Gabon RPCV George Friou will direct a team of nine health officials who will survey regions swamped by the tsunami in Indonesia
When disaster strikes, 'he has to go'
By Seth Harkness, Portland Press Herald Writer
January 13, 2005
A Portland resident who got a job offer recently to help restore health care for thousands of tsunami survivors in Indonesia said he didn't have to think long about whether to accept.
Had he been inclined not to pick up and leave for the epicenter of one of the world's most devastating natural disasters, George Friou could have cited any number of reasons.
He hadn't finished unpacking since moving into a new house on Capisic Street on Christmas Day. Taking the job would mean his wife would have to look out for the couple's three children by herself for three months.
And it wasn't as if he needed an adrenaline rush; just a few weeks ago he was in Ukraine to deliver a speech on AIDS and found himself in the midst of mass demonstrations about election fraud.
But Friou, who met his wife, Dianna, in a refugee camp on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where they were doing public health work, said there was no soul-searching when the call came from the International Rescue Committee last week.
"There was no indecision on our part," he said.
His wife, a health consultant who worked in public health for Portland, agreed: "Of course he has to go," she said. "Everybody is saying, 'God, I wish I could do something to help.' He's got the training and the skills. You can't say no to something like that."
Friou will leave Friday for Banda Aceh, Indonesia, a provincial capital on the northern tip of Sumatra, which was among the regions hardest hit when an earthquake triggered the tsunami on Dec. 26.
Of the approximately 152,000 people killed, nearly two-thirds of them were Indonesians. The wave left 5 million Indonesians homeless in a matter of hours, and the full extent of the death and damage is still being uncovered.
Friou, 48, will direct a team of nine health officials who will survey regions swamped by the tsunami and recommend both immediate measures to save lives and longer-term steps for rebuilding the health-care infrastructure.
Friou has witnessed many public health problems since deciding to go into the field more than 20 years ago, while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in the central African nation of Gabon.
In the late 1980s and early '90s, he spent four years running refugee camps in Pakistan for Afghanis who had fled their country after the Soviets pulled out. A few months ago he stepped down as director of The AIDS Project in Portland, a post he held for seven years, and began working as a public health consultant.
Unlike with many public health crises, Friou said there is no lack of funds for disaster relief. Worldwide, pledges to the relief effort have surpassed $4 billion. Locally, the Southern Maine Chapter of the American Red Cross has collected $200,000 in donations and is still receiving between $20,000 and $30,000 per day, said Josh Barnes-Livermore, with the Red Cross in Portland.
Based on his work in Pakistan, he realizes it will be critical to speak with local people and pay attention to cultural requirements in deciding how to conduct relief efforts.
Working among a Muslim population in Pakistan, for instance, he quickly learned that a male doctor could not give a female patient a shot or take her photograph.
Friou said he wasn't sure if the same rules apply among the Muslims in Indonesia.
"The only way to learn is by talking to people directly," he said. "If I don't do that, I won't get anything done."
Friou said the relief effort in Indonesia will be measured in years rather than months, and he may return for another stint after this one.
The couple said they are also discussing the possibility of Dianna doing a similar assignment in Indonesia after George returns.
