The Long and Winding Road of Aid for Libya

I made a visit to Malta at the begining of July to see what the situation was for aid to Libya. I travelled without knowing much about it because the difficult security situation for the country had quite literally drawn a veil over it. The main place for aid packages or any aid from the UK tax payer was 'The I-Go-Aid Foundation' which was partly funded by DIFED the UK International Development Fund agency according to it's more proactive Bosnian side kick 'The International Medical Corps who managed the office. The building was nestled in one of the back streets of a suburb of Valetta and if you were not determined to unearth it you would not be an encouraged visitor. The office was tiny but had a veneer of UK funded respectability via the yellow marbled facade that was like other British expatriate buildings in places like the French Riviera. It screamed 'British Council' , but inside there were no UK English speakers.

The main volunteer Talal was half Libyan and German. He had helped set up another charity for bringing medical equipment into Libya. He could not give his second name for security reasons, but was cheerful and happy to do something after the nightmares he had had from seeing the wounded die, with no help. Intially he volunteered for 3 months to assist in the office in any way he could. Mostly he said he worked on export paper work and inventories but he was adamant that this was where he needed to be. The situation in hosptials was appalling and he admitted to nearly having had a nervous break over over it before he made the decision to become a committed volunteer there. It was a sacrfice - he left his job, upped sticks, leaving his wife and family back in Germany. His dedication was the glue that stuck the I-GO Aid Foundation together and without him its structure would be far less organised. But he was surrounded by other helpers, his principle supporter and perhaps silent boss was Emilio Vuksan, the Legistics Officer of the International Medical Corps. (IMC) I thought Emilio would stonewall me with excuses about security issues or that any attempt I would make to relay information about the aid situation to the UK would be blocked. On the contrary when he realised I had missed the I-Go Aid boat principally out of ignorance about its leaving times and costs, he tried to see if I could go on the Medicine Sans Frontier Medical Surgery Boat to Misrata. (People were encouraged to give a donation to travel on the boat and I had been told that should be around 400 for freelances with no media organisation behind them, but that issue should never have come up)

I awaited to see if his negotiations on my behalf might work. I settled down to waiting in the nice cheap hotel, where he had suggested I stay. I decided not to leave him off the hook but to make it clear to him I wanted to make a documentary about situation occuring with the wounded in Libya. He was a little taken aback but finally agreed to a one off unfilmed interview at a local cafe.

There he uncovered to me the hidden world of the field hospital pictures on his lap top showing just how bad it was there. At that time it was generally a secret except to the medical staff that on top of the 3 general hospitals in Misrata there was a military medical field hospital in Dafnyia treating as many as 40 casualties a day. It must be stressed before I go any further that these military style field hospitals were both for Oppostion and Gaddafi forces alike. The casualty figures would come out later from Reuters who dug underneath the facade. At that time Emilio admitted that the casualties were 'truly terrible'. It was not possible to provide adequate rehabilitation for the injured with lost limbs because of the rate of new casualties coming into the hosptials.

He said he had just helped to arrange 60 tonnes of medical supplies to be delivered to Benghazi in (July )for both the new injured in Mirata and those needing rehabilitation there. Such were the numbers appearing with amputated limbs Emilio was just about to embark on a project to get planes to fly form Benghazi to Misrata to begin to pick up the wounded. Eventually this project got going so that larger numbers were shipped out of Misrata. We discussed the stories that were happening to ordinary families who had lost sons in the war and how some families had tried to find their injured relations. Sadly Emilio was to tell me I would not be able to get on the MSF boat - he said it had left earlier than expected. Well I knew that it was not sensible to go on my own with no documentary crew and anyway I needed to find the funds to do it. I listened intently and realised that even after the war was over the personal tragedies of people trying to recover would still be there and for a considerable time afterwards. No-one could give their limbs back, find the missing or make false promises that the pain of that would all go away.

Indeed by the end of August the 60 tonnes of Medical supplies had run out according to the other aid agencies begging for more. It was obvious to me at the time that the I-Go Foundation's Boat was quite literally a drop in the Ocean when it came to the real requirement for aid which in reality were probably 100 times more than the UK tax payer and the Charity wing of the I-GO Aid Foundation was providing. It required a massive injection of international funds, which when they did finally arrive after the crisis in Tripoli, they were too late.

Other developments, lauded by the Aid Workers were the networks of Volunteer doctors of the 'exiled' Libyan community who had established 'rotas' to go to Libya to serve in Hospitals under siege. However the numbers that had come forward in this scheme mostly Canadian were not always sufficient for the task. They were often not correctly qualified for the responsible positions they took up and many could only stay off their regular Western jobs for a few weeks. Their voluntary work ranged from helpful to down righ dangerous in the case of the unqualified anethnetist who only had 5 weeks experience working in a hospital but yet who headed the Trauma aneathtesiology dept in a Misrata Hospital. Such schemes though well meaning got in the way of real doctors and surgeons from the real aid agencies arguing their case with their governments to get more medical help for Libya.

I thanked Emilio for his time and considered how it was that the press and media paid large sums to get on the small I-Go Aid foundation boat which took medical supplies and food to Misrata. Some paid as much as 2500 as a donation to the charity so they could report on the hostilies. I thought better of it and got down to holidaying in Malta, but it wasn't easy to forget because Malta's whole history was about the Hospital tradition of the Knights Templar that lent it's symbol of the Cross to the later creation of the organisation the Red Cross that was to provide the greatest protection to the injured in war over the years. It seemed not enough was being done. I wasn't sure how the 54 meter boat, going once a week could take enough supplies to Misrata to make any real difference.

Once I returned Reuters were able to point out the scale of the problem when they managed to get the IMC field officer Demetrios Mognei of Misrata to release the figures of casualties that amounted to 7848 over the six month period. At that time in July the deaths were 813 though since then the New York Times says there are over 1200 dead now.

The Foreign Office then gave the July figures for amputees in Misrata as 400 which Reuters said made up for 15% of the injuries. In Misrata Doctor Almouda of the physiotherapy clinic and The Association of Our Generation for Unity said 'It is only after the war is over that we will find out just how big the problem is here.'

Never a truer word was uttered and though the war is over, the battle to reclaim the Lost lives of Libya, has only begun.

The statistics above are only for Misrata, but the Wiki-pedia on line lists the number of deaths and casualties for all of Libya. Arguably these figures are likely to be inaccurate and instead those of the NTC as 30000 deaths are likely to be correct if the rate of casualties in Misrata was to be applied throughout Libya. In any case the reported deaths are 16,187 with around 4000 mssing with 6654 reported civilian deaths bring the considered deaths to be around 26,000 if these Wikipedia figures are correct.

The lessons to be learned of such piecemeal activities is that aid agencies particularly government ones must take responsiblity to coordinate in an intergrated way with the professionals of the UN, MSF and the IMC.Now the war is over the problems will not go away immediately for Libya. The limbless will still need rehabilitation and their houses will need rebuilt with new water and electricity plants. The aid now patched in By Clinton and Hague must reach the people and not be siffened off to expatriate and exiled channels. It must make its way to the heart of the people where it is needed.

Talal was the nicest person I spoke to all year. He explained that even after the war was over he hoped the I-Go Foundation would continue with its aid because its raison d'etre was to help with the stabilization of the shattered Libyan communities. It seemed he thought I-Go would continue for at least a year after the war if not more because the needs were so great.

In the meantime if you want to help the aid effort in Libya you could donate to the I-Go Aid Foundation. Check them out at http://www.i-goaid.org or call 00 356 2134 3777 for more information. I would recommend I-Go Aid as an organisation to give funds to because thy will reach the people in most need of help.