Port-au-Prince/Cologne. On Monday, 18 January, at 7 p.m. CET , Cesar Russo, a highly experienced Malteser International logistician and chief logistician of the organisation in Myanmar after cyclone Nargis hit the country in 2008, will leave from Oostende/Belgium to Haiti. He will take with him two emergency health kits containing urgently needed medicines such as antibiotics and dressing material as well as pain relievers and medical instruments. At this stage Malteser International will be able to provide 20.000 survivors with medical support for three months.
The medical Malteser International team has been working since yesterday in the nearly completely destroyed hospital Francois de Sales with one surgeon, two emergency medical technicians and anaesthetists and three native Haitian medical attendants. This early morning, Dr. Runggaldier has reported: "Finally, we can help the people directly and alleviate their suffering. Furthermore, our planning for a sustainable assistance after the first emergency relief phase is becoming more concrete and more detailed. It is our aim to revitalize this hospital and render it again into a useable institution for the poorest and most severely affected population in the downtown." - Meanwhile, the second Malteser International team has arrived in Santo Domingo.
Nicolas de Cock de Rameyen, President of Malteser International, claims. „With regard to the fact that the UN have been describing this disaster as the most serious disaster that ever happened and considering the prevailing sense of mourning, the international community is not to forget Haiti again after two weeks. We have to take the advantage in order to alleviate the suffering in Haiti on a sustainable basis. That the people have not died in vain."
For further information and pictures, please visit our website www.malteser-international.org and go to our photo gallery: http://php.malteser.de/cpg133/thumbnails.php?album)3
Join our network of relief and donate:
Donation Account 2020122;
Pax-Bank Köln, von-Werth-Str. 25-27, D-50670 Köln, Germany,
Sort Code: 370 60 193; IBAN : DE93 3706 0193 0002 0201 22; BIC: GENODED1PAX
Reference : "Earthquake relief Haiti"
Or online at http://www.malteser-spenden.de/spenden.html?&v=6787&1=2