DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team)

I learned so much, and yet I know it's just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to disaster response, and was so encouraged, inspired, and blessed by the Samaritans Purse team and privileged to be a part of.  Although health is my field I was working in, there's so much more.

 - Health

 - Shelter

 - WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene)

 - Agriculture and Food Security 

 - Protection

 - Logistics/Human Resources/Finance

Some of our team members out for Sunday lunch.  It just amazed me how the team would 'grab the bull by the horns' and get things done.  The flexibility, adaptability, determination, and discernment in a crisis situation is truely a gift!  Such hard workers!

Below is some wonderful women I got to work with:  Brianna (Dr), Kathy (RN), Anne - my roomate (logistics), and myself.  

Looking out from our home - Hotel Lorenza in Tacloban city. 

Divine Word Hospital across the street from us.

Shelter Team

It was so neat to be able to go to our shelter teams base...a previous high school gym.  

The shelter team would buy downed trees from people's yards, employ national staff to cut them (mostly by eyeballing - amazingly accurate 2x4's and 2x6's, etc), make shelter/housing kits, and give them away.  

The day we stopped in on our way back from a mobile medical clinic one of the SP staff members was leaving so they were having a little farewell party.  

Appreciation speech along with his testimony to his fellow workers - why we do what we do :)

Oriental hotel.  What was before Yolanda a beautiful luxurious hotel, now was SP's warehouse/storage area.  An agreement was made with the owner to use the space for SP's relief work and at the same time to clear up the debris and start to rebuild.

The shelter team also worked here...making the kits.  

Hard to imagine 3 storey high waves (~ 30 feet), coming from this now calm ocean.   

WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene)

Although I never got to see firsthand what the WASH team was doing...I know they were busy with biosand filters, teaching, and selling toilets/building latrines.  The Philippines even had a 'National Toilet Day', how cool is that!

Agriculture and Food Security 

The World Food Program (WFP) runs the food distribution and designates different NGO's to different areas.  I don't remember the exact numbers, but the amount of trucks loaded each day and the amount of tons of rice distributed was crazy!  Closer to the end of my time in the Philippines the WFP and NGO's were switching from relief to recovery phase of disaster response.  The WFP was working to feed people yet to not harm the farmers/local economy who were now starting to do buisness again.  

Amazing how this is coordinated!  

Security/Logistics/Human Resources/Finance

Yet another branch of disaster response that's fundamental to the team.  HR and finance working alot with obtaining different grants, statistics, hiring local staff, etc.  Logistics - organizing basically everything, ordering supplies, keeping all the staff in order - fed, watered, sheltered, etc.  And security - thankfully there was no security issues in the areas we were in.  For some of our mobile clinics we had Police escort us as there were some rebel groups in some rural areas, but we had no issues.  

Dengue

A few of our staff members, five out of our 30, got Dengue (viral hemorrhagic fever).  Dengue is received from an infected mosquito.  Thankfully I wasn't one of them!

Mobile Medical Clinics

The Department of health assigned community areas for us to cover with mobile clinics.  With public transportation either nonexistent in the rural communities or very expensive, patients had run out of medications and were unable to afford the transportation and costs to refill their medications.  SP did this for free, thanks to all the donors.

Aira, Lorelee, myself and Alex.

One of the baranguay's (community) captains house where one of the mobile clinics was held.  

We held mobile clinics in some of the schools, which were closed for construction purposes.  

Baranguay hall, location of another clinic. 

Triage desk

Dr Chuck, a pediatrician with an amazing heart and testimony!

Alex, Lorelee, Aira, and I. 

Dr Brianna, so awesome to work with her again after Haiti. 

Dr Ken, such a great team of people to work with!

Aira and Erwin working the pharmacy.

The communities were so hospitable!  They'd set up tents for us, and after every clinic would invite us for a meal!  These people pull at my heart strings!

The kids provided some entertainment.  So cute!

Out came the umbrella's with the rain.

Rolling tires is a international sport I think...Africa to the Philippines :)

Working the rice fields with a water buffalo.  Always nice to get out in the rural communities!

Working the rice fields with a ? rottertiller type machine.

Beautiful rice fields!

Rice drying out on the road...vehicles would just drive around it or on it if needed to. 

So many downed trees.

Samaritans Purse partnership with the Schistosomiasis Hospital

The Philippines DOH (Department of Health) and the UN partnered different NGO's (nongovernment organizations) with different hospitals to assist them in the relief stage.  Samaritans Purse was partnered with the Schistosomiasis hospital.  Although it's a specialty hospital, they still operate as a community hospital (deliveries, pediatrics, mental health, outpatients, etc).  Schistosomiasis, is a disease caused by parasitic worms that live is certain freshwater snails which contaminate humans if in contact with this water. (CDC, Nov 2012).

The Schistosomiasis hospital had structural and flooding damaging including the roof being ripped off. With the hospital being 2 stories, they were now unable to have patients on the 2nd floor and patients were moved to the first floor.  Since there wasn't enough room for the Pediatric patients and the outpatients area being filled with admitted patients Samaritans Purse set up 3 tents - a Pediatric ward, Outpatients, and a treatment tent.  

The Schistosomiasis training center

When I arrived, the hospital grounds were already cleared from debris.  They were finishing repairs on the hospital structure.  This was a view from the hospital 2nd floor towards the parking lot.  To the left is the outpatient tent and waiting area, behind the outpatient tent was the treatment tent.  To the right you can see the edge of the Pediatric tent. 

Pediatric tent, outpatients tent, and treatment tent. 

Each morning before heading out to our mobile clinics and outpatient area, we would have a devotional with some of the Dr's and other staff from the hospital.  

A few nurses described the night shift when the typhoon hit.  As the water levels were rising they decided to move all the patients to the 2nd floor, then the winds blew the roof off and they had to move the patients back downstairs.  The mental health patients were all cooperative :).  One nurse in Pediatrics was trying to keep the children calm when a window broke and she was cut with a piece of glass, causing the patients to be even more scared.  What a nightmare to live through!  

The next day all the staff were trying to find their family to ensure safety before going to the hospital to help.  So many staff were needed the following days and worked long hours for many days straight, trying to help their people.   

Such a wonderful team!  Local hospital staff, SP staff, teachers (our translators), and our driver.

Cake break in the treatment tent :)  Loved their local bakery with amazing cakes.  

Alex serving it up.  Always cheerful!

Gauze for our napkins and tongue depressors for our forks :)  Crazy lovely Gilliann!

Taking public transportation to run some errands from the hospital with Gilliann.

My role - nursing coordinator – administration work which was a learning experience for me: doing payroll for the nurses and translators, dealing with staff issues, ordering medical supplies and medication for the outpatient and mobile clinics, inventories of supplies, stats record keeping to send to SP, facilitating the moving of SP off the hospital grounds, and I was able to do some hands on helping out some days at the hospital and going out to the rural areas for clinics.