The world has been repeatedly devastated by major natural catastrophes: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, avalanches of mud and snow, floods, droughts and forest fires, as well as man made disasters like famine, disease, epidemics, war and revolutions, fire, explosives, and other major emergencies such as industrial, chemical, nuclear, and biological, destruction. These catastrophes bring widespread devastation and massive loss of lives wherever they occur.

While most countries in the Northern Hemisphere have domestic programs that can control the result of such catastrophes — by providing acceptable levels of funding, also material and human resources – these elements are not available for most third world countries.

The tragic loss of lives and misery experienced by the peoples of the areas surrounding such disasters can be significantly reduced and even prevented by comprehensive, on-going and adequately funded programs geared toward training, prevention and rapid response to such catastrophes.

Doctors in Catastrophe ( DOC ), (more popularly known as M edicos en Catastrofe or MEC ) is an organization that was founded in Argentina by world-renowned physician, Dr. Horacio Abel Pasqualini . The purpose of this organization is to establish a program of rapid response to emergencies in third world countries whatever the cause that created them.

While most global organizations like U.N.H.C.R . (United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees) and O.I.M . (Organization International for the Migrations) are involved in projects similar to this, their response time is limited by burdensome administrative and bureaucratic concerns resulting in only twenty percent (20%) of the available resources being delivered to the affected areas in the form of aid. At the moment, The United Nations has no member organization, which can deal with such major disasters on a global scale. In fact, at present, there is no multi-national program designed to prepare and provide a well-trained and well-equipped taskforce response to such catastrophes in a comprehensive, effective and professional manner with the end-in-view of preventing any further loss of lives.

Medicos En Catastrofe ( MEC ) has, through the years since it was founded in 1993, been proactive in engaging in projects designed to ease the misery and tragedy that results from major catastrophes like war and famine.

The organization plans to establish an entity with a highly adaptable and flexible organizational structure that will maintain deployment centers located in key regions of the world where its services may be needed.

These centers will utilize advanced technology in the acquisition, storage and distribution of the required quantities of food, materials and medical supplies. They will develop a capable and well-trained taskforce consisting of both international and local human resources while limiting the administrative budget to not more than 6% of its total budget.

Medicos En Catastrofe is an Argentinean NGO (Non Governmental Organization), whose main objective is to “assist with primary health care to the people in need, wherever they are and under any circumstance” (diseases, belic conflicts, malnutrition, lack of health care, natural catastrophes, etc).

MEC deploys, in order to accomplish with this objective, medical and logistics activities, as humanitarian relief help, in times of emergency.

MEC operates worldwide with a minimum (basic) sanitary infrastructure, wherever humanitarian relief is needed: in high-risk areas, devastated by catastrophes, natural or human made, also in highly dangerous environments for MEC's teams, such as chemical, biological or radioactive disaster. The foundation is also prepared for the inevitable turmoil that results from chemical, industrial, nuclear, biological incidents either by accident or design (by terrorists, for example). In this case, the foundation must deal not only with the toll of these disasters on human lives but also with the environment as a whole.

Furthermore, MEC specially intends to be present, in all regions in which, those disasters have been produced and often occasion violent migrations of large segments of population. These include political and ethnic unrest that often gravitate in to full-scale war and revolution.

Intrinsic to all this, is the response time. MEC makes sure that all of its resources can be deployed at the shortest possible time from the moment the alarm is raised regarding a particular disaster.

One of the MEC 's fundamental goals in times of catastrophes is to bring back hope to the affected people. This is achieved by delivering basic relief services rapidly. These services can include the supply of medicines, psychological, pediatric and psycho-therapeutic assistance, efficient distribution of food and other nutritional resources, transport services for the efficient movement of personnel and equipment during the relief operations, proper management of the flow of refugees to and from affected areas, supply of personnel with technical experience, e.g., agricultural and technological fields.

It is important to note that MEC , in the pursuit of its primary function, which is to extend aid to areas where major catastrophes have occurred, is guided by a set of fundamental principles to wit:

•  Absolute neutrality
•  Universality
•  Respect of universal human rights
•  Respect of religious and ethnical differences
•  Respect of different political ideology

•  No interference in the internal affairs of the states and countries affected by the disaster

These same principles govern the behavior of all personnel of MEC . This ensures that MEC is able to perform its tasks optimally in areas where disasters have struck.

Medicos En Catastrofe (MEC) was founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1993.

Doctor Abel Horacio Pasqualini and Doctor Lydia Bilevich founded MEC as a Non Governmental Organization in Argentina on September 24, 1993.

Actually they continue with their work, and are responsible as heads of the missions accomplished by this Foundation ( M EC), in diverse regions of the world while in emergency situations, or where there is a minimum infrastructure of sanitary health conditions.

At the beginnings of 1997, after the end of the missions on Rwanda and Zaire, the vice-chairman of MEC , Mr. Ariel Umpierrez, resigned his chair and organized Solidaridad, a similar but different NGO.

MEDICOS EN CATASTROFE (MEC) is the only Latin-American NGO active all over the world, recognized and endorsed by the UN, and it's different departments: The High Commissioner of the United Nations for the Refugees -UNHCR-, United Nations Development Program –UNDP-, and the World Food Program –WFP-.

On 1996, the Deputy Camera of the Argentine Congress nominated Medicos En Catastrofe, to receive the Nobel Award for the Peace .

On 1996 too, the government of Buenos Aires City, gave Dr Pasqualini the “Doctor of the Year” award.

Actually, MEC is an organization with human resources and technical capacity, prepared to the urgent action, in hours, worldwide, into the deep jungle or over the highest mountains, in the middle of a war or epidemic or natural disasters.

The huge efforts done in remote areas in which pain bites with all its power, and the results obtained, allowed MEC to be the only Latin-American NGO that deployed its teams internationally, in the humanitarian assistance United Nations manages, with the recognized and supported by the whole international community.

Through all these years of intense activity, and with the results on sight, MEC was able to demonstrate that an Argentinean NGO can be at the same exacting level of other international organizations, in terms of professionalism on the medical, logistics and administrative field. MEC has already won its place in the international humanitarian relief field.

It's thrilling to see the Argentine flag, beside the flags of the United Nations and the most important international NGOs.

Urgency is a field of action different to that of development, in which work is always accomplished in the middle of a conflict or a disaster. When MEC arrives to a place, it is to save lives that, in case of not receiving assistance, would die in the next few hours, due to bullet injuries, mine explosion, burns, or covered by the debris of an explosion, an attack or an earthquake, or an epidemic disease affecting the area where they live.

When MEC implements a development project, it is to decrease the mortality of the most vulnerable population, through the improvement of the sanitary conditions of a region, integrally, and, if possibly, seeking self-management to allow the population to continue its development by themselves, in the heath field, or in their lives.

The most of the times, in the areas where MEC assists, the health buildings, in which the population received medical care, were totally or partially destroyed. Then, at the same time than the medical, a very important Logistics job is done: to re-build those buildings to produce the right place for the medical services, being preferable to build a new one sometimes.

Thus, we can state different kinds of activities that are accomplished in order to arrive to these objectives:

•  Emergency food and water distribution
•  First urgency medical supplies distribution
•  Emergency transport for the people affected by the catastrophe
•  Child assistance, through sports, features, games, to allow them to cope with the emotional stress
•  Technical support for the economic development of the region
•  Technical support for sanitary development
•  Hospital and Health Center Rehabilitation
•  Micro-business Programs

The main professionals that MEC deploys to the missions are: doctors (surgeons, pediatrists, general practitioner), administrators and logistics. It is a real team, in which everyone has a specific duty, if one fails, the team fails.

That is why, for us, what is most important is the human quality of each professional. The have to be able to adapt themselves. They have to be flexible and dynamic, and understand that we are under continual pressure owing to the urgency of extreme situations, be they war or cataclysms. We are in search of good professionals, but over all, of people that are committed to the humanitarian ideal.

All volunteers receive, before their departure, training to familiarize themselves with the duties and conditions under which they will have to work once on the mission

In every case, no matter if the emergency has originated in a catastrophe or in an activity that is under way, MEC dedicates its biggest effort to give relief to the most vulnerable population, no matter of gender, age, as women and children, or if they are in an area, affected by a disaster or having spent a long term with lack of resources.

Daily, the professional duties are complicated cause they have to deal with people that, amongst other conditions, are highly infected with HIV, nearly a 30% of the population as OMS statistics affirm.

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