At Kalma, camp residents ? especially children -- learn about the benefits of hand-washing and other ways to prevent the spread of disease.

Patients waiting their turn to see a doctor or medical assistant listen to a local IRC staff member talk about proper hygiene and sanitation practices that will help them avoid common illnesses such as diarrhea and respiratory problems.

Close to six hundred people flock to IRC’s health center in Kalma on a regular day. For many mothers and their children the center is a refuge from the cramped confines of their mud huts.

The IRC’s health center in Kalma, like those in several other locations in Darfur, is staffed by locally-trained doctors, medical assistants, lab technicians, nurses, and mother-and-child health workers.

Without proper water and sanitation facilities, children living in Kalma camp often suffer from diarrhea. The IRC provides them with re-hydration salts and zinc supplements to help them recuperate.

The IRC’s primary health services in Kalma camp serve mainly mothers and children who are at risk of contracting communicable diseases common to those living in crowded camps.

Just over 30% of those who die in Darfur are children under the age of 5. Young children are the most vulnerable to water-borne diseases and dehydration from diarrhea.

(April 2006) The Kalma camp in South Darfur is home to over 90,000 Sudanese fleeing violence and insecurity across Sudan.  Roughly 6 kilometers long and 2 kilometers wide, it is Darfur’s largest camp. But it is bursting at the seams as more and more people arrive daily—many from nearby villages. The International Rescue Committee’s director of humanitarian affairs, Gerald Martone, recently traveled to Kalma and shared these photos of his visit to an IRC clinic there.