Two weeks ago I returned from a crisis simulation which took place in Foulpointe, at the East coast of Madagascar.
The simulation was a long planned project, mainly organized and lead by the Bureau National de Gestion des Risques et des Catastrophes (BNGRC).
BNGRC which belongs to the Malagasy military operated with several civil partners such as the Red Cross, Meteo-Station, UNICEF, OCHA and WFP. The exercise had 2 different parts whereby we have been more concerned about the strike of a fake cyclone with all its consequences, because a damaged oil tanker is not much of a business for WFP.
After being briefed about the rough outlook of the things to expect, the exercise really got started in Foulpointe where all participating actors have been informed about the damage the cyclone had left. We got to know that there were about 50 people who lost their homes, 12 missing and a couple of fatal victims.
Our part of the game was to ensure that our cooperating partner, the Red Cross, has been provided with sufficient food to distribute to the 50 cyclone victims.
The group of people, volunteers from the local village, were expected to arrive at the Red Cross camp on Monday afternoon. On the camp site they all have been registered and taken care of in the provisional tents.
With the arrival of the “victims” the problems began…because up to that time there was neither running water nor electricity.
No water meant no usable latrines, no showers and no possibility to cook the rice…and the worst: there was not even drinking water available.
The group of people consisted of men, women (some pregnant) and little children…after waiting almost 4 hours in the hot tents, burnt by the sun and still with no running water available, the Red Cross was one inch away from calling off the simulation because the simulated crisis got a little bit to real for the villagers….at least OCHA organized enough bottles of water from shops downtown (which I think was against the rules of the game) to relax the situation a little bit.
To keep the Red Cross from leaving the exercise, BNGRC decided to continue the simulation but without the 50 people…at least they could keep the provided items such as blankets and buckets for themselves and received a sincere excuse from the officials.
Even though the simulation went on, enough confusion was created between the different actors blaming each other for various faults tensioning the atmosphere.
As a conclusion I have to admit that once again I was quite surprised what kinds of problems occur even at such high level of professionalism. Knowing that this was a well in advanced planned exercise and still having fundamental problems such as delivering water is stunning a experience.
But that is why we practice such important exercise, to see where we can improve to ensure that in real life situation things will run better and people will be helped immediately and effectively.
Lesson learned: strong communication and clear organization is mainly the key to success in most of the cases…even though it might be just a simulated one…and with the recent beginning of the cyclone season we better learn quickly.
MGG Fabi
Footnote:
Last Saturday night, after leaving a Cameroon party with Tulika and two colleagues we have been waiting for a taxi. Suddenly we saw a speeding car heading towards our direction when the driver lost control and turned 180 degrees, flipped a couple of times before landing in the ditch.
We have been the only ones in the lonely area who saw the accident taking place so we ran immediately to the car which luckily landed on its wheels. At first I checked for the woman on the passenger seat. She was conscious and not badly injured so I looked for the driver. He was clearly in a worse condition than her girlfriend, having a bleeding wound on his head and being semi-conscious.
I was trying to keep him in the car to avoid unnecessary movement but he slid out of the car so I laid him on the ground checking his respiration. By that time I was glad that more people came to help…when finally somebody said that there is no ambulance coming we put the driver in a car and he has been taken to the hospital.
Afterwards we have been asked to take care of the car so that nobody will steal anything from this already totally wrecked vehicle…unbelievable!
Lesson learnt:
Number 1 – calling for an ambulance in Madagascar might be a lost cause
Number 2 – I need definitely another course in first aid
Number 3 – please always wear the seat belt
Number 4 - Cameroon parties are nevertheless fun ;-)
