Medical Assistance to Self‐settled Refugees: Guinea 1990‐1996

Citation

van Damme, W. (1999), "Medical Assistance to Self‐settled Refugees: Guinea 1990‐1996", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 5, pp. 370-452. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.8.5.370.7

This book reviews the work of Programme d’Assistance aux Réfugiés Libériens et Sierra‐Léonais (PARLS) during 1990 to 1996 when the author was involved in various capacities. The authors makes it quite clear that PARLS was not set up to be an intervention between the refugees and the existing health service but to strengthen the health service.

It is a book of facts about how PARLS was organised to assist with the hundreds of thousands of refugees flowing into a poor and rather under‐developed country. This is not to detract from the content of the book which is packed full of information. The author does caution the reader that some of the facts contained in the book are estimates and sometimes guesstimates based on experience and local knowledge.

However, it is an extremely fascinating in‐sight into how such an organisation operates within the limitations imposed by lack of resources and finance. It should prove to be a treasure trove for those who are about to become involved in such endeavours.

The author examines “best practice” theory and compares it against reality. “Best practice” dictates that refugees should not be congregated into camps, but that is the only logical method of delivering the help that they need in an efficient manner. A similar situation exists today in the former Yugoslavian countries struggling to handle hundreds of thousands of refugees from Kosova, and again refugee camps are the only effective method of handling the situation which must not be allowed to become chaotic. There are so many similarities between the two different scenarios that made this book such fascinating and informative reading.