Uganda: Healthcare Implementing Partner for UNHCR at Bidibidi Refugee Settlement

During this reporting period RMF:

• Continued to provide high-quality health services to persons of concern through the Outpatient department, Inpatient department, inpatient therapeutic care, outpatient therapeutic care, community outreaches, and referral services.
• Throughout the reporting period, RMF purchased medicines to treat patients and laboratory supplies to test for diseases. Medicines and testing helped save lives.
• RMF provided a constant flow of cleaning supplies, which enabled our diligent sanitary team to keep health facilities clean.
• Treatment was provided to all patients that came to the health facilities. Patients with conditions that could not be handled at the health facilities within the settlement were referred to district and regional referral points, respectively.
• RMF continued to facilitate and manage the immunization program in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement. All the under-5 children arriving at the settlement are immunized. In this way, RMF is helping to secure a future for these children.
• All RMF-managed health facilities continued to provide antenatal, maternity, and family planning services, thus promoting institutional deliveries and safe motherhood.
• RMF continued facilitating an outreach program within the settlement. This is to ensure that health services are extended to people of concern in more distant villages of Bidibidi Refugee Settlement.
• RMF rented 3 additional vans to support the movement of staff and patients: a coordination van, an ambulance, and a funeral van.
• Incinerators and placenta pits have been constructed at all RMF-managed health facilities, thus achieving the minimum required standards of a health facility.
• RMF has continued to sustain medical staff that were hired to support health centers neighboring Bidibidi Refugee Settlement. This has helped reduce the constraints felt in these health centers due to the dramatic increase in population and is contributing to peaceful coexistence between the refugee and host populations. District health facilities benefiting from this program include Yumbe Hospital, Barakala Health Centre III, and Kulikulinga Health Centre III.
• Continuous cervical screening and education is ongoing at the health facilities. Those patients testing positive are referred to the regional referral points for further management (cervical biopsy for histology and cytology).
• RMF continued to provide HIV/AIDS testing, counseling, and ARV services and encourage all patients to practice healthy lifestyles. The team also continued to trace patients who were previously on ART and work to reinstate them on treatment.
• RMF has maintained a highly skilled, dedicated medical team thanks to the prompt payment of salaries and wages, as well as RMF mentorship.
• RMF has continued to sustain a medical team at the Goboro border point, providing medical screening, immunization, treatment, and ambulance services to refugees who arrive exhausted.
• Throughout the reporting period, the disease surveillance team was continuously supported to strengthen the surveillance mechanism. Any suspected samples were rushed to the laboratory for investigation. It is partly for this reason that the phenomenon of outbreaks has been greatly reduced.