3rd group of doctors for quake

2005-10-26 09:36

Kavith Harrilall

Pietermaritzburg - A third team comprising of South African doctors is set to embark on a relief mission to earthquake ravaged Pakistan on Wednesday.

The Gift of the Givers team will take over from Professor Ismail Goga, a Durban-based orthopaedic surgeon who, together with five other medical practitioners, was part of the second team to arrive in the country.

"A strong contingent of nurses is now also being sent to assist in the transfer of nursing skills. In the meantime, 4 000 tents, 15 000 blankets and 12 tons of food supplies will have been delivered by Friday. Our aid delivery has exceeded R11m, the biggest project in our history," said the foundation's chairperson, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman.

He also added that every member of the Gift of the Givers medical team, as well as the SA High Commissioner, received an award from the Pakistani authorities for meritorious service to the people of Pakistan.

Emotionally intense humanitarian mission

During the foundation's first relief mission to the country, a cargo plane carrying 36 tons of aid arrived in Pakistan shortly after the disaster. The aid items, transported in partnership with the department of foreign affairs, included 700 tents, 10 000 blankets and R1m worth of medical supplies.

Two teams of doctors from the foundation worked in different locations of the country during the initial relief mission. They braved severely cold weather and a lack of water and sanitation to conduct their duties.

Sooliman also noted that a team of highly skilled medical specialists, many of them ex-Pakistani nationals who now have South African citizenship, worked in Cantonment General Hospital at Rawalpindi, with much success

"It was the most emotionally intense humanitarian mission in our 13-year history. The Pakistan earthquake stands out almost incomparable to any other disaster in the 22 countries that Gift of the Givers has assisted in this time frame," said Sooliman.

- The Witness