AMI in Sudan

AMI in Sudan

Objective

Bring emergency assistance and give access to health care to rural and internally displaced populations suffering from the Darfur war.

Context

The conflict in Darfur, a region situated in western Sudan, started in 2003 with the uprising of two rebellion movements, the Sudan Liberation Movement [SLM] and the Justice and Equality Movement [JEM], against the Sudanese government. The authorities in Khartoum reacted by giving arms to Janjawid militias. Not only were more than 180,000 people killed, this conflict led to a real humanitarian catastrophe [2 million people displaced in camps, epidemic risks, malnutrition, etc.]. In October 2004, AMI opened a mission to support rural and displaced populations affected by the war. However, access difficulties, repeated obstacles from the government and overwhelming insecurity hampered the organization of assistance. The intensification of the conflict in spring 2005, despite the reopening of negotiations in May 2005, forced AMI to temporarily close [for 7 months, from April to November] its base in Khor Abache and to move its activities further south, in the Ed Al Fursan area."

Programs

Apart from training local medical staff, AMI’s project in Sudan focuses on two main activities:

  • Local health care, partly through the teams of two mobile clinics and the supply of medicines and medical consumables. AMI’s mission aims at giving access to free and adapted primary health care services
  • Nutritional and epidemiological watch, aiming in particular to improve the prevention of infectious diseases. Within a partnership between the WHO and the Sudanese Ministry of Health, AMI is thus helping to set up an awareness network watching for diseases with high epidemic potential

Results

* Health care:

  • 50,410 consultations
  • 4,000 children under five years old examined as part as the prevention against malnutrition
  • 19,722 health care interventions, of which 28,372 primary health care interventions and 1,911 interventions in reproductive health [antenatal and postnatal, consultations, family planning]
  • 130 patients taken into hospital
  • Vaccination campaign in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, involving mostly children under 5 years old vaccinated against polio, measles, tetanus, diphtheria and BCG
  • 100 children suffering from severe malnutrition transferred to the Ed Al Fursan hospital

*Health education:

  • 1,920 primary school children informed on bilharzia

*Training:

  • Recruitment and training of 20 medical staff on subjects such as personal and environmental hygiene, diarrhea and malaria prevention, mother and child health, immunization, etc.

*Emergency rehabilitation:

  • for instance of the health center of Khor Abeche
sent 20 August 2006