(Portland, OR) August 19, 2020 – Medical Teams International is grateful to the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) for its award of $3.4 million USD to support Medical Teams’ ongoing work to provide comprehensive and timely medical care to refugees and host populations in Uganda.

As of June 30, 2020, there were 1,425,040 refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Somalia, Rwanda and other countries. Due to the influx of refugees, the Uganda national health system is overwhelmed, with understaffing of medical professionals and inadequate equipment and supplies at facilities. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic also poses an additional health threat.

The PRM funding will support primary healthcare activities, operations support, and program management under all Medical Teams program areas in Uganda. Medical Teams currently reaches a population of more than 1,000,000 refugees and host Ugandans. This will be the third year of a three-year implementation.

The PRM funding is supplemental and complementary to Medical Teams’ existing partnership and funding from UNHCR. The proposed activities complement UNHCR scope.

“This funding represents a significant investment in our work and we are thankful for this opportunity to expand our healthcare activities in Uganda,” said Andrew Hoskins, Medical Teams Country Director in Uganda. “These projects will enable us to engage more deeply in Ugandan host communities and with government health facilities.”

Medical Teams began operation as a non-governmental organization in Northern Uganda in 2004 during the time of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency. During this time, Medical Teams provided for the basic health needs of displaced populations and returned communities in collaboration with local health staff, volunteer Community Health Workers, and expatriate medical volunteers. Medical Teams Uganda has since transformed programming to focus on providing life-saving primary health care to refugees and vulnerable host national populations in both sudden onset and protracted emergency contexts.

Medical Teams is a fully registered non-governmental organization in Uganda and operates in West Nile, Southwest, and Western regions of Uganda. Since 2009, institutional funding through partnerships with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Uganda Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped Medical Teams implement more than $35 million USD of primary health care programs, HIV and AIDS education and testing, child and maternal health, malaria prevention and treatment, and emergency response programs for refugee and displaced populations throughout Uganda.

 

About Medical Teams International

Founded in 1979, Medical Teams International provides life-saving medical care for people in crisis, such as survivors of natural disasters and refugees. We care for the whole person— physical, emotional, social and spiritual. Daring to love like Jesus, we serve all people—regardless of religion, nationality, sex or race. Because every person—no matter where they are or how desperate their situation—matters. Learn more at medicalteams.org and on social media using @medicalteams. For more information and donations for Medical Teams’ work, please visit www.medicalteams.org

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