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The World Health Organization Logistics Center in Dubai International Humanitarian City stores boxes of emergency supplies and medicines that can be shipped to countries around the world, including Yemen, Nigeria, Haiti and Uganda. Planes with medicines from these warehouses are sent to Syria and Turkey to help in the aftermath of the earthquake. Aya Batrawi/NPR hide caption
The World Health Organization Logistics Center in Dubai International Humanitarian City stores boxes of emergency supplies and medicines that can be shipped to countries around the world, including Yemen, Nigeria, Haiti and Uganda. Planes with medicines from these warehouses are sent to Syria and Turkey to help in the aftermath of the earthquake.
DUBAI. In a dusty industrial corner of Dubai, away from glittering skyscrapers and marble buildings, crates of child-size body bags are stacked in a vast warehouse. They will be sent to Syria and Turkey for earthquake victims.
Like other aid agencies, the World Health Organization is working hard to help those in need. But from its global logistics hub in Dubai, the UN agency in charge of international public health has loaded two planes with life-saving medical supplies, enough to help an estimated 70,000 people. One plane flew to Turkey, and the other to Syria.
The organization has other centers around the world, but its facility in Dubai, with 20 warehouses, is by far the largest. From here, the organization delivers a variety of medicines, intravenous drips and anesthesia infusions, surgical instruments, splints and stretchers to help with earthquake injuries.
Colored labels help identify which kits for malaria, cholera, Ebola and polio are available in countries in need around the world. Green tags are reserved for emergency medical kits – for Istanbul and Damascus.
“What we used in the earthquake response was mostly trauma and emergency kits,” said Robert Blanchard, head of the WHO Emergency Team in Dubai.
Supplies are stored in one of 20 warehouses operated by the WHO Global Logistics Center in Dubai International Humanitarian City. Aya Batrawi/NPR hide caption
Supplies are stored in one of 20 warehouses operated by the WHO Global Logistics Center in Dubai International Humanitarian City.
Blanchard, a former California firefighter, worked for the Foreign Office and USAID before joining the World Health Organization in Dubai. He said the group faced huge logistical challenges in transporting earthquake victims, but their warehouse in Dubai helped quickly send aid to countries in need.
Robert Blanchard, head of the World Health Organization’s emergency response team in Dubai, stands at one of the organization’s warehouses in the International Humanitarian City. Aya Batrawi/NPR hide caption
Robert Blanchard, head of the World Health Organization’s emergency response team in Dubai, stands at one of the organization’s warehouses in the International Humanitarian City.
Aid has begun pouring into Turkey and Syria from around the world, but organizations are working hard to help the most vulnerable. Rescue teams race to rescue survivors in freezing temperatures, though hope of finding survivors dwindles by the hour.
The United Nations is trying to gain access to rebel-held northwestern Syria through humanitarian corridors. Some 4 million internally displaced people lack the heavy equipment found in Turkey and other parts of Syria, and hospitals are poorly equipped, damaged, or both. Volunteers dig the ruins with their bare hands.
“The weather conditions are not very good right now. So everything depends only on road conditions, availability of trucks and permission to cross the border and deliver humanitarian aid,” he said.
In government-controlled areas in northern Syria, humanitarian organizations are mainly providing assistance to the capital Damascus. From there, the government is busy providing relief to hard-hit cities such as Aleppo and Latakia. In Turkey, bad roads and tremors have complicated rescue efforts.
“They can’t go home because the engineers didn’t clean their house due to it being structurally sound,” Blanchard said. “They literally sleep and live in an office and try to work at the same time.”
The WHO warehouse covers an area of ​​1.5 million square feet. The Dubai area, known as the International Humanitarian City, is the largest humanitarian center in the world. The area also houses the warehouses of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, the Red Cross and Red Crescent and UNICEF.
The Dubai government covered the cost of storage facilities, utilities and flights to deliver humanitarian aid to the affected areas. Inventory is purchased by each agency independently.
“Our goal is to be prepared for an emergency,” said Giuseppe Saba, executive director of Humanitarian Cities International.
A forklift driver loads medical supplies destined for Ukraine at the UNHCR warehouse at the International Humanitarian City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 2022. Kamran Jebreili/AP hide caption
A forklift driver loads medical supplies destined for Ukraine at the UNHCR warehouse at the International Humanitarian City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 2022.
Saba said it sends $150 million worth of emergency supplies and aid to 120 to 150 countries annually. This includes personal protective equipment, tents, food and other critical items needed in the event of climate disasters, medical emergencies and global outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The reason we do so much and the reason this center is the largest in the world is precisely because of its strategic location,” Saba said. “Two-thirds of the world’s population lives in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, just a few hours’ flight from Dubai.”
Blanchard called this support “very important”. Now there is hope that supplies will reach the people within 72 hours after the earthquake.
“We want it to go faster,” he said, “but these shipments are so big. It takes us all day to collect and prepare them.”
WHO deliveries to Damascus remained suspended in Dubai as of Wednesday evening due to problems with the plane’s engines. Blanchard said the group was trying to fly directly to the Syrian government-controlled Aleppo airport, and the situation he described is “changing by the hour.”