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DIALOGUE
In this section:
First Person
Mission of the Month: Vietnam
Notes from Natsios
FIRST PERSON
Rokhaya Ngom
Head midwife at the Kebemer District Health Center in central
Senegal.
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Head midwife at the Kebemer District Health Center
in central Senegal.
Matar Camara, USAID/Senegal |
“We used to try to resuscitate newborns with our
mouths. We’d get blood in our mouths, and we’d almost
always lose the babies. But since we’ve had the resuscitation
equipment, we haven’t lost any babies born asphyxiated.”
More than one-fourth of all child deaths in Senegal occur
during the first month of life, spurring USAID to help the
Senegalese Ministry of Health develop and test a program aiming
to improve newborn care in the rural District of Kebemer.
The project equipped six rural health facilities for newborn
care and trained 329 community healthcare workers in essential
newborn care. Since nearly half of babies in Kebemer are born
at home, the community healthcare providers were also trained
to promote better care for newborns at the village level through
mass media and mobilization of community groups, including
husbands, mothers-in-law, and religious leaders. Local radio
stations advised women to deliver at a health facility and
broadcast key survival messages about the need to keep the
baby warm, delay the first bath, breastfeed within an hour
of birth, and visit the health facility immediately when they
notice danger signs. Three quarters of women in this district
now give birth in a health facility. This project is being
extended to seven new districts this year.
MISSION OF THE MONTH
Indonesia
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U.S. Navy personnel load a helicopter with relief supplies
in Indonesia.
AP/World Wide Photos |
The Challenge
On December 26, 2004, a quiet holiday season turned into
one of the world’s most horrifying disasters when an
undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, triggered
giant tsunami waves that swept away entire villages in Aceh,
permanently changing the coastline and the lives of hundreds
of thousands.
With over 120,000 killed and over a half a million left
displaced and traumatized by the disaster, Indonesia was hardest
hit by the tsunami.
Innovative USAID Response
Within hours, USAID began to deliver emergency relief assistance
and supplies.
“I thought it was going to be a quiet holiday week,”
said Mission Director William M. Frej. “Instead, we were
mobilizing an unprecedented relief effort in coordination
with the Indonesia Red Cross, the International Organization
for Migration (IOM), and the Indonesian military to deliver
emergency assistance and relief supplies, such as food, water,
medical supplies, and services to those affected.”
Because of a long insurgency in Aceh prior to the earthquake,
international organizations were not allowed into the province
without permission from the Indonesian government. One of
the few organizations working in Aceh was the IOM, which has
long worked with USAID in many countries.
Through a network of local staff in every district, IOM
maintained a strong relationship with provincial officials.
As a result, IOM moved tons of relief supplies into Aceh province
immediately on truck convoys from Medan, and USAID staff were
on the ground assisting in the distribution of relief supplies
and coordinating the massive multinational relief effort.
Within days, the U.S. response rapidly grew to include the
U.S. military and a host of USAID partners, such as Save the
Children, CARE, Mercy Corps, International Medical Corps,
Development Alternatives Inc., World Vision, and International
Relief and Development. USAID provided immediate lifesaving
action with the distribution of food, clean water, hygiene
kits, and shelter materials and the provision of emergency
healthcare, avoiding disease outbreaks and unnecessary death.
Cooperation between the civilian aid agencies and the military
was critical to the success of one of the biggest emergency
humanitarian relief operations in history. The U.S. military
supported USAID’s delivery of assistance and the evacuation
of severely injured survivors via helicopters and landing
craft.
The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its five-ship battle
group arrived off the coast of Sumatra within four days of
the earthquake and tsunami, and it has rushed food, water,
and medicine to towns and villages along the battered coast
every day since then. Over 3 million pounds of materials,
including water, medical supplies, and food, have been delivered
to tsunami survivors by the U.S. military alone.
While the emergency needs of over half a million displaced
people were being met, USAID also began planning for the transition
from emergency relief to reconstruction. Projects that provided
cash-for-work to clear debris, repair roads, and supply water
helped families begin to rebuild their lives by engaging them
in productive activity in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
Given the grief and trauma brought on by the deaths of family
members and the loss of normal community support networks,
psychosocial assistance is being provided for those affected
by the disaster, especially children.
USAID is looking at both the short-term and long-term rehabilitation
and reconstruction priorities. Short-term priorities place
emphasis on getting people back to work and focusing energies
and resources on immediate improvements in community-level
services (such as water and sanitation, health, and education)
for internally displaced persons and tsunami-affected communities.
Long-term priorities focus on essential infrastructure, from
roads and schools to loans for farmers and businesses.
Currently there are 144 staff members in Indonesia, and
80 are involved in relief. According to Deputy Assistant Administrator
Mark Ward, more Agency staff will be sent to tackle the long-term
reconstruction.
As of Jan. 25, the U.S. government had spent $37 million
on relief in Indonesia.
NOTES FROM NATSIOS
One of the largest humanitarian responses in history is underway,
with the full collaboration of our staff and that of the departments
of State, Defense, and other federal agencies.
It began for me as I returned home from church Sunday, December
26, and was informed that the tsunami had occurred and that
steps were already being taken to respond to the catastrophe.
USAID mobilized Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs)
and mission staff in the affected countries. Soon thereafter,
approximately 50 DART members and more than 100 USAID employees
in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand began conducting
assessments of affected areas, participating in coordination
of relief and reconstruction activities, appraising funding
requests, and recommending appropriate U.S. government relief
efforts. Simultaneously, we established our 24-hour Response
Management Team in Washington as the point of contact for
information regarding relief efforts, and as a backstop to
our field staff.
I was asked to accompany Secretary of State Colin Powell
and Florida Governor Jeb Bush to assess the damage in affected
areas and to coordinate the U.S. government response. Secretary
Powell said that he had never seen such devastation in his
entire military career. I can second that observation. During
my career in humanitarian aid, I also have never seen such
devastation.
USAID was able to bring to bear more than 40 years of experience
in dealing with disasters. Our response to this one was particularly
swift and innovative. We have set up a Tsunami Task Force,
chaired by the Deputy Administrator, with deputy chairs from
both the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian
Assistance and the Bureau for Asia and the Near East. This
dual-bureau management structure has never been used before,
but it is proving to be highly effective.
In another first, in order to make the transition from humanitarian
response to reconstruction as smooth as possible, we are using
funds from our disaster account to begin reconstruction activities.
Our tsunami response has demonstrated the success of major
policy and organizational changes at USAID that have been
implemented over the last several years. Our goal is to have
the capability to carry out relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction
simultaneously.
We no longer look at the process of disaster response and
recovery as a series of discrete tasks to be undertaken by
discrete organizations following a linear timetable. Instead,
we view it as a simultaneous process, where at every stage
we are addressing both short-term needs and long-term objectives.
A good example is in Sri Lanka, where we began microcredit
and cash-for-work programs even as we were still providing
relief assistance.
Compassion is at the very core of what USAID stands for.
By giving the citizens of emerging nations a helping hand
as they work to improve their societies and economies, we
show the world the meaning of the American spirit.
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