Mercy Malaysia needs RM2 million for Sudan relief

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 (Bernama) — The Malaysian Medical Relief Society (Mercy Malaysia) needs to raise at least RM2 million to fund the medical assistance and support the administration for Sudan relief work.

Mercy Malaysia Team Leader and Exco member Dr Heng Aik Cheng said Mercy Malaysia planned to use 96 per cent of the fund for medical aid and the remaining four per cent for administration.

He said Mercy Malaysia proposed to set up a proper Maternity and Child Health Clinic for the women and children who made up 75 per cent of the population in West Darfur.

So far, Mercy Malaysia had collected about RM5,000.

“We are also appealing for medical volunteers as well as non-medical personnel to contact us for the project. Besides, we also need Arabic-speaking volunteers to serve as translators,” he told a press briefing on Mercy Malaysia’s visit to Sudan at its headquarters here Friday.

Dr Heng said there were only 84 beds to accommodate 8,000 internally displaced persons in El-Geneina hospital in West Darfur.

The worst part was that 8,000 IDPs are only from the Al-Riyadh camp, one of four camps in El-Geneina with 8,000 to 12,000 population per camp which faced main health problems such as Hepatitis B, malaria, bloody diarrhoea and malnutrition.

“I led a team of four to El-Geneina last two weeks and we returned yesterday. During our visit, we observed the condition of the hospital.

“From the observation, we have also decided on what kind of medical assistance need to be given to the IDPs in Al-Riyadh camp,” he said.

To build cooperation in terms of medical assistance, Mercy Malaysia had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sudanese Minister of Health Abu Salam.

“The MoU spells the readiness of Mercy as the only Asian country non-governmental organisation (NGO) to renovate the hospital, put up shelters and provide the doctors and child specialists,” he said.

Six relief teams involving about 60 staff would be sent to Sudan, with the first team scheduled to leave on Aug 20.

Present at the briefing were two other volunteers — Jamalulashikin Ahmad and Bryant Low — while Praem Poobalan has to stay back in El-Geneina for logistics preparations.