A team of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) famously referred as Médecins Sans Frontières,has been deployed in Morocco to offer psychological support for the affected populations, healthcare workers, and volunteers who worked in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit the North African country last month.
Following August 2023, MSF dispatched emergency teams to evaluate the humanitarian and medical situation in the most severely affected regions in the provinces of Al Haouz, Taroudant, and Chichaoua in which 30 sites were examined by five MSF teams.
Overall, the response from the Moroccan government, its bilateral allies, and the Moroccan people was astounding hence reducing the number of deaths and causalities.
The installation of forward-looking It was essential to have medical posts, field hospitals, and transfer capabilities to ensure a rapid medical and humanitarian response.
MSF teams has also lauded the Moroccan government’s immediate response which reduced the impact in terms of number of deaths and causalities.
In addition to this evaluation, MSF teams gave six donations between September 12 and September 17 in response to specific needs that were at the time identified by hospitals or health centers among them injectable medications, analgesics, antibiotics, insulin, and medical equipment which were coordinated with the Moroccan government.
Search and rescue teams and frontline volunteers were urgently needed to provide psychological support to those who were most severely affected by the situation.
MSF teams at the same time lauded the comprehensiveness of the Moroccan government’s response, which left few gaps.
In addition to this assessment, between September 12 and 17, MSF teams made six donations in response to specific needs expressed at the time by health centers or hospitals.
The targeted donations were coordinated with the Moroccan authorities and contained medical equipment and medicines, such as injectable drugs, analgesics, antibiotics, insulin, and medical equipment.
The hardest-hit people by the crisis urgently needed psychological support, which included search and rescue teams and frontline volunteers.
So far, MSF teams have spoken to dozens of distressed women and men in the heavily affected areas at all the sites assessed.
Most had lost relatives or friends or had seen their homes and villages razed to the ground, while others were still waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to be found, fully aware that finding them alive was no longer an option.
“We will provide mental health activities and first-aid psychological support to local organizations and affected people, as well as to front-line workers, mainly through networks of Moroccan psychologists, social workers, health promoters, and other volunteers,” explains Fouzia Bara.
Despite this, the Moroccan authorities, with the support of certain governments, have managed to clear people from the rubble, treat the injured, use helicopters to transport the injured from the most remote areas, and distribute food and other supplies to those affected”. concluded Faouzia
A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Morocco early in August, killing 2,862 people and injuring around 6,000.
The earthquake mainly affected the rural area of the High Atlas Mountains, causing landslides and collapses and damaging many roads.
