Around the World

 

March 14, 2011 Cologne.    On the wake of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami which ravaged Japan on March 11, Malteser International, the relief service of the Order of Malta for worldwide humanitarian aid, is in close contact with its partners in the country – the Jesuits, the Franciscans and Tokyo’s Catholic University. Via local partners – like catholic parishes - Malteser International will provide support. “We would like to show our solidarity with the Japanese people,” says Malteser International Secretary General Ingo Radtke.  He assumes that neither additional staff nor relief goods will have to be sent from here to the crisis region. “We will provide second-phase assistance, for example in the early recovery phase and in the rehabilitation of affected communities”, Radtke points out.

Malteser International has provided €25,000 from its emergency relief fund for emergency aid in Japan, adding to the €50,000 already made available by Caritas International.

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Reference: Disasters Japan

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The international conference “Humanitarian Diplomacy and International Crisis Management” will open on Thursday 27 January in the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Organized by the Order of Malta and the French Navy, speakers will include Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, Admiral Pierre-François Forissier, Chief of Staff of the French Navy, Msgr. Francesco Follo, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to UNESCO and the Latin Union, Louis Michel, member of the European Parliament, General Claudio Graziano, Head of the Executive Office of the Italian Minister of Defence, Former UNIFIL Commander in Lebanon and Jean-Pierre Mazery, Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta. more...

Bonn/Cologne. Together, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) in Germany and Malteser International, the relief service of the Order of Malta for worldwide humanitarian aid, take action against the cholera in Haiti. The joined relief measures of both organisations are designed to improve the hygienic standards in the camps in Port-au-Prince and to prevent a further spread of the disease. According to official statements, more than 60,000 people have already been infected. The United Nations (UN) continue to caution against a further spread of cholera. more...

Cologne/Léogâne. At three project locations in Haiti, Malteser International, the relief service of the Order of Malta for worldwide humanitarian aid, intensifies its efforts to prevent an outbreak of cholera. Malteser International will provide three tents for a hospital of “Doctors without Borders” to be set up for cholera treatment in Léogâne. Here, 300 cholera patients can be accommodated and treated in case of an epidemic spread. Up to now, no cholera cases have been reported in Léogâne district. “This is a measure of precaution to impede the spread of cholera. In case of an epidemic, we have to be able to quickly care for the infected”, Maren Paech, Malteser International Senior Desk Officer Haiti, explains. About 3,800 infected Haitians have been registered during the last days. The infection originated in the region of Artibonite in the north of Port-au-Prince. more...

Swat/Islamabad. Malteser International, the worldwide relief service of the Order of Malta for humanitarian aid, is now expanding its help for Pakistan’s flood affected. Now also Kohistan, neighboring district to the Swat-Valley, is in focus of the relief work. “We will provide medical relief to the about 50,000 people that are living in this area,” says Dr. Jürgen Clemens, Malteser International Pakistan expert. In the last few days, Malteser International has already expanded its emergency relief and provided 2,800 families in the Swat-Valley with food, drinking water, non-food-items and hygiene kits. In reaction to the rising number of acute diarrhoea caused by contaminated water and the crowded accommodation of the flood victims, Malteser International teams were carrying out hygiene awareness campaigns in some villages in the Swat-Valley. They explained the dangers of dealing with contaminated water to the people and distributed more than 1,000 water treatment tablets, electrolyte preparations and hygiene kits including soap and towels. The Malteser International medical teams also provide medical treatment for the affected in regions that are still not accessible with off-road vehicles. “In doing so, it becomes increasingly clear to us that the extend of the destruction in the Swat-Valley cannot be estimated at this point, “ says Alexander Bühler, Malteser International staff in Pakistan. more...

Cologne/Islamabad. With a call for an enlargement of disaster risk reduction in Pakistan and with a further extension of their relief measures Malteser International, the worldwide relief service of the Order of Malta for humanitarian aid, reacts to the insufficient basic health care for the people after the flooding. “The floodwaters are receding, but Pakistan remains a highly endangered country”, Dr. Juergen Clemens, Malteser International Senior Desk Officer Pakistan, points out. The geographer is looking ahead: “Five years ago Pakistan was hit by a severe earthquake; in 2007, people suffered from the floods in South Pakistan; this year, we have the flooding all over the country: Pakistan is a country which is extremely threatened by natural phenomena”, Clemens explains. Therefore, Pakistan should become a good example for disaster risk reduction. ”We must do our utmost in order to prevent that a future disaster will cause misery for millions of people. We can only be grateful that the floods did not claim more human lives”, the expert resumes. more...

To mark the World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, Malteser International points to the basic principles of humanitarian assistance: impartiality, independence and neutrality. The implementation of these principals is often a challenge - the current relief activities in Pakistan are a good example for that. “Important for the provision of assistance are independent and reliable partners in the country itself, international and local staff members and approved monitoring systems," says Sid Peruvemba, programme director of Malteser International, the worldwide relief service of the Order of Malta for humanitarian aid. more...

Swat/Islamabad. Malteser International, the worldwide relief service of the Order of Malta for humanitarian aid, is now expanding its help for Pakistan’s flood affected. Now also Kohistan, neighboring district to the Swat-Valley, is in focus of the relief work. “We will provide medical relief to the about 50,000 people that are living in this area,” says Dr. Jürgen Clemens, Malteser International Pakistan expert. more...

Port-au-Prince/Léogâne/Cologne. ”Even now, three months after the quake the daily survival still is a matter of priority for many Haitians,” explains Beate Maass, Haiti project coordinator of Malteser International, the relief service of the Order of Malta for worldwide humanitarian aid. “After a period of relative stability, the security situation – unfortunately - has again changed for the worse. Thefts and robberies are on the increase and there have been several kidnappings,” she tells. more...

Islamabad/Cologne. Nearly a year since more than three million people had to flee from the military operations in the northwest of Pakistan, Malteser International, the relief service of the Order of Malta for worldwide humanitarian aid, together with the “Pakistan Humanitarian Forum” points out that the crisis is far from over. more...

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Port-au-Prince/Cologne. Prof. Dr. Klaus Runggaldier reports from the crisis region: „Yesterday we could successfully operate on a ten year old girl that had not been injured so much. For the seriously injured children, however, there is only little hope.” Since Sunday, the three Malteser International medical doctors have been working in the hospital “Francois de Sales” downtown in Port-au-Prince. According to Runggaldier, the situation is still difficult; nevertheless, it is increasingly possible to provide basic medical care. Thanks to the good networking of the native Haitian Malteser International colleagues the team now has at its disposal a jeep as well as local communications means. more...

Please find enclosed the Malteser International Relief Activity Report No. 1 http://www.orderofmaltacanada.org/ReliefActivity.pdf informing about the emergency relief activities for the people in Haiti. Please use this Relief Activity Report for your own information and distribute it to the members of your association. Please feel also free to publish it on your association’s website. more...

Port au Prince/Duesseldorf/Cologne. The medical team headed by Malteser International emergency relief coordinator Dr. Georg Nothelle has left Duesseldorf airport via New York for Haiti today – 14 January - at 12.10 am. The scheduled route via Paris was cancelled at short notice due to a strike of the local air controllers. Nothelle is accompanied by two emergency doctors and anaesthetists and the head of the emergency rescue services of Malteser Germany. In Haiti the team will be strengthened by two medical experts of Malteser France as well as by two members of the US-associations of the Order of Malta. In Santo Domingo the international team will be received by the Ambassador of the Order of Malta to Haiti and accompanied on its way to Port-au-Prince. Upon arrival in Haiti it will be the first taske of the team to collect information and coordinate its relief measures with the other relief organisations on the ground. And - of course - the team will immediately start to provide first aid and medical assistance. The mission of this first team is scheduled for one week; further teams are on stand-by. more...

Port au Prince/Cologne. – „Due to the soil erosion, our capital lacks a solid basement. The slums that were built on the hills were completely slipped off within the mudslides”, reports Eduard Aimé from Haiti. “Even the most solid buildings like the presidential palace, ministries or the cathedral were severely damaged”, Aimé continues. At present, Malteser International is preparing the deployment of a medical team consisting of medical doctors and further medical experts from Germany and France in order to support local Malteser teams on the ground. “The colleagues in Haiti know very well that basic medical care and the provision of clean drinking water are matters of top priority now”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International, explains. more...

Everyday at 8 a.m. we arrive at the railway station and plan how we reach as many people as possible in the trains”, reports Lakshmanan, HIV consultant of Malteser International’s local partner organisation “Centre of People´s Education” in South India where the organisation fights against the spread of the immune deficiency syndrome in the region of Tamil Nadu. Contact points for the HIV educators are train stations and trains that bring hundreds of day labourers – many of them illiterate - to the big cities. more...

“I should like to take this opportunity of my visit to your hospital, run by the Italian Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, to consign my Encyclical Spe Salvi to the whole Roman community, and in particular to those who, like you, are in direct contact with suffering and sickness.” Thus Benedict XVI in a momentous visit to the Order's San Giovanni Battista Hospital in Rome. The Grand Master, Frà Andrew Bertie, in greeting His Holiness, affirmed that "The sick are at the heart of our mission." "Dear knights of the Order of Malta, dear doctors, nurses and volunteers who work in the Hospital," the Pontiff said, "you are called to provide an important service that calls for abnegation and a spirit of sacrifice. In each sick person may you know how to recognise and serve Christ Himself. Show Him, with your gestures and your words, the signs of His merciful love." In this regard Benedict XVI praised the contribution made by the Order of Malta to the mission of the Church to be near to the suffering and he recalled how, from its beginning in 1113, this lay religious order of the Catholic Church has dedicated itself "to the care of the sick, especially the poor and marginalized." Together with the Grand Master, the Sovereign Council and members of the Order, the patients, their families, staff and volunteers prayed at the Mass celebrated by His Holiness at the Hospital. Among the highlights was the Pontiff's visit to the Reawakening Unit, where patients are treated in the recovery phase known as 'vegetal state'. It is one of the very few in Italy offering this most difficult and touching care. more...

Cologne. „Every Euro we spend on disaster risk reduction does not only save lives but also helps us save five Euros which we would have to spend for emergency relief later on”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International, the relief service of the Order of Malta for worldwide humanitarian aid, states on the occasion of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on 13 October. With regard to the increasing frequency of natural catastrophes all around the world, Malteser International carries out more and more relief missions to assist people in acute need. Already during the phase of emergency relief, Malteser International strives to ensure that the affected population will be better prepared in case of a future disaster: “After the catastrophe the people need to be protected better than they were before”, Radtke emphasises. “It’s not enough to repair old structures.” The expert further states that disaster risk reduction is all about saving human lives and using financial means even more efficiently. “I am convinced that emergency relief and disaster risk reduction need to be combined more and more.” more...