New IMC health clinic in West Darfur to serve more than 18,000 vulnerable villagers

PHOTO: IMC The eight-room clinic includes a pharmacy

For those trapped in war-torn areas across Darfur, medical care is extremely limited. International Medical Corps has responded by building a primary health clinic in Jebel, West Darfur that will serve more than 18,000 local residents and those living in the area’s displacement camps. The clinic will improve access to primary health care services in an area where the morbidity and mortality rates among the population are particularly high.

Despite a perilous security situation, heavy rains and poor roads, IMC managed to open the eight-room clinic this past November, offering basic health care services to 13,000 internally displaced people living in Abu Zar and Madina camps and 5,000 residents of Jebel and surrounding villages.

In October and November alone, the clinic saw nearly 6,500 people, providing outpatient consultations, an expanded immunization program, and reproductive health services including family planning, prenatal care and postnatal care. The clinic also conducts nutrition screening for the most vulnerable members of the community including children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, and offers health education and emergency referral services.

Fatima Yahiya Abdallahe, for example, lives in Abu Zar camp. She and her family arrived from Mesrarih, one of the most insecure villages in West Darfur. She and other camp residents say they are very happy with the new clinic, and that it has greatly improved their access to primary health care service.

PHOTO: IMC Dr. Solomon Kebede spoke at the opening ceremony for the clinic.

Hassen Yahya Abdulkarim and his entire family are another example of those who have been forced to flee their homes in West Darfur. Uniformed armed men attacked his village of Tondasa, stole his cattle, and looted his property. His family has been living in a displacement camp since December 2004 and Hassen is grateful to now have access to health care through IMC’s clinic.

The clinic’s inauguration ceremony held on November 22, 2006 was attended by the Minister of Health of West Darfur State, the Director General of Primary Health Care, representatives from international NGOs, internally displaced people from Abu Zar and Madina camps and residents of Jebel.

IMC has been providing critical emergency medical services for conflict-affected residents of West Darfur since July 2004. IMC currently operates 10 primary health centers and nine mobile clinics in South and West Darfur. IMC is also restoring and restocking derelict health stations, abandoned during the early days of the conflict to encourage displaced people to return to their homes and villages.