Nicole GUEDJ reviews her mission in Haiti
Subject: Nicole Guedj, former French Minister and President of the Red Helmets Foundation, went in Haiti following the earthquake that devastated one of the poorest countries in the world.
Following the disaster, the Red Helmets Foundation immediately deployed two containers of telecommunications by satellite at Port-au-Prince. Thanks to Emergesat, all of the teams regrouped in the French Embassy residence have been able to call, exchange data, use internet and collaborative tools to coordinate their actions and optimize the rescue of victims.
A few days later, Nicole Guedj joined her teams in Haiti in order to assess the situation. She also proposed to Madam Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassègue, Minister of Culture and Communications, to let an Emergesat permenantly in Haiti.
According to Nicole Guedj: ‘After a catastrophe of that magnitude, communication networks are systematically broken and teams cannot communicate with each other. We are witnessing a total disruption of the emergency aid and, as usual, thousands of Haitian victims have paid the tribe.’
At her arrival at Port-au-Prince, Nicole Guedj also encountered the Haitian President to present her proposal of Red Helmets at the UN. René Préval, witness and victim of the rescue disorganization, immediately gave his support and launched the ‘call to Port-au-Prince’.
According to Nicole Guedj: ‘We may not have learned from the tsunami, but, with President Préval, we will remember the lessons of Haiti. Because of the lack of organization and coordination, we have lost many time and thousands of lives".
According to René Préval: ‘I thank the international aid actors for their immediate mobilisation for the Haitian people." However, I regret that there was no coordinator to organize relief. In the same way that the Blue Helmets maintain peace, we should urgently create Red Helmets at the United Nations scale to organize the humanitarian action.
For more than 10 years, the former Secretary of State for the Victim’s Right advocates for the creation of humanitarian brothers of the blue helmets. This 100 % humanitarian relief organization would be endowed with a strengthened high command that would anticipate risks, identify needs and mutualise existent human and material resources; regional centres based on every continent, ready to intervene in emergency; and an additional operational force task that could be mobilized at any time to coordinate the actions of the rescue teams deployed in the emergency.
Nicole Guedj proposal is explained in her manifesto, ‘For Red Helmets at the UN’ published last September in the Cherche-Midi editions.
More information: www.casques-rouges.org
Contact presse :
En Haïti : Sarah AIZENMAN – 06.15.89.91.85 - sarah.aizenman@casques-rouges.org
