MERCY HEALTH POSTS FOR SRI LANKA WAR VICTIMS

By P. Vijian

VAVUNIYA, May 11 (Bernama) -- In the midst of threatening humanitarian
crisis in northern Sri Lanka, MERCY Malaysia has rolled out its healthcare
facilities for fleeing Tamil civilians from the war zone.

It has set up four health posts (or mobile clinics) offering extended
primary healthcare for thousands of internally displaced people (IDP) at Menik
Farm in Cheddukulam, Vavuniya District located in the northern district of the
island.

"There is an urgent need for healthcare in these camps. We were invited by
the
Health Ministry of Sri Lanka to run these projects in these camps. Our four
posts will cater for about 100,000 IDP.

"We will fully equip these health posts and once completed, local doctors
will
run the day-to-day operations. We are still raising funds and will soon start
our second project in Sri Lanka," Elliane Arriany Mustapha, MERCY's programme
officer told Bernama Sunday.

The four health posts, which are fully funded and equipped by MERCY, would
be
manned by Sri Lankan doctors in the high-security camps, where over 150,000
IDP are now being housed safely.

Each health post is equipped with beds, minor surgery paraphernalia, medical
kits and ECG machine -- all stocked up by MERCY, using funds raised from
Malaysian donors recently.

Since early April, MERCY volunteers, including doctors, water engineer,
electricians and logistic personnel arrived in Sri Lanka to quickly begin the
humanitarian project for war victims who began to pour into Menik Farm, the
largest site in the north that shelters escapees.

All the four fully-furnished health posts were successfuly completed on
Saturday and begun operations immediately, and hundreds of IDPS, mostly young
women with new-born babies queued in the blistering heat to seek medical help.

MERCY is the only other humanitarian agency, besides the United Nations,
that is providing medical care for IDPs in Vavuniya district.

At least, 190,000 Tamil civilians have fled the combat zone in the north,
where Sri Lankan soldiers and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres are
fighting a pitched battle, which military officials in Colombo say could be the
last leg of the war to wipe out the rebels.

The rebels have staged a 25-year-old armed struggle for a separate homeland
for the minority Tamil population in the north.

-- BERNAMA