Foto in F final: AmeriCares workers load emergency relief supplies for transit. Photo provided by AmeriCares.
AmeriCares, the Stamford-based global-response nonprofit, has mustered major efforts to help victims of war in Syria and natural disaster on the island nation of Fiji.
AmeriCares has an emergency response team en route to Fiji to help with the recovery from Cyclone Winston. The category 5 storm ”“ the strongest on record in the Southern Hemisphere ”“ made landfall in Fiji on Feb. 20, leaving a path of flattened homes and downed power lines.
AmeriCares said six people are confirmed dead on Fiji and 80 percent of the island is without power. Fiji”™s government has declared a month-long state of natural disaster to recover from what AmeriCares termed a “catastrophic cyclone.”
Besides its response team, AmeriCares reported it has 5,000 pounds of medical and relief supplies prepared and ready to be shipped to Fiji. AmeriCares stocks emergency medicines and relief supplies in its warehouses in the U.S., Europe and India.
“The full extent of the damage is still unknown, but given the severity of the storm we are very concerned about the health and safety of survivors,” said AmeriCares Vice President of Emergency Response Garrett Ingoglia. “We have a team on the way and aid shipments ready to go.”
Two major hospitals in Fiji have reported damage, including a hospital in the capital city where labor and delivery rooms, the intensive care unit and an operating room were flooded. Part of the roof of another hospital was blown off, forcing patients to be relocated, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
AmeriCares also has more than $3 million in medicine on the way to help children and families in Syria. The shipments ”“ described as “in transit” ”“ include antibiotics, cardiovascular medicine, intravenous fluids and diabetes medication.
The shipments of medicine from AmeriCares will support the Syrian American Medical Society, which operates more than 100 medical facilities in Syria, including underground trauma hospitals. The society also supports dozens more medical facilities with medicine, supplies, equipment and medical personnel.
To date, AmeriCares has delivered more than $7 million in medical aid in response to the Syrian crisis, including primary care medicines, chronic disease care medications and intravenous fluids.
Medicines have been donated by companies including the foundation arm of Ridgefield-based Boehringer Ingelheim, plus GlaxoSmithKline and the Sanofi Foundation for NA.
AmeriCares reported five years of war in Syria have destroyed infrastructure, displaced millions and put the health of millions more at risk. It said that of the estimated 470,000 war-related deaths in Syria, 70,000 have been attributed to a lack of health care and sanitation, citing data from the Syrian Center for Policy Research, a think tank. AmeriCares said life expectancy in Syria during the war has fallen from 70.5 years to 55.4 years.
“Syria”™s health care system has been devastated,” said Ingoglia. “The population not only faces risks from bombs and bullets, but also from a range of chronic and acute illnesses. The medicine we are providing will be put to use immediately to help save lives and protect the health of civilians in Syria.”
AmeriCares has been aiding survivors of natural disasters, political conflict and extreme poverty around the world for more than 30 years. It also sponsors disaster preparedness programs and “launches long-term recovery programs after major emergencies that restore health services and strengthen health systems.”
