Connacht Tribune
Galway aid worker reveals scale of Haiti’s devastation
“Put out the child of Prague, it hasn’t stopped raining since I got here.” That was the first message from Galway woman Ailish O’Reilly, back to her family at home to let them know she had arrived safely at Les Cayes in Southern Haiti.
Her family have a good reason to be thinking of her – Les Cayes is along a peninsula that suffered a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on August 14.
By Elizabeth Garner and Jim Hynes
And the Woodford woman is based at an ophthalmology clinic, where the aftermath of this natural disaster are all too prevalent.
“We are all sleeping in tents on the hospital grounds. Some staff are sleeping in their cars since the earthquake,” she says.
“Down in the city, the residents close some roads at night and sleep out on the road where they feel safe. With the rain these past few days they have to find shelter somewhere but then they are too afraid to sleep.
“There is still heavy rainfall and alongside the high humidity it makes for damp and difficult living conditions. Most of the hospital staff have suffered serious damage to their homes or seen them completely destroyed,” she adds.
The earthquake destroyed many homes and businesses; to date, 2,189 deaths have been recorded with the numbers still rising.
There has been 12,168 or more injured and at least 650,000 people (more than the population of Belfast) in need of humanitarian assistance.
The civil defence are only now reaching remote villages cut off by a combination of landslides and damaged roads.
The devastation never gets easier to witness, but Ailish is at least experienced in crisis management.
In 2016, she was working in Haiti with Irish charity Haven when Hurricane Mathew hit, and the current crisis is one of many for a tiny country with a turbulent past.
Originally from Loughatorick near Woodford, Ailish first visited Haiti in 2009 with Haven – and after the 2010 earthquake, she and many other volunteers made a long-term commitment to engage with Haiti.
In 2012, this saw Ailish relocating there to work in community and economic development – which meant she was part of the emergency response project in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 storm that almost completely decimated agriculture across the region.
Innumerable houses were severely damaged – including her own – and Ailish worked alongside the local community and government to distribute materials for the repair and rebuild of houses. Much of this material was bought through donations from Ireland.
Despite 6,500km between Haiti and Galway, Ailish is keen to point out the many similarities.
“In many ways Haiti reminds me of my community at home, the usual complexities of close-knit rural areas where everyone knows everyone,” she says.
“Young people leaving for work or if they are lucky to further their education. The older generation bridging the gap between cultural traditions and a modern society, wise enough to see that development is not always progress. And community is everything, just like in my home parish of Woodford.”
Ailish is currently based at an ophthalmology clinic in Les Cayes, tasked with re-opening the hospital to receive patients, restarting surgery and working with other health services to alleviate hospital overcrowding.
Institut Brenda Strafford has been in the region since 1982, with a mission to provide high quality, person-centred, professional Ophthalmology and Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) services to the people in Haiti.
Ailish explains the present crisis.
“We are currently waiting on an engineer’s report to identify which parts of the buildings are safe to reopen. Until then we are using our external waiting room for all consultations and emergency surgery,” she says.
“No one wants to sleep indoors as there are aftershocks and everyone is very frightened.”
And the risks are ongoing – but she is inspired by the fortitude of others.
“Thankfully all the staff are safe, but they have all lost relatives and friends. It is a testament to their courage that they had emergency services working the day after the earthquake and have been working every day since. But then that courage is typical of Haiti.”
She is proud too of the fact that Ireland is also continuing its long support for Haiti. NPH-Ireland.org are equipped to provide essential services and provide a children’s clinic in the region.
Alongside these and other Haitian groups is Irish-based Haiti Orphanage Project ‘Espwa’ – which simply means hope. They ship containers of aid to Haiti, packing only what is asked for, to ensure their efforts are genuinely helping.
Response to an initial request for support has been so quick that Woodford Parish Development and the wider Woodford community organised a collection for Haiti, which tool place at the weekend.
People can support by making a donation to help pay for the shipping containers via www.4Haiti.ie.
Connacht Tribune
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Connacht Tribune
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Connacht Tribune
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.