Ensuring High-Quality Paediatric Care In Refugee And IDP Camps In South Darfur

Facilitating access to care for the people living in the Al Salam, Beliel, Kalma and Otash Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and refugee camps, east of the capital Nyala: staff at our Paediatric Centre in Nyala are working on this as part of the project Objective of Good Health in Sudan: Strengthening Human Capital and Quality Paediatric Health Services in South Darfur.

The population estimates for the four camps are around 350,000 IDPs and over 40,000 refugees from Central African Republic and South Sudan. The real numbers, however, could be even higher. (Sources: UNHCR/OCHA)

In the four camps, only primary health centres are active, with very limited services.

The project

The aim of the three-year project, financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), is to strengthen the paediatric services offered by EMERGENCY in South Darfur as well as the referral process and access to our Paediatric Centre in Nyala from the camps, which are about 20 kilometres away.

In Nyala, we offer specialised paediatrics, cardiology and radiology services and do malnutrition screenings. In this way, we help to guarantee the basic right to care for hundreds of children in the camps who would otherwise be excluded from essential services.

The need for paediatric services is confirmed by the data collected in our hospital: in 2022, 40% of our patients in Nyala were from IDP and refugee camps.

The partnership with NIDO

As part of the project, EMERGENCY began a partnership with NIDO (National Initiative Development Organization), a locally operating NGO specialised in providing basic health services both in local public hospitals and in the camps.

The partnership envisages the training of 19 NIDO volunteers – including 1 Central African refugee and 4 South Sudanese refugees – to carry out health promotion activities in the camps linked to hygiene, one of the pillars of the prevention activities developed by EMERGENCY in Sudan.

On 20 February, in the garden of our hospital, our staff met NIDO’s , the head of NIDO’s Nyala office and the group of volunteers to be trained.

The first group of volunteers, from Kalma Camp, started training on 26 February.

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