Medair first to respond after flooding in West Darfur IDP camp

* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Medair received the first report of this flooding on 20 July, stating that the Medair clinic had collapsed and that many houses had been damaged. The camp is home to 10,500 IDPs (internally displaced persons) who have fled from their original villages due to the ongoing conflict in West Darfur.?There are only two other international agencies working in Sisi,? said Medair?s Rhonda Eikelboom, project coordinator in Darfur. ?When the reports of the flooding were confirmed by one of them, we immediately started working on getting a team there.?  Medair?s work in Darfur is made possible through the generous support of our private donors, the Department of International Development (U.K.), and the United States Agency for International Development. Medair contacted OCHA (U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) for more information and learned they had not yet heard about the flooding, but soon after that, OCHA began conducting inter-agency coordination.On 22 July, the U.N. held its first coordination meeting, while on the same day, Medair sent out a team to the flooded camp in Sisi. ?Due to insecurity, we can only travel by helicopter to the area so getting a team out is not that easy,? explained Ms. Eikelboom. ?But we did manage to send a team to the flooded camp within two days.? Landing in Sisi, the Medair team discovered that 98 houses in the camp had been badly damaged, and 11 more had been completely washed away. ?Thankfully, the clinic had been less damaged then originally reported,? said Adam Gelaladin, project officer with Medair. ?We did need to repair it but it was up and running in just a few days. Unfortunately, a lot of the drugs ended up in the water and could not be used anymore. The clinic had just received them from us the day before the rainstorm too. But Medair will send a new supply as soon as possible.? In addition, the flooding damaged a total of 55 latrines. ?The Medair team helped repair these latrines and assisted in providing new latrines for households that had moved to higher grounds.? said Mr. Gelaladin. ?We also checked and cleaned 11 water points in the camp.? Medair?s hygiene and health promotion staff communicated with camp residents  about the importance of maintaining good hygiene and how this is done. This kind of hygiene reinforcement is crucial during flooding to help prevent outbreaks of diseases such as cholera.The U.N. expressed their appreciation to Medair for being the first organisation to respond to the flooding emergency. ?Because we were there at an early stage, we could help repair houses and latrines which had an important positive impact on general health in the camp,? concluded Mr. Gelaladin. ?For example, the number of people with diarrhoea has not increased, which is pretty amazing in a crowded and flooded camp.?For media, please contact Janneke de Kruijf ? Media Officer (En/De/NL) Tel. +41 (0)78 63 53 095Medair?s work in West Darfur is supported by the Department of International Development (U.K.), the United States Agency for International Development, and private donors.  Medair has been operational in Sudan since 1995. In West Darfur, where Medair has been active since 2001, Medair currently provides access to primary health care and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for conflict-affected people. Elsewhere in Sudan, Medair supports access to WASH and promotes public and reproductive health in South Kordofan. Medair is also active in a number of locations in southern Sudan. This press release was produced with resources gathered by Medair field and headquarters staff. The views expressed herein are those solely of Medair and should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of any other organisation.