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It’s
11 p.m. in the quake-ravaged Jhelum Valley of
Pakistan. After 16 hours of sifting through rubble
and carting around fresh water, Lt.-Col. Mike Voith
is just sitting down to supper.
For Voith and the rest of his Disaster Assistance
Response Team, days like this aren’t uncommon.
In the remote village of Garidupata, near where the
Jhelum and Neelum rivers converge in a treacherous
mix of rocky terrain and towering mountains, there
have been scores of wounds to treat and people to
feed since an earthquake on Oct. 8 ravaged much of
eastern Pakistan, including the politically disputed
region of Kashmir.
“It’s been a lot of early mornings, long days, and
late suppers,” said Voith, a Kingston-area resident
and the DART’s commanding officer.
Voith is more than 11,000 kilometers away from his
wife and four children, aged 14, 12, 11 and seven.
“The kids are all right,” Voith said. “They
understand why I’m not there and they’re used to it,
but my it’s hard on my wife. She’s running a home on
her own. I’m not there for her and that’s tough.
Instead of his country-style home in Sunbury, Voith
is living in a tent amid the ruins of an elementary
school that was destroyed in the quake, a
7.6-magnitude tremor centred just north of them in
Muzaffarabad that killed almost 80,000 people and
left three million homeless.
Since arriving in the region on Oct. 19, the 16
medical technicians with DART have treated an
average of 120 patients a day. One DART member even
delivered a baby named Fatima in a hospital tent
with a dirt floor five days ago.
The Canadians have also been pumping and
transporting drinkable water for quake survivors
using reverse-
osmosis purifiers.
“It’s heartbreaking to see how lives have been
ruined. Everything these people own is buried under
rubble,” Voith said. “But we’ve been thrust into the
situation and we literally don’t have time to dwell
on the negative things.”
Originally from Calgary, Voith started his military
career in 1979 at Collège Militaire Royal in
St-Jean, Que.
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Two years later, he transferred to RMC, where he
graduated with a mechanical engineering degree in
1983.
From 1983 to 2002, Voith held a number of
engineering support and command positions in
postings across Canada. He has also contributed to
humanitarian relief efforts in Cyprus, Yugoslavia
and Eritrea.
Because his military duty has often taken him
overseas, the 25-year military man took the
opportunity to command the DART in 2002.
The Canadian government formed DART after the 1994
civil war and genocide in Rwanda, when the western
world was widely criticized for being slow to
respond to the tragedy.
Voith has found himself dealing with criticism that
alleges DART’s role in Pakistan is redundant and too
costly. He’s handled the criticism gracefully while
fielding media inquiries from reporters from all
over Canada.
He believes strongly in what is team is doing.
“We’re needed here, I know that. I just have to look
around to know that,” Voith said.
“We’re not here to compete, but I can tell you there
are no NGOs providing clean drinking water, and that
is something these people need.”
In Sri Lanka, where DART was deployed in January,
the team was greeted by floating bodies, unfettered
toxic waste and decimated settlements. In Pakistan,
it’s been mangled survivors and villages buried by
quake-triggered landslides, made worse by the onset
of winter in the high mountains.
Voith admits it’s been a battle for him and his team
to keep their composure amid such tragedy.
“You certainly are aware of your surroundings,”
Voith said, “but you do your best to keep busy … and
not let your head run away with things.”
Amid sharp calls for more money, better equipment
and a stronger mandate, Voith believes the DART is
still useful.
“I won’t underestimate the power of money, but if I
brought in $2 million cash tomorrow and said ‘Here
you go,’ there would still be people with untreated
broken bones drinking contaminated water.” |
