April 19, 2015
Dr. Ahmed Shadoul,I am a member of the Southern Yemen-American Forum (New York) and I am writing to inform you that the public hospitals in Aden are currently struggling to cope with the influx of wounded because they are facing a long-standing severe shortage in medicine and supplies.
We have been in contact with Dr. AbdulNasser A. Alwali (967 73 379 1544), who has recently been appointed as Chairman of the Medical Committee in Aden, and he describes the health situation in Basheeb Military Hospital, Al Joumhourah Teaching Hospital, Al Sadyakka Hospital and May 22 Hospital as catastrophic. They are currently overwhelmed with patients, which have far exceeded their capacity since the beginning of this crisis. They are under staffed, as the danger from indiscriminate snipers have restricted the staff’s ability to safely reach the hospitals from their homes. More disconcerting, there has been no officials from the Ministry of Public Health or non-governmental organization to assess their current situation and provide them the needed relief.
From the onset of the crisis in Yemen (March 19th) up to the date of writing this letter, approximately 158.6 and 1.7 tons of essential medicine and supplies has been delivered to Sana’a and Aden, respectively. However, according to the report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (15 Apr 2015), part of the 92 ton UNICEF shipment, which was airlifted to Sana’a on April 10th and April 14th, are intended for Aden "although access by road and sea is currently extremely difficult.” And this is a problem because the portal city is currently entrapping 1 million victims at the center of the worst fighting. Furthermore, we have been sent a report, which I have attached, stating that they have been allocating their quickly depleting supplies to locations that span throughout the southern region of Yemen, as they are also facing severe shortages.
It is our sincere hope that you will look into this matter and if there is anything that you would like us to do, we are more then prepared to help.
Thank you for your time.
Yours Respectively,
Omran Alsalahi
M.D. candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School
M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
April 19, 2015
Dear Omran, Thank you so much for writing to me and for offering help. I cannot agree more with you regarding the devastating situation in Yemen in general and Aden in particular. On top of this, the mass population movement and IDPs continued to be a threat for the health sector in terms of expected disease outbreaks and epidemics. Shortage of water is another hurdle. Electricity cut is affecting the health facilities and the cold chain to maintain a reasonable temperature for the vaccine and we can go on and on. However even before the recent crisis, we in WHO continued and will continue to support the stretched health system to maintain functioning. WHO has a team of ten staff and a suboffice in Aden. We were supplying all the drugs, medical equipment, supplies and blood bags and reagents with all their needs during the previous time and will continue. We were even providing ICRC and MSF with their medical needs. This support is coordinated through Dr El Khidir, director of health Aden and directors of hospitals. It is not only Aden, we continued to address the needs in Abyan, Lahj and Aldalea and even Almokalla. Sir, we do have our warehouse there, covering the whole south. We recently manage to prestock our warehouse with additional medicines, supplies and equipment. However it is becoming very difficult to maintain prompt timely support specially with transportation. Whatever efforts being done will not be able to satisfy the growing needs of the health system and the staff who are definitely over stretched and exhausted. So I look forward for your support as diasporas to mobile further resources and professionals to further boost efforts on the ground I am copying here Dr Mohamed Kolaise, WHO Emergency Officer and Dr Nasreen Sayani, WHO Operation Officer who are leading our teams there for further support. They can be contacted at any time Let us pray for Yemen and the people of Yemen Best regards,Dr Ahmed Shadoul
April 20, 2015
Dr. Mohamed Kolaise,Yesterday, after I received Dr. Ahmed Shadura email detailing the current WHO relief efforts in Aden, I informed Dr. Abdul Nasser A. Alwai (967 73 379 1544), the Chairman of the Medical Committee in Aden, who is currently in charge of the four major public health facilities in Aden (Basheeb Military, Al Joumhourah, Al Sadyakka, May 22 Hospital) that the nearby WHO warehouse has been pre-stoked with medicine, supplies and equipments but have been difficult to transport. Therefore, I proposed that he organize a group of people and contact you, and Dr. Nasreen Sayani, as a solution, to promptly allocate the disparately needed relief throughout the public hospitals in Aden.
However, Dr. Alwai has informed me that you have met with him and have assured him that all of the aid has been provided to the Red Cross, but they have been pressured by the Houthi militias to not provide any relief to the public hospitals in Aden. In addition, Dr. Alwai requested that you procure any available medicine and supplies directly to him, however, there is a very small quantity at this time, as all of the shipments are still in Sana’a.
Now, as I am sure you are aware by now, all of Aden's public hospitals are currently housing more patients then the number of beds they hold. Therefore, when do you think that the warehouse will be re-stoked with medicine/supplies and will you be able to provide what is needed directly to Dr. Alwai to avoid the barriers created by the Houthi militias?
We will be meeting with UN representatives soon, including OCHA, and we want to inform them the public health facilities in Aden are not receiving a fair amount of the aid due to the reasons discussed above. Therefore please let me know if this information is accurate.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.
Yours Respectively,
Omran Alsalahi
M.D. candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School
M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
330.221.0063
April 20, 2015
Erich Orgoso,
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today.
I am a member of the Southern Yemen-American Forum (New York) and I am writing to inform you that the public hospitals in Aden are currently struggling to cope with the influx of wounded because they are facing a long-standing severe shortage in medicine and supplies.
We have been in contact with Dr. AbdulNasser A. Alwali (967 73 379 1544), who has recently been appointed as Chairman of the Medical Committee in Aden, and he describes the health situation in Basheeb Military Hospital, Al Joumhourah Teaching Hospital, Al Sadyakka Hospital and May 22 Hospital as catastrophic. They are currently overwhelmed with patients, which have far exceeded their capacity since the beginning of this crisis. They are under staffed, as the danger from indiscriminate snipers have restricted the staff’s ability to safely reach the hospitals from their homes. More disconcerting, there has been no officials from the Ministry of Public Health or non-governmental organization to assess their current situation and provide them the needed relief.
From the onset of the crisis in Yemen (March 19th) up to the date of writing this letter, approximately 228.6 and 1.7 tons of essential medicine and supplies has been delivered to Sana’a and Aden, respectively. However, according to the report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (15 Apr 2015), part of the 92 ton UNICEF shipment, which was airlifted to Sana’a on April 10th and April 14th, are intended for Aden "although access by road and sea is currently extremely difficult.” And this is a problem because the portal city is currently entrapping 1 million victims at the center of the worst fighting. Furthermore, we have been sent a report, which I have attached, stating that they have been allocating their quickly depleting supplies to locations that span throughout the southern region of Yemen, as they are also facing severe shortages.
Yesterday, after I was able to contact Dr. Ahmed Shadura (WHO representative for Yemen email copied at the bottom of this letter), I informed Dr. Abdul Nasser A. Alwai, who is currently in charge of the four major public health facilities in Aden that the nearby WHO warehouse has been pre-stoked with medicine, supplies and equipments, but have been difficult to transport. Therefore, I proposed that he organize a group of people and contact Dr. Mohamed Kolaise, and Dr. Nasreen Sayani, who are the WHO staff currently working in the area, to promptly allocate the disparately needed relief throughout the public hospitals in Aden.
Dr. Alwai was able to meet with Dr. Kolaise, but he assured him that all of the aid has been provided to the Red Cross. Furthermore, he informs Dr. Alwai that the Red Cross has been pressured by the Houthi militias to not provide any relief to the public hospitals in Aden. In addition, Dr. Alwai requested if he can be procure any available medicine and supplies directly from him, at that time he was provided only a small amount of supplies because he was told that this was all the supplies available, as all the shipments are currently in Sana’a.
It is my sincere hope that you will look into this matter and that you attempt to contact Dr. Alwai so that you can assess their current health situation. More importantly, we hope that you will be able to provide any relief as soon as possible. And our organization is prepared to help in anyway.
Thank you for your time.
Yours Respectively,
Omran Alsalahi
M.D. candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School
M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
April 20, 2015
Dear Omran
Thank you for contacting OCHA. As you rightly describe, the situation in Aden is extremely difficult. Humanitarian partners are working very hard under difficult circumstances to support response to the crisis. As OCHA, our role is to help organize these efforts, mobilize funding and advocate. For this matter, I'd suggest you be in touch with the Health Cluster coordinator (Iman Ahmed***); you can also read more about efforts currently under way (and challenges) in our regular reports, all of which are available on ReliefWeb. http://reliefweb.int/country/yem?source=1503#content
Best regards ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------John RatcliffeHumanitarian Affairs OfficerUN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
April 22, 2015
Iman Ahmed,
We have been in contact with Dr. AbdulNasser A. Alwali, who has recently been appointed as Chairman of the Medical Committee in Aden. Dr. Alwali is currently in charge of the four major public health facilities in Aden. He describes the health situation in Basheeb Military Hospital, Al Joumhourah Teaching Hospital, Al Sadyakka Hospital and May 22 Hospital as catastrophic. They are currently overwhelmed with patients, which have far exceeded their capacity since the beginning of this crisis. They are under staffed, as the danger from snipers targeting civilians and health workers indiscriminately have restricted the staff’s ability to safely reach hospitals from their homes. More disconcerting, there has been no officials from the Ministry of Public Health or non-governmental organization to assess their current situation and provide them the needed relief.
From the onset of the crisis in Yemen (March 19th) up to the date of this letter, approximately 244.1 and 1.7 tons of essential medicine and supplies has been delivered to Sana’a and Aden, respectively. However, after reviewing the recent reports on ReliefWeb, it seems that it has been difficult to deliver shipments from Sana’a to Aden. This is a problem because the nearly 1 million people are currently trapped in Aden, the center of the worst fighting. Furthermore, we have been sent a report stating that they have been allocating their quickly depleting supplies to locations that span throughout the southern region of Yemen, as they are also facing severe shortages.
On April 19th, we emailed Dr. Ahmed Shadura (WHO Representative for Yemen) to inform him of their situation. Following his response (see email at the bottom), we notified Dr. Alwali that the nearby WHO warehouse has been pre-stocked with medicine, supplies, and equipment but may have been difficult to transport to them. We proposed that he organize a group of people and contact Dr. Mohamed Kolaise (WHO Emergency Officer) and Dr. Nasreen Sayani (WHO operation Officer), both of which are currently working in the area, to promptly allocate the desperately needed relief throughout the public hospitals in Aden.
Dr. Alwali was able to meet with Dr. Kolaise that same day. However, he was told that most of the aid has already been procured to the Red Cross and that they (the Red Cross) have been pressured by the Houthi militias to not provide any relief to the public hospitals in Aden. Dr. Alwali had then requested if he can be provided any available medicine and supplies from what was available; he received a very small amount and he was told by Dr. Kolaise that all of aid shipments are currently in Sana’a.
Therefore, when do you think that the warehouse will be re-stoked with medicine/supplies and can they be procured directly to Dr. Alwai considering that he has been appointed to organize their effective and timely allocation to the health facilities and clinics in Aden?
Our organization, the South Yemeni Youth Forum (New York), is prepared to help coordinate the response capacities in Aden in order to mitigate the humanitarian consequences for civilians there. And we hope that you will contact Dr. AbdulNasser Alwali (+967733791544) because we would like you to, at the very least, be fully aware of their current situation.
Thank you for your time and the continuous support for the Yemeni people.
Yours Respectfully,
Omran Alsalahi
M.D. candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School
M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
April 22, 2015
Omran Alsalahi
Your message is well received and shared with our concerned offices.
I will get feedback and inform you.
Dr. Iman Ahmed
Health Cluster Coordinator
WHO Emergency Coordinator
Yemen
April 22, 2015
Dear Mr. Omran Alsalahi
Please see below in response to your message and do not hesitate to share with us any concerns.
Dr. Iman Ahmed
Health Cluster Coordinator
WHO Emergency Coordinator
-------- Original message --------
From: Mohamed Kolaise
Date:22/04/2015 21:37 (GMT+02:00)
To: "AHMED, Iman"
Cc: "SHADOUL, Ahmed","AL-EMAD, Mohammed", Osan Ghazi, Nasreen Sayani
Dear Dr Iman
I have good coordination with Dr Dr. AbdulNasser A. Alwali (967 73 379 1544), Chairman of the Medical Committee in Aden, I met him 3 times last meeting today 11 AM in 22 May Hospital he requested some essential drugs for one polyclinic in ADEN and Radfan District hospital Lahje and I gave him from our separate store located in the same hospital.
Best Regards
On Wednesday, April 22, 2015 7:50 AM, "AHMED, Iman" wrote:
Please review and let us discuss urgently.
Thanks
Dr. Iman
Sent from Samsung Mobile
-------- Original message --------
From: Omran Alsalahi
Date:22/04/2015 04:46 (GMT+02:00)
To: "AHMED, Iman"
Iman Ahmed,
We have been in contact with Dr. AbdulNasser A. Alwali, who has recently been appointed as Chairman of the Medical Committee in Aden. Dr. Alwali is currently in charge of the four major public health facilities in Aden. He describes the health situation in Basheeb Military Hospital, Al Joumhourah Teaching Hospital, Al Sadyakka Hospital and May 22 Hospital as catastrophic. They are currently overwhelmed with patients, which have far exceeded their capacity since the beginning of this crisis. They are under staffed, as the danger from snipers targeting civilians and health workers indiscriminately have restricted the staff’s ability to safely reach hospitals from their homes. More disconcerting, there has been no officials from the Ministry of Public Health or non-governmental organization to assess their current situation and provide them the needed relief.
From the onset of the crisis in Yemen (March 19th) up to the date of this letter, approximately 244.1 and 1.7 tons of essential medicine and supplies has been delivered to Sana’a and Aden, respectively. However, after reviewing the recent reports on ReliefWeb, it seems that it has been difficult to deliver shipments from Sana’a to Aden. This is a problem because the nearly 1 million people are currently trapped in Aden, the center of the worst fighting. Furthermore, we have been sent a report stating that they have been allocating their quickly depleting supplies to locations that span throughout the southern region of Yemen, as they are also facing severe shortages.
On April 19th, we emailed Dr. Ahmed Shadura (WHO Representative for Yemen) to inform him of their situation. Following his response (see email at the bottom), we notified Dr. Alwali that the nearby WHO warehouse has been pre-stocked with medicine, supplies, and equipment but may have been difficult to transport to them. We proposed that he organize a group of people and contact Dr. Mohamed Kolaise (WHO Emergency Officer) and Dr. Nasreen Sayani (WHO operation Officer), both of which are currently working in the area, to promptly allocate the desperately needed relief throughout the public hospitals in Aden.
Dr. Alwali was able to meet with Dr. Kolaise that same day. However, he was told that most of the aid has already been procured to the Red Cross and that they (the Red Cross) have been pressured by the Houthi militias to not provide any relief to the public hospitals in Aden. Dr. Alwali had then requested if he can be provided any available medicine and supplies from what was available; he received a very small amount and he was told by Dr. Kolaise that all of aid shipments are currently in Sana’a.
Therefore, when do you think that the warehouse will be re-stoked with medicine/supplies and can they be procured directly to Dr. Alwai considering that he has been appointed to organize their effective and timely allocation to the health facilities and clinics in Aden?
Our organization, the South Yemeni Youth Forum (New York), is prepared to help coordinate the response capacities in Aden in order to mitigate the humanitarian consequences for civilians there. And we hope that you will contact 3791544) because we would like you to, at the very least, be fully aware of their current situation.
Thank you for your time and the continuous support for the Yemeni people.
April 24, 2015
Dr. Iman Ahmed,
First of all I would like to thank you for your support and prompt investigation.
I have forwarded your email, including your exchange with Dr. Mohamed Kolaise, to Dr. Alwai on “WhatsApp”–as they do not have access to the internet at this time–and he wanted me to deliver this message to you:
4/22/15, 9:41:31 PM: د. عبد الناصر الوالي: Dear Dr. Iman
Thanks for your response. I have meet mr. M. A. Kolaise on 21 of April. We discussed the possibility of supporting us by some surgical and gynecological kits and other medical materials to cover the shortage in all the hospitals and poly clinics in Aden,Abean ,Lahj and Adaleh. Mr. Koliase mentioned that WHO now has a shortage in there stores and the only thing I received from him is two cartons no. 13
I am very sorry for that but our hospitals now overcrowded and our patients suffering.
Great respect
Dr. A.Alwaly
Head of the higher public medical committee -Aden
Furthermore, he informs me that all of the medical staff are tired and exhausted. The Red Cross and MSF staff are very limited in number and do not work constantly due to the security conditions; they are in desperate need of more medical supplies and they are concerned that what has been delivered to Sana’a will only stay in Sana’a. Most of the support that the medical staff has received has been internal (donations which has been provided by the local citizens).In addition, some of the hospitals (including Al-Jumhuria) have been under siege and just before yesterday, one of their ambulances was targeted by the militias, luckily, the driver and the passenger were able to escape safely.
We hope that your office will be able to come up with a solution to deliver what is needed and in a timely matter. At this point, having to deal with a constant shortage, while exhausted, will only make them want to give up–which will be a disaster considering that too many patients are relying on their care at this time.
Once again we appreciate your continuous support.
Yours Respectfully,
Omran Alsalahi
M.D. candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School
M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
May 22, 2015
Dr. Iman Ahmed,
I have just been in contact with Dr. AbdulNasser Alwali (+967733791544) and they needs medicine and supplies for a number of health facilities. Furthermore, he informs me that the WHO officers in the area have not been coordinating with him to ensure that critical gaps in response and unmet needs are identified. Therefore, please have them work with him because he is the local health authority there and currently has oversight on a number of critical health facilities in the southern and eastern Governorates, which includes: Aden, Abyan, Lahj, Al Dhale’e, Shabwah, Hadramaut and Al Maharah.
And if security and access remain major concerns in that region, then again they need to inform him of this and I am sure that he can figure out means to overcome this barrier. Otherwise, failure to work with him will make this already dire humanitarian situation worse.
Thank you for your time and continuous support.
Omran Alsalahi
M.D. candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School
M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
M.D. candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School
M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
May 25, 2015
Dr. Iman Ahmed,
We would just like you to know that yesterday, Dr. Mohamed Kolaise had kindly met with Dr. Abdulnasser and they had a productive meeting. Among many things discussed, they agreed to maintain strong communication in order to enhance cooperation and improve joint-action. Therefore, we thank your team for promptly responding to their grievances.
In terms of the cluster approach, it is not a one size fit all. The health crisis in Yemen is historically deep and geographically broad with many complex problems in a very complex setting.
Once again we thank your team for all their support and efforts.
Kind regards,
Omran
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