Dear Confreres,
We are pleased to send you the latest Press Release from Malteser International. Furthermore, I would like to remind you of the effort made by our Association under the leadership of our Hospitaller, Dr. Jose Joaquin Centurion and of our
Vice-Treasurer, Mr. Mauricio Fernandez, with the help and collaboration of our volunteer doctors and nurses.
Regards,
Juan J. Calvo
Director of Communications
Asociacion Cubana de la Orden de Malta
Press Release
11 February 2010
Haiti one
month after the quake: Malteser International sets up second
health post in Darbonne Porte-au-Prince/ Léogâne/Cologne.
Even
one month after the devastating quake, the situation here still is
far away from going back to normal, reports Beate Maass,
humanitarian coordinator of Malteser International, the relief
service of the Order of Malta for worldwide humanitarian aid, from Léogâne. In the neighbouring town of Darbonne far more than thousand
people are still without medical care. A mobile day clinic will
provide aid for these people from now on, Maass continues.
On a daily basis, Malteser International treats people suffering even
more from psychological than from physical problems. The mental
stress they had and still have to cope with is apparent. Only very
few Haitians know about the facts relating to an earthquake. The
majority implicate a voodoo daemon in such kind of disaster. In
Léogâne, this belief is widespread as the voodoo temple is the only building that was not destroyed. The survivors of the quake are
therefore grateful for all explanations of the facts responsible
for an earthquake.
Since 15 January the Malteser International
team consisting of doctors, nurses, public health experts,
logisticians and further emergency relief experts has been working
in the crisis region. In the beginning, relief activities
concentrated on first aid and medical care of the patients coming to the partly destroyed hospital “Francois de Sales” in Port-au-Prince
and the participation in UN assessments of further hospitals in
Haiti’s capital.
In the town of Léogâne which is situated to the
west of Port-au-Prince and close to the epicentre of the quake,
90% of the buildings have been destroyed. Here, the Malteser
International medical team has set up a health post for basic
medical care including obstetrical care. With two emergency health kits including antibiotics, medical drugs and dressing material, Malteser International can assure basic medical assistance for
20,000 people for a period of three months. The medical unit
sponsored by the company EADS provides an important basis for a
long-term assistance for the people in Léogâne, Maass reports.
The medical doctors are grateful for the good working conditions
in this medical unit.
Press Release #2
Earthquake Haiti:
First Malteser International team on its way - Further teams on stand-by
January
14, 2010
Port au Prince/Duesseldorf/Cologne. The medical team
headed by Malteser International emergency relief coordinator Dr. Georg
Nothelle has left Duesseldorf airport via New York for Haiti today – 14
January - at 12.10 am. The scheduled route via Paris was cancelled at
short notice due to a strike of the local air controllers. Nothelle is
accompanied by two emergency doctors and anaesthetists and the head of
the emergency rescue services of Malteser Germany. In Haiti the team
will be strengthened by two medical experts of Malteser France as well
as by two members of the US-associations of the Order of Malta.
In Santo Domingo the
international team will be received by the Ambassador of the Order of
Malta to Haiti and accompanied on its way to Port-au-Prince. Upon
arrival in Haiti it will be the first taske of the team to collect
information and coordinate its relief measures with the other relief
organisations on the ground. And - of course - the team will immediately
start to provide first aid and medical assistance. The mission of this
first team is scheduled for one week; further teams are on stand-by.
In
addition, the emergency relief activities will also be backed by a
hospital in the north of Haiti that has been supported by the Order of
Malta for years. The hospital provides 64 beds and has a
children’s ward, a maternity unit, an outpatient department and a modern
laboratory; it is the only hospital in the region.
According
to present estimations, the death toll is at tens of thousands of
people and the total number of people affected by the earthquake at up
to three million. Due to the bad infrastructure experts fear a breakout
of epidemics and infections - the disaster beyond the disaster.
Press Release #1
Haiti: Malteser
International responds to devastating earthquake
Medical team will leave for
emergency relief in the disaster region
January 13, 2010
Port au
Prince/Cologne. – „Due to the soil erosion, our capital lacks a solid
basement. The slums that were built on the hills were completely slipped
off within the mudslides”, reports Eduard Aimé from Haiti. “Even the
most solid buildings like the presidential palace, ministries or the
cathedral were severely damaged”, Aimé continues.
At
present, Malteser International is preparing the deployment of a
medical team consisting of medical doctors and further medical experts
from Germany and France in order to support local Malteser teams on the
ground. “The colleagues in Haiti know very well that basic medical care
and the provision of clean drinking water are matters of top priority
now”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International,
explains. The emergency relief of Malteser International is coordinated
within the worldwide international network of the Order of Malta.
For
about 15 years already, the Order of Malta has been supporting a
hospital in the north of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western
hemisphere. The hospital provides 64 beds and has a children’s ward, a
maternity unit, an outpatient department and a modern laboratory; it is
the only hospital in the region.
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake
struck Haiti in the late evening on Tuesday, 12 January. According to
the latest reports possibly hundreds of people were killed and thousands
were injured and are homeless. The quake destroyed an unknown number of
buildings and homes and caused significant damage to the
infrastructure, roads and the communication system.
Attention editors: Ingo Radtke,
Secretary General of Malteser International, is available for
interviews. (Contact: +49 221 98 22 – 155 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 221 98 22 – 155 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 221 98 22 – 155 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 221 98 22 – 155 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 221 98 22 – 155 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 221 98 22 – 155 end_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting)
Malteser
International is the worldwide relief agency of the Sovereign Order of
Malta for humanitarian aid. The organisation provides aid in about 200
projects in more than 20 countries without distinction of religion, race
or political persuasion. Christian values and the humanitarian
principles of impartiality and independence are the foundation of its
work. For further information: www.malteser-international.org and www.orderofmalta.org
With best
regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Petra Ipp-Zavazal
Senior
Desk Officer International Communications/
Referentin
Internationale Kommunikation
Malteser Hilfsdienst e. V.
Malteser
International
Kalker Hauptstr. 22-24, 51 103 Köln
Telefon +49 (0)
221 9822-155 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 (0) 221 9822-155 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 (0) 221 9822-155 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 (0) 221 9822-155 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 (0) 221 9822-155 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +49 (0) 221 9822-155 end_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Telefax +49 (0) 221 9822-179
eMail Petra.Ipp@malteser-international.org
Web www.malteser-international.org, www.malteser-spenden.de
Malteser
Hilfsdienst e. V., Sitz: Köln, AG Köln VR 4726
Geschäftsführender
Vorstand:
Johannes Frhr. Heereman, Dr. Elmar Pankau,
Georg Schnelle
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