Medical Teams International sends in more teams and medicine
(Juru Refugee Camp, Uganda - Jan. 21, 2009) Aid workers estimate more than 5.4 million people have died in a decade-long conflict that primarily affects the central African countries of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Uganda. Up to 45,000 people continue to die each month-most of them women and children-from easily treated diseases like malaria, upper respiratory conditions and chronic diarrhea. These diseases run rampant in the camp environment where sanitation and hygiene are marginal.
The biggest problem facing refugees escaping war in the Congo is widespread malaria. Malaria is easy to combat if people have the medicines needed and if they have specially treated bed nets to protect them from malaria-bearing mosquitoes. Malnutrition, especially among the children, is also a rising concern.
"The situation in the Congo is heartbreaking," says Joe DiCarlo, director of emergency relief at Medical Teams International in Tigard, Oregon. "Entire villages are burned. Children kidnapped; the women raped. Even if families survive the rebel attacks, they face additional hardships and health challenges due to the lack of medicines, adequate shelter and basic necessities.
"When families cross the border into Uganda, they come with nothing but the clothes on their back. Once they reach the makeshift shelters, they face additional hardships: lack of clean water, medicines and sanitary conditions," DiCarlo concludes
Once registered and organized, authorities provide refugees with tools, tarps, cooking pots, and bed nets and take them to Juru, Uganda, to settle on a plot of land. They give each refugee family 25 square meters to cultivate. Most families have begun cultivating the soil already, even though planting season is not likely until February.
The volunteer physicians and nurses with Medical Teams International treat an average of 140 patients a day at the tent clinic. In early December, Medical Teams International sent more than $560,000 in medical supplies to the country, now being used by in-country partners and volunteers on the scene.
Video footage of Medical Teams International's operations and the humanitarian crisis in southwestern Uganda is available from Michael Magaurn at Magaurn Video Productions in Portland, Oregon, at (503) 227-6866.
For other details, contact Marlene Minor, VP of communications for Medical Teams International, at 503.624.1007.
Media contact: Marlene Minor - 503.341.6620
(cell)
Non-media contact: 800.959.4325