“I
want to thank all of you, one by one.” With these words,
Dr Ahmad Ali Noorbala, President of the Iranian Red Crescent
Society (IRCS), opened a major donors’ conference in Tehran
on 19 January.
He was referring to the Red Cross and Red Crescent assistance
from around the world provided to victims of the violent earthquake
which devastated the city of Bam in the early hours of 26 December,
killing, according to the latest official figures, more than
42,000 people.
That tragic toll is expected to continue rising, as more bodies
are found every day. Some 30,000 people were injured and at
least 75,000 are homeless.
The meeting brought together representatives from 26 National
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Federation
Secretariat and the Iranian Red Crescent.
The participants reviewed the current relief operation for earthquake
survivors and looked ahead to the future needs of a population
whose city was 85 per cent destroyed and whose lives have been
shattered by the loss of family members, friends, homes, possessions
and jobs and who continue to live in fear, as dozens of aftershocks
continue to shake the region.
Federation Secretary General Markku Niskala warmly congratulated
the Iranian Red Crescent, whose search and rescue teams, operational
within two hours of the tremor, pulled several thousand people
alive out of the rubble. The IRCS mobilized more than 12,400
medical staff, who treated some 42,500 people, and distributed
hundreds of tonnes of tents, blankets, heaters and food to more
than 40,000 families.
The IRCS continues to lead the relief operation, coordinating
all humanitarian assistance, national and international. Niskala
also thanked the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies
who rushed relief goods, staff and equipment to Bam. This included
emergency response units (ERU) specialized in logistics, water
and sanitation and health care, including a 200-bed field hospital
which will serve the needs of the population for the coming
year.
“The new challenges will be psychological support and
reconstruction,” Niskala noted.
Speaking proudly of the Norwegian delegates staffing the field
hospital, Jonas Gahr Storre, secretary general of the Norwegian
Red Cross, underlined their commitment. “These people
were called away from the Christmas table. Most of them are
very experienced and I feel proud and humbled that we have members
like this in our National Society. It also showed what we can
do not only as a National Society but also as a Movement.”
To ensure that vital emergency assistance continues to reach
earthquake survivors over the coming months, the Federation
launched a revised appeal on 8 January, for 51.9 million Swiss
francs (US$ 42 million). To date, 38 per cent of the amount
has been raised. The Federation appeal was developed in close
coordination with the United Nations and launched on the same
day as the UN “flash appeal”, in Bam.
While donors at the meeting were encouraged to provide further
funds towards the appeal, in support of the IRCS relief operation,
they were also asked not to forget the long-term needs of the
population, such as the psychological support needed to help
survivors overcome their grief and despair.
The trauma of children is of particular concern. According to
the authorities, some 1,850 children were left “unaccompanied”.
With support from the ICRC, the Iranian Red Crescent has been
actively tracing their parents or family members and has deployed
several psychological support teams in and around Bam. The Federation
will support the extension and strengthening of that programme.
Participants in the donor meeting had a chance to meet some
of the children of Bam the next day, when they visited the destroyed
city.
As she showed the visitors the youngsters’ drawings, which
often depict destruction and grief, Rikke Gormsen, the Federation’s
regional psychosocial delegate, pointed out that children are
often the worst-affected by disaster. They cannot understand
why their life has changed so drastically in just a few seconds.
It is essential that psychosocial programmes are long-term commitments,
to ensure recovery, she underlined.
In recent days, a Federation advisory team, working in close
cooperation with the IRCS, examined potential priorities in
the “post-emergency” phase of the operation.
Their preliminary recommendations to the visiting donors included
repairing the city’s destroyed Iranian Red Crescent offices
and relief centres, transforming the Red Cross Red Crescent
field hospital into a semi-permanent structure, building an
orthopaedic service centre in Bam to fit injured survivors with
leg and arm prostheses, expanding sanitation services for the
population (including latrines, showers, bath centres and water
distribution points) and strengthening disaster response and
preparedness.
This is especially critical in a country that is the fourth
most disaster-prone in the world, and which has just experienced
its deadliest recorded earthquake.
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Dr
Ahmad Ali Noorbala, president of the Iranian Red Crescent,
and Federation Secretary General Markku Niskala address
donor National Societies in Tehran (p11084)
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Jonas
Gahr Storre (right), secretary general of the Norwegian
Red Cross, visits the field hospital in Bam, which is
partly staffed by doctors and nurses from his National
Society (p11082)
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Psychological
support for Bam's children will be a priority in the weeks
and months to come (p11030)
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The
secretary general of the Irish Red Cross, Carmel Dunne,
was among the representatives of donor national societies
to see at first hand the relief work being done in Bam
(p11081)
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Kristiina
Kumpula (front, middle) of the Finnish Red Cross meets
Finnish staff at the Bam field hospital (p11083)
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