Red Cross volunteers take aid to Laotian flood victims
The Singapore Red Cross sends advance teams to aid Laotian flood victims
Real estate analyst Jacqueline Ng, 28, was in Laos earlier this week to help victims of the flood caused by the collapse of the Xe Pien-Xe Namnoy Dam.
She was part of a three-member Singapore Red Cross (SRC) advance team that delivered relief supplies and assessed the situation before a second team went with more supplies.
While there, they saw a severely injured elderly farmer wandering around aimlessly with a blank expression on his face.
His wife was missing and this spurred the SRC team to do their best to help him and the other flood victims.
Miss Ng's full-time job involves writing reports in an air-conditioned office in Singapore. But the SRC volunteer spent five days at the city of Pakse tackling bad weather while delivering supplies.
Miss Ng told The New Paper it was her first mission.
She said: "It was quite chaotic. A thousand people queued up when we started giving out supplies. It feels unreal we are taking things for granted in Singapore."
The hydropower dam had collapsed last Monday releasing five billion cubic metres of water, the equivalent of more than two million Olympic-sized swimming pools, into six villages. It affected nearly 11,800 people, killing at least 26 with 34 missing.
INJURIES
Most of the evacuees climbed roofs and clung onto trees, resulting in many of their injuries.
The team, trained in disaster management, also included IT consultant Geraldine Aggarao, 36, and student Samuel Lee, 21.
They attended an eight-day overseas disaster deployment training course last year.
It was also the first mission for Mr Lee. He said: "It is very different from Singapore, where we complain about minor things when the Laotians do not even have toilets and roads."
They distributed 200 family-sized disaster management kits, comprising sanitary items, food, water, utensils, blankets and mats.
Over 1,000 evacuees are housed in Sanamxai Secondary School, with 30 to 40 people in each classroom, sharing six toilet facilities.
One challenge the team encountered was the maximum weight limit of the bridge en route to the evacuation site.
They had to repack the goods and make several trips there.
They stayed 35km away from the location - a two-hour drive.
A second SRC team left on Tuesday to deliver three ultra water filters that can each support 100 people, as well as mosquito nets to the evacuation site.
Miss Aggarao told TNP: "Many of the evacuees' futures are uncertain. They just hope to have a roof over their heads."
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
