Soetwater today, 2 July 2008
Jul 3rd, 2008

I went to Soetwater today, a week after my last visit and the last report you received from me. It shocked me to see the deterioration that could clearly be observed in the space of one week. This applies to facilities (some of the tents were torn), to the critical issue of provisions (which have not really improved at all since my report a week ago), and most of all to the people themselves.Let me explain in more detail:

Requirements for babies and small children:

I spoke to the camp manager today. He explained that he had received “starter packs” for babies, which contain three or so nappies, as well as some food. He received 42 packs, but needs 150 per day.

There is still no tent properly equipped for the needs of infants, and there is very little food for babies. One of the key workers on the Soetwater site, Marti, was not available to speak to me because she had to go to Makro urgently to buy baby formula with money that had been donated privately. Someone at Makro was able to offer a discount that would make that donation stretch further.

Province is apparently still not supplying baby food or baby formula. There are about 60 children under the age of one year who need milk but don’t get what they need. Neither do the other 90 children aged 1 - 6 or so, who also don’t get what they need.

As someone said to me: How on earth do you give a child dry bread to eat, and nothing else?

Apparently the camp management was told, by Province, “If you want anything to go on that bread, it must come out of City’s pocket.” I can only report, and I write this down in the sincere hope that I must have misheard, that nobody could be this callous and uncaring, that I must be making a mistake in reporting this. I hope I am mistaken and would gladly apologise if it is so. Nobody would want to believe, and I don’t want to, that the well-being of people, of children moreover, could effectively be sacrificed to an inhumane extreme of political infighting and sheer stupidity and incompetence. Could I please be proved wrong by someone out there?

As I was walking through the upper camp, one of the remaining Muslim volunteers pleaded with me to get special milk formula for three babies that needed this urgently. One baby had not had any for 4 days, the other two not for two days. I contacted the people who had gone to Makro, to ask for this, and was assured that one of the main reasons they had made that shopping trip was to get what these especially vulnerable babies need. I then drove back to the volunteer to tell her this, and she beamed “God is good.” I felt ashamed.

Meals

These have not improved since last week. The supply is erratic - with the only cooked meal of the day sometimes being supplied after dark - in a camp where there is little electric lighting. The only other meal, when it is supplied, is dry bread and juice, or dry bread and water.

There is still no supply of fresh fruit or fresh vegetables, although today Marti and a colleague were busy buying some from their own resources - or from private donations.

Medical

For the refugees to be assured of the most basic care, the medical attention has to improve. There are doctors and nurses in the existing network who would be more than happy to serve as they did before - but the infrastructure of facilities has to be there, even if the medication has again to be brought in. The doctors would be prepared to see to the supplies, and would do so immediately, according to one of the key doctors I consulted after my visit. While I was at the camp, a nurse had also visited, but I did not manage to see her.

I did see a child with a savage burn wound on the leg, which looked to me as though it should have had more ongoing attention than it could get under the prevailing conditions.

It was also reported to me that one of the pregnant women was in severe distress during the night and could only be taken to hospital in the morning. I do not know more details.

People

My first impression was that people were more drawn, more desperate looking, had lost weight, had dark rings around their eyes, smiled much less, had lesions, blisters and sores in their faces - more than before, and looked more unkempt than before. How could it possibly be otherwise? The loss of hope also has physical manisfestations, quite apart from the lack of food.

While I was at the camp, a huge truck arrived from MSF with some of their personnel. They were handing out packs, each consisting of a large bucket with lid, a large plastic bowl and some hygiene requirements like soap, toothpaste, washcloths etc. In each pack there was also a blanket. There was a lot of interest in this and people streamed to line up for these gifts, then bearing them back to their tents. I watched this line-up of proud, formerly economically independent people, many of them professionals, many with special skills. Watching them line up for hand-outs had an unbearably degrading and humiliating aspect even for me, the observer. I wondered how much anger there must inevitably be at this assault on their dignity and humanity. However well meant and necessary, the charity is in the short term. What father of a family wants his wife and children to watch him line up for hand-outs? Not as a result of a natural disaster like an earthquake, but as a result of human failure, indifference and malice.

I don’t know whether we really understand what is happening in places like Soetwater.

from: Karin Chubb