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Disaster relief - Report from a ground-breaking cooperation
How a joint action with a partner from the military medical industry brought support to the population in Haiti
Malteser International: “Our mission is to alleviate human suffering” (Code of Conduct)
Malteser International is the worldwide relief agency of the Sovereign Order of Malta for humanitarian aid with the status of a non-governmental organisation (NGO). The relief agency has more than 50 years of experience in humanitarian relief and actually covers around 200 projects in about 20 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas with a total volume of about 19.3 million Euros (2009). Currently, 21 national associations and priories of the Order of Malta are
members of Malteser International. Malteser International’s mission is to:
- provide relief to major emergencies in the world and implement reconstruction and rehabilitation measures with a community focus;
- establish and promote primary health care services and contribute to better health by
- providing nutrition related programmes;
- contribute to better health and dignifi ed living conditions by providing access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH);
- implement livelihood measures and social programmes to ensure the access of people to income security and reduce their vulnerability and poverty;
- establish and promote disaster preparedness activities, especially on a community level.
Malteser International’s first response after the earthquake in Haiti
On 12 January 2010 late afternoon, the strongest earthquake in Haiti for more than 200 years
stroke the Caribbean nation, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale. The exact number of people killed will probably never be known, but the Haitian Government places the fi gure at some 230,000 dead, 300,000 wounded, 700,000 displaced in Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and
about 3 million people affected in total. Over 97,000 houses were destroyed, and over 188,000 damaged. All local organisations and institutions which would normally have responded to the needs were all heavily affected through loss of staff and equipment.
Given the above mentioned facts and the overwhelming needs in Haiti and with regard to the fact that the Order of Malta has been active in this country for more than 15 years already supporting a hospital in Milot in the north, Malteser International has committed itself to provide immediate emergency relief that will be followed by reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes.
Only three days after the quake an eightstrong Malteser International team had left for the crisis region. Since then, international teams from France, Italy, Germany, Cuba and the United States, each consisting of ten to twelve members - medical doctors, nurses, logisticians and coordinators - have been working in health centres in Léogâne and Darbonne as well as in Port-au-Prince and Petit Goave. Furthermore, Malteser International supports the hospital Sacre Coeur in Milot.
Malteser International’s first response to the earthquake:
- Deployment of an international eight-strong emergency relief team on 14 January, working in Francois de Sales hospital in Port-au-Prince first.
- Currently running two clinics: in Léogâne which is located 30 km in the west of Portau-Prince and was destroyed to 90% (100 patients/day) and Darbonne which is about 30 km apart from Léogâne (100 – 150 patients/day); the aim is to turn both clinics into primary health care facilities.
- Outreach activities by mobile medical teams providing medical assistance to the injured and sick in the surrounding areas, offering also psychosocial care and supporting vaccination campaigns.
- Provision of drinking water in Petit Goave in cooperation with German NGO (700 families are provided with clean drinking water), combined with hygiene promotion and washing facilities.
- Support of the hospital Sacre Coeur in Milot in the north of the country with food for about 1,000 people (patients, their relatives and volunteers).
- Support of local NGOs from the Dominican Republic distributing food and other relief items as well as providing psychosocial care for the survivors.
Malteser International and EADS: The chronology of an exemplary cooperation
Being aware of the needs of the survivors of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, EADS Defence & Security (DS) together with its employees decided to donate a TransHospital for the Malteser International team working on the spot – as well as to bear the costs for transportation and logistics. With a tremendous effort of EADS and its staff, the mobile hospital had been made ready in only one week. On 30 January, Malteser volunteers picked up the fully assembled and prepared medical unit at the EADS site in Friedrichshafen/Germany to bring it to Luxembourg. From there it was taken by air to Miami on 1 February first and after a stopover to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic on 2 February where it arrived on 3 February. On 4 February the hospital reached its final destination Léogâne, the city at the epicentre of the earthquake, by truck.
On 6 February, Felix zu Löwenstein, Malteser International head of mission in Léogâne, reports: „Our hopes rest in a big medical container. It is a donation of the company EADS that also bears the enormous costs for transporting it from Germany to Léogâne. The container arrived the day before yesterday but despite all efforts we could not find anyone to unload the five tons heavy
‘thing’. Yesterday, we were in the Canadian camp again and - only by accident - a big crane ran in at that same moment. The negotiations were quickly done and only one hour later the huge container stood in our courtyard surrounded by amazed Haitians and our team members. Two soldiers - as adorable as chunky - worked hard until dark. Now our clinic is ready – today it will be put into operation.”
Not everything went smoothly. As there was no heavy equipment available in Haiti, it took the combined efforts of Aviation without Borders, the Canadian military, the US Marines and the Malteser International team on the ground to get the nearly fivetonne TransHospital container unloaded and set it up in the disaster region where it will spend the coming years until the local
health structures will be rehabilitated. On 6 February, it could finally be put into operation thanks to the help of the Canadian military providing a crane as well as to the effort of the Malteser International staff making it ready for use within a few hours. Tobias Kann, one of the volunteers supporting the mission as rescue assistant from 29 January to 18 February, helped to set up and maintain the mobile hospital in Léogâne. Before leaving to Haiti, he had spent a day at the EADS site in Friedrichshafen understanding the technology employed in this field hospital.
The EADS Programme Unit Passive Protection & Security provides innovative and high mobile systems for medical care and disaster relief. Every container in the system is configured differently and can be precisely technically matched to the task at hand. EADS has developed, designed and manufactured the state of the art TransHospital, which has been introduced by the German Armed Forces and several NATO countries. - TransHospital is a field proven system with successful deployments in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Indonesia – and recently in Haiti. After having been forced to work in makeshift camps during the first days after the quake, the medical team of Malteser International is finally able to treat the patients under considerably improved conditions and to perform even more complicated surgeries. The mobile hospital gives medical doctors the chance to offer good basic care to patients in the long run and even provides working conditions similar to those at home thanks to its state-of-the-art medical installation, autonomous air conditioning and electricity supply, and three tents for up to ten patients each. two cases of emergency instruments, plus diagnostic equipment and medical supplies allow to provide care under almost any circumstances in hotspots around the world. Thanks to its excellent equipment the hospital is of an extraordinary value for the sick and injured people in Haiti.
Excerpts from Tobias Kann’s Haiti diary:
6 February: „Container with EADS mobile hospital unloaded with crane of the Canadian army; everything went quickly and in an unbureaucratic way; everybody is happy; start-up planned for tomorrow.“
7 February: „EADS mobile hospital put into operation! Although not fully established yet, the first treatments and surgeries take place today. Wonderful conditions! The patients are happy about the camp beds.“
9 February: „Two tents of the EADS TransHospital installed on solid ground. Patients are happy. Mobile hospital unit fully operational.“
10 February: „The camp is crowded, work is ongoing. Patients moved into the tents of the EADS medical unit – great enthusiasm.”
11 February: „We are really happy that we were able to install a semi-permanent health unit here in Léogâne which we will continue to develop. It will certainly take months until the hospitals will be rebuilt. The medical container sponsored by EADS offers an excellent opportunity to provide the patients with adequate health care on the long-term. And our medical doctors are happy about the working conditions. “
22 February: „The wonderful cooperation with the THW (German Federal Agency for Technical Relief), the Canadian army, our property owner Michael and the people from EADS made our life here in Léogâne much easier.“
Linking emergency relief, recovery and rehabilitation
The needs in Haiti are overwhelming and nearly everything is lacking. About threefourths of the Haitian population live on less than two dollars a day and more than half live on less than one dollar. Haiti also faces an environmental disaster with 97 % of forests gone. According to the United Nations Development Programme’s Disaster Risk Index, Haiti is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters. And it is a paradox country: the people are resilient, yet
social and government structures are weak. Therefore, it was clear from the very beginning that in addition to its emergency relief Malteser International would also support the country during its recovery phase. Already during the emergency phase, planning was started for rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes in sectors in which the agency has both knowledge and capacities and can create an added value to the overall humanitarian endeavours in Haiti.
In March, all associations and relief services of the Order dedicated to provide relief for the people in Haiti adopted a “Master Plan” for a sustainable reconstruction and rehabilitation of the
country. Malteser International as the international relief service of the Order of Malta will coordinate all humanitarian activities of this worldwide network. It is expected that with regard to the needs on the ground Malteser International will be active in Haiti at least for the next three
to five years. Focus points of Malteser International’s commitment will be the sectors of health,
WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), early recovery and disaster risk reduction. Thereby, Malteser International will not only work for the people in Haiti, but above all with them. The aim will be to pool all relief efforts of the Order of Malta and to integrate all relief measures into
Haitian structures to foster the long-term reconstruction of the country.
The EADS transHospital in the reconstruction process of Haiti
As the infrastructures in Haiti - including the local health structures - were nearly totally destroyed by the earthquake, Malteser International is also involved in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of health centres and hospitals. One focus of activities will be in Darbonne, a small town close to Léogâne, where Malteser International will reconstruct the former health centre and set up a school for the training of nurses and midwifes. Therefore, the TransHospital
has been transported to Darbonne by now where Malteser International is providing primary health care to the population. Thus, the TransHospital for a long time will be the core of semi-permanent health structures in Darbonne and constitute a most valuable support for the people in Haiti – as it will take years until the local and national health structures in Haiti will
be rehabilitated.
The impact of the earthquake of 12 January 2010, the succession of natural catastrophes, Haiti’s endemic poverty, the accelerated degradation of the environment, as well as the global economic downturn, have all contributed to dramatically increasing the vulnerability of the Haitian population. Therefore, after fi nal rehabilitation of the Haitian permanent health structures, the EADS TransHospital will still play a central role within Malteser International’s disaster risk reduction programme which is an integral part of humanitarian assistance, both in relief and recovery, as well as in long-term development initiatives. Be it by introducing the reinforcement of houses against earthquakes and cyclones, by training village emergency teams and volunteers on the establishment of early warning systems or by providing an autonomous, fully equipped and mobile health facility like the TransHospital – the focus is always on disaster preparedness and risk reduction aiming to reduce vulnerabilities of people at risk.
Interview with Ingo radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International
Julia Kost (JK): Mr. Radtke, the Order of Malta has set up a Master Plan for Haiti. What is the purpose of this Master Plan, and what are the next main steps which you intend to take?
Ingo Radtke (IR): The Master Plan lines out the general approach of all entities of the Order of Malta in the Haitian relief and rehabilitation operation. It describes the fi elds of action in which
the Order wants to become active, and it underlines the necessity for a combined effort in Haiti. About ten national associations of the Order of Malta from all over the world have indicated their
readiness to support this effort. Malteser International as the Order’s relief organisation is not only charged with the implementation of the upcoming projects, it will also coordinate all activities of the Order and its partners with the Haitian authorities and the international community in Haiti. Our fi rst focus aims at contributing to the rehabilitation of the health system in the regions of Milot in northern Haiti as well as in the Léogâne district south-west of Port-au-Prince. We shall rehabilitate two health facilities in these regions, and we intend to build up nursing and midwifery schools in both facilities. This programme also intends to strengthen the health system and thus prepare it for upcoming foreseeable disasters such as the regularly
striking hurricanes. By the way we are happy to announce that EADS has indicated its continuing willingness to support this programme fi nancially.
JK: What role will the TransHospital play in this programme?
IR: We have just transferred the TransHospital from Léogâne to its new location in Darbonne, where the former health centre was completely destroyed by the earthquake. The TransHospital will be the core of a semi-permanent health facility which we are installing to maintain the
health services in the region of Darbonne until the new health centre will be built up. We hope to have fi nished this work until the end of 2011. Afterwards the TransHospital is foreseen to become the nucleus of a mobile civil protection unit to provide assistance for the population
after future hurricanes or other disasters.
JK: Mr. Radtke, how would you describe your cooperation with EADS?
IR: We cooperate in a very pragmatic and friendly way. When EADS offered to support our relief activities in Haiti, we were most grateful as this meant an important assistance to our efforts in
the disaster region. The TransHospital is a unit which allows to work in a acclimatised and hygienic environment. It easily stands the weather conditions in Haiti which is especially important during the rainy season and the period of hurricane threats. Some people asked
me, why we have accepted the donation from a company which besides its civil activities in aircraft construction is also busy in the defence industry. We are always very careful when choosing partners from the industry, and so we have been when we made the decision to cooperate with EADS in the Haiti relief operation.
JK: What were the reasons for your decision for EADS and its TransHospital?
IR: The Haitian people suffered from a devastating disaster. Almost all relevant infrastructures also in the health system were broken down. The Haitian people desperately needed health
facilities which did not only provide the necessary help, but is also able to keep its position facing heavy rainfalls and hurricanes. The TransHospital is the perfect answer to this need, and
thanks to its additional equipment like the powerful generator it has the necessary autonomy. The donation came from the employees of EADS, and EADS simply doubled its staff’s humanitarian effort. The TransHospital was conceived as a military fi eld hospital element, but
in Haiti it exclusively serves sick and injured people after a natural disaster. So there is no relation to a military background. Haiti is one of the few countries in the world which does not have an army. We suppose that therefore it is no market for a company working in the defence industry. We understand the approach of EADS as a donation deeply motivated exclusively by humanitarian reasons. Thus, EADS and its employees have put pure humanity at the centre of
their action.
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