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Saturday, January 28, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 105
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DOCTORS, HEALERS AT ‘GROUND ZERO’
After 5 years of providing medical care for Marawi siege survivors, MSF hands over task to local communities
MARAWI City, five years after the siege
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MSF/ELY SOK
T has been five years since the siege of Marawi displaced 98 percent of the city’s population. Since the conflict, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has provided care for the people of Marawi, and adapted our activities to the changing needs of the communities. In December 2022, with the acute and post-emergency phases of our medical response over, Doctors Without Borders decided to close its project and hand over activities to local health actors. As activities come to an end, Doctors Without Borders patients and staff look back at five years in Marawi.
motorcycle, I thought it was a helicopter. Next thing I knew, it was morning, the sun had risen, and I hadn’t been able to sleep.”
Supporting the displaced
BY July 2017, Doctors Without Borders launched a project to assist people who had been forced to flee their homes in the fighting. Doctors Without Borders provided support with water and sanitation and psychological first aid for a total of 11,000 people living in evacuation centers in Marawi and the surrounding region. Dr. Natasha Reyes was the emergency response support manager at the time. “The first part of the Doctors Without Borders response was to make sure people had access to free and Continued on A2
The Marawi siege
THE medical team at Olo-Ambolong health station. MSF/REGINA LAYUG ROSERO
By Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Editor’s Note: When the infamous Marawi Siege—a dark chapter that one prays will never be repeated—happened in 2017, one of the major responders to the crisis was the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The siege lasted five months, with over 350,000 locals forced out of their homes. In the aftermath of the siege, Doctors Without Borders responded with access to free and clean water, mental health and psycho-social support, and primary healthcare. It has worked in clinics in three transitory shelters, as well as in the main City Health Office, providing primary healthcare from 2018 onwards. As emergency needs decreased, health issues from long before the siege resurfaced, mostly non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Still, MSF notes, local authorities now have better capacity to provide for people’s health needs. In December 2022, five years after the siege, Doctors Without Borders closed its project and handed over its activities to local health authorities. Here, they share their experience in Marawi.
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FIVE months of armed conflict completely destroyed the city center. “Marawi’s city center, called ‘Ground Zero’, looked like pictures in the news from Mariupol or Mosul,” says Aurélien Sigwalt, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in the Philippines. The conflict and destruction had a great impact on the local population. “I only really got sick after the Marawi siege, because of our problems and fears,” recalls Doctors Without Borders patient Rasmia Magompara. “We had evacuated during the siege, with no belongings, no money. All we had was what was in our pockets and what we were wearing. With all our fears and problems, every time I hear a
n JAPAN 0.4184 n UK 67.6122 n HK 6.9599 n CHINA 8.0431 n SINGAPORE 41.5291 n AUSTRALIA 38.7585 n EU 59.3472 n KOREA 0.0442 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.5142
Source: BSP (January 27, 2023)