Disaster Relief Team - St.John's Medical College, Bangalore, India
When television news began to bring reports of the terrible tsunami disaster along the South Asian coastline into our own living rooms, it once again galvanized us into doing something once again. As on the 13th January 2005, there had been over 126 docuemnted earthquakes and tremors daily on the islands following the 9.1 scale. Not many know that the St. John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore, has a tradition of responding to Disasters over the last 34 years. This response has included eight teams to the refugee camps post 1971 war in West Bengal, 1983 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the 1977 Andhra Pradesh cyclone, the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, 1993 Latur Khilari earthquake, 2000 Orissa super cyclone, 2001 Gujarat earthquake and now this tsunami disaster. Being the only medical college in India with over seven past experiences behind them and a Disaster Relief and Training Unit, they have been a lead health resource for the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) Bangalore’s Disaster Management training courses for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers. This tsunami disaster was one of our fastest and deepest responses. We were the first and only voluntary non-governmental medical team south of the Andamans in the Nicobars.
posted by Ashwin Mallipatna at
10:00 AM
