Phase 1
The David McAntony Gibson Foundation, hereafter referred to as DMGF launched a relief operation to help the Central American nation of Guatemala recover massive rains following Hurricane Stan that resulted in devastating mudslides. Guatemala received heavy rainfall during the week of Oct 5-12 as a result of Hurricane Stan. The ensuing flooding and mudslides resulted in severe damage to several villages. Much of the country is flooded, roads are inaccessible, and infrastructure has been damaged. Over 900 people have been declared dead as a result of massive landslides that buried villages under 20 feet of mud, rocks and tree stumps. The official death toll will likely rise above 3000 once those missing are declared dead. More than 200,000 people have been displaced.
The region around Lake Atitlan was devastated. Entire towns were buried under the mud trapping innocent victims in their sleep. CONRED is the Guatemalan civil defense authority that is responsible for coordinating relief efforts. The Guatemalan military is the lead agency delivering aid to victims. Many roads have been washed away making access to the affected area difficult. Affected areas lack clean drinking water and electricity.
History dictates that the vast amount of civil war in Guatemala took place in the region surrounding Lake Atitlan . A thirty year civil war ended in 1996 with the signing of peace accords. The area remains relatively unstable with a high presence of firearms, high incidence of robbery, and a poorer standard of infrastructure. The indigenous Mayan population does not trust the military citing previous atrocities. There were instances in which affected populations denied military aid. As a result, CONRED opted to place the bulk of international civilian agencies in the area.
DMGF deployed a Rapid Response Team, comprised over 4 Toronto Paramedics, 2 Toronto Police Officers, and 1 water sanitation engineer. The team carried its specialty equipment including an inflatable field clinic, water purification systems, over $55,000 worth of pharmaceuticals, emergency medical equipment, and water purification tablets. Upon registering with CONRED, the team was assigned by the Ministry of Health to the region of Atitlan , specifically Santiago Atitlan. The team hired local drivers, vehicles and traveled to the affected region. The team selected a base camp in Santiago Atitlan.
Medical Relief Component
The RRT deployed its medics to assist and support roving medical teams. RRT Paramedics treated patients, assisted in the vaccination of thousands of refugees, and donated well over $55,000 worth of medicines. 5 Physician Travel Packs (PTPs) were purchased from Health Partners International Canada. An additional 1200 tubes of antifungal cream were procured locally. The medicines were distributed and dispensed to residents of Santiago Atitlan, San Marcos , Santa Katarina, and Santa Clara and the displaced residents of Pabanaj and San Lucas de Toliman. The medical team also donated some equipment and urgent care supplies to a local hospital run by an American NGO in Panabaj. Over 7500 patients can be treated with these medicines. A full pharmaceutical listing is available by referring to Appendix C.
The combined affected population of these locations is over 50,000 civilians. The medics also assisted in inoculating thousands of displaced persons against tetanus. At one point, the team was required to bring in a helicopter for a medical evacuation of a critically ill four year old child to a hospital in Guatemala City . One of our medics escorted the child on the medevac flight. The medical team also assisted the water team. The team also helped in the distribution of personal hygiene items, food, water etc by making its vehicles available to other groups working in the affected area.
Water Sanitation Component
The water team distributes Aquatabs to affected persons. The tablets disinfect dirty water and are easily portable. This provides an emergency stop gap measure to prevent illness and allow our team set up a distribution system. The team distributed enough water tablets to purify 850,000 litres of water. The affected communities that received Aquatabs included Santiago Atitlan, Panabaj, San Marcos, Saint Katarina, Santa Clara, and San Lucas de Toliman. The affected population totaled more than 50,000.
A water team member was dispatched to the isolated hamlets of San Marcos , Santa Clara and San Lucas de Toliman. The team worked with other agencies on the ground and local citizens to build gravity based biosand filtration units returning access to purified drinking water to over 15,000 civilians.
The water team set up a dispensing centre in the main town square of Santiago Atitlan . The city's normal population of 32,000 swelled to over 45,000 with an influx of displaced persons from neighbouring towns. The water purification system in the town was destroyed leaving a large population at risk to water borne diseases such as hepatitis and cholera. The dispensing centre consisted of an inflatable field command post, a large onion tank to hold lake water, two five thousand litre bladders, 3 purification units, a five thousand litre holding tank, and two dispensing units.
The team utilizes the Noah Nomad, Noah Trekker, and Pristine Water purification systems. Basically, water is filtered free of particles, run through a carbon filter, forced through a charcoal filter, and then treated with ultraviolet light to kill any remaining parasites. The team also chemically treats water with a Pristine trademarked chemical to ensure safe consumption by the population. This extra precaution is used to kill any bacteria that may be living in the dirty tanks used by displaced persons to collect their water.
Thousands of people lined up daily to collect their drinking water. The team used volunteers, mostly kids to help distribute the water. Volunteers were fed and received Canadian backpacks from World Youth Day. The team distributed an average of 25,000 litres a day and then purified several tanks in an around the area to ensure a residual of available potable water was left. The team worked closely with OXFAM and MSF and left behind available chemicals and equipment such as pumps and generators. The team disinfected and distributed a total of 160,000 litres of clean water.
Summary
The Global Medic Team's mission was quite successful. We managed to get a team on the ground quickly following the Landslides. Our team was plugged into the nerve center of operations being coordinated through CONRED which made it easier for us to deploy our resources and call in a medical evacuation helicopter. We also shared our resources, water chemicals, medical goods, medicines, and vehicles with other agencies on the ground and local officials. Our team members worked very long hours in difficult conditions and managed to achieve some very admirable results. The final results are as follows:
* Over $55,000 worth of pharmaceuticals donated
* Donated enough medication to treat over 7500 patients
* Assisted in administering thousands of tetanus shots
* Provided 1,000,010 litres of clean drinking water
* Serviced 5 affected communities and a population base of 57,000
* Restored access to clean drinking water to 15,000 civilians in 3 communities
* Total budget of under $21,200
A detailed breakdown of the expenditure list is available upon request. This financial breakdown is in Canadian funds.
Note: all locally procured items such as gas containers, generators, piping, and fittings were donated to local groups such as Oxfam, MSF, a local hospital in Pabanaj and the Santiago Atitlan Fire Department.
