Nathan Mullins' Blog
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Nathan Mullins was part of the early Emergency Response Teams. He carried out Paramedic, and Team Leader roles for the project in Pakistan, and now volunteers his time in promotion and media liason duties. He is a full time police officer with Victoria Police. |
My hard decisions just got a bit easier. My big problems, a lot less insurmountable. I didn't get more intelligent, I didn't win Tattslotto. I gained perspective.
I have just returned from working for a volunteer aid project in earthquake-devastated Pakistan. I went there to give emergency medical assistance, for a friend's aid agency, Australian Aid International.
We traveled to Northern Pakistan, Kashmir, to an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Higher than Mount Kosciusko. The area we worked in was so remote, and difficult to access that, generally, no other aid organizations were able to operate. The people in this area were poor, and, even before the shocking effects of the October 8 th earthquake, largely un-serviced by any form of medical facility.
The raw data describing the earthquake is compelling. Nearly 90,000 people killed, 3 million homeless, countless injured. These figures though, do not tell the full story. The earthquake occurred at about 9.00am, the men, mainly, were in the fields working, women were in the houses, and the children, in schools. It was those housed in buildings when the quake hit, that were almost certainly killed. Few people in the alpine areas I visited escaped their houses before collapse in the shockingly abrupt earthquake. In one school 600 children were killed. I walked past countless houses with fresh graves, many short graves, obviously the resting place of children.
Those injured or otherwise surviving this disaster were faced with awful choices. Stay and attempt to reconstitute the shattered village. Leave, seek help for themselves from the distant townships, abandoning the rest of the villagers at this crucial time. The Himalayan winter is coming, and those that stored food for the winter early, have lost these stocks. Those that had not yet acquired food for the winter generally now do not have the funds to purchase what they need. The winter will bring 15-30 feet of snow to the villages that I visited. Most people currently live in canvas tents. Soon movement between villages, even family groups will be impossible. These people face terrible decisions we will never be confronted with, on a daily basis.
On my last day of working in Kashmir, I hiked to a village called Kotla, north of a regional capital called Bagh. I was with a friend from Melbourne, and a volunteer doctor from America. This was the 2 nd of November, nearly a month after the earthquake. In this village I met a man who told me he was trying to decide whether he had to amputate his son's leg himself, and he wanted our opinion. This was a sophisticated, well respected man who owned seven houses, and many livestock, having to consider whether he had the technical knowledge to amputate his son's leg. In Australia he would be a leader of business and industry. We hiked for another hour and a half to find the boy, who had been confined to bed. We made a examination. The man's son was about ten years old, and had a large, but superficial wound on his leg. It looked serious, but was actually healing quite well, with no sign of infection. I was relieved and shocked. I am a father myself. I know that I will never be forced into making the sort of dire decisions that faced this father. Never.
My decisions are easy.
As we look forward to summer heat and relaxing at the beach, earthquake effected Kashmiri Pakistan braces itself for another round of deaths. This time the cause isn't some unexpected calamity. This time, it is the terrible creeping death from extreme cold. A fully avoidable death for those already in a tragic situation.
In the alpine areas of Kashmiri Pakistan, at altitudes about the same as the highest point in Australia, people routinely survive, indeed enjoy rich lives, in these extreme conditions. They prepare themselves well for the arrival of winter every year, insulating and improving their small compacted earth homes, storing surplus food and supplies for the four month period that they will stay in or close to their homes.
This year is different. All this preparation has been lost. On the 8 th of October, an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude, hit this area. Nearly 90,000 people killed, over 3 million made homeless, and thousands seriously injured. Pakistan's existing emergency management infrastructure dealt as best it could with this disaster. The world pitched in with aid and funding. Many strangers traveled to Kashmir, moved by the circumstances faced by the people, joining with aid organizations where they could, to help. I recently returned from such a trip to Pakistan, working for a new non government organisastion, Australian Aid International. These NGO's provided the medical expertise and experience to help in this situation. A great operation was mounted and overall, despite many challenges, an amazing outcome was achieved. Now the initial emergency aid has been rendered, many traditional aid providers are leaving. The headlines, and accompanying funding are ebbing away. Many large organizations, existing with high overheads, and many permanent staff cannot afford to stay.
Australian Aid International is staying. They haven't received any of the promised funding for the disaster from the Australian Government. Despite critical acclaim for their technical proficiency and commitment, they haven't received any funding whatsoever. Volunteers pay their own way over to Pakistan, and work on their leave from work and studies in remote difficult circumstances. AAI has survived because of benefactors donating equipment and supplies in Australia, and logistical support and local knowledge in Pakistan. It is an operation run on the proverbial shoestring.
Frank Tyler, heading up operations for AAI in Pakistan, recognizes the further impending disaster that winter will cause. He has begun to implement an improvised housing project, aimed at getting the people out of their existing tent accomodation, and into a structure which will dramatically increase their chance of surviving the winter. This sort of project does not grab the headlines, or provide dramatic footage for television. It is not achieved with space age materials or amazing technical knowledge. It was achieved with innovation and a reliance of the adaptability of the local people. It will, however, absolutely save the lives of hundreds, and with significant funding, thousands of lives. Operational cost of this project is difficult to absorb for AAI. Where I lived and worked, while in Pakistan, will soon be under 4-8 metres of snow. The people I saw everyday, will again be fighting for their lives.
Years of dealing with tragedy have not hardened Frank Tyler, but he has a well developed mechanism for dealing with the situations like this. He has to. But the forthcoming tragedy is something he has not been faced with. He has never had to deal with such a clear threat to the people he is working for. It is one of the rare situations, within aid work, where proactive intervention can help, rather than the usual situation of purely reactive aid to a situation that has already developed.
Australian Aid International does not enjoy the apparent luxury of paid employees to solicit funding and donations. But, in this way, avoids high running costs. The only running ‘costs' in Australia, are carried by the volunteers, in time and donations. There are no gala fundraising dinners, attracting celebrities and social climbers. There never will be. The guys in Pakistan now are same people who come back to Australia to continue the support work back here, between their own jobs, and studies. We try to think of it as streamlined and efficient, rather than small and under-funded. Australian Aid International does not run because of donations, it runs because of the energy and enthusiasm of volunteers and backers, and supporters, this is definite. However, the practicality of the situation is plain to the all. AAI needs a substantial injection of funds to continue operations. This is plain to all observers.