Kassala Youth Emergency Room... Great effort with limited capabilities

Dialogue - moatinoon
Internally displaced persons from Sennar State search the Earth and circumvent the sky at the industrial school in Kassala. Large numbers of children, women, the elderly and young people, some sheltering in the shade of a tree. There are some camps established by the High Commissioner for Refugees. There are signs indicating the presence of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and new arrivals lining up inside the security screening centre. In the midst of all this spectacle you find a relentless movement of young men and women marked by jackets written on them by an emergency room of Kassala, not to eat and tire, they are in a constant movement to provide their services to those coming from the hell of war. "Citizens" met with the Director of the Chamber Liaison Office, Marsa Omar, and the Director of Membership Affairs and Training, Said Ramadan Mohammed, to learn about the effort made by young people voluntarily to provide a service befitting the Sudanese human being in the wake of the disaster that afflicted him.

What plan has the Chamber made to meet the wave of displaced persons after the events of Sinnar and Senja?
We had previous experience dealing with such emergencies, especially our experience with the first wave of displacement from Khartoum and the second wave of displacement from a civilian. The first tasks we have put on the list, and we have already begun to implement them, were to cover the food needs of the displaced. From the first day, we started establishing kitchens to meet their needs. The designation of the Industrial Schools Humanitarian Aid Commission as the main shelter for internally displaced persons helped us to establish a central kitchen to serve other centres.
Our thoughts were initially fragmented by the very conditions of Kassala localities, because there were no places to accommodate the displaced, and our intervention was linked to our ability to directly provide health services and diets. Following UNHCRs accreditation of the reception centre, we made an appeal to the community in Kassala, the response from the Kassala community was significant and rapid, especially as it is an initiated and displaced community.

The extent of cooperation between you and official entities in providing services to displaced persons?
In the first and second wave of displacement, the Chamber had an official partner, the Zakat Office of Kassala State. The situation differed in the recent wave of displacement from Sennar State, after the change of officials in the Zakat office, the assistance of the Diwan to the room to meet the needs of the displaced was not interrupted. The rest of the institutions are poorly intervened, so the community was the major contributor.
At the official level, we have dealt with the State Shelter Committee. This facilitated us to intervene directly in the provision of services to displaced persons, but under the security arrangements we have reduced our ability to intervene fully, but we have continued to provide our services despite all impediments. On the first day, the opening of the clinic was suspended until the necessary arrangements from the state government were finalized.
At the same time, we found continued cooperation and support from the State Ministry of Health, and the Department of Pharmacy and Toxicology provided us with work aids that contributed to our service well, and the Ministry facilitated many actions.
In the first waves of displacement, the emergency room was part of the shelter committee, and all procedures were easy for her to start her work and respond quickly. Currently, because of our lack of presence within the shelter committee, some complexities have emerged, and we are unable to provide our services quickly, especially permanent services such as the clinics support for the length of the procedures, while we have no problem in providing meals because they are time-bound and do not require us to be in the center permanently.

Why not get a permanent permit from the competent authorities?
Of course, the room is a field-based body preceded by all institutions and organizations, the nature of the rooms work and its establishment of an emergency, and operates with any possibilities available. There was a view that this weakens formal work, which hinders us from obtaining a permanent permit, but our experience of working with the State Ministry of Health has proved to the contrary. Our work in providing health services is authorized by the Ministry of Health, which oversees our work. We have dealings with hospitals and laboratories.

The extent of coordination between you, COR and international organizations?
After the recent wave of exodus from Sanja, coordination began between us and some international organizations, especially UNICEF, on the health side. We used to deal with MSF, but generally our cooperation is weak to conduct the work as required.

Who supports you now that your partnership with Zakat Diwan is over?
The Chamber now relies on grass-roots efforts, and our appeal to different sectors has found a great response from the community as well as from different youth initiatives in the local. Now we raise our needs for the community directly and find a rapid response.

The challenges you face now?
There is difficulty in providing medicines, which is a general issue, as well as the large number of displaced people has put pressure on health institutions and a model for this dialysis centre. We strive to provide all the clinics needs.
Our work in providing health services continues with the response of many doctors and laboratories to the cases we transfer to them. We have now worked roving clinics and have approved most devices, but there is an ongoing need for lab consumables. On a daily basis, we receive about 300 patients in one reception centre.
We need sustained support and multiple partnerships to be able to meet all the needs of displaced persons. We are now dealing with three centres: the industrial school with about 800 families, the Ministry of Agriculture, about 300 families and the Omar El Haj Musa School with about 200 families. There are other centres in the State, and access to these centres continues, so there is still no accurate statistic of the number of displaced persons in these centres.