MEDICAL TEAMS INTERNATIONAL RECEIVES GRANT FOR CONTINUED WORK AMONG REFUGEES IN SW UGANDA
(PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 3, 2010) — Portland-based Medical Teams International has been awarded a $825,631 grant to continue their primary health care program in Nakivale Resettlement Camp in southwest Uganda. The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM) named Medical Teams International as the 12-month recipient of the grant.
“We are grateful to receive this essential funding to continue our emergency and primary health care to women, children and families who have fled violence,” said Tammy Teske, Manager of Emergency Relief for Medical Teams International. “Without Medical Teams International’s intervention, these traumatized families would have little, if any, access to critical health care services.”
The grant enables the humanitarian-aid organization to continue its work, reducing the morbidity and mortality among 22,500 refugees living in the Juru and Ngarama settlement areas. The refugees are primarily Congolese women and children who have recently fled violence in their home country to seek shelter in Uganda.
Eleven volunteer medical teams also will be deployed this year. They will work with staff to:
•Increase access to basic health services; •Provide comprehensive reproductive health services; •Enhance access to HIV/AIDS and STI services; •Supply adequate and timely medical response to all potential disease outbreaks in Ngarama refugee camp and surrounding Nakivale and •Support the development of medical infrastructure.
Medical Teams International has worked in southwest Uganda since 2004. During 2005-08, the group implemented an emergency health care program in northern Lira, Apac and Pader districts. They’ve deployed 45 volunteer medical teams to support this program. Volunteers work alongside local medical staff in the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, providing care for patients and training for staff.
The organization continues health development programs and ships humanitarian aid for distribution at the Lira and Pader clinics.
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Contact:
Marlene Minor, VP of Communications
503.341.6620 (media cell)
mminor@medicalteams.org
Megan Streng, Communication Coordinator
503.624.1022
mstreng@medicalteams.org
Medical Teams International is a Christian global health organization that empowers communities to live full and healthy lives. They work with grassroots organizations, churches and ministries of health to ensure that our projects fit seamlessly into local contexts. Since 1979, Medical Teams International has shipped more than $1.3 billion in antibiotics, surgical kits and lifesaving medicines to care for 35 million people in 100 countries around the world. More than 2,000 volunteers meet the needs of people worldwide each year.
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