Kris had a final comment about RYLA. There are 4 spots to be sponsored by our Charleswood Rotary Club. Max Kurtz has one spot, the other 3 were going to be used by Diane Redsky, Executive Director of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre. Several attempts at contact have been made with no return call or email. There may be an issue of them being very busy taking care of the evacuees from Northern reserves, due to wild fires. There are 11 unfunded students registered for RYLA. The funds will be used.

 

Jim Forestell introduced our speaker for the evening, Diane Hyra-Kuzenko, saying that it is always a pleasure to introduce a member of the Canadian Armed Forces (C.A.F.) – even if they are army! Diane is retired from the C.A.F. after 9 years of service. She retired in 2014 and joined the Canadian Red Cross. She is a Peri-Operative Nurse for the Red Cross as well as a casual nurse working in St. Boniface and Seven Oaks Hospitals.

 

Diane gave a big thank you to Rod Delisle for inviting her to our club to make a presentation. She commends Rotary for all the work that we do, especially with the youth. Diane joined the C.A.F. when she was 49 years old with a nursing degree. During her 9 years of service, she spent 5 years training. Then she was deployed to Afghanistan and into Asia. She has joined the Canadian Red Cross after retirement, had a ride along with S.T.A.R.S., volunteered for the Vancouver Olympics and a multitude of other large venue gatherings.

 

She works with the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) through Ottawa (provincial Red Cross has no medical need for nurses such as herself). She can end up working anywhere in the world. The call for help goes to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters in Geneva, then SMS to Germany, Norway, Finland, Canada as the need calls for. If Canada is called upon, the call will go out to all delegates to arrange who will go on the 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd rotation. When she first joined the CRC, she had intense training, mostly regarding the Geneva Convention rules. They are not allowed to carry weapons of any kind.  

 

The Mission Statement of the Canadian Red Cross;

The CRC was founded in 1896, there are now 3,000 employees and 17,000 volunteers. In 2016/2017 the CRC assisted 2,810,000 people. There are 136 experts in 32 countries.

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was founded in 1863. It is the largest humanitarian movement in the world. It is made up of 100 million members, volunteers and supporters. The Geneva Convention Rules, under which the ICRC works, does not apply when ISIS, Boko Haram, or Taliban are involved in the fighting. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a global humanitarian network that helps those facing disaster, conflict and health and social problems. It consists of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies (RCS) and the 190 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The red cross, red crescent and red crystal emblems provide protection for military medical services and relief workers in armed conflicts.

They must wear their vest at all times.

 

The Mission Statement of the ICRC;

 

The Red Cross and Red Crescent has seven fundamental principles that guide all decisions and programs. These principles are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. The principle of independence is key to upholding the other fundamental principles. Operating independently allows the ICRC to provide humanitarian assistance impartially, without political or ideological pressures. It also means that the ICRC can provide neutral aid without having to pick sides. Universality means that they can go anywhere in the world to provide aid and assistance. The volunteers are provided with some reimbursement for expenses related to travel, for the most part. Food and accommodation is usually provided at the aid site.

 

When they arrive at a field hospital, they work with the local staff. Diane has trained doctors in Bangladesh how to properly initiate an I.V.. English is the language used in all deployments, no matter where in the world they are working.

 

The crisis in Myanmar;  Rohingya Muslims represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in Rakhine state. They have their own language and culture and say they are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for generations. The government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, denies the Rohingya citizenship refusing to recognise them as a people. It sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

 

The latest exodus began on 25 August 2017 after Rohingya Arsa militants launched deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts. Rohingyas arriving in an area known as Cox's Bazaar - a district in Bangladesh - say they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, responded by burning their villages and attacking and killing civilians. The camp has grown from 650,000 refugees to 1,000,000 refugees now. As they are trying to flee, they are getting injured as well. Most of the refugees are pregnant females with children. They are overcrowded in the camp, this can lead to fighting amongst themselves causing more injury.

 

The military is there in the camp to de-weaponize the arriving refugees. The local police are corrupt and looking to make money through numerous illegal actions. You must have the correct VISA, or you could end up in jail and deported. Canada made sure the Red Cross workers from Canada had A2 VISA`s.

 

The water is used for all living requirements in the camp. The stream is very contaminated and can lead to typhoid. It is now the monsoon season which will not end until October or November. Everything is constantly wet. This will also lead to further diseases. It can be very hot during the day; 36 C is common. The mosquito problem is incredible. The CRC workers have mosquito netting as part of their tent structure. They must keep that enclosure zipped at all times! The mosquitoes can carry Dengue Fever. The CRC camp is placed on a rubber plantation. When first set-up, the camp had poisonous snakes. The ground was eventually covered with very coarse black gravel from China. Something with this ground cover made the snakes disappear. Another source of grave injury and death were the Tuk-Tuk drivers. These are small trucks that drove people and goods around at incredible speed. The CRC workers had to always tell their drivers to slow down, they wanted to arrive alive. The people running the social spaces were great. They gave the workers a place to unwind, one area was labelled `Psycho & Anti-Social Support`.

 

Diane recalled one night at about 4 am that she had to get up and walk over to the latrine area. During her walk she heard heavy foot steps outside of the ICRC snow fence line that was erected around the workers tents. It became evident that she was hearing a wild elephant walking it`s migration route that happened to be right through the refugee site. Security for the ICRC site scared the elephant away from them, but the elephant went right through the refugees. The result was 30 injured and 4 dead Rohingya. This was captured on video and exists on YouTube.

 

The Hospital tent was covered in plastic material and would have been impossible to work in if not for 2 AC units trying to keep it cool in the O.R. setting. During a surgical procedure the patient was allowed to have one family member present in the O.R. as well as an interpreter. There were always a lot of children with injuries. People with leg injuries were helped by the people from Handicap International. 80% of the patients were females and the usual situation was a long labour with no birth. Then an emergency C-section would have to be done to save the mother, the baby was usually already dead. Deworming was a major treatment need over and over, due to the lack of proper sanitation and proper food & water.

 

At the end of a long, busy hot day there was still the decontamination and sterilization tasks to do. Each different site that Diane went to over the years seemed to have different equipment to do these tasks with. Always having to be current and aware of the procedures for the changing equipment.

 

There was a long list of environmental risk factors that kept you on your toes. These included but were not limited to; elephants, snakes, Call to Prayer (started at 5am until 12 midnight), screaming monkeys (3:00am to 3:20am), mosquitoes, monsoon rains.

 

 

Q/A.

 

1.-Jack Wilson inquired regarding how long a CRC deployment usually is?

A.- 4 to 6 weeks then usually want you to go home before re-deploying if you are willing. It takes 22 to 26 hours of travel time to get to Bangladesh. She travels with the Emergency Response Kit from the CRC as well as “Courage, Knowledge and Skill”. Clothing is quick dry as you have to wash clothing late at night after all other O.R. washing is completed.

 

2.-Glenda Werbowski asked how many CRC members travel together for each deployment?

A.- This will vary depending on the destination. When she went to South Sudan there were 12 traveling together. Usually Diane travels by herself to the destinations.  The Iraq deployment was 6 weeks of hell. ISIS was known to be only 2 hours away from their position in a Kurdish Hospital. Very nice facility but the Muslim men working there were not happy with a white female telling them what to do. Anyone that came in with numbers tattooed to their arms had to have them wrapped over like a wound dressing to protect them from violence.

 

Darvin Jasper thanked Diane for her engaging presentation. Darvin advised that he was ex-Navy, so 3 Arms of the Canadian Armed Forces in the room with Jim Forestell representing the Air Force. Diane was advised that a donation in her name would be made to ShelterBox.