Published 02/02/2010 13:02
Edited 02/02/2010
13:33
Often, he has had only a couple of hours of sleep between getting up once or twice a night to receive arriving aid planes. Last night, his alarm clock went off at 3.30 a.m., when a plane transporting aid supplies from France was due to arrive.
- My job is to coordinate the aid arriving in Haiti by plane from the entire Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, to make sure the supplies keep moving and that the aid reaches its recipients, says Pauli Immonen.
Pauli Immonen is a trained pilot who has been working for the Red Cross since 2005. Having worked in Chad, the Sudan, Pakistan and Geneva, he is now part of the International Red Cross logistics team of nine people in Port-au-Prince. Another four logisticians are based in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
Cooperation with the US Air Force
The airport in Port-au-Prince has been controlled by the US Air Force since the devastating earthquake struck Haiti. Carriers book plane landing times, or slots, with the Air Force Southern Command in Miami, Florida. The International Red Cross is informed of arrival times through its regional logistics centre in Panama.
Red Cross aid supplies and aid workers are arriving in Haiti on 96 planes. Of them, some 44 have already arrived: 26 have landed in Port-au-Prince and 18 in Santo Domingo. Three to four planes a day arrive carrying Red Cross aid, with one or two of those landing in Santo Domingo.
- Four planes an hour can land at Port-au-Prince airport, where there is only one runway. The parking lot and storage areas are very small, which is why some of the planes have to land in Santo Domingo, Immonen explains.
To keep up to date on plane arrivals and possible cancellation slots, Immonen meets daily with representatives of the US Air Force. The more Red Cross planes can land in Haiti rather than the Dominican Republic, the quicker the aid reaches Haitians in need.
When the Finnair plane carrying Finnish and German aid workers for the Red Cross field hospital arrived in Haiti a week ago, it was Immonen who managed, at the eleventh hour, to get the Air Force to grant it landing permission in Port-au-Prince. Without his lobbying, the plane would have been directed to Santo Domingo.
- I was really pleased that I could speed up the arrival of the much needed field hospital, said Immonen.
Helping the weakest first
When a plane carrying aid supplies arrives at the airport, it is Pauli Immonen’s job to get the supplies unloaded and properly booked. As quickly as possible the supplies are then transferred to storage, where the group responsible for distributing the aid takes over.
- I make sure we have enough lorries to transport the supplies and that there is enough storage space. The Red Cross has its own temporary warehouse and guards at the airport.
So, how quickly does aid travel from, say, the Finnish Red Cross logistics centre in Kalkku in Tampere, Finland?
- In theory, we could get it here in 24 hours, but speed isn’t always the best way. The Red Cross distributes aid first to those who are worst off, such as old people, pregnant women and the handicapped. These people must be identified manually. That takes time. We don’t distribute aid by just throwing it out off an aeroplane, because that would result in the fastest and strongest getting the aid, says Immonen, outlining the Red Cross criteria for aid distribution.
Heat, dust and noise
Even for an experienced aid worker, Haiti is a challenging experience. Pauli Immonen, who spends most of his time at the airport, is constantly exposed to scorching heat, dust and the noise from aeroplanes.
- To begin with, it was really a physical challenge, as I didn’t have enough water, and had no shower or toilet. Now the facilities are better and my body has got used to the conditions.
Another challenge in Haiti has been that the support services normally available in a society were destroyed by the quake. With no electricity and no communications systems operational the work is a lot harder. In many previous situations money has solved such problems, but that is not possible in Haiti.
- After the earthquake in Pakistan, for instance, it was difficult to get the aid supplies to the people in need because of the mountains and snow. The problem was solved by bringing in helicopters. In Haiti, we can’t just build another runway and we have to live with the poor security situation.
- Despite all that, it’s a joy to be working when you are well-motivated and feel you're in your own field. That is energising. And, luckily, the hours I do get to sleep, I sleep like a log – I’m not disturbed by planes taking off, Immonen says as he returns to work.
Text and photos: Noora Kero / Finnish Red Cross
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