Front Burner - Turf wars and disaster tourists: a refugee field clinic’s struggle

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

Medical workers from across Canada have volunteered and even paid their own way to provide aid to refugees at the Ukrainian border, taking a mission with disaster relief group Canadian Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT). The journey to set up a field clinic, however, has met unexpected obstacles from thieves, “disaster tourists” and organizational turf wars. Freelance journalist and former CBC reporter Margo McDiarmid spent five days with the team from CMAT as they persevered to deliver aid and grappled with the decision to enter a country at war. Today, she brings us the stories of the CMAT volunteers and refugees entering Poland.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jason D'Souza, in for Jamie Poisson. Hi, I'm Jason D'Souza in for Jamie Poisson. So she's very tired, obviously after a long way and all these difficulties and also very high blood pressure.

And yeah, that's why they had to ask for some help. Galina Bineski has just fled nearly 800 kilometers from her home in central Ukraine. She's dizzy as she waits with her daughter and her granddaughters to cross the Polish border. While she didn't expect to get much needed medical help in this remote tent, she's given blood pressure medication from a Canadian doctor. Thank you very much. It was a very nice surprise. She was very touched with the attention and care she could receive right now in this situation. This clinic is part of a mission from Canadian Medical Assistance Teams, a disaster relief group staffed by volunteer medical workers.

A doctor, a nurse and a paramedic from across Canada are standing in for family doctors. They're helping manage refugee conditions as they go through one of the most stressful experiences of their lives. I'm proud to be considered to be in the league of the people I've seen here. I can't complain that nobody helps if I'm not willing to go help. So now I can complain. I'm allowed. Freelance journalist and longtime CBC reporter Margot McDermott spent five days with the team from CMAT in Poland and Ukraine. And she joins us now from Warsaw to explain the long journey to setting up the clinic, the unexpected obstacles to delivering help near conflict, and the exhausting work Canadian medical workers are paying to do. Hi there, Margot. Thanks so much for joining us.

No problem. So CMAT has been sending teams toward global health crisis for 15 years now, but I know you spoke with Valerie Repka, CMAT's co-founder and executive director. What did she tell you about the situation in Ukraine and how it's also personal for her? Well, it's very personal for her because she is Polish-Canadian. And in fact, when I talk to other volunteers, just in my travels in Poland, a lot of Polish volunteers say this is very personal to them because they say this

could happen to us. So my family lives 100 kilometers from here. And, you know, we went to see them one day, one evening last week. And, you know, that border that's, you know, right, it's literally 10 kilometers from here is only about 150 kilometers from where my family is. If that border shifts, my family could be affected. And they also identify with Ukrainians, many of whom are friends and family. So it's extremely personal for people here, and it's personal for Valerie. I felt a pull to come here and be able to at least help some of the people that are affected in this area. And, you know, they're not just people with random names and numbers.

They're mothers and fathers and children and grandparents. And, you know, they're people that need care and need love. And that's why I came. that need care and need love. And that's why I came. And so when they first planned out CMAT's mission in Poland, how did Valerie and her team decide where to put this clinic? So they always go and do sort of a check to see where the clinic should go in any project

or deployment that they're involved in. So Valerie Repka and a very experienced team member, Brandon Duncan, who's a registered nurse from Ontario, actually traveled up and down the Polish border from Belarus to Slovakia and looked at a number of different border spots where they thought they'd be able to set up their clinic. And they actually settled on a small place about 330 kilometers southeast of Warsaw, a border town called Rabene. And at the time when they went, it was quite quiet, but there were people coming over the border and they were increasing. And there was just one poor

little doctor in a little blue tent and not a lot of help. He was basically there by himself, little blue tent and not a lot of help. He was basically there by himself, nothing around him except for a house. So he was really needing help and concerned about the kind of flood of people he was going to face. So two weeks later, they went back and I went with them at that time. And we arrived and it was shocking. They were all really surprised because this little tiny border spot had turned into a village. There was a massive big white tent set up by the Knights of Columbus, a tent to help the refugees actually get warm. There were food stations. There were volunteers.

There was clothing. There were SIM cards being given away. There was even a portable banking machine. And the spot where they'd hoped to put their tent had been taken because this village had just expanded. So right off the start, they tried to work around this, just the place, where do they put the tent? There was a lot of, they'd hoped to put it in a place where it was visible to refugees. Well, that was impossible. Then they had five boxes of medical supplies that had been stored away in a storage shed nearby, stolen. That's not fatal, but it's not great. And then the weird thing was, there were a lot of people just walking around this spot in camouflage, and nobody really knew what they did. It was just an uncomfortable situation, and the doctors and nurses who were part of the team were saying, you know, this is just not a good spot for us. And so Margo, these people that you described

as walking around in camouflage, did the CMAT workers seem to think they were qualified to help? No, they didn't actually. They didn't exactly know what they were qualified to do. And it wasn't just the camouflage people. It was other people too who came up to the team and said to them, look, you know, I'm a medic. I've got medical experience. I want to help. And Dr. Daniel Colick, who is an emergency physician from Ontario, he's actually based out of Burlington, was kind of horrified by what was going on here.

I had a clean-shaven guy show up yesterday with a duffel bag full of medical supplies and odd hot pods of stuff in shoe boxes and so on, and then dumped it on the table here. Have that. Can I volunteer? I'm a tactical medic. So we've seen a lot of people claiming to be tactical medics, and one of them told me as a qualifier that he has good knife skills,

which sort of, okay, I can see that. He calls them disaster tourists, who are essentially people who want to be part of the excitement, if you want to say it that way. They have no real skills, but they want to be there. They're trying to be helpful, but in fact, they just get in the way. And he said that can actually be a problem sometimes. I know you described some of the local hurdles that the CMAT team faced while trying to set up in that spot, especially with the

explosion in resources and personnel as a turf war. Can you tell us more about that? Well, it's sort of interesting because this is their actual first conflict deployment because all the other projects that CMAT has gone on were natural disasters like the tsunami in 2004, 2005, Haiti earthquakes. But this is a conflict zone. And the way they described it to me was,

in a disaster, everyone's affected. The people as well as the government officials, the doctors, the nurses, everybody is a victim, essentially, of the natural disaster. And so they welcome the CMAT team with open arms, and they're so grateful to have them. Whereas in Poland,

because we're on the Polish side, don't forget, they're not at war. So they're not as affected. And they have the luxury, if I can use that word, of basically protecting their turf. And so just to give you a really small example, the CMAT team didn't bring any tents with them because it's very expensive to travel with them. So they actually found a local, you know, it was sort of like a resource area. They said, listen, we've got some tents that you can borrow. And it belonged to the local fire service. So, you know, there was some to-ing and fro-ing and everyone agreed they could have the tents one day.

Then they go back the next day and no, you don't have the tents. What happened was they had to go buy tents. Not expensive, but it would cause another day delay, a lot of wasted energy, a lot of frustration. So that's kind of an example of what Valerie Repka calls defending their turf. You know, you're kind of fighting with people over turf and when really you should be working together. And ideally you would be working together, but sometimes egos get in the way and then add on to that a layer of exhaustion. So a lot of these people that are volunteering haven't slept in two or three weeks now. And people get snippy and short with each other. But you do your best to come to compromises and work together.

And I suppose this burst of aid and NGOs and unexpected resources raises questions about whether Canadian help was even needed at the Polish border in that sense. So how did CMAT decide to continue its mission from there? I think the question of whether help was needed was not ever a big question. The question was, where is the help needed? And they were determined that there was help, that they wanted to give help, they just needed the right spot. So what happens is all these local little towns around the border are providing amazing help for these Polish refugees, or sorry, the Ukrainian refugees. And they went to a small town and met

with the mayor and he showed them where they were providing help to refugees who were coming over the border. And they talked to him and he said, listen, you know, actually, you should contact the Polish medical mission, which is an NGO. They're operating further down south of here, but they've actually had six deaths at their border location. Over the last week, people were dying of heart attacks. And he said they need a lot of help. So CMAT contacted the Polish medical mission and they said, yes, please come. We really need your help.

They basically said that we were angels falling from the sky because they were so concerned that they were so short staffed. They have the setups there. They have the equipment that they need. They have all the med concerned that they were so short staffed. They have the setups there, they have the equipment that they need, they have all the meds that they need. They just didn't have the staff and they were staffing. So that, of course, raised another complication, because that location was on the Ukrainian side. So CMAT team had to actually cross over the border and go down sort of inside the Ukrainian border on some back roads and go to this large border crossing. Some of these CEMAT members did not want to cross into what essentially is a war zone, even though it's about an hour's drive west of Lviv in Ukraine. So it's very quiet there right now, but it may not have been quiet.

So a lot of some of the CMAT members are worried about their safety. So they stayed behind and worked on logistics on the Polish side. Whereas I went with the doctors and nurses who went over the first day. They decided, let's see how this works. We'll do a full day clinic. And if it works, we'll stay. So we all went over, down for about half an hour on little back roads, because it was the only way we could get to it. It was so busy, so crowded with people. I have to say, it was kind of weird

driving in Ukraine, even that far away from all the fighting. First of all, there's a curfew. Second of all, the streetlights are off at night. You can't see anything because they don't want to attract Russian planes, for example. And on the back roads, they have all these sandbags piled up along the side on either side of the road, I guess, to stop any invading vehicles. You know, at the same time, we've got farmers tilling their fields in the spring down the road, and then we've got all these signs of war. So it was a bit unnerving, a little bit, but it was fine. These medical workers are from all over Canada, Vancouver, Edmonton, Burlington, and they actually paid their own way to travel to Europe and help with CMAT.

What did they tell you about why they wanted to be there? Everyone has a very personal reason. The doctors and nurses that I went with that day, that we did that full 12-hour shift to just get a handle on whether this was a good spot for the clinic, they held a full clinic. And very different stories that I heard from them. For example, Teresa Berdusco, who's from Edmonton, feels, you know, she's born a Canadian.

She feels lucky to be Canadian. And we truly are gifted being able to not have to think of, you know, a bomb dropping on our house or where's my next meal coming from because somebody will provide for us. And because of that, we should be a global good neighbour and help when and where we can. Dr. Daniel Kolik, his family is Jewish. They came from Eastern Europe.

My family fled Europe in World War II. And those who got out got out, and those who didn't get out, nobody came to help. He wants to be able to help people who fled Europe the way his family was not helped. And for Scott Haig,

he had a very personal reason as well. My dad died when I was 10. I'm now 33. And I've been blessed or fortunate enough to be in a position where I have something to give, give back. And I saw what happened when he went through that. And there was always people that were so giving, so kind. And I just hope to do my part.

You know, the thing is, is that it isn't just these volunteers who are here that are helping. Actually, back home, these doctors and nurses have had people step in to take their shifts for them while they're away. For, you know, weeks at a time. So they're getting support from their own co-workers in Canada. So once the clinic was set up now in Ukraine, can you describe for us the scene that unfolded from there? Who were the people that were coming in and getting help from these Canadians? Okay. So on this border, on the Ukrainian side, they have set up a very large white sort of tent, about 50 meters long.

And so the refugees from Ukraine come in by bus mostly, huge big buses. And the hundreds of people walk through this tent at one end. And, you know, they're dragging their bags and they have their children. A lot of people have pets. So it's kind of chaotic. They sit down because they've been on a bus for hours. A lot of the people that I saw came from very far eastern border of Ukraine, where a lot of the fighting is actually taking place, so they're exhausted. They sit down. The first thing they do is they plug in their phones,

and then they have food because there are these wonderful Polish volunteers and Ukrainian volunteers who are cooking food, homemade food for them. They saved everybody's life, including the lives of the team, because they were fantastic. And then a lot of people come over. They see the little CMAT clinic, and they come over, and a lot of them, it's just stress. They have headaches. They've got really bad stomachs. Primary care is the type of thing that is not an acute complaint in the sense of immediately life-threatening or

anything of that nature. But if not dealt with, we'll progress on to other things. So we're seeing people who haven't had their hypertension medications for days. And we may not have exactly that, but we'll find something close enough. We're seeing people with anxiety. We're seeing kids with coughs and colds. But this is all stuff you could have seen in an office if the office was there. And you know, they're not seeing bleeding people, like people who are about to die. Other people who have very serious injuries would still be cared for in Ukraine by an ambulance service at this point. Although there was one woman, I have to tell you, she was unconscious in her wheelchair and the team rushed out to help her. She was completely dehydrated, an older woman. They called an ambulance and sent her to a hospital

across the border into Poland. So she was serious. Daniel Kolek was saying that he was very worried that she was very seriously ill. So, you know, they're there to help people like that. And for these Canadian workers helping these refugees, these people in need, what does a typical shift look like at this clinic? the day shift. There's a day shift, 12 hours and a night shift for 12 hours. So the day shift, they're up at five. They meet the van that drives them across the border. They drive to the border, the first border point, which is like the quieter place that they can cross over where there's less traffic. They have a special lane at the border for humanitarian vehicles. And, and, you know, there's a lot of them. They get to the clinic at around seven. Their shift starts at 7 a.m. And they're on their feet all day.

It's really cold still. And there's not a lot of, you know, there's food, but erratic meals. It's very high adrenaline and very often difficult because people are, there's two or three different languages going on at the same time. They do have a translator, but not everyone speaks the language the translator speaks. So there was Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, English, and French all mixed up. So that's their day, 12 hours. And then they go back across the border. It takes about an hour to get across the border.

And they crash. And then they do it again the next day. I can't even imagine doing that for one day. And what you're saying is this happens day in, day out. No. And the night shift people, they sleep there. You know, they have a little shed that they can sleep in. It's tough.

It's very tough. Another thing that scares me a little bit is that we're doing improv medicine. I am treating people with stuff that'll work, but certainly not the standard of care. I'm using drugs that have a side effect that's really what I want as opposed to the real reason people use them. Being careful as I can be in terms of risk, but it's not textbook. And it always causes some anxiety because I'm going a little bit off road. then free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here.

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To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. this podcast, just search for Money for Cops. I know, Margo, you were last with the CMAT team last Sunday. And of course, given how fluid everything has been with this war, do you have a sense of what's happened with the clinic, these volunteers since? Well, it's interesting you asked me that question because I thought I would check with Valerie Repka just to see what was going on. And I'm actually really glad I did. I talked to her this morning by text. She has COVID and she has no voice. So she had to talk by text. So that lovely little clinic that was set up and it operated for about a week and a half. It has been taken over by a German medical NGO. And I said, why? And all she said was politics. So all that work, all that setting up, all getting everything organized, and somebody came in and took over their space. So CMAT has been actually told there's a greater need

further up the border towards the Belarus border, because there are a lot of displaced people inside Ukraine who have yet to cross to Poland. And they're all kind of jumbled around the border there. And there are a lot of people who are ill. So they're actually there checking it out this week. And we'll make a decision a bit later this week about whether they'll move their clinic there. You're in the Polish capital now, and Warsaw has been the destination for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. So I'm hoping you can help us understand what's happening further along this journey for refugees inside of Poland. Who else is stepping up to make sure they have what's needed? Well, Poland actually has done an amazing job of handling the 2 million refugees that have crossed its border in just a month. And the local municipalities have

set up these reception centers for refugees. There are donations of food and clothing from private citizens and companies. The city of Warsaw, for example, has a number of these reception centers where people can sleep, where they give them advice on what to do next, help them move on to other parts of Europe. There's psychological help. There are playgrounds for kids. NGOs are donating food and actually driving people to the border and from the border into Poland. So they're really doing a very good job. And I actually met a couple of people from Ukraine, the Bolshova family, Olga and her husband, Sergei, and their two children. And Olga was actually volunteering her time. She had already crossed the border from Kiev into Poland, had sort of settled in with her family a little bit, and had donated her time to help other Ukrainian refugees coming into Poland.

And I was amazed at this. But she says, you know, it helps her feel better. She said, you know, if I can help other people, I can it takes her mind off what she's going through. And she can also be some of some help. And her husband was continuing his job in Poland, he worked for a software, financial software company. And because Warsaw has very good internet connection, he was actually running helping helping to run the company from Warsaw and keep it going in Ukraine. So they had just decided that they were going to do what they could to keep life normal for their children and to actually keep their lives as together as they possibly could. That's incredible. So Margot, between CMAT, NGOs at the border and the people of Warsaw, you've described

a lot of the generosity that is being given to these refugees right now. But we're just over a month into Russia's latest invasion. Over 3 million people have already fled Ukraine. If this conflict drags on for weeks or months longer, what's the worry about whether refugees will keep getting the help and the resources that they need? Well, the question is how much time people can actually volunteer because a lot of the help for refugees is being provided by Polish volunteers. So the question is when do they go back to their normal lives? How much of their own time can they give? How much

of their own money? That's one question. Although, interestingly, Poland has absorbed about 100,000 new students into its school system in the last month. So it sounds like countries like Poland and, you know, the rest of the EU are actually trying to adjust to this huge influx of refugees. You know, around the EU, Ukrainian refugees have work permits. They have free medical care. They have pension or salary for their kids to help them be like a baby bonus for their children. And they have visas to work in all of the EU for three years to help them get settled.

So there is an attempt to sort of adjust to these people who are here. But the question is, how many more will come? Will people start running out of patience? That's the question. It hasn't started yet. We haven't seen that happen. But that is the worry, of course. Margot McDermott, great to hear from you today. Thank you so much for this. My pleasure. Before we let you go today, just under 1,200 kilometers from that border crossing, there's a very different story we're watching unfold in Europe this week. It was a very comfortable meeting.

Pope Francis sat and he listened. And he nodded along when our survivors told their stories. And, you know, our survivors did an incredible job in that meeting of standing up and telling their truths. That's Cassidy Caron with the Métis National Council in Vatican City yesterday, speaking after meeting the Pope. The Métis National Council is one of several Indigenous delegations that are talking to the Pope this week to call for an apology for Catholic-run residential schools.

I really hope that Canadians are listening and watching. And, you know, we're still here. What we did today was part of our journey, and we're along the right path right now. We're following this closely and we'll be going in-depth on the visit with an episode on Friday. That's all for today. I'm Jason D'Souza, in for Jamie Poisson. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner.