Antonio
Dodevski and Oliver Gichevski from the Macedonian Red Cross
didn’t hesitated for a moment when they received the phone
call.
One month on, their enthusiasm has been vindicated: “The
best thing with this mission has been the happy look on people’s
faces,” says Antonio.
Both are part of a joint Austrian-Macedonian-Swedish water and
sanitation team providing potable water to thousands of people
in the tsunami-devastated city of Banda Aceh.
It is now time for all the team members to head back home. Looking
back on the past month, the only difficulty the two Macedonians
say they’ve encountered was getting used to Indonesian
food in the first few days.
“There is so much rice. And the food is very spicy as
well,” says Oliver.
This is not his first experience working with the International
Federation. In 1999 he was involved in the Kosovo operation
in his native Macedonia, helping to provide clean water for
the refugee camp in Stenkovac.
Now he is an employee of the Macedonian Red Cross in Skopje
and responsible for its disaster preparedness programmes.
Antonio is a mountaineer and volunteer. He is also the leader
of a rescue team in the city of Ohrid.
Both of them participated in a water and sanitation workshop
organized jointly by the Austrian Red Cross and Macedonian Red
Cross in September last year. The other participants came from
Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia and Bulgaria.
When Antonio received the phone call about a mission in Indonesia,
he said yes immediately. “I had been alerted in advance
but there was no decision until two hours before the last bus
was leaving Ohrid for Skopje,” he says.
For Oliver it was easier, he lives just a few blocks away from
the office. They were recruited as part of the Austrian Red
Cross team in the joint Austrian-Swedish WatSan team.
After four weeks in Banda Aceh they feel sad to leave, and say
they would have stayed longer if needed. “Our team is
great. It has been really nice to have the opportunity to work
together,” they say.
Antonio has attached a white cloth to his Macedonian Red Cross
cap and asked all team members and a few more to write their
names on it.
Maybe the challenges in the beginning brought the team members
even closer together. Initially they were planning to go to
Calang, but after an assessment they realized that it was not
the best option.
“We were looking for a location were we can use the full
capacity of our team because together with the Indonesian Red
Cross (PMI), we can provide a wide range of services,”
says Andreas Hattinger of the Austrian Red Cross and leader
the water and sanitation team.
The team decided to look for other options than Calang. They
did not have to look very far. In early February the PMI and
the team assumed responsibility for the water distribution point
at a bridge in Banda Aceh previously operated by the Australian
army.
The PMI and the Austrian-Macedonian-Swedish team have been reinforced
by a few volunteers from the Malaysian Red Crescent.
More than 50,000 litres of water are distributed daily to various
locations in Banda Aceh. The water distribution point itself
is open from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. for people who want to come
and fetch water themselves.
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Oliver
Gichevski and Antonio Dodevski of the Macedonian Red Cross
have been in Banda Aceh as part of a water and sanitation
emergency response unit (p12635)
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Oliver
and Antonio are part of a joint Austrian-Macedonian-Swedish
team bringing life-saving clean water to the tsunami-hit
population (p12636)
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