Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Support Refugee Health Services in Uganda

PORTLAND, Ore. – (November 29, 2016) Many are calling it the world’s fastest growing refugee settlement – and Bidi Bidi is exploding on a daily basis with thousands of women and children in dire need of basic health services. Now an $850,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help Medical Teams International, a Pacific Northwest-based non-profit, boost its urgent work in northern Uganda.

Medical Teams has been working with South Sudanese refugees in Uganda since 2013, when women and children began moving into the northern part of the country to flee renewed conflict between warring factions. On average, nearly 4000 refugees are arriving each day in Bidi Bidi, which is the largest settlement. As of November 2016, more than 200,000 people are living within a 250 square kilometer settlement—86% of whom are women and children. This whole population is served by only one local hospital and a handful of make-shift medical facilities.

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