Disaster Relief & Assistance

Home : What We Do : Disaster Relief & Assistance

Millennium Teams Respond to the Needs of Flood Victims
3 September, 2010

The worst monsoon rains in 80 years have poured misery onto the people of Pakistan and Northern India. We have received word from three separate teams about the work they are undertaking to help those impacted by the rains and subsequent floods. In disasters of this magnitude it is hard to know where and how to begin. So you just start where you are, doing what you can do. What follows is a brief report from each team. We will have more details as the work progresses and the teams are able to report back.

Our partners in the Gilgit-Baltistan area of Pakistan have just completed assessing the needs in the region of the Himalayan Mountains where they live and work. In three valleys they found seven villages heavily affected by the destruction of homes, infrastructure and the land itself. There are also three villages completely submerged by flood waters. Our partners estimate there are 25,000 people affected, both directly and indirectly, who will benefit from their work. They will distribute food, medicine and hold medical clinics. Working with local and international volunteers, they will also provide up to 500 insulated winter shelters.

The swollen Indus River flows into Pakistan from India. Our second team is in India’s Ladakh province. Here an estimated 400- 500 households, in roughly 34 villages need help. In this high altitude plateau, straddling the Himalyan and Karakoram mountain ranges, local and international NGOs have joined together to cover as much of the area as possible. Our team is currently concentrating their efforts in three villages. They have a medical team providing triage and basic health care. They are testing local water supplies and providing Aquatabs for water purification. In addition, they are giving emergency first response training to those who want to assist their neighbors. The need for housing is critical here as well. So this team has also begun work on supplying some of the same winter shelters for those whose homes have been washed away.

Millennium worked with these teams in the initial use of the shelters five years ago, after the 2005 earthquake that rocked northern Pakistan. At that time 6,000 shelters were set up to provide safe, temporary housing for 36,000 people. And as in that disaster, the shelters must be in place before bitter winter storms sweep through the mountains.

In southern Pakistan, one of our workers from Karachi is part of an impromptu team of five people representing different agencies. They have combined their skills in medicine, community health and administration to care for people who have been evacuated from the flooded areas. Loading up a truck (read mobile clinic) they headed out to camps in the nearby countryside. This team is moving about, setting up in areas not yet served by any medical teams. Some camps are official; others are just open areas where groups of people have gathered together in an effort to survive. Both places lack running water and electricity, and food is scarce.

In any disaster, the willingness of individuals to just ‘go and do’ can make a tremendous difference in the lives of those who are suffering in mind, body and spirit. As these selfless men and women deliver aid to the people of Pakistan and India, you can also ‘go and do’ by partnering with us, click here to give to this project.

Last Updated on Saturday, 04 September 2010 02:58

Midwives Go Above and Beyond in North Darfur
June 2010

Millennium’s Fanga Suk Public Health Community Clinic was holding around 180 clinic consultations every Wednesday prior to its suspension in mid-February due to security concerns. Wednesday is market day in Fanga Suk, making it the perfect day to hold the clinics. People from villages all over the area come into town to buy and sell goods, to meet with friends and relatives, and to receive basic health care. Woman in labor, accompanied by midwife, is transported to hospital

One market day in January, four men arrived at the clinic carrying a woman on a makeshift cot. She had been in labor for three days. Their journey took several hours over foot paths and dirt roads from their village in the mountains to our clinic, the only health care available in the area. This young woman had lost her first two children during childbirth, but this time there was a clinic to give assistance and medicine…the family was hopeful.

The weary woman was in urgent need of help. The attending midwife at our clinic quickly realized that she lacked the medicine needed to intensify the woman’s contractions and induce labor. Given the busy market day, our clinic staff was able to arrange for transportation to a hospital in El Fasher. Travelling in the back of a pickup truck for over four hours on rough dirt roads, the young woman in labor, accompanied by her relatives and the trained midwife made the hopeful trip to the hospital.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 June 2010 20:44

Health Care in North Darfur - Work Worth Doing
2009

Millennium and its partners have been in North Darfur for more than five years. It has not been easy. Resources would wax and wane and at times workers were few. All the while, like a wildfire in the dry season, the needs of the displaced, war torn people continued to grow.

To look directly at the massive task was impossible. The needs were broken down and tackled bit by bit with compassion, fortitude and ingenuity. The work continues, needs are met and communities are learning how to help themselves.

Kids in Darfur During the 4^th Quarter of 2009, our team and partners built upon on existing projects and expanded program activities to reach the largest number of beneficiaries since the program began. Here are the highlights of their quarterly report.

Overview
There are now Primary Health Care Clinics (PHCC) and/or Primary Health Units (PHU) in five different locations, serving over 157,000 people. Clinics, trainings and vaccination programs are held in and around the clinic areas. A recent USAID grant has helped tremendously with these efforts.

Reproductive and Children’s Health
A few years ago reproductive health care in this area was almost impossible to find. Trained midwives were few and far between, often only one per 100,000 people. With the inauguration of two new Primary Health Units, there is an increase in the scope and quality of reproductive health services offered in these rural areas. Each new health facility is staffed by at least one midwife, providing antenatal check-ups, delivering babies and referring complex cases to secondary-level health facilities.

The reproductive health training program, BAMA (Babies and Mothers Alive), continues to be a marked success. Groups of trained women have reported sharing course information with between 971 to 2641 women. In addition, we have sponsored a group of thirty women from different rural areas to begin a one-year training program at the El Fasher Midwifery School.

After their studies are complete, these midwives will begin to practice midwifery in their home villages. The goal of this initiative is to see significant and sustainable reductions in maternal and infant mortality in areas that have previously had no trained reproductive health care providers.

In partnership with UNICEF and the state Ministry of Health, our team implemented two EPI (Expanded Program of Immunization) campaigns in rural areas providing polio vaccinations, vitamin A and de-worming medication to children. They also distributed vitamin supplements to pregnant women.

Training the Trainers
Basic health education training was provided to an increased number of people using a new training model which extends program reach and sustainability by emphasizing community involvement. This program is instrumental in helping villagers help themselves. Every person trained becomes a catalyst for better health in their community.

Last Updated on Thursday, 25 February 2010 21:35