The Hospital in Smar - June 28, 2011

The purpose of the trip last week to Tatooine (Southern Tunisia) was for Storm Energy's community initiative of providing medical supplies to the area.   Little did we know how great this need was.  Roy, Jamel and myself arrived to the hospital in "Smar", this region's medical centre hub for this region.

We met with the medical director, Dr. Ahmed Filali who took us on a tour of the facility prior to the arrival of the medical supplies.  Words can not describe how much these supplies were needed!  Broken beds, empty supply cupboards, few & well used patient care items ... not to mention the lack of basic items expected for a hospital centre, like medicines, diagnostic equipment, surgical supplies, etc.  I felt like I was in a WW1 surgical field hospital from the early 1900's!

This Dr. had been working in this hospital for the past 25 years and even though he could well leave to a more lucrative position in another area has chosen to stay because of the high need of medical services for the area.  Not unlike Canada's challenges in providing medical care to our northern-most communities.

We learned that due to it's geographical location, this region was not a priority area in Tunisia under the former regime, but also being so remote was "off the radar" for organizations such as the Red Cross.  It would take up to 4 years for a request for supplies to be filled!  So for instance, the dental treatment area had a supply table with a broken piece of glass that had been that way for many years. The dentist would have to be careful to place his equipment off to one side to avoid the sharp edges of the broken glass.

I took some pictures of the facility, some of the staff and especially of the supply truck that Storm gifted for the community.  Pay paticular attention to the smiles of the staff, my pictures are not good enough quality, but there were tears of joy in some of their eyes!  This will be a day none who were there will easily forget.

Dr. Filali drawing us a "map" showing the large region that this hospital services

Bashir, a Storm employee, was the key person who organized this initiative.  He is presenting a supply of medicine to Dr. Filali.  This medicine is to treat scorpion bites, common in this desert region.  Many people die each year for the lack of this medicine ... it only costs ~$30.00 a vial!  It's in a cooler as it must be kept refrigerated.

In one of the treatment rooms

Outside the facility

The Supply Truck Storm arranged.  That's Roy with Dr. Filali

This truck was packed full!  They couldn't have fit one more needle into it.  This photo was taken after they had already unloaded a couple of beds.

This is Roy again with the region's medical director (sorry, I didn't get his name)

The signs on the truck are "SVI" Storm Ventures International.  And, the main one is the Tunisian flag.

These are some of the nurses.  Know that it is not often you would see smiles as big as these!

I had also taken some video which shows much better the facility and the people involved.  However, I have not had success as yet in getting it uploaded to this blog.  I'll keep trying!  But to describe some of the donated items included:  There were medicines, computer equipment (yes, they did not even have internet access!), waiting room chairs & television, hospital beds, supply tables and general medical supplies.  These items will be distributed to this hospital as well as the medical facilities in the area that they service.