The Black Market

Yesterday I received a very annoying phone call from someone in the regional ministry of health involved in the malaria program. He wanted to know why I hadn't returned most of the malaria drugs he'd given us three weeks ago. What happened is that we had decided to give a bulk of it to these two villages that we had worked in our last days in Rahad. During the rainy season which officially began, these two villages usually get cut off from the main city. We had also left a bulk with the city clinic. When I informed him of this he acqueisced. What I realized is that he and others probably wanted to sell these drugs to pharmacies and possibly local drug companies. Eventhough these drugs are given to the government for free or at a reduced price from the Word Health Organization (WHO) or the UNDP. When I went with ministry staff to pick up the drugs from the warehouse I was stunned by the amount of things they had there. Most of it never gets distributed among the province. It sits there to be sold. Sadly this violation doesn't only occur in government operations but I heard that it is perpetrated by individuals working at the World Food Program (WFP). Its pretty despicable but I guess there are always those who profit illegitmately in wars, famines and epidemics.