LEBANON: THE ORDER OF MALTA DISTRIBUTE SIX TONS OF MEDICINES

Rome, 31 August 2006

Ceasefire. With the clearing of rubble from the main roads in the south, the Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta has been able to deliver a full load of medicines to Bekaa valley, an area severely attacked during the war. Supplies are urgently needed: at the centre in Barka doctors had to ration medicines in the last days of the fighting. Organised by the Order’s French Association, Malte Liban and Ordre de Malte France, the delivery - six tons of medicines – is currently being distributed. Meanwhile, the German Association continues its financial support of the Barka centre, which it has done for a number of years, and the Order’s health care centre in the heavily damaged village of Siddikine near Cana has at last been able to restart its work. The Lebanese Association runs the centre in this mixed Muslim-Christian area in cooperation with the Shiite ‘Imam Sadr Foundation’and employs doctors and nurses of all the four major religious groups.





Order of Malta team on the ground
Last week an Order of Malta team of specialists, from a number of National Associations under the umbrella of Malteser International, the Order’s worldwide relief service, visited destroyed towns and villages. Six Lebanese Association health care centres were visited in south Lebanon. Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International reports that it is “an unbelievable scene of destruction”, adding: “The chronically ill urgently need their regular medical treatments and the population is also experiencing traumatic responses. The local children panic when they hear the sound of an aeroplane.”

The specialist team looked over the totally destroyed health care centre in Yarun on the Israeli border. It had suffered many hits during severe fighting. “We will have to tear down the back part of the building, as it is in a dangerous condition,” The President of the Lebanese Association, Marwan Senaoui explains. “And the reconstruction of the front will take at least four months and require a strong investment.” Over the last traumatic month, the head of Yarun’s health care centre, Dr. Raed el-Alam, with just one other medic, was able to provide medical treatment for the population trapped in the village. “The situation was appalling,” el-Alam reports. “For ten days there was no clean drinking water, no bread, no milk for the babies and not enough medicines.”

Rehabilitation work has started in the south, where the Lebanese Association is setting up mobile medical teams to provide medical assistance in the damaged villages which currently have nothing.



Beirut. 25 August 2006. The Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta has delivered a van full of medical drugs to Bekaa valley, which was severely attacked during the war with Israel. In the days to come, the Association will distribute six tons of medical drugs, wheelchairs, hospital beds and medical instruments to their ten health centres, where supplies are urgently needed due to the blockade by Israel during the war. “The doctors of the centre in Barka in Bekaa valley welcomed us enthusiastically”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International, reports: “In the last days, they even had to ration the pills for their patients.” The six tons drugs delivery has been organised by the French Association of the Order of Malta. The German Association supports the centre with 30,000 euros every year.





During the last days, a four man team of Malteser International under the lead of Radtke has visited several destroyed towns and villages and six health centres of the Lebanese Association in south Lebanon and on the border of the attacked areas south of Beirut as well as in the Bekaa valley. “We´ve seen serious destruction. A new school was totally destroyed, many children get panic as they hear the sound of a plane”, Radtke reports: “We will support the Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta to set up mobile medical teams, and we are planning further help.”







Cologne/Beirut. 23.08.2006 The health care centre of the Order of Malta in the heavily damaged village of Siddikine near Cana has restarted its work. On Tuesday, a four-man assessment team from Malteser International accompanied the first post-war delivery of medical drugs to the village. Due to heavy bombardments during the war, the village of Siddikine had been completely abandoned. “When one sees the total destruction in the centre of the village, it is almost a miracle that in the health care centre only the windows were broken”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International, describes the situation in Siddikine. The Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta runs the centre in this mixed Muslim-Christian area in cooperation with the Shiite “Imam Sadr Foundation”.

Furthermore, the team also went to see the destroyed health care centre in Yarun on the Israeli border. This centre had suffered several hits during the severe fighting in the area. “We have to tear down the back part of the building”, Radtke explains. “The reconstruction of the front part will take at least four months and will cost about 70.000 Euros.”

During the war, the inhabitants of Yarun and of several neighbouring villages had fled to Rmeich, where 8,000 Christian inhabitants took in more than 20,000 Shiites. For one month, the head of Yarun´s health care centre, Dr. Raed el-Alam, together with just one other medic assured medical treatment for the population tracked in the village. “The situation was appalling”, el-Alam reports “For ten days, there was no clean drinking water, no bread, no milk for the babys and too few medical drugs.”

The team also visited further severely damaged places like Bent Jbail, Tebnin, Debel and Aita Chaab. In the region between Bent Jbail and the Israeli border the Order of Malta sets up a mobile medical team for the returnees. On Wednesday, the team will visit the health care centre in the war-torn town of Marjayoun in the southeast of the country.

Cologne/Beirut. 22.08.2006 Six tons of medical drugs supplied by the Order of Malta in France arrived in Beirut on Monday. “Chronically ill people, who are suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure, urgently need the medicine”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International and head of the assessment team, explains. “Due to the blockade, the Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta has run out of supplies. It is going to distribute the supplies in its ten health care centres throughout the country.”

On Monday, the four-man assessment team went to see the destroyed southern suburbs of Beirut and in meetings with the local authorities discussed the humanitarian situation. “It is an unbelievable scene of destruction”, Radtke says. “Entire streets of houses are just rubble and completely razed to the ground.”

Via the health care centre in the suburb Ain el-Rammaneh, the Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta during the war has provided more than 4,000 refugees in three schools and in a shopping mall with medical drugs, has treated ill people, vaccinated children and installed showers. “Half of the refugees were chronically ill”, Sister Sylvie Toison, head of the mission, explains. “They now returned home within three days, but the problems are just moving on to another place. We will set up mobile medical teams in South Lebanon to continue to treat our patients.”

Today, the assessment team will go to South Lebanon to visit the destroyed health care centres in Rmeich directly on the Lebanese-Israeli border and in Siddikine near the town of Cana. The Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta has resumed its work there and will also treat the people in the destroyed villages in the surrounding areas.



Cologne/Beirut. 20.08.06 Since Saturday an assessment team from Malteser International comprising of four people has been active in Lebanon. A mobile clinic will be deployed in the south of the country to treat people who have been wounded during the war and people suffering from various illnesses. In that region numerous hospitals and health centres have been destroyed by the war.

The mobile clinic will be equipped with medical drugs, which will arrive in Beirut on Monday. They have been sent by the Order of Malta France, and have been ordered by their Lebanese partners. Due to the embargo, the urgently needed drugs, among them antibiotics, pain killers and drugs against diarrhoea – can only now be delivered .

The situation for humanitarian help in Lebanon is still difficult. “To help the people efficiently we have to talk to all parties”, Ingo Radtke, head of Malteser International and of the assessment team, states. “For decades already, the Lebanese association of the Order of Malta has been part of the Lebanese health care system and by all parties is seen as credible partner.”

Public life in Beirut is still far away from the situation before the war. “The lively city is very reluctantly awakening to normal life. One can feel that the people are not yet sure about the cease fire”, Radtke observes.

The assessment team of Malteser International will try to reach the destroyed health care centres in Siddikine and Yarun in South Lebanon on Tuesday – the latter of the two in the area which is still controlled by the Israeli army. There are the greatest challenges for Malteser International in the next few weeks. Within days to come, the team will visit at least three of the other eight health care centres. Furthermore, a meeting with the biggest partner organisation in Lebanon, the Shiite “Imam Sadr Foundation”, is planned.



Cologne/Beirut. 17.08.06 On Friday, an international assessment team comprising four representatives of Malteser International and national associations of the Order of Malta leaves for Lebanon. “It is our mission and aim to support the rehabilitation of health care services and help the displaced people who now return to the south of Lebanon”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International and leader of the assessment team, explains. “Medical drugs for basic health care are lacking. At least 20 percent of the Lebanese population are on their way home and need assistance when returning to their homes: supply with medicaments and food as well as support for the renovation of their houses and infrastructure”, Radtke points out.

The assessment team will try to reach the destroyed health center in Siddikine in the south of the country, and the health center in Rmeich which is located in an area up to now still controlled by the Israeli army. The team will also assess the situation of another eight health care centers run by the Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta.

Finally, a meeting with the partner organizations of the IMAM SADR Foundation with which the Lebanese Association has an intense and fruitful cooperation in the health sector is going to take place.

Malteser International and the international network of the Order of Malta support the relief programs of the Lebanese Association of the Order of Malta with more than 200,000 Euros.