Gino Strada

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Gino Strada (b. Luigi Strada April 21, 1948 in Sesto San Giovanni-Milan, Italy) is a war surgeon and founder of the Italian-based NGO Emergency. Emergency operates in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Rwanda. Emergency provides medical assistance in war zones.

[edit] Biography

Graduated in Medicine at University of Milan in 1978, Dr. Strada was a specialist in heart transplant surgery but in 1988 redirected his experience to emergency surgery and the care of war victims. From 1989-1994, he worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in conflict zones in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Peru, Afghanistan, Somalia and Bosnia.

This field experience motivated Dr. Strada and a group of colleagues to establish Emergency, a humanitarian organization which has helped more than 500,000 patients to date.

Emergency helps civilian victims of war without being hindered by bureaucracy. In 1996, Emergency opened its first hospital in Iraqi Kurdistan. Today, Emergency operates seven hospitals in areas of conflict, including a surgical hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and a hospital in Lashkar-Gah, Afghanistan. Thirty First Aid posts, in heavily mined areas or close to the front lines, are connected to the Emergency hospitals.

Dr. Strada is the prize winning author of Green Parrots, A War Surgeon’s Diary and Buskashi, A Journey Inside War,. His work was the subject of an award winning documentary “Jung in the Land of the Mujaheedin” and a PBS Point of View, “Afghanistan 1380”.

[edit] Books

Strada Gino Buskashi. Viaggio dentro la guerra (A Journey inside war), 2003, ISBN 88-07170698.
Strada Gino, Zinn Howard Green Parrots. A war surgeon's diary, 2004, ISBN 88-81585243.
Zinn Howard, Strada Gino Just war, 2005, ISBN 88-81585723.