[MUSIC] Welcome back. We now have the privilege of having Rodney Eid with us. Rodney is a volunteer in the Lebanese Red Cross, where he's been a volunteer for 17 years in the Lebanese Red Cross Emergency Medical Services. And he has a wealth of experience operating ambulances in risk situations. So Rodney, can you tell us a little bit about the types of challenges and solutions, in terms of maintaining continuity of service in situations of armed conflict. >> Hello Fred. Thank you for this opportunity. As the Lebanese Red Cross is the sole provider of EMS services in Lebanon, we usually put in place contingency plans. For so many, for several actually scenarios related to conflict or natural man made disasters or a sorry, for natural disasters or man made disasters. These contingency plans are set in place for our teams to be able to operate when an incident happens. The continuity of service is a very critical issue, especially when it comes to an armed conflict because armed conflicts sometimes affect our access. And maintaining our access to reach the vulnerable people is a key issue. So the continuity of service is usually if we don't have a contingency plan, or if we don't work with the local community, our axis can be obstructed. The challenges are, especially when there's a conflict between a country and external parties and this is where the type of war or the type of conflicts affects the service we are providing. For example in one of the wars bridges were cut out, roads were cut out and we had difficulty reaching people in some villages. The Lebanese Red Cross at the time improvised so many ways and because even in our contingency plan, the contingency plan is not always a full plan, a 100% working plan. So you always have to improvise and improvisation was that at the time we actually did bridges on the water, man made bridge on the water to pass people within the rivers from one end of the river to the other. If bridges are cut out and cutting out two cities from each other or two villages from each other, we try to see. We use maps, we use Google maps to see alternative routes, routes in the outskirts of the villages that can give us the access to these villages. It will take more time, of course, but then at the end of the day our sole objective is to reach the vulnerable people to the beneficiaries. >> Thank you Rodney. And again thank you for all the great work you are doing in Lebanon. As Rodney mentioned a few times here, the contingency plan is key. And on your screen now, there should appear a chapter from a report. We can read a bit more about the importance of having good contingency plans with the hospitals. But as well, I just want to pick out a few of the other things Rodney said, and the impartiality of the services as we saw earlier and the effect this has on them. Perception of the service which, engenders the acceptance of the ambulance service in the community, providing it security and therefore access. All this of course to reach the people in need of medical care. And then of course in times of armed conflict, when there are so many more that need emergency medical care. And we have situations where, like Rhody mentioned, bridges are destroyed or there are other infrastructural challenges. And the ambulance services are forced to take creative measures, going on the Google Maps as you mentioned there Rodney, and finding separate routes. Rodney, is there anything else, any sort of final words of wisdom that you want to give us before we move on to the next chapter? >> Just one thing Fred, we have to make sure always that communication is a key part of all the response in a conflict. And as you mentioned, hospitals, like in the Lebanese Red Cross as soon as we have a conflict, we have someone in our despatch center who is surveying the availability and the capacity of hospitals in real time. We have one person who is talking to other stakeholders in the government like the civil defense. And the army and the police, so communication is key. Communication between our headquarters and with our volunteers on the ground that are operating the dispatch centers and with external stakeholders who are going to help us And who are going to support for us to reach the vulnerable people. And of course, like the hospitals, because if here we get all these patients out, and we overflow one hospital, and we don't know the availability, then we are creating another problem for the hospital. So communication is key in building the contingency plan. >> Thank you Rodney, thanks again. >> You're welcome. [MUSIC]
