On July 9, International Medical Corps began working in the remote Voukouma Commune, an area that has never before received international assistance. On its first day of operation, the IMC team conducted 254 medical consultations and treated 35 severely malnourished children. IMC also led a community effort to clean and rehabilitate the health structure that will be used to provide health care to the area.
In Ouadda Djalle, IMC is using fixed and mobile clinics to provide comprehensive primary health care services to the town and surrounding villages. Most of the population being served has not had access to regular medical care in several years. With help from IMC they will now have access to maternal and child health care; childhood immunization; treatment of common childhood illnesses; and prevention and treatment of malaria, tuberculosis, and other common illnesses.
IMC is now the first and only international NGO with a full-time presence in Ouadda Djalle. Much of the population in this area has been displaced by the ongoing conflict since November 2006. The area is also host to Sudanese refugees fleeing the growing insecurity in Darfur.
"The needs of the populations we are serving in Vakaga are immeasurable," says Dr. Guy Yogo, IMC's Team Leader for the mission in CAR. "The services we are beginning to provide are just a small portion of the assistance that must rapidly become available to support these populations." The IMC clinics are finding high rates of malnutrition, especially among children.
Additionally, IMC staff are treating primary health issues such as malaria, upper respiratory infections, skin diseases and bloody diarrhea.
IMC has been active in CAR since early February 2007. Through the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, IMC recently initiated a primary health care intervention to serve the displaced and conflict- affected populations in northeast CAR. IMC is also providing life-saving health care programming to Sudanese refugees in Eastern Chad, and to internally displaced populations throughout western and southern Darfur.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
