Saturday, February 27, 2010

Project Medishare - Transition to Rehabilitation

Dear Friends of Project Medishare,

More than six weeks have passed since Project Medishare's volunteer doctors and nurses arrived on the ground in Haiti to assist those devastated by the January 12th earthquake.

After working in the country for over 15 years, we have built strong relationships with the people of Haiti. These relationships allowed Project Medishare to be one of the first foreign medical teams on the ground immediately assisting those in need of critical care.

We are working towards transitioning our field hospital to be the first trauma and rehabilitation hospital in Haiti. Currently, this transition includes offering physical therapy and psychosocial support for those with spinal cord and brain injuries, as well as the many amputees who lose limbs due to severe crush wounds. So far, we have purchased over 500 prosthetic limbs for our patients at the field hospital in Port-au-Prince. Soon our volunteer doctors and nurses will begin working with amputees in the fitting for these limbs, as well as providing the physical therapy necessary to help these people work toward living normal, productive lives.

As you know, Project Medishare will continue to be a driving force in providing care for those affected by the disaster. We will be working in the coming months and years to help Haiti recover and rebuild. Our transition to rehabilitation demonstrates one of the many reasons we need your ongoing support.

The earthquake's damage lingers far beyond the city limits of Port-au-Prince. Before the earthquake, Project Medishare's Community Health Program in Thomonde served 85,000 in the Central Plateau. After the quake, a mass exodus of over 400,000 people from Port-au-Prince migrated to rural Haiti in search of shelter. Our staff in the Central Plateau are already noticing a population explosion in Thomonde and Marmont. Such growth will place an additional burden on our ongoing health programs. Currently, we are conducting a census to determine how much our population has been affected by this mass migration.

We thank you for your ongoing support in helping us provide continuous care to all those we are serving in Haiti during this great time of need.

In Solidarity,
Dr. Barth Green (President) and Ellen Powers (Executive Director)


To make a donation to Project Medishare, please click here.

To read more about the problems facing rural Haiti since the earthquake, click here to read Ken Ellingwood's story in the L.A. Times: Haiti quake is beginning to be felt miles away.

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