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Disaster management
| Refugees crisis in Chad | |
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| The Red Cross camp at Tréguine: meet the team | |
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Mamadou Dian Bah - Tréguine Camp Manager – International Federation 
A biochemist by profession, this 41 year-old started his Red Cross
career as a volunteer for the Guinean Red Cross. In 1990, Dian was
among the pioneers of an assistance programme for Liberian and Sierra
Leonean refugees in Guinea. With training in various aspects of emergency
operations, he has worked in several relief operations, managing stock,
finance and administration, programme coordination, and more recently
relief activities in Madagascar. |
Gerhard Tauscher: Team Leader, basic health unit – German Red Cross 
A paramedic and electrician by profession, Gerhard was a well-earned
reputation for being a leading figure in the German Red Cross’s
emergency response units (ERUs). Aged 39, married with two children,
he went on his first mission in 1991 to Turkey for the operation to
assist refugees from Iraq. Since then, Gerhard has worked in a number
of Red Cross emergency operations in Iraq, Iran, Croatia, Albania,
and Zaire, as it was then, as well as longer-term programmes in Southern
Africa. |
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Aysegul Bagçi: Relief/Logistics Delegate – International Federation 
This 28-year-old has worked for the Federation delegations in her
native Turkey, as well as in Congo and Iran, and also at the Secretariat
in Geneva during the crisis in Afghanistan. Whether it is 0700 in
the morning or when the sun is at its hottest, she can be seen rushing
here and there with her backpack, speaking into her radio, or popping
in and out of the Rubb Halls – giant tented warehouses - arranging
relief supplies, assigning work for the volunteers or setting up distribution
sites for the beneficiaries. |
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Frederic Blas: Relief/Construction Delegate – International Federation 
An architect by profession, 38-year-old Fred started out as a volunteer
for the Federation in Vietnam, where he provided construction consultancy.
Increasingly, though, he found himself drawn to implement the projects
himself. During his three years in Vietnam, not content with building
typhoon and flood-resistant housing in remote villages, he also undertook
some relief activities when floods inundated the area in which he
was working, experiences that will stand him in good stead during
his mission in Chad. |
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Dr Árpád Bari: Doctor – German Red Cross 
Even though this is his first mission with the German Red Cross, this
Hungarian-born doctor has extensive humanitarian experiences in the
Philippines, Kenya, Sudan, East Timor, Zambia and Eritrea. Árpád,
51, is not only known as an 'emergency doctor'. Back home he is also
famous as a writer and painter. |
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Kornelia Roll: Nurse – German Red Cross 
Normally an intensive care unit nurse at Berlin University Hospital,
Kornelia is her second mission with the German Red Cross’s basic
health emergency response unit after the Bam earthquake operation.
This 31-year-old says working for the Red Cross gives her the opportunity
to assist victims of disasters and conflicts, as well as to interact
with people from different cultures. |
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| Former members of the team: | |
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Stefan Sturm: Team leader – German Red Cross A paramedic for his local branch of the German Red Cross, Stefan’s mission at the camp is to give his team the means to do their work in the best conditions: no small achievement in such a tough environment. Flying tents and stubborn generators are no match for him, though. |
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At 27, the youngest member of the team. Franziska works as a mental
health nurse in a community health hospital in Germany. Her first
mission for the Red Cross was earlier this year as part of the operation
to earthquake victims in Iran. Despite using part of her annual
leave to come on this mission to Chad, she is more than happy to
put her medical knowledge to good use helping the vulnerable.
Just turned 28 years old a week after his first mission in Chad,
Jan is trained in water and sanitation and IT and telecommunications.
Jan is the team’s trouble-shooter, ready to solve any water,
electrical or other technical trouble.
Originally from French-speaking Canada, Luce likes to quote a popular
saying which she learnt during her twelve years in Ethiopia working
for various organisations, including the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC): “little by little, the egg will walk
on its feet.” As head nurse in the medical centre, she does
her utmost to organise her team into an efficient unit despite the
great difficulties of the situation. 
There is hardly a place on earth where Walter has not been called
in for an emergency over the past 20 years. He has drilled wells
in Tajikistan, constructed latrines in Pakistan and piped water
in Kenya. Only just back from six months in Iran, he is in charge
of latrine construction, hygiene promotion, vector control and solid
waste disposal.
Hailing
from the Chinese special administrative region of Macao, Jenny has
crammed a lot of humanitarian missions into her 31 years. Whether
it is in India, Southern Africa, Iran or Chad, what always amuses
her more than her main task of compiling information and statistics
for donors on her laptop, is being among the beneficiaries, and
first and foremost, the children.
Twenty-nine year old Langdon has been with the Red Cross for six
years and has extensive experience of emergency situations, in particular
in southern and central America. Better known over the airwaves
as Tango Golf Zulu One, he is literally everywhere: sorting problems
in the transfer process, supervising aid distributions, consulting
the heads of the refugee community, meeting with representatives
from partner organisations.
Back home in Germany, Claus is a self-employed central heating and
energy-saving engineer. Since 1995, this 45-year-old has supported
major Red Cross emergency relief efforts in areas of logistics,
transport, and water and sanitation. Among his many talents, the
one that probably impresses his colleagues the most is his excellent
cookery skills.
Known to everyone as Heidi, this 58-year-old doctor is the most
experienced member of the Tréguine team. An anaesthetist
by profession, she has extensive experience in refugee operations
in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Chechnya. Her last mission was in
Turkey. One of the appeals of her job, she says, is the opportunity
it gives to sample different cultures.
Nothing seems to discourage Martin, 41, or deflect him from his
work. Used to working in tough environments, he has extensive experience
in public health and training of paramedics in Bolivia, Paraguay,
Rwanda and Angola.
Thomas has put his thriving private practice in southern Germany
on hold to bring his training and 20 years of medical experience
to the benefit of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
He treats up to 80 patients each day, every day, for complaints
ranging from headaches to malaria and infected body wounds.
The youngest member of the medical team, 29-year-old nurse Sandra
oversees the medical screening process, which examines up to 600
refugees a day for diseases and malnutrition. She is often seen
speeding off in a Land Cruiser to attend to an emergency at the
medical centre, but she always has a moment to entertain playful
refugee children. She also holds the key responsibility of making
sure everyone goes off to work with a water bottle.
Gauthier is most at ease writing up the experiences of the day on
the back of a 6-ton truck or in the middle of a field. All it takes
to make him happy is a notebook and a pen … and a satellite
antenna, a digital camera and a laptop computer. On his third visit
to Chad this year, his hair and sunburnt nose have puzzled generations
of Sudanese refugees. 
