Haiti: providing a lifeline to the sick and wounded

Within seconds of the call coming through on his radio, 23-year-old Jude Celloge has instructed his team of Red Cross volunteers to be ready to evacuate a man and a woman to the local MSF clinic.

Red Cross volunteers in Haiti undertake particularly dangerous and stressful work as they evacuate the sick and wounded from the slums of Port-au-Prince, sometimes having to make life and death decisions over the telephone with gang leaders.

Although the levels of violence have decreased dramatically since the UNs major military offensive in March 2007 in Martissant and the capitals other notorious shanty town, Cité Soleil, with the killing and arrest of key gang leaders, the Red Cross continues to engage in dialogue with the remaining gang members to ensure that they respect the neutrality and impartiality of the emblem.

Sometimes, after a shoot-out, two gangs call us out to go and pick up their injured and I have to make the decision where to send the ambulance first, says Celloge, emphasizing that it is always the most serious cases that get priority.

Since the Red Cross ambulance service began at the end of March 2008, volunteers have evacuated over a thousand people. Most of them were women about to give birth or people with chronic illnesses.

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