UAE Hospital In Cox's Bazar Offers Round-the-clock Aid To 140,000 Rohingya Refugees

The project of AED3 million donation by the United Arab Emirates to build a hospital for the long-suffering Rohingya refugees in the Kutupalong camp situated in Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh, has been materialized.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Nov, 2018 ) :The project of AED3 million donation by the United Arab Emirates to build a hospital for the long-suffering Rohingya refugees in the Kutupalong camp situated in Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh, has been materialized.

The 100-bed capacity hospital is expected to serve 7,200 beneficiaries in its first year. It has been built by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) in collaboration with the Sharjah-based international humanitarian organisation, The Big Heart Foundation TBHF, Emirate news Agency WAM said.

Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Humanitarian Envoy of TBHF, and Chairman of the Sharjah Media Council, SMC, inaugurated the facility on Friday in Kutupalong camp. It aims to offer lifesaving aid and vital health care to around 140,000 displaced Rohingyas including a sizeable number of infants and young children.

Following the facility's inauguration, Ahmed Al Qasimi and the delegation went on an inspection tour of the various units and were told about the 24/7 medical services offered at the hospital. They also learned about the hospital's preparedness to contain infectious diseases and emergencies.

The hospital is equipped with intensive care units, paediatric and maternity wards, mobile clinics, and other units including support services for sexual assault victims � all delivered by a medical team from Doctors without Borders. The medical facility houses a water purification system, which will cater not just to patients, but to the area's residents exposed to water-borne disease outbreaks such as cholera, acute watery diarrhoea, typhoid, and others.

The hospital offers a much-needed response to the immense health needs of the refugees by strengthening the area's current infrastructure in responding to emergencies in the wake of epidemiological conditions or natural disasters. It is also equipped with hi-tech warning systems to detect infectious diseases, and respond to and controls outbreaks.

The Sharjah delegation included Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Sharjah sports Council; Mohammed Khalaf, Director-General of the Sharjah Media Corporation; Mariam Al Hammadi, Director of TBHF; Reem BinKaram, Director-General of NAMA Women Advancement Establishment (NAMA); Tariq Allay, Director of Sharjah Government Media Bureau; Nada Al Lawati, Executive board Member of NAMA, and Marwan Al Zaeem, Founder and CEO of Crown Construction.

The delegation visited a host of Rohingya families residing in the refugee camp, where they saw first-hand their plight from close quarters, understood the harsh reality and the dire need for practical humanitarian efforts to fill existing gaps.

The refugee issue is one of the fastest growing crises in the world, where around one million refugees are suffering from the lack of basic necessities of life and living an unhealthy environment that faces a rapidly rising growth rate of epidemics and communicable diseases.