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Projects funded by Australian donors continued homeless in Haiti, Médecins Sans Frontières mobilised the largest emergency response in the organisation’s 40-year history. Funding from Médecins Sans Frontières Australia contributed to the running of Saint Louis Hospital – the inflatable tent hospital that replaced the destroyed La Trinité hospital – which provided emergency medical care as well as more specialised trauma and orthopaedic surgical care. Sadly, 12 Haitian Médecins Sans Frontières staff members were killed in the earthquake. Thousands of Haitians, most of whom were directly affected by the disaster, mobilised along with hundreds of international staff to help Médecins Sans Frontières provide assistance. The existing group of 800 field staff in Port-au-Prince quickly expanded to 3400 A team travels to a remote village in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. Depending on the season, mobile teams travel by car or by boat to provide care to the most isolated populations, carrying out 6800 consultations between April and December 2010. © Guillaume Clatot / MSF
people working in 26 hospitals and four mobile clinics. From 12 January to 31 October, medical teams treated more than 358,000 people and performed more than 16,500 surgeries.
ETHIOPIA
The Médecins Sans Frontières obstetric and trauma hospitals
Primary healthcare, secondary healthcare, obstetrics Total Field Staff: 150
were destroyed. Only the Martissant emergency facility, in
Funding: A$400,000 (approx 19% of total project costs) Project locations: Gambella
overwhelmed. Within hours of the earthquake, more than
The Nuer population of the Gambella region, in the far west
At the centre in Pacot, which provided post-operative care,
of Ethiopia, has grown as people have crossed the border to
only one operating table was available for minor operations.
escape violence in southern Sudan. In May 2010 Médecins Sans
In and around the collapsed La Trinité hospital, surgery was
Frontières moved into a new health centre. Staff held close to
carried out in tents and, after a few days, in a converted
29,000 consultations, and 873 patients were hospitalised.
shipping container. Within approximately 48 hours, our
The main illnesses suffered by patients were respiratory tract
teams identified available rooms and a dressing station at
infections, diarrhoea and malaria. Maternity staff assisted an
the Ministry of Health’s Choscal hospital and managed to
average of 10 births per month. Depending on the season,
start surgical activities in two operating theatres there. By
mobile teams travelled by car or by boat to provide care to the
15 January, major surgery was also being provided in tents
most isolated populations, carrying out 6800 consultations
around Carrefour hospital. Our surgeons performed more
between April and December.
than 5700 major surgical procedures during the first three
south Port-au-Prince, was still operational, but it was quickly 400 critically injured patients had arrived at Martissant.
months, 150 of which involved amputations.
HAITI Primary healthcare, secondary healthcare, surgery, obstetrics, emergency healthcare, mental healthcare, response to epidemics Total Field Staff: 3104 (including earthquake
Emergency field hospitals were set up in all kinds of structures
response for all Médecins Sans Frontières sections) Funding: A$421,902 (approx 1% of total project costs) Project locations: Port-au-Prince
and post-operative care. More than 500 patients underwent
In the wake of the devastating earthquake of 12 January 2010,
Médecins Sans Frontières to help patients recover and adapt
which killed an estimated 222,000 people and left 1.5 million
to prosthetics. Mental healthcare was also provided.
– a dental clinic at Bicentenaire, a school in Carrefour, and semi-permanent buildings in Léogâne, west of Port-au-Prince. In Sarthe, we opened a centre for post-emergency surgery specialised orthopaedic or reconstructive surgery. Handicap International physiotherapists worked in collaboration with