UN, MSF and other organisations partner to relieve the wounds left by the hurricanes

Gonaives, Haiti, 8 September 2008

The roads leading to Gonaives were cut off by land slides and floods this weekend, the UN moving aid primarily by helicopter. The basic infrastructure of this city of 300’000 people has been destroyed. At the Raboteau hospital, on the western edge of Gonaives a 7 years old boy alternates between crying and wailing in pain. His father says that a wall collapsed falling on the boy’s hand.
Two physicians and a nurse from Medecin Sans Frontieres, and 4 Cuban doctors and one Haitian Doctor are the only trained medical staff at this Hospital. Doctor Efraim Fahardo from Honduras works for MSF Belgium since March 2007. He is preparing to operate the boy’s hand while a Cuban doctor is administrating the anaesthetic. Slowly the boy’s cries loose their intensity and he falls asleep. “The boy will probably loose part of the mobility of his hand” says Doc Fahardo.
Cade Cadou, the administrator of this hospital says this is one of the two medical clinics in Gonaives that are still functioning and he says he is running out of supplies. “We almost finished our fuel; we only have enough for tomorrow and maybe the next day”. Cadou also says they are running low on medicine.
Gonaives has always been a poor place in the poorest country of the whole American continent. Now the streets of this impoverished city are filled with abandoned cars, broken televisions and dog bodies abandoned in muddy waters. You can find whatever type of debris: The legs of a doll are taken away towards the open see.
A week after Hurricane Hanna hit Haiti, residents go back and forth to check there residence or what’s left of it. Some of them remained and slept on their roofs. The water at knee level, Wendy, who was lucky enough to have a house with two floors, went to by some Oat. She bought it for 15 Haitian Dollars, the equivalent of 2 American Dollars. "Almost the double of the usual price", she says. In these times of crises the prices of food have gone quite up in the flooded Gonaives.
In the Hospital the Doctors haven’t had a break since they arrived early this morning, but continue to work hard despite the fatigue. The MSF Doctors arrived with the first UN flight right after hurricane Gustav was gone. "We came with a team of 8 people, 2 Doctors, 3 nurses, 3 logisticians and me. We also brought with us a thousand kilos of drugs and medical tools” says Massimiliano cosci, MSF’s chief of mission from UN HQ in Gonaives. “As we arrived, we went to make an assessment of the medical facilities still operative in the city. We met the Cuban Doctors who were overloaded and couldn’t do a lot since they had finished all there drugs. We came with the drugs and started working the same day with the Cubans." The Hospital in Raboteau is the only one with Chirurgical capacity. On their first day, MSF has consulted 110 patients and made 16 chirurgical operations in collaborations with Cuban Doctors.

From UN HQ in Gonaives, UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Eric Mouillefarine leads the operation addressing to the different NGOs and UN Agencies, all partners to relieve the wounds left by the hurricanes. “We have only distributed aid in higher parts of the city since we weren’t able to find a secure place to proceed to the distribution in the lower part of the city.” Said Eric Mouillefarine who was already coordinating the relief aid in 2004 when Jeanne killed 300 Haitians. Meanwhile the brave Pakistani Blue Helmets, who started fasting last week, are distributing water in the lower parts of the city, still flooded by the hurricane waters, while Argentinean peacekeepers stick scrupulously to the orders.