NGOs assist Bangui hospitals

Two NGOs operating in the Central African Republic (CAR) have donated soya beans, rice and cooking oil to three hospitals in the capital, Bangui, to ease food insufficiency following an increase in patient numbers as more refugees return home from neighbouring countries, an official told IRIN. The NGOs, Caritas Centrafrique and the International Partnership for Human Development (IPHD) of America, made the donation to Hopital Communautaire; the Centre National Hospitalier Universitaire and Hopital de l'Amitie. Caritas representative Celestin Ndelafei told IRIN on Tuesday that each of the hospitals had received varying amounts of the food aid, the least being 1,040 litres of cooking oil, 3,000 kg of soya beans and a similar amount of rice. The donation was made to alleviate food insufficiency of food shortages in hospitals. The shortages have occurred as a result of an increased number of returnees needing care. Most had fled conflict in the country over the past several years. The donation followed the release of a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FA0), which pointed out the unbalanced diet patients received in hospitals across the country. CAR nationals seeking treatment must pay 100 percent of their health care, as the government has no cost-sharing arrangement in place. Ndelafei said the two NGOs had also donated soya beans, rice and cooking oil to the Humanitarian Commission of the Ministry of Social Affairs and National Solidarity to help returnees from neighbouring Republic of Congo (ROC). In March, some 204 refugees who had been living in ROC since 2001 returned home voluntarily, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees repatriated another 62 in May. In a bid to improve food security in the CAR, IPDH funded in May the building of a US $13,645 food-security bank in Ndolobo in the southwestern province of Lobaye.