An ecumenical consortium of churches in Canada and the Sudan have joined forces to provide health care to people displaced by internal civil strife and famine in Sudan.

Inter-Church Action, a coalition of Canadian churches and church agencies including the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund, is cooperating with the Sudan Council of Churches to operate Primary Healthcare Centres which provide essential health services to people in the displaced camps in Sudan. Among the services offered at the centres are curative care, drug dispensation, tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, antenatal care, and therapeutic feedings.

Although initially established as emergency centres, they have become permanent services in the displaced communities.

The TB testing in particular represents "a truly impressive use of very minimal resources," said Rachel Warden, and ICA program co-ordinator who recently visited centres in Khartoum. Diagnosis is available within 10 minutes and treatment can begin immediately if a person is TB-positive.

TB treatment requires long-term care and monitoring which churches, as local structures, have been able to guarantee.