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Restoring Vital Services
The disaster wiped out basic services
in Bam, crucial to the more than 200,000 people living in
the city and surrounding villages. The two public hospitals
were completely destroyed and many medical staff perished.
The water distribution system was shattered.
In the
initial days of the crisis, the Saudi Red Crescent and other
groups established temporary facilities to treat the injured.
To compliment the clinics managed by the IRCS, a Japanese
Red Cross clinic opened on New Year’s Eve, followed
a few days later by a 200-bed ECHO-funded referral hospital
and two other clinics staffed by Red Cross personnel from
Germany, Finland and Norway. These facilities, which have
already provided treatment to more than 10,000 patients, will
be handed over to the IRCS in a few months.
Access to clean water also posed a
major challenge. Within 48 hours of the disaster the International
Federation deployed water and sanitation emergency response
units (ERUs) from the Spanish, Austrian, French, German and
Swedish Red Cross. “The problem is that the earthquake
destroyed the entire water distribution system in Bam, which
could potentially reduce the quality of the water once it
arrives at the end user,” emphasized Sara Escudero,
a Spanish Red Cross water and sanitation engineer. The IRCS
distributed bottled water and placed water tanks throughout
many neighbourhoods. The ERUs provided the Red Cross Red Crescent
hospital and clinics and tent camps with clean water, showers
and latrines.
Coping with Grief and Fear
A day after the quake, the IRCS sent
in emergency psychosocial supports teams to assess the situation
and provide initial support. More than 85 IRCS volunteers
travelled from tent to tent, providing ad hoc counselling.
“Immediately after the earthquake, people concentrated
on survival, on trying to find their relatives and getting
shelter, food and water,” says Aghdase Kafi, an IRCS
psychologist and support team member. “But it is also
very important for children and their families to be able
to talk about their feelings and share their problems, to
see that there are others who share the same situation.”
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Dr. Shinichi Nakashima talks to a patient
inside the Japanese Red Cross clinic. The clinic staffed by
a team of 14 that includes four doctors, four nurses, an electrician
and administrator and other support staff, opened on December
31.
©Christopher
Black / International Federation |
