Aid agency appeals for doctors, nurses and accountants
AN aid agency today urgently appealed for Dubliners to help save lives in crisis hit countries like Chad, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and the Congo.
Professionals like doctors, nurses, logisticians and accountants are badly needed to join aid workers providing life saving medical help to people who would otherwise not get even the most basic healthcare, MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors without Borders) said.
MSF teams on the ground urgently need midwives, doctors and financial co-ordinators to respond to a malnutrition crisis in Ethiopia, cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh and measles outbreaks in the Congo, the agency's Ireland recruitment officer, Deirdre Mangaoang, said.
"We also need experienced logisticians to help in our emergency response in Chad to assist people displaced there by the conflict there and in Myanmar (Burma) following the death and devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis."
Many of the children coming to their clinics in Ethiopia suffer from kwashiorkor, a form of edema caused by malnutrition, which can lead to death.
"Our teams on the ground are working hard and are looking for experienced Irish nurses, doctors, project managers, and engineers to work with them," Ms Mangaoang added.
Dr Margaret Fitzgerald, who works with the HSE, will talk about her time with MSF at an information evening in Dublin tomorrow at 9-11 Upper Baggot St at 7pm.
DIFFICULT
"I spent 18 months working with MSF in a rural area of Malawi called Thyolo in 2006. It was often difficult, but deeply rewarding," she said.
"Our team worked hard to get as many people as possible treatment for HIV. To compensate for the lack of doctors, we trained nurses to initiate people on the treatment, a job previously performed only by doctors."
MSF opened an Irish office in April 2006 and has already sent more than 25 Irish aid workers to help in emergencies in places including Chad, Colombia, Darfur, India, Jordan, and Somalia.
- Michael Lavery
