Tahrir Square has hospitals, radio station

CAIRO, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Two weeks after anti-government protests erupted in Egypt, Cairo's Tahrir Square boasts its own radio station and field hospitals, locals said.

Protesters no longer make up a weak crowd cordoned off by government forces without food and water, Ahram Online said Wednesday.

Now they have their own radio station, six pharmacies, eight field hospitals and 13 first aid stations.

When the anti-government protests began water was scarce but now anything can be purchased from hot tea to Egyptian flags and bandannas, the Web site said.

To communicate with the outside world protesters charge mobile phones by connecting them to public lampposts, or use battery operated chargers.

"In a situation like this you have to be resourceful. We are going to drive the government crazy, I promise you that," Abdel Haleem el-Lemb told the site.

Small tents, makeshift or purchased, fill the square, becoming "a home away from home," said Mustafa Helmy, a 40-year-old engineer who has been sleeping in his tent since the protests began Jan. 25.

Pharmacies get their supplies from protesters who leave the square daily to purchase what is required.

"We also have people who come here to get their insulin shots and we have trained nurses to do that," Hossam Abdel Dayem, a chemist told Ahram Online. "Someone also volunteered a fridge and that's where we store the insulin injections."

More than 90 volunteers are staffing the field hospitals around the clock, the Web site said.