tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37280800857937351692024-03-18T21:36:58.798-07:00Margaret in the FieldMy work in Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East with INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPSmargaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-27021590736474885262014-06-28T21:17:00.000-07:002014-06-28T21:17:07.399-07:00"My Country is Gone"<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The bombings alone didn't force Anout and her family to flee their home in a small Syrian town near the border with Iraq. Nor did the missile attacks. Nor the scarcity of food, the closing of all the schools, the loss of electricity. Anout's family - two boys and three girls - endured all of it.<br /><br />The breaking point came when the local factories, with electricity gone, began extracting petroleum improperly. The oil poured into the ground and the water supply. Anout's children became sick and suffered skin diseases. "The hospital was only a 30-minute walk. But it was so dangerous to travel there. It was dangerous to be outside anywhere," Anout explains. Indeed, children in the town hadn't been vaccinated for a year and a half - proper medicines weren't available and health workers had fled.<br /><br />Finally six months ago, when her children became too sick and could not get medical care, Anout and her husband, who made a living as pomegranate farmers, decided the cumulative effect of constant violence and deprivation had become too much. They had to leave.<br /><br />They fled to Beirut. But they struggle in their new environment, living with an additional family of five in a 2-bedroom apartment they cannot afford. Anout's husband is working as a building contractor. Their 15-year-old son Hamad works in a milk factory and has not been to school for more than a year.<br /><br />Anout acknowledges that in Syria, "my children were panicked all the time. They were terrified." Certainly they are safer now. But when I ask what has happened to her village since she left, the question reduces her to tears.<br /><br />"There have been massacres. In one, 70 people were killed. People cannot leave their homes at all," she says. "We cry for what has happened. My country is gone. It was the best life we had. We worked so hard to build something and now we don't have it. My boys are living in humiliation, working from 6am to 6 pm. When I see the youngsters of my country living this kind of life it tears me apart."<br /><br />As Anout describes how much they have endured, how much they have lost, her 5-year-old son, Ibrahim, snuggles in close to her and begins to cry as well.<br /><br />Since the war began in Syria in 2011, more than 160,000 people have been killed - though officials say they can no longer reliably calculate the death toll. Over 12 million people have been either displaced inside Syria or fled the country. An estimated 1.1 million poured into Lebanon - that's more than a quarter of Lebanon's total population of 4.2 million. The influx has created a massive strain, as Lebanese communities must absorb the additional people and share resources including food, water, shelter and medical services.<br /><br />On this day, Hamad and Ibrahim are being treated at the St. Anthony clinic in the Jdeideh district of Beirut. This comprehensive primary health care facility is run by sisters Hanan and Georgette and supported by International Medical Corps, which provides all the medicines as well as health education and training.<br /><br />Hamad has anemia, for which he is receiving iron. Ibrahim, in addition to having a low appetite and being very weak, continues to suffer from skin diseases and has large scars on his left arm.<br /><br />Anout is thankful for the medical care, which she otherwise could not afford. And she tries to remain </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">optimistic about the future. But any hope is tempered by sadness for what she has lost.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"God is testing our patience."</span>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-82047031317982773832013-11-26T21:04:00.001-08:002013-11-27T14:37:41.796-08:00Shield from the StormWe walked through the debris field that was the coastal town of Hernani, in the Philippines, surveying the catastrophic damage wrought by Typhoon Haiyan - Yolanda as Filipinos call it. This was not just a typhoon of record proportions; it was a tsunami, annihilating everything in its path. <br />
<br />
There seemed a tragically simple calculus to the storm's fury: homes made of bamboo were completely flattened, their flimsy tin roofs splayed on top of the fallen timber; concrete structures fared marginally better, walls still standing, but windows and doors completely blown out by the 195 mph winds. <br />
<br />
Passing by a bright yellow, but badly damaged structure that read "Pedro E. Candido Memorial Library", we saw four teenagers sitting on a stone wall, horsing around, laughing.<br />
<br />
I called out to one of them, a stunning girl with corn rows piled high on her head: "Hello. How are you? Are you alright?"<br />
She replied: "Yes, I'm happy!"<br />
"Happy?? Really??" I asked, incredulous given the devastation that surrounded her.<br />
"Sure. I'm alive. My family's alive."<br />
<br />
In village after village, island after island, a similar scene played out - people with sunny, smiling faces expressing happiness that they had survived, and profound gratitude to us for bringing the first medical relief these areas had received. This resilience was remarkable, and surprising in the aftermath of such an epic storm. Where does this resilience come from?<br />
<br />
Like so many other villages, Hernani, a tight-knit community of about 8,000 in eastern Samar, suffered mightily in the typhoon. In addition to the widespread damage, 57 people perished and more than 500 were injured. Livelihoods, primarily fishing, were wiped out, as hundreds of boats were destroyed. Clean water, sanitation and food are all scarce.<br />
<br />
It was not easy for us to reach Hernani. Road access was completely cut off. The only way we could get there was by Navy helicopter from an airfield in nearby Guiuan. When we touched down, hundreds of people swarmed us, eager to carry our medical supplies from the beachfront up a hill to a damaged municipal building next to the destroyed hospital.<br />
<br />
Our International Medical Corps team, including long-time volunteer doctor from the U.S., Rob Fuller, and 4 Filipino doctors and nurses, quickly set up and within 10 minutes were treating the long line of patients - elderly people with wounds from flying debris, children with upper respiratory infections and skin infections from the unhygienic conditions. <br />
<br />
In the short-term, through our mobile clinics, we've continued bringing medical relief to remote, hard-to-reach communities that might otherwise be missed. But the mayor of Hernani expressed a fear that we all have in the long-term: "I'm worried people will start to go hungry. People can't fish. We have no coconuts and bananas. I'm also worried the children will get diarrhea because there's no clean water and no working toilets. We can rebuild, but we need help."<br />
<br />
The recovery from this disaster will be extremely difficult. Water and sanitation systems, health care, and livelihoods have all been decimated. But this country was fortunate in that the population is highly educated and it had a relatively strong infrastructure and disaster response capacity before the typhoon hit. Communities here came together, neighbors provided each other shelter, people felt an obligation to lift those next to them who might be more vulnerable.<br />
<br />
Having witnessed first-hand communities ripped apart by natural disaster and conflict - from Syria, to Haiti, to the Congo - the resilience I've seen in the Philippines proves to be a powerful shield against any storm.<br />
<br />
Back in Guiuan, where the typhoon first made landfall, and where more than 110 people died, Dr. Flores of the municipal hospital told me the story of a woman who gave birth, and three hours later, as the storm hit, took her baby into her arms and ran. That woman and her baby survived, living in an ambulance for four days before finding more permanent shelter with neighbors. <br />
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"This has been very hard for us," said Dr. Flores. "We thought we would never see the sun again. But we survived and we want to get back to work. You give us hope."margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-28042897999272306152013-07-01T11:00:00.000-07:002013-07-02T17:06:30.605-07:00Interview with SF Chronicle about Humanitarian Journalisim<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0i6ptjRQGCvHAK9ipMIGF_6sv15d4bZHifRzlIymDvCeNW-i-73eY2VODclmnxqRmUq8l3lKsFEtHOxFCiqxnaeQBU0Snsjjfxr-VbIUgOysNOXBBo01qvO9au_2T_UstP6sEGltyT80/s777/sf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0i6ptjRQGCvHAK9ipMIGF_6sv15d4bZHifRzlIymDvCeNW-i-73eY2VODclmnxqRmUq8l3lKsFEtHOxFCiqxnaeQBU0Snsjjfxr-VbIUgOysNOXBBo01qvO9au_2T_UstP6sEGltyT80/s320/sf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/columns/slideshow/Margaret-Aguirre-on-Evolving-57133/photo-4230513.php#">http://www.sfgate.com/columns/slideshow/Margaret-Aguirre-on-Evolving-57133/photo-4230513.php#</a>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-59527637618569383862013-05-12T10:35:00.000-07:002013-05-13T10:59:08.518-07:00For Syrian Refugees, the War Behind, the Recovery Ahead<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Aicha gazes out the window, her crystal blue eyes taking in
the gray sky outside the hospital near the Syrian border in Jordan, where she
has been recovering for a month now. She was badly injured after her house in
Dara’a, Syria was destroyed in a mortar attack.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Her losses are incalculable. Two of her sons – 30 and 15
years old - were killed. Her 17-year-old daughter, also killed. Another son and
her grandchild were injured. She is not sure where they are, perhaps in the nearby
Za’atri refugee camp, along with one of her daughters who survived uninjured.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Aicha’s tears flow hard as she recounts what has happened. The
day of the attack, she and her family were packing to flee, having decided the
dangers were too great to stay any longer. In the end, they stayed too long.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Outside her room, 16-year-old Saja cries out in pain. She is
lying in a post-op area, gripping hard to her mother’s hand. Saja’s house, also
in Dara’a, was hit by a mortar two months ago. Her right foot had to be
amputated and her left leg became infected following a tibia fracture. Her
father and four siblings all now live in Za’atri camp. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s difficult to fathom how people can sustain and survive
so much loss.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The
Syrian conflict has created the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today:
some 4 million Syrians currently are in need of humanitarian assistance, about
1.5 million of them having fled mostly to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At Za’atri camp, where more than 100,000 Syrians are living
in temporary shelter, I meet 21-year-old Ala’, who worked in a beauty salon in
Dara’a and is volunteering with International Medical Corps at a Youth
Empowerment Center it operates with UNICEF. Children at the center engage in
activities that help them recover from their painful experiences. Case managers
and psychologists screen the most at-risk children for further mental health
interventions. In addition, they address protection and safety issues in the
camp, working to reduce risks to those most vulnerable.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ala’ tells me that when shelling destroyed her neighborhood
five months ago, she fled along with her 20-month-old and her six siblings. Two
of her cousins were injured – one, a 3-year-old, lost his leg. Ala’ was terrified
to leave the only home she had ever known, and terrified of what would become
of her and her family in Jordan. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But today she is a paid volunteer for International Medical
Corps, teaching the children how to paint and create beautiful henna designs on
their hands.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So often,
the way people in crisis are able to heal is by reaching out to help others.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> Ala’<span style="color: black;"> says it feels
good to be able to put her skills to work, giving something back to the
children from her own community. She says she has a sense of purpose and can
see beyond her own struggles.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As we
talk, a group of children gives a singing performance – part of a ceremony
marking the end of a 10-week project, after which a new group of 200 from the
camp will enter the youth empowerment program. One of International Medical
Corps’ mental health case managers, a Jordanian named Mahmud, watches them,
beaming. “These children have endured so much suffering, seen such horrific
things, parents killed in front of their eyes. But today, seeing them smiling
and happy, and not thinking about war – this is a good day for me."</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-82540189078916025762012-08-08T05:42:00.000-07:002012-08-08T05:44:19.710-07:00From Antonovs to Frisbees“When the Antonovs came we had to run.” <br />
<br />
Sitting under the shade of a tree, 20-year-old Gisma recounts her terrifying ordeal, fleeing bombings in her village of Kukur in Sudan’s Blue Nile State. She is cradling her 2-year-old daughter, Amna, who’s been battling a cold and fever. Amna slowly drifts to sleep as Gisma continues her story.<br />
<br />
“They bombed my home and my neighbor’s home. We had to leave right away. We took nothing with us except our livestock.” Gisma, her husband and only child, along with their parents and neighbors, began the long journey in search of safety.<br />
<br />
For seven days they walked, sleeping outside at night, foraging for any food they could find in the trees, on the ground. Her daughter fell ill, but survived. She was lucky. “We saw many children die,” she says.<br />
<br />
Gisma’s story is frighteningly similar to so many others who fled across the border into Maban County, in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State: bombings of their home villages; a many days-long journey by foot; carrying little more than the clothes on their backs; witnessing sickness and death along the way. <br />
<br />
Today, more than 100,000 refugees from Sudan have settled here in Maban. It’s been just over a year since South Sudan became the world’s newest nation. Yet hostilities in many areas in the north – the result of decades-old disputes over land, sovereignty, oil rights, race, and religion – continue to drive civilians out of their homes.<br />
<br />
They flee a violent region for another that, while comparatively safer, is equally resource-poor and in the throes of a rainy season that turns land into mud, makes proper hygiene and sanitation near impossible, and is a breeding ground for disease. Gisma, like thousands of others, settled in one refugee camp, Jamman, only to see it flooded. Now they are being bused to Gendrassa camp, which topographically is better suited to handle the rains.<br />
<br />
These refugees arrive at International Medical Corps’ clinic weak and malnourished. Dr. Sol Kuah, who has worked with us in Haiti and Libya and now is medical director here in Maban, says when the children die, it is difficult to know the root cause. “Is it the malaria or the pneumonia or the malnutrition? I think the malnutrition underlies all of it. It makes them so weak that they are susceptible to any number of illnesses.”<br />
<br />
It is sobering to watch hundreds and hundreds of malnourished, sick, coughing, weak, crying children, file through our clinic. Their needs are immense.<br />
<br />
And yet… as I walk through Gendrassa camp amid the thousands of UN Refugee Agency tents, pondering the dire statistics, the horrific tales, the rain and mud and illness, I also notice that the camp is teeming with children laughing and playing, parents cooking and cleaning clothes with their families and neighbors, smiling and coping and rebuilding some sort of new life.<br />
<br />
The world “resilience” is used a lot in humanitarian parlance, but looking around there is no doubt these people of Gendrassa camp are strikingly resilient, despite facing the most devastating of life circumstances.<br />
<br />
Dahbaya is one. Eight months pregnant, she and her husband decided to leave the relentless violence in their village in Blue Nile State after a man was shot and killed before their eyes, in front of their home. They trekked eight days by foot from Sudan to here, their three young children in tow. Dahbaya should be –probably often is - despondent with worry and fear. She left her family behind and has no way of knowing if they’re alright. But when I first come upon her outside her tent she is laughing with her children, cooking porridge over the fire. If she has problems – and I know she does – she is not showing it. She is eager to tell me her story, what she has experienced, eager to show off her baby for my camera, quick to flash her super-wattage smile.<br />
<br />
At a nearby tent, two young women are lounging in the sun, chatting, giggling, one braiding the other’s hair. <br />
<br />
A few steps further I come upon a group of about 20 children, playing with a rope-swing hanging from an enormous baobab tree, taking turns pushing each other to peals of laughter. They’re having a blast.<br />
<br />
Late in the day, after all the patients have been seen, some of our doctors and nurses strike up an ad hoc Frisbee game (thanks to the plastic top of a water jug) with refugees and members of the host community in a makeshift market in the camp. With just a few throws, these new players are transformed into near-experts. Round and round they go: 12-year-old refugee boy throws to 50-year-old sheik, throws to 16-year-old South Sudanese schoolgirl, throws to one of our nurses from Boston. Our little multi-cultural, multi-generational, mini-Olympics.<br />
<br />
It almost makes you forget this is a refugee camp and its inhabitants have endured – and will continue to endure - a tremendous amount of suffering.<br />
<br />
How long will they remain here? No doubt years.<br />
<br />
I remember Gisma’s words, reflecting on the past, the current and the someday: “There were a lot of people shooting guns in my village. It feels peaceful here. I don’t hear the guns anymore. When the war stops I hope to go home.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-66668353202199923062012-07-30T07:17:00.000-07:002012-08-08T05:43:04.687-07:00Damn the RainsAs our six-seater closes in on the small outpost of Walgak, South Sudan, the thing we feared most – short of a plane crash - happens. <br />
<br />
It starts to rain. <br />
<br />
A few drops quickly turn into a steady pounding against the pilot’s windshield. We are carrying desperately needed medicines and supplies – as well as a nutritionist and a mechanic to fix a long-broken generator - from Akobo, about 50 miles to the southeast. Walgak has been cut off from flights for weeks. Any moisture on its landing field means planes can’t land or take off. Often pilots, on approach, see a wet field, and are forced to pull back up and turn around.<br />
<br />
“Will we be able to land?” I yell to the pilot. She flies in low, checks out the field, and turns her head around to me and my fellow passengers. “It’s too wet. I can’t risk it.” <br />
<br />
This is incredibly disappointing. Walgak, about 300 miles north of the capital of Juba, will have to go without supplies for at least three more days, when the next charter flight is scheduled. Earlier this year, we tried unsuccessfully for six weeks to deploy a doctor to Walgak. <br />
<br />
We are officially in the throes of the rainy season in South Sudan. This is a bit of a misnomer since the “season” is supposed to be April to October, but really it is more like nine months of the year.<br />
<br />
The almost daily torrential downpours transform dirt roads (there are very few paved roads in South Sudan) into rivers of mud, unnavigable by vehicles. In Akobo, where International Medical Corps is helping run the county’s sole hospital, the only way to get around most of the time is by foot - or with one of the two tractor-trailers in town, used for carrying heavy equipment and supplies.<br />
<br />
The rains also make it difficult for people to maintain proper sanitation and hygiene. Mud is everywhere, and most people walk through it barefoot.<br />
<br />
At the hospital, I meet 18-year-old Buony. After suffering about a week with unbearable pain in his right leg, his brother and mother carried him for an hour, by foot, from their village of Mer to the hospital. Two of our volunteer doctors, Masashi Rotte and Shannon Langston, use a portable ultrasound machine to examine his leg, which has become swollen and rock hard, and determine that he has pyomyositis: an extensive infection that causes pus, blood and dead muscle tissue to build up inside his leg. If they don’t operate to drain the infected leg he could soon suffer sepsis and die.<br />
<br />
The next morning, following a successful two-hour surgery, Buony tells me the pain is gone, and he is relieved to know that he will keep his leg. I comment to his brother that he may have saved Buony’s life. “I did something good for him, he would do the same for me. We’re brothers,” he replies.<br />
<br />
I contemplate having to carry someone for an hour, in the mud, to get them medical attention. The rains make conditions in this already very remote area extraordinarily difficult.<br />
<br />
But the rains bring another deadly problem: mosquitoes, and malaria, which is rampant here.<br />
<br />
At the Akobo County Hospital, about 50 percent of our patients now have malaria. Many are also suffering from upper respiratory infections, like pneumonia. And tuberculosis is beginning to emerge.<br />
<br />
I am doing rounds with Dr. Rotte. He is worried that three patients he treated for malaria and discharged have returned just a few days later with malaria again. Are they becoming drug-resistant to the IV-administered quinine used to treat them? This could be a disaster if the medications we give people are no longer effective. And having different malaria medications sent to Akobo could take weeks and weeks.<br />
<br />
The needs here are staggering – but the impact we can have with the simplest of interventions is also huge. Dr. Langston tells me about a young girl who needs a blood transfusion or she is going to die within a day or two. “We don’t have a lab technician so we’re in the process of figuring it out, how we can possibly get someone to donate blood and maybe save her.” Within the day, he and Dr. Rotte do figure it out and are able to perform the transfusion. The next morning, she is up and about, laughing and running around, her old self. “She’s like a completely different child. She was literally on her death bed,” Dr. Langston says. “This makes me really happy.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-89544432807702420932011-09-08T03:30:00.000-07:002011-09-08T03:30:56.237-07:00Preventing History From Repeating ItselfIn the humanitarian world, there are the disasters you see coming, and the ones you don’t. <br />
<br />
We didn’t foresee the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti … the devastating floods in Pakistan… the earthquake and tsunami in Japan…or the conflicts sweeping the Arab world.<br />
<br />
But the current drought and famine in East Africa? We saw that coming. The only question was how bad would it be?<br />
<br />
The answer: very bad and getting worse.<br />
<br />
This crisis has now affected a staggering 12.4 million people – it has killed tens of thousands, and put 400,000 children at risk of starvation. Think about those numbers. Roll them around in your head.<br />
<br />
We saw this emergency unfolding 9 months ago when the rains began to fail, the harvests were poor, and food and fuel prices shot up. Families already facing scarce food resources suddenly had to make do with much less. Throw in more than 20 years of violent conflict in Somalia and you have approximately a million refugees crossing the borders into Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, seeking some sort of escape. <br />
<br />
Make no mistake, this is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.<br />
<br />
But that’s the macro. <br />
<br />
Here’s the micro: a nine-month pregnant Somali woman, her two-year-old son, her husband, and his brother, journey many treacherous miles by foot across arid, forbidding desert to the Ethiopia border. There they wait to be processed. They wait outside for days in 100-degree heat and high winds that whip sand across their faces. Eventually they are bused to a refugee camp about 20 miles north, inside Ethiopia, where they are given a tent and a bit of food. <br />
<br />
They come to International Medical Corps’ nutrition center in the camp, by which time the mother is so weak from severe malnutrition that she can barely keep her eyes open or speak. She cannot hold her own son in her rail-thin arms, and childbirth may very likely kill her. Her husband has been too ill to come to the center. Her brother-in-law holds her child for her, but he too is so weak that when he stands his legs and arms shake from the strain and he is forced to sit down again. The child cradled in his arms is so severely malnourished that he is non-responsive, not uttering a sound. <br />
<br />
People should not be suffering like this. I keep saying the same phrase over and over in my head: “This is not right.” <br />
<br />
Sadly, a crisis such as this has struck the region before: the famine in Ethiopia in 1984, famine and civil war in Somalia in 1991. These are horrific cycles that plague East Africa. While the government and communities have made great strides in mitigating the impact of these cycles, this past year has seen a perfect storm of factors that are especially pernicious and tough to combat.<br />
<br />
I was in Ethiopia during the “global food crisis” in 2008, and witnessed a tremendous amount of starvation, pain and suffering. And yet, that crisis technically was not as severe as what’s happening today. It did not constitute what the humanitarian community defines as “famine” – the malnutrition and mortality rates were not at the levels they are now. When 1 in 1,000 people dies of malnutrition, that is considered a humanitarian emergency; right now, in the refugee camps where International Medical Corps and other NGOs are working, the mortality rates have hovered around 14 percent. Rates of severe malnutrition have been as high as 45 percent.<br />
<br />
In the face of these grim statistics, what are our solutions?<br />
<br />
I ask my colleague, Daniel, who runs our nutrition programs in the camps. A native of eastern Ethiopia, he has seen famine unfold here before. As he meets with new arrivals at the nutrition center, he is compassionate, but no-nonsense. One teenaged mother has brought in her 3-year-old severely malnourished son. His chest and ribcage protrude sharply over his distended belly, his limbs are twigs, he lets out a persistent, desperate hunger-wail. Daniel explains to the child’s mother that if he is not admitted to a stabilization center he will not survive - that milk is not enough, he needs therapeutic feedings.<br />
<br />
As Daniel reflects on the great suffering he has witnessed recently and in years past, he also vividly remembers the victories. He recalls when he first began doing nutrition work in the early ‘90s, and himself was learning how to care for people and pass on skills. One woman in particular he remembers brought in two malnourished children for treatment – along with a third who she said was disabled, his arms and legs completely rigid and unmovable. All three children underwent therapeutic feedings. Suddenly one day, the disabled child straightened his arms and legs, and stood up. Daniel realized this child was not disabled; he was severely malnourished and needed proper nutrients to reverse the paralysis in his limbs. Witnessing and learning from this recovery proved a seminal moment for him – and to this day provides him with the hope that education can and will save lives.<br />
<br />
Fighting back tears, Daniel says simply: “That was a day when I felt really good about my work. I will never forget it. Never.”margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-58900331802575360722011-01-21T17:25:00.000-08:002011-01-24T14:36:47.712-08:00First Disaster - Then Luck, Perseverance, and New Beginnings<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alex and I are sitting at the kitchen table, having some eggs before we and the rest of the team head out to one of our health clinics in Jacmel, a coastal town in southern Haiti.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Up to that point I knew very little about Alex. On the way down from Port-au-Prince, he was driving; I was in the back seat mostly talking with our logistics coordinator, Dave.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But sitting at the table on this morning, I offered a typical icebreaker, “How long have you been working with us?” It’s a simple enough question. Still, I have found - whether in Haiti or Lebanon or Congo – that out of that question, a surprising, fascinating yarn always unfurls.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alex’s yarn was no different.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He told me he started working for International Medical Corps on January 16<sup>th</sup>of 2010, just days after the earthquake that killed 316,000 people and left millions of others homeless.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When the quake hit, Alex and his wife, Gerda, were inside their home in Port-au-Prince. As their surroundings began to shake violently, they raced outside, only to watch their concrete home collapse seconds later. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alex also lost his retail soda business in the disaster. With no home and no livelihood, he and Gerda sought temporary shelter in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hearing that help was needed at the general hospital downtown, Alex went there to lend a hand, perhaps get some sort of work. “I speak Creole, French and Spanish so I thought I might be able to be a translator.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He arrived to a chaotic scene; several hundred injured lay on the pavement outside, the hospital’s buildings too damaged for use. “The doctors and nurses were amazing. God bless them.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here, I interrupt Alex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“So you were at the hospital right after the earthquake? So was I.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He stares at me, a sudden recognition crossing his face. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“I remember you! You gave me a job. You grabbed me and said, ‘I need a translator, can you help me?’”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The scene rushed back to me. I remembered him too. I remembered the stocky guy with a big smile and an eagerness to help. He did help immeasurably. In addition to translating, he moved patients, loaded and unloaded boxes, helped keep watch over pharmaceuticals and supplies in our command post. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I remembered near the middle of his first day at the hospital, taking the roll of tape with “International Medical Corps” printed on it and wrapping it around his t-shirt – the quickest way, in the sea of patients, family members, medical personnel, military, and media, to identify who was working with us. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So many people, so many Haitians, had come to the hospital to help. Alex was one of them, and he stood out. Each morning he returned first thing, asking what he could do. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As our emergency response continued to ramp up to meet the need, we began instituting systems for employing local staff and putting them on the payroll. Our head of logistics saw how valuable Alex was and hired him. He’s been with us ever since.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today, Alex and Gerda still live in that temporary shelter, hoping soon to get a permanent home. Four months ago, they had a daughter, Chrislex. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alex admits theirs are difficult living conditions, but he remains grateful that out of the ashes of the earthquake he is building a future with a job and family that make him happy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And then he flashes that smile.</span></div>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-1175031545457524202011-01-09T19:09:00.000-08:002011-01-09T19:09:51.501-08:00Genesis of Haiti’s 2nd Humanitarian Disaster<div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;">When a massive earthquake struck Haiti a year ago, it was immediately apparent to the world that the loss of life and the suffering would be enormous, and that humanitarian intervention would be significant and long-term. </div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Such a natural calamity was relatively easy to identify and “diagnose”. Deaths and injuries – and their cause - were large and quickly apparent. An estimated 230,000 died and more than a million are still displaced from their homes.</span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But what about the slow-moving, quiet, less-noticed disaster that struck Haiti three months ago? </span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When cases of cholera began to emerge in the Artibonite district in late October, it would prove much more difficult to sound the alarm that a new catastrophe was in our midst and demanded our attention.</span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On the front lines, recognizing a burgeoning humanitarian crisis required experience and the willingness to push hard for a large-scale mobilization when many others were reluctant to believe. </span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Recently I received an email from our Country Director in Haiti, Mike Dockrey, that succinctly spelled out what it took to yell “fire!”:</span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Though the "outbreak" and first cases did occur around the 15th-20th of October, in fact, those were originally reported by officials as "intense food poisoning" and "acute diarrhea" from "bad fish" caught in the Artibonite River. </i></span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The first two victims were young schoolchildren who had indeed eaten some fish caught in the river. But I watched as our experienced medical staff, led by (Deputy Country Director) Jason Erb and especially (Medical Director) Jojo Cangao, listened to those earliest reports (that really didn't garner much attention that I could see) and argued to me for an assessment visit to the sites up there. Frankly, Dr. Jojo "smelled" cholera, and suspected that due to the absence of experience with it here, local authorities simply didn't know what they were dealing with.</i></span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>We all sat in a room one evening, after Jason, Nurse Heather Lorenzen and Jojo returned from their two-day site visit to Artibonite and listened as Jojo confirmed that his suspicions were likely, and tragically, true. We organized our first real medical response to the impacted area for the next day - taking up medical staff, medicines, and other supplies (cots, buckets, chlorine, etc.).</i></span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>I was just the guy in the room listening to their expertise, and agreeing to the consensus opinion that International Medical Corps had to move - regardless of current programming, budgets, or staffing considerations.</i></span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Our ability to recognize a national medical emergency in its infancy, and mobilize so quickly, and appropriately, saved lives. Simple as that.</i></span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Despite the large-scale response from International Medical Corps, other NGOs and U.N. agencies, in the days and weeks to come, there have been about 170,000 cases of cholera since late October, a number that is expected to triple in the next 10 months. The disease has claimed more than 3,000 lives. As bad as this is, it could have been far worse if we had diagnosed this looming crisis later than we did.</span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As we reflect on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake here, it is important to remember that this was a country with an extremely compromised health infrastructure even before the earthquake. Cholera broke out in areas that were unaffected by the quake – and it was a disease that hadn’t been seen here in perhaps a century; local health workers were completely unfamiliar with it. Had there not been a large presence of relief workers in Haiti to respond when cholera emerged, the death toll could have been significantly higher.</span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sadly, the World Health Organization and CDC believe cholera will now be a recurrent disease in Haiti, appearing annually with the rains, spiking, and decreasing incrementally each year as the populace develops natural immunities. </span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Over the long term, we will continue to treat cholera patients. But it is clear that focusing on prevention and education campaigns in local communities regarding clean water and sanitation – and training local health workers to address cholera and other communicable diseases - will save exponentially more Haitian lives.</span><span style="font: 10.0px Calibri; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span></div><div style="font: 11.0px Calibri; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The international community must help Haitians recover and rebuild, but most importantly must provide them with the skills and know-how to care for themselves, if and when disaster strikes again.</span></div>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-63226094177013391852010-09-15T14:00:00.000-07:002010-09-15T14:00:16.877-07:00One Remote Village, 4 Days, 250 RapesI remember the sick feeling in my stomach as I read the email from our medical coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo: <br />
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“We are facing a massive case of community rape in Walikale Health Zone. …We expect that in total the number is about 250 women raped in 4 days – a major catastrophe.”<br />
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I stared at the screen in bewilderment.<br />
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I had been to the DRC a number of times, met many, many women and children who had been raped and whom we were treating. Indeed, the phrase, “Rape as a weapon of war” has become a tragic cliché to describe what has been happening in the eastern part of the country the last several years. <br />
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But how do you wrap your brain around such numbers – the scale of the onslaught, the systematic, diabolical nature of an attack in which women, girls, boys are raped by multiple armed men at once, often in front of husbands and children. <br />
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The attacks by hundreds of soldiers began July 30 in the village of Luvungi, located near mines rich in gold, cassiterite, and coltan. When our teams were able to reach the village days later and began treating the survivors, they first thought there might be 24, then 56. As more and more victims came forward and the scale of the catastrophe became evident, word spread quickly and the wider international community took notice. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon dispatched a special representative to investigate. <br />
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As a humanitarian organization that has been operating in DRC since 1999, our focus is healing wounds and helping people to recover and rebuild their lives: providing medical treatment to a woman who has been raped, psychological assistance, and livelihoods assistance so she can get back on her feet and care for herself and her family.<br />
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But our mission also focuses on prevention and education - raising awareness about issues like sexual and gender-based violence, whether it is in a remote community in eastern DRC, or here in Los Angeles, where International Medical Corps is based. <br />
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During her visit to our programs in DRC last year, Hilary Clinton declared, “We believe there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many.” The U.N. recently echoed her sentiments. <br />
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International Medical Corps stands with them in sounding a call to action for eastern DRC. We are very fortunate to have a powerful ally in educating the wider public about what is happening there. This month, the Geffen Playhouse is staging a production of the astounding Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Ruined” about the triumph of the human spirit in DRC. International Medical Corps serves as an educational sponsor for the production, and all proceeds from the September 28th show, underwritten by The Edgerton Foundation, will go to International Medical Corps’ humanitarian work. Following the performance, Nancy A. Aossey, our President and CEO will join the cast on stage for a conversation with the audience about the play, our work in DRC, and the struggles of its people.<br />
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For tickets, go to: <em><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/ruined">http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/ruined</a></em><br />
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It is hard for me to imagine the epidemic of rape in eastern DRC getting worse, and yet is has. All of us must do more to help bring an end to the violence there. How many mass rapes have to occur before the world says enough?margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-60951240220776244992010-06-07T11:26:00.001-07:002010-06-07T11:26:14.251-07:00<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cobject%20classid=%22clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000%22%20codebase=%22http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" width="250" height="250"><param name="movie" value="http://www.takepart.com/flash/amex/spreadtheword/banners/assets/banner250x250.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="flashvars" value=" 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I was here with our Emergency Response Team from International Medical Corps the day after the January 12 disaster. In the area we dubbed the “forest,” about 500 patients had lain on the grass or on hospital beds, many with infected crush injuries teeming with maggots, their blank stares reflecting how numb they had become from the pain – or their faces contorted in pain. Moans, screams, praying, chanting, sometimes just eery silence. <br />
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Today, the forest was quiet. No live patients lying next to dead ones, bloody bandages and IV bags strewn about. No doctors and nurses frantically wedging themselves into tight corners to dress and disinfect, transport, or declare dead. Today all I saw were tidy tents with a few post-operative cases inside. Sturdy chairs outside the tents provided a comfortable waiting area for loved ones. The place looked small, simple, organized. All I could hear was the breeze in the trees.<br />
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I stood there, awed by the transformation, and wept for those who lived here and went home, those who lived here and had no home to return here, and those who died here.<br />
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I exited the forest and walked toward the pediatric ward. How many times had I walked this path – to the pediatric and maternity wards, the supply warehouse, the blood bank, the U.S. military’s hospital headquarters? I looked to my right, waiting to come upon the nursing college, where as many as a hundred nurses had perished that day, where every day the powerful smell of their decomposing bodies hung in the air. As I passed an empty lot, covered in a neat layer of rocks and crumbled cinderblock, cordoned off by concertina wire, I yelled out to my colleagues, “Where is the nursing college?! It was right here!” This was the former nursing college… razed… gone… the bodies and bones of Haiti’s future interred underneath.<br />
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Time marches on.<br />
<br />
We then walked to the two ICU tents, where a group of doctors and nurses rotating through from Chicago-Rush Hospital, the University of Connecticut, and other institutions were tackling about 30 urgent cases, from typhoid fever to congestive heart failure. Suddenly, as I stood next to one woman’s bed I saw her begin seizing. She had gone into renal failure. A team of about 8 docs and nurses responded quickly. Amid the commotion, her husband and son moved outside the ICU tent, where they gazed inside watching in terror, praying she would live. The medical team administered CPR, gave the woman epinephrine injections, and after about 15 minutes of vigorous, sweat-inducing pumping on her chest they were able to revive her. She was dead, then she was alive.<br />
<br />
I think back to the early days at the hospital - we didn’t have any of the equipment I see before me today: dialysis machines, portable ultrasounds. Amputations were done without anesthesia. Antibiotics and powerful painkillers were precious and ran out quickly. <br />
<br />
In the bed across from her was a beautiful, young woman who had suffered massive complications in childbirth and lay limp as her mother and grandmother together washed her face, massaged her limbs, mixed a little food for her that she tried to eat without choking. It was a striking contrast between medical advances hard at work on one side of the room, and simple, loving care on the other. <br />
<br />
The fact is countless patients who’ve come through University hospital would not be alive today if International Medical Corps weren’t there. We’re treating anywhere from 500-800 patients a day there – plus another 1,200 or so at our mobile clinics in 18 sites in earthquake-affected areas across Haiti.<br />
<br />
It is astonishing to see how far we’ve come. And yet I am surrounded by tremendous degradation, pain and suffering. Areas like downtown Port-au-Prince and Leogane (the epicenter of the quake) are still complete disaster zones, awash in rubble. In many ways, they look no different than they did nine weeks ago. <br />
<br />
So many people ask me about all the money that’s been raised in the U.S. and other countries for Haiti relief - is it getting to those who need it most? The answer is resoundingly yes – but millions were affected by the earthquake, in a place already buckled under by poverty and disease. They need health care, shelter, food, clean water. It will require herculean efforts, over the long-term. <br />
<br />
We knew when we first arrived here on January 13 that we would need to stay for the long haul, doing the training of local health workers that is the hallmark of our work around the world and that will help Haitians rebuild and take care of themselves.<br />
<br />
We have a responsibility to those ghosts – that we learn from what happened in those early days and move forward, caring for those they left behind and helping Haitians to carry on.margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-9851011879464612672010-02-07T13:11:00.000-08:002010-02-07T13:11:33.758-08:00<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-aguirre/what-took-seconds-to-dest_b_439557.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-aguirre/what-took-seconds-to-dest_b_439557.html</a><br />
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border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #ed0978; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Haiti Earthquake</a> , <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/international-medical-corps" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #ed0978; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">International Medical Corps</a> , <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/international-medical-corps-haiti" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #ed0978; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">International Medical Corps Haiti</a> , <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/medical-aid-haiti" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #ed0978; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Medical Aid Haiti</a> , <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/medical-relief" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #ed0978; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Medical Relief</a> , <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/survivor-stories-haiti" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #ed0978; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Survivor Stories Haiti</a> , <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/impact" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #ed0978; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Impact News</a></div><div class="blog_content blog_design_a" id="entry_body" style="border-bottom-style: none; 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</ul></div><div class="clear" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; clear: both; font-size: 1px !important; height: 1px !important; line-height: 1px !important; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 258px;"></div></div></div><div class="entry_body_text" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Here in Port-au-Prince, it is hard to imagine what it will take to rebuild what was wiped out in seconds. The once-bustling port city is a shadow of its former self. The National Palace, which once sat expansive and regal amid its tropical gardens, is collapsed at its center. Chapels that once housed worshipers and art are in ruins. Home after home has been flattened. Businesses are buried. Concrete debris blankets the streets and tent cities housing tens of thousands each have sprouted throughout the region.</div><center style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img alt="Hosted by imgur.com" src="http://imgur.com/Xzk5t.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><br style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-style: italic !important; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Margaret Aguirre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</em></center><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />When we first arrived in Port-au-Prince, just 22 hours after the 7.0-earthquake struck, the devastation was all-consuming. Dead bodies lined the streets. Thousands upon thousands needed emergency medical care, which our team immediately began providing at a makeshift clinic outside the Villa Creole Hotel in Port-au-Prince. The area was -- and still is -- a massive disaster zone.</div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In the first hours and days of emergency response, it was immediately evident that the earthquake had nearly obliterated what little medical system Haiti had. Few doctors and nurses reported to work after the earthquake, an indication that many of them were probably killed. Hospitals and clinics were completely destroyed, with medicines and medical supplies crushed beneath them.</div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">That meant that the hundreds of thousands of injured had few places to turn for help. Our first morning in Port-au-Prince, International Medical Corps started providing medical care at the Hopital De l'Universite d'etat d'Haiti -- the General Hospital as it's called -- a 700-bed facility in the city center that was badly damaged by the earthquake. An estimated 1,500 injured were sprawled on the hospital grounds, waiting for care. Many were in critical condition, hundreds needed amputations, and there was nowhere else for them to go. With no surgical capabilities, the only choice was to treat and stabilize as many people as we could with what little we had until more proper supplies arrived -- which they did within two days.</div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">While there is a long road ahead to restore Haiti, noticeable progress has been made in just two weeks. At the request of the hospital administration, International Medical Corps is now leading patient care and operations at the General Hospital, organizing triage and acute treatment of patients and coordinating all of the NGOs that have responded. We helped create an emergency surgical facility able to perform 30 to 50 surgeries a day. We also recruited a group of Haitian medical students who are working side by side with our doctors and nurses and learning to provide emergency medical care.</div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Outside Port-au-Prince, a dozen International Medical Corps mobile medical units are now working in Petit-Goave, Grande Goave, Petionville, Boloise, Carrefour, Jacmal, Gressier, and Miragoane to reach those who have little access to medical care.</div><center style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img alt="Hosted by imgur.com" src="http://imgur.com/2y0yZ.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-style: italic !important; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">International Medical Corps team</em></center><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />We estimate that our teams are now treating roughly 1,000 people every day. In the thousands we've treated, I have encountered story after story of survival and perseverance.</div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">I met a miraculous five-year-old boy, Monley, who survived eight days buried beneath his home. One of our doctors intercepted Monley on the roadside, just after his uncle rescued him from the rubble, and rushed him to the General Hospital. He was severely dehydrated and emaciated, but amazingly unscathed. Our team gave him an IV, water, juice, and a bit of rice and soon Monley was able to leave the hospital, alive to share his story.</div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">I met a mother, Marie, who thought her daughter, Megine, was crushed when their home came down around her. Two days later, they found Megine and brought her right to our clinic at the General Hospital where Marie had received care herself just days earlier.</div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">I met a dancer with the National Ballet of Haiti. Sadly, her leg needed to be amputated below the knee, but she swears that she will dance again.</div><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">These people are Haiti's future. And we are committed to working with them to rebuild Haiti, to make their health care system stronger and better than what it was before. Our mission from relief to self-reliance has never been more clear or important to me after my time in Port-au-Prince. There is a long way to go, but we will continue to make progress, little by little, toward Haiti's self-reliance.</div><center style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img alt="Hosted by imgur.com" src="http://imgur.com/YD4L0.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></center><div style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />Text HAITI to 85944 to donate $10 to help International Medical Corps' efforts in Haiti or visit<a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #ed0978; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">www.imcworldwide.org</a>.</div></div></div></div>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-64743230656596118422010-01-22T13:21:00.000-08:002010-01-22T13:21:35.087-08:00From the Rubble, a Tale of SurvivalFrom the Rubble, a Tale of Survival <br />
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While in Haiti, I have seen hundreds dead, piled up on the sides of the streets or mass graves, often covered in a sheet as a modest form of respect. But in the death and rubble, I have witnessed remarkable stories of survival, one of which was a little five-year-old girl, Megine.<br />
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I met Megine at the General Hospital where our team has worked around the clock to save as many lives as we can. She was carried in by her father, her right hand hanging on by a thread.<br />
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She and her mother were in their home when the earthquake hit and did not get out in time before the building collapsed around them. Her mother, Marie, made it out from under the rubble and to the General Hospital, but they could not find Megine. “I was sick to my stomach the whole time,” says Marie.<br />
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Two days went by before Megine was pulled from the rubble. Her uncle discovered her and managed to get her out alive.<br />
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“I was so happy to see my daughter alive,” says Marie.<br />
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Marie and her husband brought Megine to the General Hospital. Sadly, her right hand needed to be amputated, but she made it through surgery, united with her parents, and alive to share her story.<br />
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Text HAITI to 85944 to donate $10 to our lifesaving work on Haiti.margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-60391310211980709262010-01-05T12:59:00.000-08:002010-01-05T12:59:46.329-08:00Front-page LA Times piece about International Medical Corps<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasqfoQdvXcpr5pzMV-iG9jeAVPXkntepuZ-0tSqEztorPL5oE4kI6No8AE_cv3RfyN_yiMc9xPWihTiuVSzotj-_M4KZ5dPYPlc4gmDqbhPiwlfE7lrD_p7jR9XzdJduvYNol8opNP3Q/s1600-h/latimescover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasqfoQdvXcpr5pzMV-iG9jeAVPXkntepuZ-0tSqEztorPL5oE4kI6No8AE_cv3RfyN_yiMc9xPWihTiuVSzotj-_M4KZ5dPYPlc4gmDqbhPiwlfE7lrD_p7jR9XzdJduvYNol8opNP3Q/s200/latimescover.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-medical-corps5-2010jan05,0,450803.story">Pioneering LA-based Non-Profit Saving Lives</a>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-7920985517269982502009-12-30T21:26:00.000-08:002009-12-31T12:12:27.926-08:00Photo in NY Times "Documenting the Decade" feature<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimzP3AVjePDmoYeKXIr2SgwFbEhqTFsSNCC9ec95HFUqhYbfqy1nFdUstm8ICJEkcmQdDGzBZaWqNq1zpUxZnFKCSRXwsjASoq3EcsHz9p95avJRl5wSFH7GNNfnFGP3_43KKLxwDuTY0/s1600-h/Picture+15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimzP3AVjePDmoYeKXIr2SgwFbEhqTFsSNCC9ec95HFUqhYbfqy1nFdUstm8ICJEkcmQdDGzBZaWqNq1zpUxZnFKCSRXwsjASoq3EcsHz9p95avJRl5wSFH7GNNfnFGP3_43KKLxwDuTY0/s320/Picture+15.png" /></a><br />
</div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/2009-decade.html#/2009_4_30356">Outside International Medical Corps clinic in eastern Congo</a>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-78423791828548326612009-12-04T17:13:00.000-08:002009-12-04T17:16:29.349-08:00My piece on Huffington Post: Oprah and the Power of 10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwbtSMYyOHDtxk9etgcQAuyKJimtqAtKaKyxdmsTRKjJ0SdsLba8oSHI19tkWuTmGgpn6KJNR-lvYuxHx9eyIbC76mr9ewQZDvqbUkydPJPvTzZ4k2xqBl20zfpphjd3uca0pMOP8z1ZA/s1600-h/ChambuchaHospFeedingCtr065.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" er="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwbtSMYyOHDtxk9etgcQAuyKJimtqAtKaKyxdmsTRKjJ0SdsLba8oSHI19tkWuTmGgpn6KJNR-lvYuxHx9eyIbC76mr9ewQZDvqbUkydPJPvTzZ4k2xqBl20zfpphjd3uca0pMOP8z1ZA/s320/ChambuchaHospFeedingCtr065.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-aguirre/oprah-and-the-power-of-10_b_380813.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-aguirre/oprah-and-the-power-of-10_b_380813.html</a><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-aguirre/oprah-and-the-power-of-10_b_380813.html"></a>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-88916817245783939422009-10-28T21:19:00.000-07:002009-10-28T21:23:00.736-07:00CNN on International Medical Corps book, "A Thousand Words: Photos from the Field"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNLEr1IXi5MfBONviA_su5Poq9U99lG_L4vFmLgVPGO4PYB8NiiZYyrx_wX2MOhiC35ltwpJlYklLU3S03f3_4F-JKhzqoc7SO6n8GjDnNmlXKNqolvYu7k8ne_b5curFly3szXujRRg4/s1600-h/Kayanza+Province,+Burundi+April+%2709+008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNLEr1IXi5MfBONviA_su5Poq9U99lG_L4vFmLgVPGO4PYB8NiiZYyrx_wX2MOhiC35ltwpJlYklLU3S03f3_4F-JKhzqoc7SO6n8GjDnNmlXKNqolvYu7k8ne_b5curFly3szXujRRg4/s320/Kayanza+Province,+Burundi+April+%2709+008.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/28/international.medical.corps.tragedy/index.html">CNN on International Medical Corps book, "A Thousand Words: Photo from the Field"</a><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/28/international.medical.corps.tragedy/index.html"></a>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-89645652580062396982009-10-13T14:45:00.000-07:002009-10-13T15:02:52.653-07:00Sienna Miller documentary about rape in eastern Congo<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Kgrd_p-fCUtL1LhI_i67V8XLw-AE1MTP83kxqMJ5GQMahaZqpfymwZXBTvdMEYbNRYJLYAsWB5N6w4dQGkvPUM7CT-PB1W83CQbJnXg8dlArJFzqLLLUopWKbcpe1Adeccz7gdO4n54/s1600-h/Sienna+Trip+-+Day+2+358.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392204800233043154" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Kgrd_p-fCUtL1LhI_i67V8XLw-AE1MTP83kxqMJ5GQMahaZqpfymwZXBTvdMEYbNRYJLYAsWB5N6w4dQGkvPUM7CT-PB1W83CQbJnXg8dlArJFzqLLLUopWKbcpe1Adeccz7gdO4n54/s320/Sienna+Trip+-+Day+2+358.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Watch the movie here: http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=779margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-8297156473013064182009-10-02T10:42:00.000-07:002009-10-02T10:54:56.028-07:00Oprah Partners with International Medical Corps<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuMBVof4FxLJC6zFlphI4tXtmeHyssxc4fdVlph81KJR1ZSAqltZAlmOAl-CINEh5YdmAeytzOfFi0hWySCrXhcsL6OQwJf_eJrzT8PGVdm69oQr6lmN_9QSuyWk5-tnU7_9zRKYWNkXo/s1600-h/ChambuchaHospFeedingCtr065.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 253px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuMBVof4FxLJC6zFlphI4tXtmeHyssxc4fdVlph81KJR1ZSAqltZAlmOAl-CINEh5YdmAeytzOfFi0hWySCrXhcsL6OQwJf_eJrzT8PGVdm69oQr6lmN_9QSuyWk5-tnU7_9zRKYWNkXo/s320/ChambuchaHospFeedingCtr065.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388061513236216210" /></a><br />International Medical Corps has partnered with The Oprah Winfrey Show in a campaign to raise awareness and support for women around the world. Oprah announced October 1 her campaign, “For All Women,” encouraging her viewers to go to oprah.com/forallwomen to learn what they can do to support women.margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-81302328715945611622009-08-17T11:30:00.000-07:002009-08-17T11:31:09.039-07:00Update on GE donation and training in Chad<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hkTm60ijklA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hkTm60ijklA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-91947368709477261132009-08-12T15:40:00.001-07:002009-08-12T15:47:49.295-07:00Sienna Miller Visit to DRC<object width="400" height="240"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qxbTJxbZreI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qxbTJxbZreI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="240"></embed></object>margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-38969059052391125582009-08-03T12:00:00.000-07:002009-08-03T16:49:38.143-07:00Delivering Relief in SyriaI spend most of my time in the field listening to people’s stories, trying to understand what they’ve been through, how we’re helping, and what more we could be doing.<br /><br />I work pretty hard not to let my emotional reactions to the stories I hear get in the way of what I and our teams are trying to do. But at the same time I need to maintain my compassion for those sharing their ordeals with me. I hear stories of tremendous suffering, and stories of tremendous affirmation – often within minutes of each other. Loss/reunion, despair/hope, pain/healing. Many of the stories I hear have happy endings – many do not.<br /><br />My visit to Syria was no different. I spent a few days photographing, interviewing and videotaping primarily Iraqi refugees who had fled for safety to Damascus and its suburbs. The numbers of refugees are disputed, but estimates range from several hundred thousand, to 1.3 million.<br /><br />International Medical Corps was the first American NGO allowed to operate in Syria, providing comprehensive primary and secondary health care, mental health services, maternal/child care, even dental services. It is not easy gaining the trust of officials and the local population in Syria. But our partnership with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent has been critical to getting help to those who need it most.<br /><br />Damascus, like any large city, has noticeable wealth – as well as deep pockets of poverty and need.<br /><br />The large population influx has put a huge strain on the country’s health infrastructure. And many Iraqis have arrived with little or no money, and little or no support system. Their medical and mental health needs are enormous.<br /><br />I spoke with children who witnessed first-hand the killing of mothers, fathers, and siblings. I remember meeting “Fatma”, who is 11. I had walked into an activities center for mothers and children at one of our health clinics and immediately noticed her. She was very pretty but pale, her hair pulled back in a barrette, her eyes downcast, she lifted her head slightly a few times to look at me as I spoke with her mother. Her expressions revealed only profound sadness.<br />As her mother recounted their story to me, Fatma’s 5-year-old sister hung on her lovingly, or vied for my camera’s attention, showing off the bright red-haired doll she had made with our staff.<br /><br />Fatma’s mother explained that when they lived in Baghdad, her husband received repeated sectarian death threats. At one point Fatma was abducted, though she managed to escape. Then their house was bombed and Fatma suffered shrapnel wounds to the back of her head. That’s when the family fled to Syria, about nine months ago. She says Fatma is traumatized. She rarely speaks, she missed two years of school and cannot focus in class, her grades have plummeted from what they once were. She showed me Fatma’s report card, taped back together after Fatma had ripped it in anger and shame.<br /><br />Our psychosocial coordinator at the center is working with Fatma, her family and others like them to address their issues comprehensively and get them more intensive medical and psychiatric treatment. Fatma is already showing some improvement, though she will take a very long time to heal.<br /><br />But I am amazed to see the enormous impact we can have through the most simple, innovative measures.<br /><br />At another center, situated in a run-down neighborhood on the outskirts of Damascus, we are focusing on early childhood development for Iraqis, as well as local children. Our staff and the kids together painted the walls of the center vibrant colors and planted a beautiful garden. We provide computer classes, plenty of children’s books and a mini-jungle gym, all in a bright, lively setting.<br /><br />Nadia, our program coordinator, is the creative force behind the center. She placed colorful “wish boxes” in one room, where children can submit a simple request for us to fulfill on “Fun Fridays”. Some of their wishes: to ride a horse, to eat a salad, to receive a pair of shoes. For these children – many of whom have lost parents – this center is a little oasis they helped create.<br /><br />All of the kids I met have witnessed unimaginable horrors, yet they are able to laugh and play like they haven’t a care in the world. Nadia tells me one of the children’s mothers remarked with astonishment: “What did you do? My child had stopped laughing. Now he is happy and smiling again.”margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-69387793735996134162009-07-13T13:57:00.000-07:002009-07-13T13:59:58.594-07:00Update on GE Equipment Arriving in Chad<span>Here's a follow-up to an earlier post, as we were awaiting the arrival of critical medical equipment from GE to our programs in Chad.<br /><br />In this video, ,International Medical Corps Logistics Officer in Chad, Ibrahim Mansaray, talks about the challenges of getting the equipment where it's needed most. </span><br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvhT4w8SiEE\margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728080085793735169.post-90195900946960992972009-06-25T01:06:00.000-07:002009-06-25T02:01:35.261-07:00In Their Own WordsWe’ve just finished our final workshop with 62 extraordinary Iraqi, Palestinian and Jordanian children.<br /><br />Jim Webb and the folks at National Geographic had the genius idea to give the kids simple writing exercises during the course of the workshops – to help us better understand their lives, experiences and thought processes.<br /><br />The exercises included answering questions like: “I remember…” and “I dream of…” We also had the children write an imaginary letter to someone they love or admire.<br /><br />Below is a sampling of what they wrote.<br /><br />On Friday we’ll be exhibiting the kids’ photos at the Children’s Museum – Jordan, under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah.<br /><br />=======<br />-Bassme: “I remember when the war started. My mother and I were sitting on the porch, I had final exams, and a man got killed in front of me.”<br /><br />-Aya: “I dream of becoming an active person in society, and to be able to help others. My hope is to become a successful architect, and to travel to Venice. I remember once I had one friend, but now I have a lot.”<br /><br />-Saber: “My life's dream is to help people. I would love to make a study about the percentage of homeless people, and to open a project for the people to be able to donate for the poor families. Since I was a little kid I dreamed that I would have a magazine to write in with my friends and the people I love about the common issues, Palestine and general opinion. We are now the generation of revenge. Everyone wants to fight with each other. Why aren't we like brothers? Like the Quran says: ‘We are all brothers in Islam’. So why can we not live like that?”<br /><br />-Fatima: “I remember that my happiest days were with my father before he died, and I remember that when I was little my father used to play with me and my sisters. I remember the war in Iraq, and I see something burning in my eyes, the cars, and the homes. I also remember my cats and my sisters in Iraq. I hope that things will get better in Iraq.”<br /><br />-Noora: “I remember the first day I came to Jordan we didn't know anyone, and I didn't know the language that this country was speaking. But after living here for many years, I mastered the language, and I got used to my life in Jordan and now I am very happy.”<br /><br />-Mohamad: “My cousin's car impresses me a lot, because, it is very fast, and it has a turbo engine and it has big speakers, an amplifier and two screens and a system.”<br /><br />-Hawa: “To my father and mother. They are the most valuable people to my heart. I love them with all my heart. I live in their shade (in a good way) and I love them. They made me. They taught me how to love and respect others. I hope for them health and peace, and to stay in a nest. I hope that Allah dear will keep them and to keep them for me forever. Thank you.<br /><br />-Fatema: “To my dear sisters who are in Iraq now, I'm sending this letter to them and wish they could come with their husbands and kids here. I love mom very much and respect her, I wish she could stay with me forever. And this letter is also for my dear father who is dead but I still feel him with me. I hope he is in heaven now. I also wish that all Muslims will be in heaven with him.”<br /><br />-Rashad: “I love you dad, because, you helped me and you taught me how to think about my life, my career. I know that you get tired every day so that we can stay alive, so when I grow up I am going to take good care of you.”<br /><br />-And this from 11-year-old Sandian, whom we called “The Philosopher” because of her astonishing analysis of photos during the workshops:<br />“I remember the war, and the screams I used to hear at night, they were from a child who lost his parents or from a mother who lost her children, or from a wife who lost her husband. Yes, all of this is tied to the war. From it I saw eyes filled with tears, but from this pain I found support, for hope was my title, and the light of love and forgiveness I held in my arms, so that I may finish my journey. The sentence I love and always say is: ‘From the young of the future; the little ones of the nation; the heroes of tomorrow.’”margaretaguirrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01025440970053135092noreply@blogger.com0