About 2,000 needful locals have benefited from the services provided by the Mercy Relief-SingHealth field medical centre at an IDP camp in Sukkur, Pakistan. Now ran by the 2nd medical team who took over the operations from the first team over the weekend, the Singaporean effort to aid the flood victims continues as the four-weeks old camp’s population increases by the day, due to the migration of IDPs from nearby schools – temporary IDP camps slated to re-open this week by the government.
(SingHealth medical practitioners have to improvise with the basic tools available on the ground to provide treatment for the locals.)
(Dr. Iskandar Bin Idris working hard at trying to treat as many IDPs as possible.)
Set up by humanitarian outfit Mercy Relief and the SingHealth Humanitarian Relief Programme (SHRP), with assistance from the South City Hospital nearly three weeks ago, the first such medical centre in the camp has been a source of timely assistance for the some 4,000 IDPs, most of whom were receiving medical attention for the first time in the camp that is managed by local NGO Hands. Patients attended to were suffering from conditions which were paid special attention to by the team (pertaining to typical diseases from onset of a flood), including upper-respiratory tract infections, gastro-intestinal and skin diseases, which accounted for 41.2%, 18.6% and 11.8% of all cases respectively. On average, more than 200 patients were seen daily, with women and children accounting for slightly more than half the cases. The team also referred a few patients with serious conditions to nearby hospitals.
(Lack of food, potable water and decent shelter make children vulnerable to many types of diseases.)
Mercy Relief’s Head of International Programme and relief mission leader Jaffar Mydin commented on the team’s mission – “Considering the camp’s increasing population, it is imperative that the team remains fully operational despite having to acclimatise to an environment much hotter than they are used to. The high median temperature of above 40°C is an issue of concern even for the locals, especially those with illness – we have had to perform infusions on 30 patients so far. The prevalent health issues faced by the communities in this region have also been highlighted by the fact that we are serving not only the IDPs here, but also a substantial number who have made long journeys here on foot from other IDP camps and villages. We are currently planning for possible mobile clinic operations in order to reach more communities.”
Besides providing relevant medical relief, Mercy Relief has provided more than S$1 million worth of relief supplies (including food, clean water and shelter) to afflicted communities in eight areas across the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces since the floods hit in late July.
About Mercy Relief
Mercy Relief is a Singaporean humanitarian organisation which engages in both disaster relief and sustainable development programmes. It was established in 2003 as an independent non-governmental humanitarian charity responding to the human tragedies in Asia. Mercy Relief’s aid programme focuses on providing timely and effective assistance to disaster-stricken communities and has maintained the delivery of emergency aid within 72 hours from the point of appeal for assistance.
In the past 12 years, Mercy Relief has disbursed over S$32 million in aid across 40 disaster relief and 53 sustainable development initiatives. Mercy Relief has impacted an aggregate of 2 million lives in 24 countries and areas, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Yemen.
For more information, you may call us at 6514 6322 or email corporateaffairs@mercyrelief.org
