Manuel Esteban Rodríguez in Santiago
The Chilean Red Cross, with the support of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has set up two operational bases in the cities of Concepción and Talca to better coordinate its earthquake response activities.
Both bases are working to strengthen the activities that the volunteers of these branches have been carrying out since the day the earthquake occurred.
The Chilean Red Cross has also begun to deploy volunteers from branches that have suffered less damage to those harder hit in order to help them to recover and provide direct assistance to those affected. Volunteers are now being sent from Araucanía to Concepción and from Santiago to Talca and Concepción.
Immediate relief
The regional risk management director is working in Talca with volunteers from Curicó. The Red Cross branch in Talca is uninhabitable. Two IFRC disaster response experts have joined this team to support the immediate relief work and conduct assessments to find temporary shelter solutions.
The deputy head of the disaster risk reduction programme, an IFRC disaster response expert and a water and environmental sanitation expert are in Concepción. The main tasks of the team are to coordinate with the local committee, review the situation of Red Cross volunteers and leaders, and carry out water and sanitation, health and temporary shelter assessments.
Health is currently one of the main priorities for the Chilean Red Cross, and basic health care Emergency Response Units (ERUs) from Spain and Japan are being deployed to Chile. The National Societies of Germany, Spain, Japan and Turkey, as well as the IFRC and the International Committee of the Red Cross, are in Chile working with the Chilean Red Cross.
Health needs
The health ERU sent by the Spanish Red Cross has already arrived at its destination in Hualañé, which is in the region of Maule (Region VII). The mission of the volunteers accompanying the unit is to meet the health needs of more than 15,000 people living in this district and other nearby communities within a 30-kilometre radius, ensuring more medical attention.
“This unit acts as a health centre, providing medical care to the population. We have the means to deal with any emergency around the clock,” explains Raimundo de Dompablo, the Spanish Red Cross volunteer in charge of the unit.
The basic health care unit is formed by 14 Spanish Red Cross volunteers - four doctors, including a paediatrician, five nurses, four technicians and a midwife.
Humanitarian aid
“An aeroplane loaded with humanitarian aid arrived in Santiago yesterday, with relief supplies for the thousands of people affected by the earthquake. This initial shipment contains 60 tonnes of relief supplies, which are sufficient to cover the basic necessities of 3,000 families (15,000 people), and equipment to carry out water and sanitation operations to benefit 7,000 people,” says Alberto Monguzzi, who is the IFRC officer in charge of the operation in Chile.
The emergency relief items include kitchen sets, hygiene kits, water collection containers and thermal blankets. The aid comes from strategically pre-positioned supplies contributed by the American Red Cross, the British Red Cross and the Canadian Red Cross Society, along with IFRC supplies from the warehouses of its Pan-American Disaster Response Unit (PADRU) based in Panama.
To date, 1,500 hygiene kits, 1,000 packets of nappies and 1,000 kilo packets of rice have been received, packaged and dispatched to the field for distribution as part of the contribution made by the people of Chile in response to the national appeal for donations launched by the Chilean Red Cross.
Active volunteers
The Chilean Red Cross has 4,000 active volunteers nationwide and, since the earthquake, has received 30,000 applications from people who want to become Red Cross volunteers.
University students have approached the Red Cross offering to become volunteers, and hundreds are currently assisting regular volunteers in logistic tasks mainly at the Chilean Red Cross’ central warehouse. The work carried out by the volunteers since the earthquake first struck is essential to improving the living conditions of the people in Chile affected by this disaster.