National Nurses United

RoseAnn DeMoro Executive Director, National Nurses United A Answering the call RN response to Typhoon Haiyan reminds us how lucky the world is to have nurses s the heart-wrenching images crossed across our screens from the Philippines, one of our most important NNU programs was getting in motion as well. Our Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) put out a call, and once again the response was overwhelming. In little more than one week, nearly 3,000 RNs from all 50 states and even 19 countries had signed up to volunteer to provide hands-on disaster relief to those in the path of the super storm. Within a week, our first delegation, an advance team sent to see where our volunteers would be most effective and also to provide some direct care themselves, was already on the ground. The second delegation then set up camp in Roxas City on the northern end of Panay, an island slammed by Typhoon Haiyan (or Yolanda as it is known locally). In conjunction with area public health officials, physicians, provincial government officials, and community groups, these volunteers worked in temporary medical clinics that rotate among various barangays (inner city neighborhoods or districts) across Roxas City, providing wound care, vaccinations, antibiotics and other medications, and general basic medical care. Other teams have since followed. We've also been greatly facilitated by the birth of our international movement, Global Nurses United (GNU), earlier this year. Our GNU sister union, the Philippines Alliance of Health Workers, has worked with us daily to scout locations and work shoulder to shoulder in the clinics. Another GNU partner, the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association in Australia, is preparing to send RNs to work with our deployment. The need is obviously great. At least 4,400 died, with thousands more injured and missing. According to the Philippine disaster council, about 3 million people have NOVEMBER 2013 Bonnie Castillo, RN director of the Registered Nurse Response Network, stands at far right with other RNs at San Francisco International Airport as they send off the first team of nurses to the Philippines. been displaced with 400,000 living in nearly 2,000 evacuation centers. "What we've seen is total devastation," said RN Joseph Catindig, a member of our first deployment team. "People have lost their homes, lost their livelihood, lost their animals that helped with their livelihood. They only ask for a little. They need medical care. They lack medicine, lack nurses, lack doctors. In each area we go to, this is their plea, to help." At another rural site near Sara on Panay, RN Marti Smith describes how the economic livelihood for many, based on fishing and agriculture, has also been demolished. "The boats are destroyed. The agriculture they depend on, coconut, bananas, rice, coffee, is devastated. Banana and coconut trees are broken in half and gone. Coffee trees are gone too. Hills are deforested, which will cause big environmental problems and landslides. These peoples' livelihood is destroyed. They've lost not only their homes, but also their ability to feed their families." It's stories like this that have prompted our organization and nurses who work with us to act. It is that need to act that sparked W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G the creation of RNRN nearly a decade ago, first following a cataclysmic South Asia tsunami, then deployments after Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Sandy, and other calamities. If it seems that RNRN has been on call a lot, and that disaster is one of the few growth industries in troubled global economies, that's not an illusion. Poverty and economic inequality, of course, contribute greatly to a disproportionate impact among those slammed by the disasters. But the biggest culprit is climate change. Meteorologists and NASA scientists have called Haiyan/Yolanda the most destructive and powerful tropical cyclone ever to hit landfall. One reason, as noted by U.S. News and World Report, sub-surface ocean waters have been recorded at up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit above average, fueling the strength and size of the storm. Coincidentally, Haiyan/Yolanda hit during a meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Warsaw. The Philippines' lead climate negotiator, Yeb Sano, called the typhoon a "sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action and that Warsaw must muster the political will to address climate change."  But as representatives from the wealthiest nations, including the United States, continued to evade responsibility for being the principal producers of emissions that are a major factor in climate change, a group of 133 developing nations staged a walk out. In case anyone still wonders why NNU early this year announced our opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would further accelerate climate change, look at the faces in the Philippines today. "They have lost everything: clothing, belongings," said Michelle Vo, an RN member of the first team. "Many are sleeping on makeshift tents in the rain. We see (Continued on page 19) N AT I O N A L N U R S E 11

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