The acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation,José Manuel Albares, today awarded the Order of Civil Merit to the START team workers who participated in the humanitarian operation that the Spanish Government deployed through the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in Türkiye last February to assist the local population following the earthquakes in the south of the country.
In his speech, the minister praised “the professionalism of a multidisciplinary team united by shared values, representing the best our country has to offer.” Albares further emphasised that “this START operation also represents Spain’s diversity and what we are capable of doing when we work as a team”.
A total of 195 professionals, deployed in three shifts of approximately 15 working days each, took part in this second START humanitarian mission (the first was in Mozambique in 2019).
The team comprised health personnel from the National Health System spanning almost all the Autonomous Communities, logisticians - from the Emergency and Immediate Response Team of the Community of Madrid (ERICAM), fire-fighters from Madrid City Council, SUMMA (Community of Madrid Medical Emergency Service) staff and the NGO Cesal -, pharmaceutical technicians from the NGO Farmamundi and female experts in gender and psychosocial support from Médicos del Mundo, as well as staff from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the public company Tragsa.
‘Red vests’
Known as the ‘red vests’, the first START team was seen off by Minister Albares himself before departing from the Torrejón de Ardoz air base on 9 February for Iskenderun (Hatay), one of the cities worst affected by the earthquakes, to help the victims of the devastating natural disaster.
Comprising a field hospital with surgical and in-patient capacity, START treated nearly 7,000 people following the hospital’s opening on 13 February and until 17 March, the day the team began their withdrawal and return to Spain. During this second mission, START treated a total of 7,387 people, an average of 224 patients per day. Following the second quake, the team treated up to 400 patients a day.
START was one of the first emergency teams to be deployed on the ground (just 72 hours after the official request by the Turkish authorities), and the unit that treated the most patients among those sent from the European Union. The hospital assembly was completed in just 48 hours.
In over a month of operation, the hospital provided emergency care, adult and paediatric medical consultation, gynaecology, traumatology, physiotherapy, surgery, hospitalisation, radiology, laboratory and psychosocial support.
In addition to the health care that the START Emergency Medical Team provided at the field hospital, the red vests delivered shelter and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) materials to a camp where some 1,000 earthquake survivors were located in the vicinity of the hospital. At the camp, the START logistics team installed showers, ramps and four drinking water points. It also built access for people with disabilities.
PHOTOS: Pepe Méndez (Nolsom)