture that the most important objectives of the humanitarian financial aid are "to save and preserve lives during and after emergencies, to provide support to people affected by long-term crises, to protect victims of war, to carry out short-term reconstruction and rehabilitation work deadline and to ensure preparedness for future natural disasters," she said.

Pharmacists Without Borders Spain (FSFE) has been working for ten years in cooperation with development and emergency actions in different areas: from Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, through Ibero-America, to Zaire and Rwanda. In its projects, the organization has built health centers, pharmacies and clinical laboratories, in addition to carrying out water purification plans in places such as Colombia, Peru and the Sahrawi refugee camps.

Its actions, as Cristina Deleito explained, are developed in several areas: "sending pharmacists to manage pharmacies and drug distribution warehouses, to work in environmental sanitation and water purification, clinical analysis, validation of traditional medicine or in research for the improvement of food with local products". Likewise, "we are also dedicated to sending health material to attend to the needs of the population and to the immediate attendance in case of urgent crisis and Education for health", he clarified.