Medicines Arrive at Bidi Bidi, Strengthening Care for South Sudanese Refugees

Direct Relief medicines and supplies arrive at Bidi Bidi Camp in Northern Uganda last week. The medicines are equipping doctors from the Real Medicine Foundation as they care for refugees living in the camp, many of whom have fled their homes in South Sudan. (Photo courtesy of Real Medicine Foundation)

By Kayla McCarthy

November 6, 2017

Uganda has received over 1 million South Sudanese refugees alone since July 2016, with over 80 percent being women and children. The surge of refugees is due to the recent spread of armed conflict throughout South Sudan, which shares a border with Uganda to the south.

When violence broke out in 2013, fighting was initially contained to specific regions. In July of 2016, this began to shift and conflict spread into new regions, displacing millions.

Last Thursday, a shipment of essential medicines and supplies arrived at the Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda, where more than 285,000 people are living after fleeing from neighboring countries like South Sudan. The medicines were delivered to Bidi Bidi with the help of humanitarian aviation company, Air Serv.

Healthcare providers at Bidi Bidi’s health centers are working to treat conditions like malaria and infections. The camp is one of the world’s largest refugee settlements, with more than 285,000 people living there. (Photo courtesy of Real Medicine Foundation)

The shipment included an Emergency Health Kit and additional medicine and supplies to bolster the efforts of Real Medicine Foundation in providing primary healthcare to the hundreds of thousands of refugees in the Kiryandongo and Bidi Bidi refugee settlements.

Real Medicine Foundation has been tasked as UNHCR and the Office of the Prime Minister’s Health Implementing Partner in Kiryandongo and Bidi Bidi, overseeing 40 health clinics and supporting an additional four district and regional hospitals.

Medical supplies are unloaded into a medical warehouse at Bidi Bidi. (Photo courtesy of Real Medicine Foundation)

Direct Relief’s Emergency Health Kit is designed to provide health facilities with the essential emergency medicines and supplies required to meet the healthcare needs of patients following a natural or man-made disaster and emergency.

In addition to the kit, the shipment contains medicine such as anticonvulsants, antibiotics, antifungals, antihypertensive medicine, and IV fluids, which will be distributed to settlement health clinics and referral hospitals in Yumbe, Kiryandongo, Gulu and Arua.