Stories from the field
Red Cross ambulances ensure safe access to treatment
December 23, 2010
Despite recent widespread civil unrest in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, Red Cross ambulances were busy transporting patients to hospitals and cholera treatment centres around the country. Demonstrators waved Red Cross vehicles through barricades, highlighting the power of the Red Cross emblem and ensuring people who were ill could get medical help quickly.
Since the cholera outbreak in mid-October, the Haitian Red Cross ambulance service has been transporting an average of 20-50 cholera cases per day. This is helping tackle the spread of the disease by keeping those who become sick out of the public transport system and making sure they get help quickly. During the recent period of unrest, the service was also a lifeline for many who didn’t want to leave the safety of their own homes to seek treatment.
Based in Bicentennaire, Port-au-Prince, the ambulance service relies on the goodwill of 40 volunteers to provide 24/7 medical attention and transport to the entire West department. Volunteers Edner Coriolan and Marjorie Firmin have been first responders with the Haitian Red Cross ambulance service for six and seven years respectively.
Both Coriolan and Firmin were immediately active following the earthquake earlier this year and their work continued throughout the year providing psychosocial support to the affected population. Since the cholera outbreak, Coriolan and Firmin say their "capacity to respond in the transport of patients has increased thanks to additional logistics support from the International Federation and other Red Cross societies currently working in Haiti." This support includes six pick up trucks which are used exclusively for the transport of cholera patients, fuel, protective equipment, disinfection supplies and cholera related training. "Our work has been made easier, we have more resources, we are better trained and informed and we feel better prepared".
