Uganda: ICRC launches surgical training course

The course is being held in cooperation with the director of health services of Gulu district. The hospitals involved include Gulu Regional Hospital, Anaka Hospital, St Mary's Hospital (Lacor) and the hospitals of the army's fourth and fifth divisions. Two similar courses were held in northern Uganda in April and July last year.

The participants will receive training in reconstructive procedures for orthopaedic, obstetric and gynaecological surgery and learn techniques for managing the wounded and sick in conflict situations. The ICRC surgeon in charge of the course will also give some lectures to students and lecturers from Gulu University's medical faculty.

Access to adequate health care is still a major problem in northern Uganda. To improve the situation, the ICRC is supplying the government with drugs and medical equipment, training personnel and rehabilitating medical facilities in 19 camps for internally displaced persons and eight major civilian and military hospitals in Gulu, Pader and Kitgum districts.

The ICRC resumed its activities in northern Uganda in 2004. It is currently delivering health, water and sanitation assistance in 65 camps for the displaced in Gulu, Pader and Kitgum districts and distributing household items to around 700,000 people living in these camps. In all, the ICRC has 178 national employees and 23 expatriates working in the country. It is carrying out its humanitarian activities in Uganda in an impartial, independent and neutral manner, seeking to protect the lives and dignity of people affected by the armed conflict and to provide them with assistance.

 For more information, please contact:  

 Graziella Leite Piccolo, ICRC Kampala, tel. +256 772 221 994 or +256 41 341 605/6  

 Henry Ochieng, ICRC Kampala, tel. +256 772 501 436 or +256 41 341 605/6  

 Ian Piper, ICRC Geneva, tel. +41 22 730 20 63 or 00 4179 217 3216