War, poverty and disaster through the eyes of a Red Cross doctor: Medic's 35-year career spanning civil wars, Cambodia's 'killing fields' and the Kashmir earthquake is shown in captivating images
- Dr Frank Ryding has lifted the lid on his work travelling the world with the organisation in new book.
- The medic's 35 year career has seen him save lives during civil wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Somalia
- He also helped victims of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and was sent to South Sudan during 2014 civil war
- Dr Ryding has penned book called 'Memoirs of a Red Cross Doctor: Better to Light a Candle'
A doctor who worked for the Red Cross in war zones and disaster hit areas across the world has given a rare insight into his 35 year career saving lives in a new book.
Frank Ryding has travelled the globe for aid organisation, spending time in Cambodia during the 'Killing Field' era where more than a million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge, and helping victims of civil wars in Afghanistan, Somalia and South Sudan.
He was also sent to the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake in 2005, in the foothills of the Himalayas, that killed more than 80,000 people.
Now his work has been documented in his book, 'Memoirs of a Red Cross Doctor: Better to Light a Candle' which feature incredible images that paint a picture of his life.
Frank Ryding poses next to a Red Cross track outside a shelled out tower block in Grozny, Chechnya, during the first Chechen war in 1995
The author injecting a spinal anaesthetic on a hospital ward in Lokichokio, in northern Kenya, near the border with South Sudan, in 2000
One shows him holding a child he gave medical treatment to after she was dragged from a hut by a lion in Sudan.
Other pictures show him posing next to his Red Cross truck in front of the shell of a former apartment building in Grozny, Chechnya, and another showing him next to armed guards outside a hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.
But he says it was his time in the east African nation that will stick with him for the rest of his life.
Mr Ryding, who was working in a hospital in Reading, Berskshire in 1980 when he first decided to go and work for the Red Cross, said: 'Each of the places I've worked in has had a great impact on me, but Somalia will always be with me.
The medic with armed guards outside a hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1991. He says his time working there is an experience that will stay with him the most
Dr Ryding at the International Committee of the Red Cross Hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan in 1989 with Afghan patients
In this photo, taken at a hospital in northern Kenya in 2000, he holds an injured child from South Sudan who was dragged out of his home by a lion.
'The violence and true anarchy of the country was very stressful for myself and the team I was with.
'It was a very risky existence and we had some fatalities and injuries.
'Somalia had and still has a hopelessness about it and it's a challenge to bring about any significant improvement to the lives of the poor Somalis trapped there.
'It was a minor incident that I remember most.
Dr Ryding (centre) working in a sweltering conditions in an operating theatre in the Old Fangak hospital in South Sudan in 2014
Dr Ryding (right) with colleagues outside a temporary operating theatre Muzaffarabad, which is near the epicentre of the 2005 earthquake, and right, an operating theatre in Martini Hospital, Mogadishu, in 1991, with bazooka shell damage to wall
'Our hospital in Berbara was attacked by shellfire, gunfire and marauding gangs of looters. I was sheltering under an operating table from the shells falling around us.
'I'd had enough, I was on the point of giving up and, if I survived, calling it a day with the Red Cross.
'I felt we were achieving so very little, even though we'd worked hard operating on the never-ending stream of wounded people.
'I felt we were achieving so very little, even though we'd worked hard operating on the never-ending stream of wounded people.
A burnt-out tank on the street in war-torn Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia taken in 1991 when he was sent to the east African nation
Dr Ryding spent most of his 35 years working in harsh and cramped environments, like this ward at the Tap Prik hospital in Cambodia, where he went in the 80s
'It was an almost insignificant number of victims compared to the hundreds of thousands of casualties in the country around us which we could never hope to help.
'What on earth was the use of us being there? Then I saw some graffiti, a proverb, over the door of the operating room. It said, “It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness”.
'It suddenly made everything clearer. I carried on and in the following years it was often the motivation that kept me going.
The author, spent his professional life in some of the world's most dangerous regions, took this photo of refugees fleeing along the River Zaraf in Old Fangak, South Sudan in 2014
“That’s the reason that it was the subtitle for my book “Better to Light a Candle”.
Having survived his many ordeals Frank says he counts himself lucky to live in a country with peace, stability and universal healthcare, something which he never takes for granted today.
He says in his book that he wants to lift the lid on the work the Red Cross and 'give a balanced account of what we do and what we experience.'
Mr Ryding said: 'We’re not saints, we make mistakes, myself as much as anyone - sometimes embarrassing.
Living conditions could also be difficult to cope with, and during his time in South Sudan in 2014 he had to sleep in tents like these
A Red Cross truck transporting volunteers in Nong Pru, Thailand in the late 80s
'I’ve seen heroism, cruelty, chaos and compassion, the heart-rending and the heart-warming and the highest vision of the human spirit.
“I’d say to people that, compared to most of the rest of the world, we are in a very privileged and fortunate position and we should treasure it and make full use of it while we can, and at the same time perhaps spare a thought for those people who can’t.'
Memoirs of a Red Cross Doctor: Better to Light a Candle by Frank Ryding is published by Pen and Sword History, is available to buy on Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment