Qatar Charity (QC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UK-MED, a humanitarian medical NGO, to establish a framework for providing healthcare services, responding to emergencies and crises globally, and strengthening humanitarian efforts. Mr Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, Qatar Charity’s Chief Governance & External Affairs Officer, and Mr David Wightwick, CEO of UK-Med, signed the MoU.
Qatar Charity and UK-MED partnership strengthens global health initiativesÂ
Qatar Charity comprises a group of Qatari philanthropists, alarmed by the rising number of children orphaned by wars and conflicts in neighboring countries, who came together to form a community initiative called “The Committee of Qatar for Orphan Sponsorship”. Eight years later, an international NGO was set up under “Qatar Charity” to scale up the initiative, broaden its range of activities and augment its outreach.
Almost four decades later, Qatar Charity has become one of the world’s largest humanitarian and development organizations. It provides life-saving assistance to those affected by conflicts, persecution, and natural disasters and creates durable solutions for poverty using sustainable development programs in social welfare, water and sanitation, education, nutrition, and economic empowerment.
Today, field offices in 30 countries and implementing partners in 20 others are leading the global response to emergencies and developing solutions that help vulnerable communities become more resilient and ultimately thrive. Over the past five years, Qatar Charity has reached 29 million people through large-scale humanitarian and development projects, which cost 1.2 billion US Dollars. They envision a world in which all human beings have the right to live in peace and dignity.
Their mission is to assist and support vulnerable communities in achieving progress and prosperity by providing adequate support for vulnerable communities through robust social welfare systems, ensuring crisis-affected people receive the assistance and support they need to survive and recover, implementing primary services in underdeveloped communities in the fields of education, culture, health, water and sanitation, food security and housing, empowering underprivileged communities through income-generating projects, enhancing local humanitarian response and recovery capacities in emergencies, advocating for the voiceless and campaigning for policies and practices to reduce inequalities and poverty, promoting social cohesion, peace, and development.
UK-MED is on the ground, providing direct medical care for the people of Ukraine right now. Ukraine has been their most enormous emergency response, with more than 200 NHS and international medics sent to provide life-saving medical aid since 2022. Their country program employs 50 humanitarians, mostly Ukrainian staff, to maintain their life-saving medical work; they first arrived in Ukraine on March 4 2022, and have been providing care on the ground ever since.
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Enhancing healthcare access for vulnerable communities
Qatar Charity and UKMED, through this Memorandum of Understanding, aim to explore collaboration in areas of mutual interest, cooperate in designing and delivering programs, including setting objectives, goals, and strategies, and share best practices, lessons learned, and technical expertise. Under this MoU, both parties will team up to identify mutually beneficial opportunities and establish effective implementation mechanisms for humanitarian and development initiatives.
Mr. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, Qatar Charity’s Chief Governance & External Relations Officer, expressed his delight in signing the MoU with UK-MED on this occasion; he emphasized that this partnership is part of Qatar Charity’s continuous efforts to build strong alliances with international humanitarian organizations. Similarly, Qatar Charity has collaborated with Velan Chocolate to make a global impact.
Al-Ghamdi also stressed that the MoU will open new opportunities for cooperation in providing healthcare services in crisis-affected regions, sharing expertise, and enhancing the quality of humanitarian initiatives. He applauded the CEO of UK-MED’s participation as a keynote speaker at the February 9, 2025, ceremony unveiling the Humanitarian Impact Forum identity, noting that this marks the beginning of collaboration and the importance of coordinated humanitarian efforts; he looks forward to further cooperation to maximize humanitarian impact.
Mr David Wightwick, CEO of UK-MED, expressed his delight in signing the MoU with Qatar Charity. He describes it as the first step toward a promising and impactful collaboration between both organizations.Â
He underlines UK-MED’s role as a frontline agency delivering healthcare to the most vulnerable in crisis settings and praises Qatar Charity’s extensive humanitarian efforts across numerous countries. Wightwick reiterates that the collaboration between both organizations presents a valuable opportunity to strengthen humanitarian response and expand access to vital healthcare services for those in need.
As part of their collaboration, both organizations will focus on knowledge exchange, capacity building, and leveraging their combined expertise to improve emergency medical response. With a shared vision for humanitarian excellence, this partnership will create a more sustainable and effective global health support system.