| Priest hopes no baby evacuee dies again from lack of food |
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| by Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews | |
| Wednesday, 24 June 2009 09:36 | |
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DATU PIANG, Maguindanao (MindaNews/23 June) -- Father Eduardo “Ponpon” Vasquez has a long list -- 39 “urgently needed” medicines and medical-related items for his newly-established clinic within the church compound here but there is one item not on the list that he hopes kind-hearted souls will also donate: milk to help give children evacuees a chance to live. Vasquez hopes Baby Boy Kureg would be the last child to die from malnutrition in the evacuation center. The two-month old infant subsisted on a daily diet of simbug – a combination of water and sugar. Not having enough nourishment herself, his mother could not breastfeed him. He died on June 20. Food supply for the evacuees has become fewer and far between. Evacuees at the Children’s Park and the Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School, for instance, say the last time they were given assistance was on June 1, by the World Food Programme (WFP). WFP has been giving them on a monthly basis, 25 kilos of rice. Jahara Akay, 35, mother of four who have been staying at the Children’s Park-turned evacuation center, told MindaNews it has been around three months since the Red Cross, which gives not only rice but also noodles, sardines sugar, and other basic needs, came,
Father Eduardo “Ponpon” Vasquez, parish priest of Datu Piang town, briefs government chief negotiator Rafael Seguis on the latest situation of the internally displaced person in this file photo taken on June 3, 2009. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo
The establishment of the clinic, Sta. Teresita Bahay Kalinga, from what used to be a shelter for the elderly, was triggered, he said, by “the high rate of death cases among children in the IDP (internally displaced persons) sites of Datu Piang.” “Many of them died because of severe dehydration and pneumonia while some were hit by bombs,” he said. Vasquez cited records from the Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council early June 2009 that showed 30 children have died since August 2008 in the evacuation sites. “But I am very sure that it is more than that number because not all these cases are recorded due to lack of personnel and volunteers who will conduct the documentation,” he said. Attending to the health needs of the evacuees in the clinic is Dr. Merlyn Tamson, a volunteer from Midsayap in North Cotabato, and a volunteer nurse. Vasquez said that since his designation as parish priest in October last year, he had “witnessed the deplorable situation of children and pregnant women in the different IDP sites.” “Most of my time in this parish is spent on monitoring, feeding, bringing the sick IDPs to the hospital, going to their funerals and attending to their other urgent needs,” he wrote. “Those whom I brought to the hospital and those who died were children and pregnant women. They are indeed the most affected victims of war,” he said. The clinic is “a charity medical clinic intended to care for the pregnant women, sick mothers and weak infants who are still in the different IDP sites of Datu Piang” and was constructed to “respond specially to the urgent medical needs of the internally displaced new born babies.” The clinic can accommodate, for now, only 15 patients. It has a room for babies, complete with cribs. Accommodation, medicines and meals for patients and watchers are for free, but patient’s relatives are “obliged to help in maintaining the cleanliness of the clinic compound” and once the vegetable garden is set up at the back of the clinic, they will also be asked to help maintain it. The Social Action Center of the Archdiocese of Cotabato has allowed the clinic to use the Tabang Mindanaw ambulance while the situation in Datu Piang is still volatile to ensure quick transport to the city’s regional hospital if the situation warrants. The regional hospital is located some 56 kilometers from Datu Piang, or about an hour’s travel. The clinic would have been inaugurated on June 21 but this has been reset to June 28. “I would like to make my personal appeal to everyone, especially to medical doctors and to all organizations and schools to help save the lives of the IDPs. By sharing your expertise and resources to the Sta. Teresita Bahay Kalinga, you can save many lives,” Vasquez wrote. Vasquez says those who want to support the clinic may contact the OMI Disaster Response Team of Sta. Teresita Parish at 09062275105. 1.Omeprazole 40 mg amp Share this story through the following Social Media sites:            |
