AMDA Japan Tohoku Tsunami March 2011. Activity Report. 7 May 2011

(2011-05-06)

Overview:

Mar. 11: In response to the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck the northeast of Japan, AMDA decided to dispatch its first emergency relief team.

Mar. 12: AMDA team left for severely hit Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture and started to deliver medical assistance.

Mar. 15: While part of the team remained in Miyagi, the rest relocated to Kamaishi City and Ohtsuchicho in Iwate Pref. and initiated relief work.

Mar. 19: In response to the request from the worst hit Minamisanriki-cho (Miyagi), AMDA dispatched its relief team to provide medical relief.

Mar. 21: The work in Sendai (Miyagi) was completed (transferred to a local body.)

Mar. 31: The work in Kamaishi (Iwate) was completed (transferred to a local doctors¡Ç association.)

Apr. 20: The work in Minamisanriku-cho (Miyagi) and Ohtsuchicho (Iwate) were completed. While the activities were handed over to local bodies, services such as acupuncture therapy and health assistance have been continued.



Total number of AMDA's relief personnel (as of Apr. 26th): 148

51 doctors, 33 nurses, 4 midwives, 2 assistant nurses, 3 pharmacists, 2 psychotherapists, 49 coordinators, 2 careworkers, 2 acupuncture therapists



Besides direct medical assistance, AMDA responded to various local needs such as setting up a playroom for children in the evacuation shelters, holding recreational events and nutrition programs as well as providing meals.

In line with the dispatch of medical teams, AMDA sent aid supplies using the hearty funds from its donors all around the world. The relief goods were prepared in response to the request from the local teams and were delivered seven times in total using a chartered-truck. Commercial delivery services were also used after they resumed their regular operations in the devastated regions. The goods included medical supplies, medical devices (electrocardiogram and ultrasound machines), food supplies (rice, vegetables), daily life goods, bicycles, stationery and appliances (washing machines, computers, batter chargers etc.)



The daily operations at the activity sites:

While AMDA teams were stationed at evacuation centers, the teams delivered mobile clinic services to homes and smaller (remote) evacuation shelters in the respective regions. There were far more numbers of patients with stress- related ailments and chronic diseases than those that needed surgical treatments.



Due to the stagnant recovery of lifelines, sanitary conditions got worsened which later developed into the outbreak of norovirus. However, various counter measures such as isolation of infected individuals, thorough sanitization efforts and awareness promotion have succeeded in halting the spread of the disease.

In addition, AMDA sent psychiatrists to help the evacuees that were fatigued both physically and mentally from prolonged evacuation life, and extended a helping hand to those who had been suffering from mental illnesses.

Besides incorporating acupuncture therapy in its services, AMDA also distributed life goods upon mobile clinic services.

In securing the privacy among evacuees in the shelters, AMDA provided partitions for each household, and also sent a medical trailer equipped with individual compartments.



Further scope of assistance:

In line with the recovery of local healthcare systems, AMDA will extend its assistance in the rehabilitation phase. In addition to ongoing acupuncture treatments and health support measures, AMDA will contribute to the rebuilding of local hospitals/medical institutions and provide medical personnel if needed.

AMDA has also set up a three-year scholarship program, starting this year, to back up high school students in the regions (Kamaishi High School, Ohtsuchi High School, Shizugawa High School) who wish to work in the medical field in the future.

Furthermore, a plan is underway for this summer to hold a sport-exchange event, inviting junior high school students from disaster areas to Okayama (home to AMDA). The event hopes to promote mutual understanding and friendship between students from Okayama and those from disaster areas who persevered the hardship.

Volset Uganda: Memorial for Deen

Japan fundraiser Vancouver: April 28th ..

'Hands up for Africa' welcomed as new RC Canada member project

A big welcome to the wonderful 'Hands up for Africa Group' and their projects in Kenya. The projects are in a education, clean water, agriculture and orphanage in an impoverished  community S.W. of Nairobi. (Kadjiado) Hands up for Africa and Rose Charities are natural partners as both focus on ground level cost effective help to communities with zero administration costs.   Hands up for Africa, join an expanding Rose Charities African group of member projects, currently including sites in Uganda, Rwanda, Madagascar, Zambia  and Kenya.

CanCham grants Rose Charities Vietnam $15,000 to continue work in Hue

CanCham - the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam has generously granted Rose Charities Vietnam $15000 to continue its work in Hue.(images) . Rose Vietnam has established a school for blind adults in Hue with braille computers and a micro-enterprise (commercial laundry) to help fund it. Rose Vietnam also supports mobile cataract surgeries in rural areas,education, scholarships for poor students and food and other basic necessities to orphanage.
Rose Charities Vietnam is very grateful for the donation which will be utilizes, in the usual Rose way, without administration costs. 

Mannequins Haiti...

Kind words from Haiti... 

"  I just wanted to share a picture with you that I thought you may like.  I paid a short visit to Mme Nazaire last week to drop off some articles for her.  She was most delighted to show me the donations from Rose Charities that had arrived at the school and of which they were busily inventorying and unpacking.  She was so thrilled with the mannequins and in fact had already used some of them in her classes.  She went to one of the boxes and opened it up to show me one of them.  Attached is a picture of her showing "off" the mannequin.  I also saw a number of french text books in another box...what a boon that is to have them in French. I know Mme Nazaire gets offered a lot of nursing books but most of them are older versions and also in English.  Hopefully this little feedback will give you encouragement to keep up with your efforts.  Sometimes change takes a long time, but little by little it comes about.  Your contributions to the school will certainly help that change take place." 

Warm regards,

Director Haiti Operations

Village of Hope - Lazarus Project

www.villageofhopehaiti.org

Blog from Jess (Volunteer Rose Charities Feb 2011)

Cambodia

During a brief study abroad in 2005, I toured a clinic operated by RoseCharities in Phnom Penh and was impressed by the efficiency and dedication of the medical workers there. In fact, this was the clinic that first sparked my interest in becoming a doctor. It was one of the few NGOs my class visited that offered both immediate and long-term relief to people struggling through the effects of poverty: immediate relief through life-saving medical procedures that would have been otherwise impossible for the clinic's patients, and long-term benefits through community outreach programs and an emphasis on improving the quality of life in Cambodia.

Even in the few short weeks we spent in Cambodia studying aid organizations, it was easy to become discouraged by the waste, and sometimes obvious corruption, that plagued well-intentioned charities, but the Rose Clinic seemed to stretch every dollar it received. As I saw firsthand in 2005, a $20 donation to RoseCharities can restore a person's sight, and $50 can repair a cleft palate or give a child the ability to walk. For more information on how to donate to RoseCharities, please see http://www.rosecharities.info/donate.htm.

The organization's efficiency can be traced to its formation, as outlined on the RoseCharities homepage:

"Founded by aid workers who were disillusioned by the waste and bureaucracy often seen in international aid, we started in Cambodia in 1998. The aim was to deliver effective, sustainable programmes directly to those in need, with minimal bureaucracy, and with transparency at every stage....We are run by volunteers, so administration costs are kept to a bare minimum, with 98% of donations going directly to support our work."

- RoseCharities
http://www.rosecharities.info/

I contacted Rose last October and asked if they'd be willing to take us in for a few weeks as volunteers, and they graciously agreed. Since then, Bill and Jan Johnston have been bending over backwards to find opportunities to put our random interests and talents to work. We started last Wednesday with a short tour of the gynecology ward in the Chey Chumnas General Hospital in Takmao, the hospital where Rose Cambodia is based. That afternoon we helped enter patient files into the computer (data entry is a rare example of a skill that Danielle and I both possess).

Thursday we traveled to the countryside with Sokny, the physical therapist on staff at the Rose office, to work with a woman who had laid in bed for 30 years after a debilitating bout with encephalitis (for more info visit the Rose Rehab page: http://www.rosecambodia.org/?page_id=12). The physical therapists at Rose have been working with her to help her gain the strength to sit up, and in order to get her hands moving Danielle brought a bunch of art supplies. We made simple shapes for her to paint in, and Danielle taught her a few strokes. Danielle and I were so absorbed in watching her work that it took a while to notice the dozen or so kids from the village in a semicircle around her, jealously watching her paint. It was a great visit. As we left, Danielle hung some of her paintings next to her bed with ribbon.



On the way back to the office, we stopped to visit a woman who had been badly burned on her legs by gasoline, and the physical therapists changed a bandage for her. Apparently a skin graft had failed to take, so there was still a gaping wound behind her left knee months after the accident. While we were visiting her, her neighbors brought another potential patient to see the therapists and placed him on the bed next to her. The man had been in a motorcycle accident and could no longer move the left side of his arm. The physical therapists assessed him and made an appointment to see him later at the clinic.

As we were about to leave, the neighbors convinced the therapists to see a woman next door who was having trouble walking. While the physical therapists did their thing, Danielle and I hung back and smiled shyly at some very friendly older women, who seemed to be staring at us. One of them started talking, half at us and half at the women around her. She then started wiping at her nose, as if to inform me that I powdered sugar on the end of mine, so I self-consciously started doing the same but she just laughed. One of the therapists translated, "She wants your nose." This seemed hysterical at the time, so Danielle and I giggled about it for a while.

After the therapists had finished their work we got back in the tuk tuk, but before we could go there was some kind of commotion. The lady who couldn't stop looking at my nose jumped into the tuk tuk and handed us each a coconut and a straw. We very gratefully accepted and drove off.


We made one last stop to see a beautiful young girl who was working with the therapists to build the strength in her arms and legs, and then we took a holiday all weekend (2 working days is long enough...)

Today Bill gave us a tour of the Rose Eye Clinic just outside Phnom Penh in the morning, and Danielle and I returned in the afternoon to observe glaucoma surgeries. We watched for 2 and a half hours as nearly a dozen patients underwent the 20-30 minute procedure. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

I may move to Cambodia when I'm a doctor just so I can operate in flip flops

More to come on what we've been doing with our play time in this wonderful country.

Posted by Jess at 2/21/2011