Among
the busiest and most popular international aid workers in the
earthquake-hit city of Bam are a four-member health team from
the Malaysian Red Crescent. The doctor, paramedic and two nurses
are trailblazers for their national society, for which this
is its first foreign mission.
In the crowded white tent of the Out-Patients Department (OPD)
people are stepping on each other’s feet.
Little Moustafa – the youngest patient in the tent - has
tears running down his face after he dislocated his arm while
playing in the rubble. His mother forces her way to Dr Maznor
Shaari. In the pushing and shoving, he stands out like a rock
in the surf.
The International Federation’s field hospital has an excellent
reputation. Day by day more patients flood in. More than 12,000
have been seen so far. It is definitely no easy task to oversee
the OPD-tent.
Chellaappan Pallaniappan places a bandage on the injured leg
of an elderly man, who wears a battered old grey coat. “Doctor,
doctor,” calls an Iranian Red Crescent volunteer over
the heads of the crowd from the other side of the tent. Dr Maznor
Shaar takes a short breath and rushes to the next patient.
Meanwhile, Chellappan Pallaniappan takes care of little Moustafa.
With a few reassuring words, the paramedic calms the boy down.
A quick but firm jerk and the boy’s arm is in its right
position again.
Pallaniappan, Dr Shaari and two nurses, Kanagambikai Vallipuram
and Masitah Rasidi, make up the four-member team of the Malaysian
Red Crescent in Bam. Their group is writing a new chapter in
the history of their National Society.
They represent the first Malaysian Red Crescent emergency mission
in a foreign country.
“It is an honour for us and it makes us feel really proud,”
says Shaari, who like the rest of the team has followed the
International Federation’s disaster response courses in
Kuala Lumpur and Indonesia.
“The International Federation’s disaster response
training was definitely a success,” explains Iain Logan,
head of Field Operations for the Federation in Bam. Now in the
midst of a major catastrophe, the four professional and experienced
Malaysians can apply daily what they learned in the training
courses.
Bam is almost completely destroyed, with 85 per cent of the
buildings in ruins. Nearly half of the population died when
the ground shook on 26 December. The survivors live in tents:
either in camps or along the streets in front of their destroyed
homes.
Health care facilities are either completely demolished or severely
damaged. The Federation’s field hospital, the three basic
health-care centres of the German and Japanese Red Cross, as
well as the different health posts of the Iranian Red Crescent,
ensure that the population receives the care it needs.
“I hope that through our efforts we encourage the inhabitants
of Bam to stay in Bam and rebuild their lives,” says Dr
Maznor Shaari. The members of the Malaysian team are well aware
of the sadness that hides behind the tarpaulins and thin walls
of the prefabricated houses.
All the children love Kanagambikai Vallipuram and her colleague
Masitah Rasidi. “Nurse Vallipuram is always in a good
mood,” says a ten year old boy. Masitah Rasidi has helped
to deliver many babies in Bam. And then there is Chellaappan
Pallaniappan, a master of body language. This comes in useful
when no translator is available on the spot.
Logan highlights their professional experience and their uncomplicated
way of working as a team. “The Malaysian team really possesses
the Red Crescent/Red Cross spirit.” All four of them serve
as Red Crescent volunteers in Malaysia.
In the camp, colleagues are not only happy about their good
professional skills. The group also prepared a “Malaysian
evening dinner” and served simple but delicious specialties
from the Far East. When the German tent-mate of Dr. Maznor Shaari
and Chellappan Pallaniappan turned 32, he got a tasty birthday
cake and a candlelit celebration. “The kindness of the
four Malaysians is so good for team spirit,” he said,
a comment every delegate from Finland to USA would agree with.
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| Dr
Maznor Shaari taking care of one of the many patients
in the out-patients department (p11209)
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| Nurse
Kanagambikai Vallipuram is well liked by the children
as she is always in a good mood (p11206)
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| Nurse
Masitah Rasidi has helped to deliver many babies in Bam
(p11207) |
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| The
four members of the dynamic Malaysian Red Crescent health
team (p11208) |
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