UNHCR hands over clinic to Dougee Community
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Liberia and the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) Thursday handed over a newly constructed clinic to residents of Dougee Town in Grand Gedeh County.
The clinic was constructed in response to the Dougee community expressed need for the facility, which includes a 10-room clinic, five-room staff quarters, hand pump, placenta pit and incinerator.
A press release from UNHCR says at a ceremony witnessed by the Government and UN officials, local authorities and members of the host community, UNHCR’s Head of Sub Office, Mr Christopher Raymond, symbolically handed over the key to the clinic, signifying the turnover of the facility to the community.
“This gesture is a token of appreciation to the Dougee Town Community for hosting about 6000 Ivorian refugees during the peak of the Ivorian refugee emergency”, he said and expressed gratitude to the Government and people of Liberia.
The donation also comes at a crucial time, following the Ebola epidemic and will go a long way in filling some of the gaps created in the national health delivery systems as a result of the epidemic.
The local authorities thanked UNHCR for the clinic and stated that this was a timely donation which would go a long way in increasing the community’s access to health care.
The Health authorities pledged full support to the clinic in order to make it fully functional, starting next month and urged the local community to get involved in its good management.
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Dougee Town hosted the former Dougee Refugee Camp from 23 April 2011 to 01 April 2013 when it was officially handed over to the community. Following the closure of the camp, some of the refugees returned home to Cote d’Ivoire and others were relocated to the PTP refugee camp, which is a former prime timber production site located in the same County.
More than 38,000 refugees remain in Liberia currently, down from a peak of 220,000 in 2011. Most of Liberia’s refugee population consists of people, who fled Côte d’Ivoire in the aftermath of that country’s disputed 2010 presidential run-off election.
