Summary:
Tanzania Red Cross Society has been providing comprehensive health services (preventive and curative) to the refugees in Nyarugusu camp and the host communities for over 10 years. Currently Nyarugusu camp hosts about 65,000 refugees from DRC, and as of 18 September 2015, 93,566 Burundians refugees had been added to the camp population.
Since late April 2015 pre-election and June 2015 post-election violence has been ongoing in Burundi. This has resulted in a number of casualties in the capital of Bujumbura, and more than 180,000 people fleeing to the neighbouring countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The majority are choosing to settle in Tanzania where both the infrastructure and resources are insufficient to accommodate the incoming refugees’ needs.
TRCS staff and volunteers in Nyarugusu camp are assisting the arriving refugees by providing lifesaving interventions including:
First aid and medical screening for all new arrivals (immunization, treatment of common communicable diseases, and screening for malnutrition);
Health education through the health information team (HIT), particularly on prevention of communicable diseases.
In addition, TRCS continues to provide primary and secondary health services to the camp population: out-patient consultation, observation unit, in-patient department, lifesaving surgery, maternity, paediatric, laboratory and nutrition.