Global Medic is a Non government aid organization that delivers emergency aid to those affected by natural disasters and complex emergencies.
Pakistan
In the wake of a devastating earthquake over half of the buildings in the capital city Muzaffarabad in the Pakistan controlled state of Kashmir have been destroyed. Some of the towns villages in higher altitude lying areas have been completely wiped out. The destruction killed over 80000 and has left over 3 million displaced persons.
EMS in Cambodia
Driving into Cambodia is kind of like playing a bizarre video game. Ubiquitous Toyota Camrys scramble past ox powered wagons and peculiar vehicles that look like primitive rail-dragsters. Red iron dust from the roads blankets everything. A white knuckled obstacle course that would give any mother nightmares. Travel in remote parts of Cambodia can be to some, an adventure, while to the faint of heart it’s just plain scary. It’s not uncommon to hear travelers tell their harrowing tales of being catapulted out of an over packed vehicle in some comedic tragedy. However, Cambodia is not a place where one wants to be in need of medical attention.
Nicknamed, “The heart of darkness”, Cambodia during 1975 to 1978 was brought to it’s knees. Under the rule of Pol Pot, leader of the ultra-extreme Marxist group the Khmer Rouge, two million people were brutally killed in a mass genocide. As a result Cambodia has become one of the poorest countries in the world.
Today, a Cambodian doctor working for a provincial hospital earns $30 a month. Under staffed and under resourced, hospitals clearly lack quality patient care. Most Cambodians are unable to afford any medical care. However, there are a few glimmers of hope from a handful of international non-government organizations, (NGO). Such is the case with the Angkor hospital for children in Siem Reap. The third largest and the fastest growing city in Cambodia, Siem Reap is located 8 km’s from one of the greatest man made wonders of the world, Angkor Wat.
Celebrated Japanese photographer Kenro Izu has made frequent trips photographing the Angkor temples. Heavy hearted by his encounters with sick, malnourished and disabled children Izu committed himself to building a pediatric hospital near the site of the ancient temple, bringing desperately needed healthcare to the surrounding area.
The Angkor hospital for children survives on the generosity of others through financial and medical donations. Doctors and nurses represented from an international community generously donate their much-needed time. “Basically, Cambodian doctors are not strong enough to take care of patients as well as western doctors,” says Mr. Nheak Samniang Reachsey, logistic manager for Friends without a Border (the foundation for the Angkor hospital for children) responding to the skill level of the average Cambodian doctor. “Cambodia is a very poor country with just a little bit of education. We are delighted to have foreigners come and work at the hospital for short and long periods. We gain a lot of experience from having western doctors and nurses come here.” Mr. Reachsey feels it would be better to have the Cambodian people rebuild their country, but acknowledges that his countrymen lack the necessary training and resources to do so.
Like so many other travelers going through this country Rahul Singh was deeply impacted by the hardships people face everyday. “ A number of years ago I came through Cambodia as a backpacker. Lost in my own life, looking for a few answers, I found myself in this country surrounded by people who had absolutely nothing. As a global citizen how can you not help your fellow man?” Unlike so many other travelers Rahul used his abilities as a paramedic to help make a difference. Representing the front line of the Toronto Emergency Medical Services, he is the founder and director of Global Medics, the operational arm of the David McAnthony Gibson Foundation (DMGF) established in 1998, for the purpose of the procurement of equipment, medicine, supplies, and funding the delivery of training packages. The DMGF strengthens the distribution of emergency medical services in developing countries. Also, Global Medics operates as a disaster assistance relief team (DART), providing emergency relief services and supplies to victims of man made and natural disasters around the world. “If you’re a doctor and you can save people with that skill set, that’s your obligation as a human being to do that. I’m not a doctor, I’m a paramedic with pretty good organizational and logistical skills, that’s why I do this.”
The Global Medics team is made up of like-minded people. All of who volunteer their time loading donations and assisting in fundraising efforts to pay for shipping costs. Volunteers are responsible for the accruement of all the individuals’ costs, including airfare and accommodations. On its fourth mission into Cambodia the Global Medics team for the first time is represented by members of the Toronto Police force, Toronto Fire Fighters, a Doctor, a Physiotherapist as well as the continued support of an international Paramedic community. Jackie Hood, one of three police officers to join the Global Medic team, says, “ I always wanted to do something like this. I always wanted to travel to this part of the world. It was a perfect opportunity.”
Rahul and his team are responding to a grave situation by delivering medical supplies, including hospital beds, to three hospitals in the Siem Reap province and one landmine hospital in the Battambang province. “Patients that would survive in Canada from moderate and serious injuries routinely succumb to the injuries in Cambodia. Fractures lead to disfigurations, infections, and sometimes death. Burns are common and many children succumb to septic shock. This is due to the lengthy travel times and exposures to toxins and dirt while being transported without any initial care.” They are also donating computers and textbooks to three different schools, along with 40,000 pounds of rice and 300,000 nutritional supplements being donated to both the schools and the hospitals. Rahul proudly points out that there are no administration costs with Global Medics. All donations go directly into program costs such as shipping and transportation of supplies.
The logistics in bringing large amounts of aid to Cambodia can be extremely arduous. As the team found out, conditions are unreliable. Even with the meticulous planning there can never be an exact measurement of how long the bureaucratic red tape will be.
With the help of a newly formed NGO working with street children in Siem Reap, the team puts together a small clinic in two days. Pooling their own money, they purchased the necessary supplies and put the word out to children living in the streets “On this day you come to this place, you will get fed.” We bribed them with the food says Rahul. “ Sixty to seventy kids showed up. We fed everybody and all the kids that were there we treated medically. Some kids need stitches to be taken out. Other kids had cuts; a lot of kids had scabies. All kinds of basic things that we could get done. So what does it show the kids? It shows that someone cares and at the very least we get to feed a bunch of hungry people.”
A result of decades of war, Cambodia has over 25,000 amputees from landmines, the highest ratio per capita in the world. Most of these casualties have been from civilians working in villages in the northwestern provinces, which previously had been the most populated and most agriculturally productive part of the country. Many, now unable to work, are forced into the cities for a lifetime of begging. “ Everyone who you see begging in the streets, do not want to be doing this. But what can they do?” Sem Sovantha asks the question. A former Captain it the army, who lost both of his legs from a landmine in 1990. Unable to survive on his disability pension of fifty cents a day, he was forced to live on the streets and beg to support his family of eight. Determined to stop begging Sem found a way to put himself through school. Eventually Sem found a job with a NGO helping other disabled people in Cambodia. This led Sem to founding the Angkor Association for the Disabled (AAD). Sem now makes a fair living riding his uniquely modified wheelchair through the tourist areas of Siem Reap, selling books and postcards.
Sem is a rare exception; the majority of disabled beggars get caught in a vicious cycle of begging. Stripped of their dignity, they are unable to provide for their families. Many of their children forgo a childhood and are forced into the same despair. The streets of Siem Reap are swarming with desperate people living on the streets looking for help. Many of the street kids find their escape in the bottom of a plastic bag, sniffing glue. While others are sold or forced into child prostitution, prayed upon by the growing number of sex tourists. “Everyday I learn a little bit more about the poverty that is so very prevalent in this country. Seeing the people in their houses beside the road, how they live, that’s real poverty. It’s the kind of thing that’s hard to imagine. I can’t imagine that to be all you know. That to be your life and your perceivable future.” Says Adina Kaufman, a Toronto firefighter who came on the mission in part to share her skills with the local airport fire department.
Since 1998, Global Medic has trained more than 300 rescuers in Cambodia, including doctors, nurses and landmine clearance personnel, as paramedics. Robert Selfridge, a fifteen-year veteran with Toronto EMS, is in charge of the 2005 training aspect of the mission, which is directed to build on and improve EMS with local airport emergency services personnel. “Our training program is designed to build on what we had previously given to them in 2003, which was essentially a first responder type program.” The goal was to take it a little further with trauma management, burn management and triage. Also a mass casualty exercise, in which many of the team enthusiastically played casualties of an airplane crash. Every April they have a mass casualties exercise, involving up to four hundred with sixty casualties. “One of the problems they have identified is prioritizing patients. How to get them off the field quickly and who gets to go to the hospital first.” Along with the training the airport Fire Department received a dozen complete self-contained breathing apparatuses (SBA). Which far exceeded anything they had prior. The local Fire Fighters were over joyed with the gifts and training, showing their appreciation to Adina and the rest of the team for their generous time, with smiles, t-shirts and many a warm thank-you. “ This is why I came here. If I wanted to be a tourist I wouldn’t be here with this group. I’m excited to have the chance to really interact with the people of this country.”
One of the first anticipated items to be unloaded from the container was a polyvinyl tent, which would be stretched over a metal skeleton creating a mini clinic. Designed to be the prototype for a low cost functional clinic and if successful, the first of many. In the village of Prahm Roui Rieo ten thousand people have no access to medical care. The provincial ministry of health has identified ten to twelve villages in the province of Siem Reap that need clinics. Permission from the village chief of Prahm Roui Rieo was given to use land next to the community center as the test site.“ This is an excellent opportunity for the province to have a temporary clinic Yet still puts the owness on them to build clinics.” Rahul doesn’t want to let the ministry off the hook from building permanent structures, but hopes to buy them a little time, and bring relief to the area in the meantime. The structure is a, “three thousand dollar solution.” On top of a poured concrete floor the structure has a twenty-year lifespan and can withstand a category two hurricane. In the past if anyone got sick in Prahm Roui Rieo they were forced to ride on the back of a moto to the nearest hospital in Siem Reap. Outfitted with beds and medical supplies now the clinic will be locally staffed by the Ministry of Health. “If people need to go to a hospital they still need to go to a hospital. This clinic will help prevent people from getting so sick that they have to get to a hospital.” Dozens of inquisitive little children watch as some of their own parents, in a combined effort with the Global Medics team, erect a potentially lifesaving clinic. “You look at Cambodia and its tragic past. Thirty years ago this site was used to determine who lived and died. A clinic like this is going to keep kids healthy and give Cambodia a really strong future.”
After three weeks the team dismantles and heads in separate directions. Some continue the Khmer adventure heading up along the Mekong River to more remote parts of the country. For others its time to relax and reflect under the warm sun, heading to white sand beaches and warm turquoise waters in the Gulf of Thailand. But for most its time to head home, braving the cold of a Canadian winter… Their time in Cambodia gone by much too fast, but they go home having made an indelible imprint on the souls of the people they have encountered in a country that always returns a smile.
