A Medical Clinic Rises from the Ashes

In response to the Zam Zam camp for displaced people in North Darfur losing one of its medical clinics in an accidental fire earlier this year, UNAMID constructed two durable tents that are providing a clean space in which doctors can treat their patients.

By Albert González Farran

The Zam Zam camp for internally displaced people in North Darfur is the temporary home for more than 100,000 people. During the past several months, this camp, located just a few kilometres south of El Fasher, has been growing rapidly with new arrivals displaced from violent clashes across Darfur. For all these displaced, the camp has been operating with only four medical clinics run by local nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

One of these clinics burned to the ground in February 2013, creating a difficult situation for the families who were relying on it for regular medical assistance. Since the incident, the two doctors and seven nurses from the NGO that ran the clinic continued to attend to the needs of more than one hundred patients each day in a temporary shelter constructed from sticks and branches.

The situation drew the attention of UNAMID’s Humanitarian Division, which began working to build a health facility that could provide a better environment in which the doctors and nurses working for NGO Humanitarian Assistance and Development (HAD) could meet with their patients. The project, highlighted in this photo essay, consisted of installing two big tents—50 and 100 square meters, respectively.

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Medical professionals meet patients in one of the completed tents built in June by UNAMID to replace a clinic that had burned to the ground. Photo by Albert González Farran.