On Tuesday, members of the 11-person MSF team in the area devastated by last week’s earthquake and tsunamis worked in evacuation centres with local medical staff in a small, isolated community in Miyagi prefecture.

“There were two local doctors in Minamisanriku  who have been working in around 20 evacuation centres since the earthquake and tsunami, so team members today assisted them in their consultations,” said Emmanuel Goue, the emergency coordinator of the MSF team.

MSF staff plan to start a small clinic in another town near to Minamisanriku. Once additional medical resources from the massive Japanese relief effort arrive, MSF will try to find other pockets of communities who may need medical assistance.

Japanese authorities continue to devote enormous resources to the relief operation that began as soon as the tsunamis receded.