Toronto Star Article:
Cleaning wells and renewing lives
Thousands treated in crowded, unclean, makeshift camps
`Nandri (thank you) Canada' refrain heard by T.O. paramedic
RAHUL SINGH
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Rahul Singh, 34, a Toronto paramedic, is one of several members of a volunteer health team responding to the tsunami disaster at their own expense. Singh founded the David McAntony Gibson Foundation seven years ago to provide medical help to developing countries. In this journal, he describes the team's experiences.
BATICOLOA, Sri Lanka—Two hundred thousand people lost their homes in this district. They were the lucky ones. More than 3,500 people perished and that number will only rise as the more than 1,500 missing are either found or declared dead.
Sixty-eight makeshift camps hold the refugees. Camp workers dole out food rations of rice with some peppers twice a day. Refugees return to their tents or makeshift homes while contemplating their future.
Day after day, our medical teams tour 15 of the camps in a co-ordinated effort to ensure that all of the affected get aid. Our goal is to ignore the politics and ensure that all people regardless of race or religion get the help they need. We treat Hindu Tamils, Christian Tamils, Buddhist Sinhalese and Muslim refugees. More than 4,000 patients receive care.
Carl Rotmann is a slick young urban paramedic from Toronto. He has volunteered his time to help the people of Sri Lanka. Methodically, he assesses patients and treats their ailments. Often he refers to the team doctor or his co-workers. Occasionally he sneaks a peek into his Palm Pilot for a further medical diagnosis. The technology clash is striking.
David Hutcheon is a throwback to an older generation. He, too, is a Toronto paramedic. A 22-year veteran. Nothing on the streets in Toronto fazes him.
He has held hands with the dying, delivered children on the highway and fought personal losses. Dave is a fish out of water in the refugee camps.
The experience is overwhelming. I watch him take a deep breath and reach inside himself.
The camps are crowded and not clean. Respiratory infections, gastrointestinal infections and skin diseases are common. People with chronic ailments such as hypertension have lost their medication. They live under the constant threat of cholera and E. coli outbreaks.
The government has plans to relocate people into larger, more organized camps with better sanitation and access. These camps are being built. They will be mega-camps. As families return home or start new lives, these camps will become new towns. Strategic planning sessions ensure that these camps are built 500 metres away from the seashore to avoid a repeat of this catastrophe.
Our team builds a clinic in the newly formed village of Sakkuday. It will be used by local health-care workers to care for the new village and its inhabitants. We seek the help of settlers and land-mine clearance personnel to build the structure.
This helps build a greater sense of community. The men and women who build this clinic will know they have helped forge their own community.
Empowerment is a strong word. When disaster strikes, people want to rebuild.
It helps them to cope with their loss and look toward a new goal.
Victor Menkal, our water sanitation engineer, is elbow deep in dirty wells in the village of Kallady. He literally grabs five local villagers and teaches them how to clean a well. We provide sludge pumps, generator, water pumps and water purification chemicals. They move on to another well. The curious join in and the group grows.
Well after well, the team grows and eventually forms smaller teams. They clean their own wells for their families. Heads of families demand their sons work with us to clean their neighbours' wells. Soon we are operating at a five-team capacity, each team cleaning 16 wells a day. The water engineer performs quality assurance checks. More equipment and chemicals are needed.
We source these locally.
Within a week, 480 wells are clean. We hire a local businessman named Krishna to carry on our work and co-ordinate the cleaning. The wells are prioritized in order to get the maximum benefit. Communal village wells are the first priority, followed by temple wells, then private wells. No one is denying their neighbour access to their cleaned water.
Victor almost cries when he sees a local family staring in amazement at their newly cleaned well. "Nandri, Canada" is a phrase he'll never forget.
(Nandri is the Tamil word for thank you).