THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 6, 1994 TAG: 9408080228
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Photographic essay
SOURCE: BY Patrick K. Lackey, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Norfolk free-lance photographer Keith Lanpher, 43, was hired by Operation Blessing, an international relief organization founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, to document efforts by the organization's medical team to save Rwandan lives at the sprawling Katali refugee camp north of Goma, Zaire.
Unlike early photos documenting the civil war tragedy in Rwanda that has taken more than half a million lives, Lanpher's show the beginnings of hope, though months or years of suffering lie ahead.
``The camp is an overwhelming assault on your senses,'' Lanpher said, ``the human deprivation, the stench, the death. It defined the word carnage. Even the veteran aid workers had never experienced anything of this magnitude.''
The medical team spent a week treating thousands of patients at the camp for dehydration and cholera. The camp held an estimated 450,000 refugees.
Dr. Paul Williams, the medical team leader, said the team cut the daily death rate from roughly 300 when they arrived to 50 when they departed.
``The best they can do,'' Lanpher said, ``is Band-Aid that bizarre condition until those people go back to their homes in Rwanda, but that Band-Aid is saving literally thousands of lives.''
The refugees he talked to were terrified of returning home. ``They would have to be,'' he said, ``to go endure what they are going through in those camps.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Keith Lanpher
LEFT: Team member Andre Valentine said children's eyes looked like
holes in their heads until they began receiving liquids
intravenously. After a few hours, he said, their eyes began to
glow again, like this boy's.
BELOW: Upon arrival at the Katali refugee camp north of Goma, Zaire,
Operation Blessing's medical team immediately began treating
patients on open lava rock, while hospital tents were set up. The
team arrived at camp July 25 and spent the next week saving hundreds
of lives.
ABOVE: One of an estimated 6,000 Rwandan orphans needing care in the
camp. Parents dying in the refugee camps leave more orphans daily.
FAR LEFT: At the end of a day, members of the medical team pose with
refugees near the medical tents. Operation Blessing founder Pat
Robertson says he hopes to charter a Boeing 727 and fly an
additional 80 to 100 medical volunteers to Goma as soon as
possible.
LEFT: A refugee drinks contaminated water, source of cholera and
other diseases.
ON PAGE E8
LEFT: A boy collapses in an oral rehydration area. As soon as the
medical tents went up, refugees would literally fall into them,
seeking help.
ABOVE: A boy smiles for the camera in the camp.
RIGHT: Keith Lanpher has been a free-lance photographer in Hampton
Roads for 20 years.
LEFT: Medical team member Andre Valentine, from Marietta, Ga., gives
thumbs up after successfully inserting IV. Family members would
stand for hours while holding the IV bag for a loved one.
BELOW: A shelterless family beds down for the evening on a hill of
lava rock. Camp tents are in background.
ABOVE: Children wait outside a medical tent while a parent receives
treatment.
by CNB