“Refuge Camps”There is a foreboding and ongoing crisis facing several third world countries today. This crisis is the rising amount of famine and health ailments that affect hundreds of thousands of individuals that face malnutrition, poverty, and several other serious problems that you will find in developing countries. Countless diseases plague today’s world and the people who are most vulnerable to these diseases are also the ones that need the most help.
Despite the lack of funds and limited aid available to these people, there is hope. A group by the name of Doctors Without Borders is a non-profit organization that provides free health care in Refugee camps to the great amount of need and helpless individuals that populate our world. Doctors Without Borders (DWB) is comprised of fully qualified and credentialed medical doctors from around the world. They travel internationally educating broad audiences by offering seminars and lectures based on their goal and purpose. The organization is also composed of 2,000 volunteers who are enrolled and sent out annually throughout the world. The organization’s main goal is to aid the several million refugees that reside in numerous developing countries.
These refugees flee from their countries due to natural disasters, extreme poverty and persecution that infects their home countries. DWB helps these individuals by setting up camps and shelters where they can seek refuge. The camps that DWB setup provide everything needed for survival. They provide clean water and healthy food for all the refugees. Since water and food is limited at the camps, refugees are only provided with minimal supplies for survival. There is a medical station, where they provide all the necessary vaccines and treatments for most illnesses and diseases.
The refugees are given identification cards, which they need to show in order to get food and water. The camps are well organized and all the members work together to provide an adequate living environmentThese are many dangerous diseases that infect third world countries and Refugee camps. Two of these are cholera and malaria. Cholera is a very dangerous disease that affects a lot of the refugees. Cholera is very contagious and about 50% of people infected with the bacteria die.
In underdeveloped countries like Africa, diseases are everywhere. Most cholera deaths occur due to poor sanitation. In one incident, in Rwanda, there was an estimated 1000 deaths per day caused by cholera. If caught in time it can be cured. Malaria is another disease that is affecting many refugees. It is acquired through the bite of an infected mosquito.
Malaria is very dangerous because it can adapt to anti-malarial drugs, making it hard to cure. There is no cure for malaria because of its resistance to drugs, but there are drugs to control the symptoms. There are many problems DWB have to face while working in the fields. If there is not enough water new wells have to be found and the construction of more water pumps are needed.
When it rains they have to drain all the water in trenches because all campsites have no form of a sewage system and drainage piping and mosquitoes live in dirty water. The DWB also have to train the refugees as to how to keep good hygiene so there will be a less chance of epidemic of disease. Doctors Without Borders has provided medical relief and shelter to millions of refugees and will continue to do so. Hopefully with the help of other organizations, DWB can grow even larger to help the third world countries that are still in poverty and the many individuals with no shelter and food.
