The NGO that deals with a large part of the health component leaves behind several serious untreated ophthalmological cases. Some have already reached the stage of cancer. The most needy are sounding the alarm. The lack of funding is the main reason for its departure.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Officially, Handicap International has not operated in the Mahama refugee camp in Rwanda since July 31. Its main offices in villages 10 and 11 are closed.

It is not yet known whether this is the case in other camps in the country.

Reasons have not yet been announced, but the staff and volunteers of this NGO speak of a funding crisis.

In Mahama, this NGO was particularly concerned with mental and community health as well as cases of physical disability and physiotherapy. It also had a component of youth supervision and care for the elderly.

Since the Covid-19 period, Handicap International has also been taking care of major ophthalmology cases.

In this area, hundreds of serious cases of people who require ophthalmological operations are being left behind.

The most emblematic case is that of a woman who has just spent three months at the Mahama II area health center managed by Save The Children.

« Her rotten eye was removed and all that remains is a stinking hole. She occupies her room alone and almost no one can enter it. She was due to undergo an operation at the Kabwayi Specialized Hospital in southern Rwanda but Handicap International told her that there were no funds for this transfer, » says a medical volunteer.

A community rehabilitation and psychological care center run by Handicap International that closed at the Mahama camp in Rwanda (SOS Médias Burundi)

The case is not isolated, he adds, speaking of several other people who have become blind due to lack of appropriate treatment, those suffering from eye cancer, appointments for transfers and surgical operations not followed, etc.

« Since the beginning of this year, only two transfer convoys to Kabwayi hospital have been made with less than 25 patients. Whereas before, transfers after consultations were made twice a week or a month. You understand that all these untreated cases have unfortunately worsened, » he laments.

Handicap International explains a lack of funding as the reason, first from the UNHCR, its main partner and then from its international donors.

« Currently, resources are directed to other countries that are most in need and at war, such as the Middle East. So, we who are in countries considered relatively safe no longer receive subsidies, » explains the staff of this NGO.

Handicap International’s services will be transferred to Save The Children and Prison Fellowship in the Mahama camp located in eastern Rwanda.

« Here too, it is a kind of transfer of problems because these NGOs are also suffering from a funding crisis, and so we cannot expect any improvement if partners do not understand that refugee camps must be a priority…
« , analyzes a manager of one of these NGOs in the Mahama camp.

Beneficiaries of services initially offered by Handicap International feel abandoned and are calling for help. They believe that Save The Children and Prison Fellowship could « not meet our most specific needs ».

Since the end of last year, the UNHCR and the WFP (World Food Program) have considerably reduced the quantity and amount of assistance given to refugees in Rwanda in general.

The two UN agencies had explained that the cuts are due to a significant decrease in resources allocated to refugee assistance, specifying that they have only received 37% of the expected budget in 2023 to help all these people, which is impossible for them to continue at the same pace. They feared the worst in 2024.

The cuts should affect cash assistance for non-food items as well as cash assistance for energy and fuel gas intended for refugees living in the camps. In addition, referrals and transfers of needy patients to health services outside the camps have been limited to cases of extreme emergency only.

For refugees and their leaders, this reduction should not also include health assistance. They demand that the situation change and that the UNHCR truly deals with cases of serious illnesses, starting with chronic and ophthalmological diseases.

Mahama is home to more than 63,000 refugees, including more than 40,000 Burundians, the rest being Congolese, most of whom recently fled fighting in the east of the vast central African country of Congo.

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Former offices of Handicap International NGO at the Mahama camp in Rwanda (SOS Médias Burundi)