Dr. Bob’s Feb. 24th Update
Dr Bob’s latest report on the Earthquake Relief Programs Feb 24th, 2010
Gentlefolk:
All our disaster teams are finally safe at home. Our third team, led by David Bevil, consisting of he and six medical personnel, just finished their stint at General Hospital in PAP. They report that while the patient mix is gradually shifting from acute trauma to more medical problems like dysentery, typhoid and malaria, there are still many hundred with infected wounds and needing ongoing fracture management. Dr Jim Gaffney, a team member who worked in the ER, said that thousands were still pouring in to the triage tents, and that the International Medical Corps (IMC) was still running things and coordinating volunteer teams, and would likely be doing so for months to come.
Meanwhile, Betty and Nancy continued to address crucial needs of food and water to a targeted area of intense need in the Charbonnierre area. They were blessed to be able to work with Mme. Pierre Alexi, wife of the latest prime minister, who is using the community action group known as CHRESOF, of which she is the directress, to obtain and organize food distribution throughout several needy areas of Port-au-Prince. Unfortunately, while she has been promised food and other relief items from a number of organizations, NONE have come through at this writing, some five weeks post-earthquake. Betty also met with Msr. Alexi himself. MOL stepped into the picture immediately by spending several thousands of donated US dollars on rice, beans, oil, flour and sugar, and an orderly distribution began immediately. We began feeding approximately 4000 persons, including two orphanages and will continue distributions every fifteen days and have committed to continue doing so until other organizations step in or our money runs out. The number being fed this past month by MOL was 10,000 plus. In addition, we have identified a cluster of 100 primary school aged kids who want to begin school again; so we have hired five teachers (out of work because their school was destroyed) who will begin classes for 100 students on 2-24-2010. We feel this stop-gap measure will help to keep the children occupied and emotionally diverted from the terrible circumstances they find themselves in. They will meet beneath some large tarps that were provided for them.
Apart from these efforts, we have instituted a simple water purification method in an effort to abort the inevitable outbreaks of dysentery, typhoid and parasitism. Nancy Bukovnic headed up this effort by scrounging used plastic cola and water bottles, filling them partially with Clorox and issuing droppers to families with instructions on how to add 1 drop of Clorox to each gallon of water obtained from the contaminated water pipe system of the city. In other areas, we have funded a clinic held in the mountains up near Dufailly by our former head nurse at Jolivert, Yvrose Velcine. We provided $3000 US for that clinic and for some food purchase in that area as well. Another $2000 US was given to Christophe to help feed displaced families in the Croix de Bouquet area. Lastly, Betty and other nurses held busy street clinics twice weekly serving some 200 patients with consultations and free medicines.
A hasty conference among our directors on hand in Haiti, along with others here in the US led to the decision that since the larger relief organizations are now, finally and very belatedly, starting to get their act together and beginning widespread distribution of food and water, our focus should now turn to collecting and distributing tents for temporary shelters. With the coming wet season, thousands will contract pneumonia and other respiratory diseases from simple exposure to the elements. Many thousands are still sleeping beneath makeshift shelters of bedsheets and blankets. To that end, we have already shipped 143 tents by tramp steamer which should arrive in Haiti in three days from this writing. Another 200 have been purchased by Joe Judge, our busy “tent ministry guy”, and will be transferred from our headquarters in Hartford, KY to the docks of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines who have graciously consented to transfer our tents on their cruise ship visiting Labadie, Haiti, just west of Cap Haitien on the north coast. I’m now working on the logistics of getting those tents on down to PAP by truck; a distance of some 170 miles. I should also add that a hundred duffel bags of medical supplies along with 30 steel drums of the same are on that steamer headed for Haiti as we speak. There are also several pallets of MRE’s on this boat as well. We hope to send Dr Cenord Guerry (our one-man first responder) back in to Jolivert in the coming days to help coordinate the distribution and sharing of these crucial supplies to several hospitals and clinics in the Northwest, since thousands of refugees are now pouring into the north. Christophe estimates around 5000 have gathered around our clinic and our daily patient census has about quadrupled since the earthquake.
Bottom line: Haiti is in dire need of our ongoing help for many months to come, and I hope through this report you can readily see that your monetary gifts and donated medical supplies are going exactly where they are most needed and we at MOL will remain dedicated to the strategies of getting the most “bang for your buck” with those in the greatest need in the coming months.
God bless all! Dr Bob