Port-au-Prince/Santo Domingo/Cologne. On Sunday, 18 January, 7.30 a.m. CET the medical team has been starting its work in a hospital in Port-au-Prince which was not totally destroyed.
"Our two German medical doctors will be responsible for the emergency hospitalisation and the anaesthesia and our colleague from Malteser France who is surgeon will be in charge of the surgical interventions. The three Haitian team members, that were sent from the US associations, are medical attendants, " Dr. Klaus Runggaldier, head of the Malteser rescue services, reports from Port-au-Prince.
Friday evening the international Malteser team consisting of ten French, Haitian and German staff members, arrived in Port-au-Prince. Runggaldier reports via text-message from the crisis region: "We have gone to the capital by car, looking for diesel fuel. Even the police don't have any. Bodies are lying everywhere in the streets. Parts of the town are under control of the mob. We are trying to get to the airport to activate - under protection of the UN - the work of the medical team. Chaos. But we are fine so far..."
The team now has split up: While the medical doctors are starting their work in the hospital, Dr. Georg Nothelle, emergency coordinator of Malteser International, and Dr. Klaus Runggaldier are in charge of logistics and are trying to prepare the necessary structures: accommodation, supply, electricity and communication. In addition, they work on the integration of their relief activities in the system.
Today, 17 January, a second Malteser International is sent into the crisis region via Punta Cana (Dominican Republic). Annette Waechter-Schneider and Beate Maass will reinforce the medical team. "We are in continuous contact with our partners on the ground. The hospitals in the border region in the Dominican Republic meanwhile are overcrowded with injured people from Haiti", Waechter-Schneider reports. Malteser International therefore is also planning to support these hospitals.
On Monday, 18 January, Cesar Russo, a highly experienced logistician from Malteser International, at 7 p.m. CET will start from Oostende/Belgium to Haiti. He will take with him two emergency health kits containing urgently needed medicines to ensure medical treatment for 20.000 survivors for three months.
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Reference : "Earthquake relief Haiti"
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Malteser International is the worldwide relief agency of the Sovereign Order of Malta for humanitarian aid. The organisation provides aid in about 200 projects in more than 20 countries without distinction of religion, race or political persuasion. Christian values and the humanitarian principles of impartiality and independence are the foundation of its work. For further information: www.malteser-international.org and www.orderofmalta.org