ICRC News 30 / 02-Aug-01


** SHORT MENU....

Liberia: Thousands of displaced people sheltering in camps
Close to 30,000 people have fled their homes since armed clashes broke out
in northern Liberia at the end of last year.

Azerbaijan: Training course in prosthetics and orthotics 
successfully completed in Baku
On 27 July, at the end of a three-year course, one Georgian and seven
Azerbaijani trainees passed their final examinations and were certified as
prosthetic/orthotic technicians.


** STORIES IN FULL...

Liberia
Thousands of displaced people sheltering in camps

Close to 30,000 people have fled their homes since armed clashes broke out
in northern Liberia at the end of last year. A large swathe of the Lofa
region, situated on the border with south-eastern Guinea, was abandoned by
its inhabitants when the fighting escalated in early April. Owing to
persistent insecurity in the region, these people are unlikely to return
home anytime soon.

Five camps set up around Gbanga, the second largest city in Liberia after
the capital, Monrovia, currently house some 20,000 displaced people - most
of them women, children and the elderly. The rest of the displaced are
sheltering in two camps to the west, in the Bopolu area.

In a camp set up near the Gbanga TV tower, about 20 ICRC staff and Liberia
Red Cross volunteers are assisting over 6,000 people daily. Here, hundreds
of makeshift mud dwellings covered with plastic sheeting were built in
just a few days. Others are being put up for new arrivals, who continue to
turn up in small groups. A medical team is on the spot to treat the sick,
most of whom are suffering from malaria or skin diseases. The most serious
cases are evacuated by ambulance to the nearby hospital in Phebe.

Red Cross volunteers have also dug several wells in the crumbling red
earth - no easy task given the depth of the water table in this area. As
the World Food Programme is distributing food to the displaced, the ICRC
is concentrating its efforts on providing them with supplies such as
blankets, buckets, soap and kitchen sets.

Further information: ICRC Monrovia, tel. ++231 227 992


Azerbaijan
Training course in prosthetics and orthotics 
successfully completed in Baku

On 27 July, at the end of a three-year course, one Georgian and seven
Azerbaijani trainees passed their final examinations and were certified as
prosthetic/orthotic technicians. It was the first time that candidates
from Azerbaijan had completed a course recognized by the country's
Ministry for Labour and Social Security, its Ministry of Health and the
International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO). Azerbaijan is
in dire need of specialists to supply the disabled with artificial limbs
and other orthopaedic appliances.

The course, run by the ICRC together with the Ministry of Labour and
Social Security, is part of an effort undertaken by the ICRC since 1994 in
Azerbaijan and Georgia to provide care for amputees and other disabled
persons. The ICRC runs one orthopaedic workshop in Baku, Azerbaijan, and
two in Georgia. Over 2,700 orthopaedic appliances have been produced since
1995 in the Baku workshop, in particular for some 300 mine victims.

The jury included a board member of the ISPO and the graduation ceremony
was attended by the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Security. At the
ceremony, graduate Dayanat Suleymanov said: "I'm glad our efforts were not
in vain. I've learned and understood a lot. I now have a profession and I
will use it to help the people of my country".

In May, six technicians passed the same examination in neighbouring
Georgia.

Further information: Vincent Lusser, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2458


During the weekend of 4 - 5 August 2001, for all information please call
the press officer on duty Antonella Notari, on (mobile) 41 79 217 32 80