Colombo – IOM engineers have completed the first of ten primary health care centres at the rapidly expanding Menik Farm displacement camp in Vavuniya, the government-controlled district southwest of Mullaitivu, where fighting between the government and LTTE Tamil Tigers continues.

With some 125,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) already in the camp and a further 25,000 currently sheltering in schools and public buildings in Vavuniya town expected to be transferred there, government health services in the 1,000-acre camp are stretched to the limit.

The clinics, which will each be initially staffed by two government doctors and two nurses, will provide diagnosis, emergency care, health education and referrals for the IDPs, many of whom are sick, injured and malnourished after multiple displacements and years of poor living conditions during the war.

"The fully equipped centres will each serve 10,000 IDPs and will meet a huge need for primary health care in the camps by offering curative and preventive services. They will also take pressure off the main, referral clinic in the camp, which is now swamped with patients," says IOM Medical Coordinator Dr. Sajith Gunaratne. "We hope that they will also serve as hubs for future community health interventions including psychosocial and mental health activities, ideally using trained health workers in the IDP population," he adds.

IOM and the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health have signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining IOM's commitment to build, equip, supply, support and monitor the centres over the next six months. This will include the provision of three ambulances, transport for government medical staff and a secure, onsite warehouse for medical supplies.

The project will be funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the development agency of the US government, which has provided more than USD 880,000 (Rs 105.68 million) for the centres through its Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).

"We are pleased to support IOM and provide much-needed medical assistance to thousands of IDPs in the North," said USAID Mission Director Rebecca Cohn. "Improving the health of those displaced by the conflict is vital so they can begin to rebuild their lives," she added.

Meanwhile IOM Vavuniya, which employs some 30 staff and over 100 labourers, is racing to erect tents for IDPs who continue to arrive. Pending the arrival of the bulk of a consignment of 4,000 IOM tents, the team has erected 1,400 tents provided by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They previously set up 1,400 emergency shelters.

The team is also focusing on the water and sanitation needs of the vast camp, where they have constructed some 450 toilets. A fleet of 15 IOM bowsers or water tankers supplies water to the IDPs, pending the arrival of piped water on the site. IOM relief operations for IDPs in northern Sri Lanka are currently funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO).

Sri Lanka has been an IOM member state since 1990 and IOM has had a major presence in the country, including six sub-offices in the north and east, since the December 2004 tsunami. In addition to emergency response and reconstruction projects, IOM Sri Lanka's activities include technical cooperation in migration management, capacity building, counter trafficking, and return and reintegration.

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For more information please contact: Aurela Rincon, IOM Sri Lanka, Tel. +94.11 5325 392 (Ext. 379), Email: arincon@iom.int; or Passanna Gunasekera, Tel. +94.11 5325 300 (Ext. 341); Email: pgunasekera@iom.int or Chris Lom,Tel. +94.772300952 (Mobile),Email: clom@iom.int