QRC Assistance to Local Community, Malian Refugees in Mauritania

Doha, September 17 (QNA) - Over the past few months, Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) has made considerable progress in its humanitarian and relief activities in favor of the Malian refugees and local community in Bassiknou town, the Hodh Ech Chargui region, south-eastern Mauritania as well as nationwide, in partnership with the Mauritania Red Crescent. The most notable achievement was opening a new QRC local office in Bassiknou for closer field supervision of its relief and development projects, in coordination with the Mauritania Red Crescent, the executive partner, under a three-year framework agreement signed lately between it and QRC as a legal basis for the latter's activities in the region. The recent clashes in Mali drove thousands of Malians to flee to neighboring countries, including Mauritania, which hosts in the Bassiknou-located Ombada camp alone nearly 60,000 refugees, living in very difficult humanitarian and particularly health conditions. The town lacks adequate healthcare, largely in surgeries. QRC installed and furnished an integrated surgical unit and sent a surgeon to support the State healthcare center by assigning one day every week for examinations and operations. Saturday was selected because it is the day when the town's weekly market takes place. Huge numbers of visitors come to the health center from all the remote villages surrounding Bassiknou, which has a 50,000 population. Along with the inception of the new surgical unit, QRC organized training courses for 35 volunteers of the Mauritania Red Crescent, as well as awareness-raising programs for 500 Malian families at Ombada camp and 500 local families. QRC also plays an active role in combating Ebola, by conducting health education programs on the disease, its symptoms and causes, and how to prevent it. The opening ceremony of the surgical unit was attended by the town's governor, military governor, and chief doctor; QRC representative and surgeon; the Family Recreation Foundation representative; a doctor from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); head of local committee of the Mauritanian Red Crescent. In a keynote speech during the visit, the governor commended QRC's intervention in Mauritania in general and Bassiknou in particular. He emphasized the importance of the surgical unit for the town and called upon QRC representative to co-implement educational programs for local community and Malian refugees to fight the fatal Ebola disease. Other visitors toured the unit, showing approval and highlighting its importance, including representative of the Italian humanitarian foundation INTERSOS, representative and health coordinator of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), representative of the Food Security Commission, representative and surgeon of Doctors Without Borders, and ICRC representative. The local community expressed their happiness with QRC presence in Bassiknou, showing gratitude and appreciation for its efforts and the health services it offers. The QRC surgical unit helped reduce the cases referred for treatment in the 200-km-away city of Nema. (QNA)