'Slowly, things are getting better'

Toronto volunteers make difference in Bangladesh

Relief efforts in Bangladesh are working but there is still a lot to get done, a Toronto paramedic said yesterday from the cyclone-ravaged country.

"It's just devastating but we're making a difference," said Rahul Singh, a volunteer with Global Medic, an organization of Toronto Police officers, firefighters and paramedics who deploy a rapid response team to areas torn by natural disasters.

"Slowly, things are getting better."

The team took over a school in the region of Saud Khali, erected a field hospital in the playground and installed a water purification system that supplies water to 30,000-50,000 people a day for the first time since Cyclone Sidr swept through south Bangladesh earlier this month.

"We've been treating about 800 patients a day at the hospital," Singh said, adding that one in five are being treated for trauma. "All those people with busted bones cuts and bruises haven't been able to see anyone for treatment since the cyclone hit."

Sidr killed 3,250 people and left about a million homeless.

Food, blankets and clothes have been handed out to thousands who have nothing left, Singh said. Power tool company STIHL Canada has donated four chainsaws to help with the clearing of trees.

Global Medic also sent teams to smaller villages where they are digging wells and installing water purification systems, lowering the number of people being treated for gastro-intestinal problems, including diarrhea, he said.