Lake Erie College Continues their Support

The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) at Lake Erie College in Painesville, OH raised $166 for Project Medishare from a 50/50 raffle at a recent basketball game. Thank you to Stephanie Morgan, everyone in the SAAC, and the entire LEC community for their continued support. They have raised over $1700 to date!

Warrensville Heights High School

Earlier in March, I had an opportunity to speak to the entire freshman class of Warrensville Heights High School in Cleveland about the disaster in Haiti. I was very impressed with these students, and recently found out that they raised $400 for Project Medishare. Their gift will go a long way toward the rehabilitation process for the countless victims of the January 12 earthquake, including young people their own age, many of whom lost their limbs, their families, and their homes, but not their will and determination. I would like to thank these students for their thoughtful and selfless gift. They should be very proud.

USAID Fact Sheet #47

USAID published their most recent Haiti earthquake fact sheet on March 26, 2010.

Key Developments
* USAID has contributed 116,000 containers of water to benefit approximately 291,500 earthquake-affected individuals.
* USAID has contributed 18,230 rolls of plastic sheeting to provide shelter materials to approximately 911,500 earthquake-affected individuals. The rate of shelter material distribution has exceeded rates of distribution in previous emergencies, including the 2006 and 2009 Indonesia earthquakes.
* 12,000 houses have been assessed in Port-au-Prince for structural damage. 40% of those are suitable for habitation.
* 37,000 residents of five prioritized spontaneous settlements reside in areas vulnerable to flooding.

To read the full report, please click here.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 595,407 residents of Port-au-Prince have migrated to outlying regions. This number only includes individuals utilizing Government of Haiti-provided transportation and does not include people leaving Port-au-Prince utilizing private means of transport. There are no confirmed accounts of how many have moved into the Dominican Republic.

To see maps of population movement and U.S. Government humanitarian assistance, please click here.

Letter from Haitian Community Hospital

I came across this letter of thanks from the Haitian Community Hospital where Team Cleveland volunteered. At their peak, the hospital was treating nearly 700 patients a day, up from their average 140 patients a day before the earthquake. The Haiti Press Network announced that USAID plans to donate $400,000 worth of equipment for a new, permanent operating room for the hospital. To read the article (only available in French), please click here.


Mesi Anpil!
Merci Beaucoup!
Thank you, Very Much!

Because of the outpouring of support we received from individuals like you, L'Hôpital de la Communauté Haïtienne was able to:

* provide care for approximately 5,000 victims of the earthquake, free of charge
* feed patients, hospital staff, and volunteers, as well as their families, when markets and grocery stores were not opened
* distribute tarps and tents to those who had lost their homes, including members of the hospital staff
* distribute toiletries and clothing to patients and hospital staff, as well as their families
* host medical volunteers from the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, Haiti, Aruba, Jamaica, Sweden, Dominican Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Canada, Korea, Australia, Portugal, Hungary, Bangladesh, and Japan


With your support, we have suspended all fees. At present, the hospital cares for approximately 200 patients a day. Many of these patients were victims of the earthquake who are receiving follow-up care, undergoing revision surgeries, and are being fitted with prostheses.


We extend sincere gratitude to each and every donor and volunteer. The hospital would not have withstood this catastrophe without your contribution.


Sincerely,
Foundation Haïtienne de la Santé et de l'Education /
Haitian Health and Education Foundation Board of Directors
Georges Celcis, President
Dr. Edith Hudicourt, Vice President
Ysabelle Roy, General Secretary
Maurice Acra, Treasurer
Georges Hudicourt
Elly Maudy Chauvet
Dr. Nancy Xantus
Willaim Phipps


Hôpital de la Communauté Haïtienne / Haitian Community Hospital Staff
Jean Adrien, General Director
Dr. Marie Claude Francois, Medical Director

Lake Health Honors Team Cleveland

On Monday, March 29, Lake Health honored Team Cleveland for their work in Haiti. Lake Health sent $13,000 worth of drugs and medical supplies, $4,000 worth of surgical supplies, $10,000 in surgical instruments and 90 cases of water to Haiti with Team Cleveland. Lake Health nurses collected $800 and bought wound care, burn, and antibiotic creams and supplies. The Lake Health Foundation collected over $14,000 from team members. Thank you to Lake Health for supporting and recognizing their relief efforts.

American Red Cross Honors Team Cleveland

The American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland has named Team Cleveland a recipient of the 2010 Hero Award in recognition of their service in Haiti.

On Thursday, May 13th, the American Red Cross will pay tribute to unsung, ordinary citizens who have performed acts of kindness and humanitarianism. These values mirror those that motivate and inspire the work of the Red Cross.

Congratulations to Dr. Paul Vanek, Dr. Jack Fitzgerald, Theresa Jackson RN, and Jean Kurdas RN. We recognize and appreciate your work, as it reminds us to act with selflessness, compassion and courage in all things.

Team Cleveland Featured in COSE Update Magazine

Click here to read an article on Team Cleveland in the most recent COSE Update Magazine. This piece is a great general overview of their time in Haiti and includes some stories not previously covered by our blog, so be sure to check it out!

COSE (Council of Smaller Enterprises) is the region's largest small business support organization and provides cost-effective group purchasing programs, advocacy on legislative and regulatory issues, and networking and educational resources to help Northeast Ohio's small businesses grow.

Returning Pediatricians to Speak at Union Club

Tonight, March 24, at 6:00pm, the Cleveland Council on World Affairs is holding an event at the Union Club. Speaking at the event are pediatricians Dr. Ximena Valdes and Dr. Marissa Herran, who both spent time in Haiti traveling to various clinics treating injured children. Joining them will be Marixa Lasso, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Latin American History at Case Western Reserve University.

Price: $25 Members/$35 Non-Members, $10 Students

Click here to reserve your ticket online, or call 216-255-9003, or e-mail them at reservations@ccwa.org

The Cleveland Council on World Affairs is a non-profit organizations whose mission is to "engage the community of Northeast Ohio to achieve greater understanding of international relations and global issues and their impact upon our region."

Lake Erie College - Hoops for Haiti

I would like to thank the Lake Erie College community once again for their incredible support for Project Medishare. On March 16th, several student groups organized a Hoops for Haiti event and raised about $600. I want to thank Amber Adache and all the volunteers for helping to make it a great success. This is now the second fundraiser held at Lake Erie College. The students have raised roughly $1600 for Project Medishare.

To read more about this event in the News Herald, please click here

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Lieutenant Colonel Edward C. Wilson

You could say that Lieut. Col. Wilson was Team Cleveland's "lifeline." He was responsible for safely taking them from the airport to the Haitian Community Hospital, about a 30 minute ride. He was the only soldier at the airport who offered any assistance. He continued to check up on the team periodically to make sure they were OK. Dr. Vanek wants to "acknowledge his kindness in getting us safely to HCH. He called us 'the Cavalry' and said he served in a support role. I thanked him on behalf of our team and told him of how we bless his name and his efforts when we talk of our efforts in Haiti."

Lieut. Col. Wilson writes,

This is just a quick note to follow up on your visit to Haiti and the efforts of your team. I can't tell you how amazed I was with the courage, dedication, selflessness and professionalism you and your staff exhibited in your work to provide critical medical care after the earthquake.


It was truly a pleasure to assist you and your team where we could. I don't know if you remember us, but we gave you and your team and the 700-800 lbs of equipment you had rides to the Community Hospital and coordinated for what security we could provide for you. The efforts of your team are an experience that I continue to hold up as nothing short of heroic and [...] I hope to have the opportunity to thank you and your team in person.

In another note, he writes,

We started a saying based on several experiences we faced during and after the earthquake: "we have to try." You are all testament to what is possible if you just put forth your best effort when faced with adversity, anything becomes possible.

Respectfully,
Leiutenant Colonel Edward C. Wilson
MINUSTAH Intelligence Officer (U2)

Here in Cleveland, we tip our hat to Lieut. Col. Wilson for his selfless work and for helping to ensure the safety of our team.

News from the Haitian Community Hospital

I just came across a nice note from a woman who has been volunteering at the Haitian Community Hospital nearly ever day for the past two months. She writes,

Everyday about 200 patients come to the hospital for care: obgyn patients, pediatrics patients, orthopedic patients. Instead of being covered with dirt with open wounds the way people were [in the first week], in March the patients are clean and well-dressed. Babies wear colorful barrettes and cute little shoes. Dr. Valerie Rice, a volunteer OBGYN from Tennessee asked, how could these people living in tent cities be so clean? I think they come here in their best clothing because a hospital is an important place. It's a gesture of respect for you doctors, for the service you are offering. It may be free of charge but it is very valuable. So, let us keep concentrating on the mission, a mission that is a bit changed two months later but no less important: saving lives. The method may be different, the urgency is less predominant but the threats to life continue to be insidious.

To read the note in its entirety, please click here.

Prosthetic Limbs, New Ailments

Volunteers with Project Medishare are beginning to report seeing post-earthquake ailments like malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, malnutrition, and a myriad of infectious diseases. According to Project Medishare nurse liaison Maguey Rochelin, children are becoming more at-risk to life-threatening diseases like malaria with so many families living outside in make-shift shelters, in close proximity to so many others, during the tropical rain season, and without adequate sanitary conditions.

Prior to the earthquake, the rate of TB was 10 times greater than in the rest of Latin America. Haiti saw 30,000 cases of malaria each year. The HIV rate is said to be between 2.5-5%. Those who had been treated for HIV and TB before the earthquake suddenly found themselves without the care they desperately needed. Organizations like Project Medishare are rebuilding and restaffing clinics and hospitals in the hopes of restoring and improving that level of care for those patients.

In just the past week, patients at the Haitian Community Hospital where Team Cleveland operated as well as patients at the Project Medishare Hospital are now being fitted for prosthetic limbs. Amputee patients at both facilities are under the care of volunteer orthopedic surgeons along with physical therapists. 24-year-old Manoushka Blanc, who lost her two sisters in the earthquake, also lost her right leg, recalls waking up from surgery. "It was like I was dreaming, I was still in shock from the earthquake. I didn't realize I had lost my leg - it was only a few days after that I realized it wasn't there. I accepted it because I know the doctors saved my life." For Manoushka, hope came in the form of a prosthetic limb. "When they told me about this new leg I stopped crying because I see hope for my future. I feel much better now knowing that I might be able to live a more normal life." At the Haitian Community Hospital, more than a dozen patients have already been fitted with prosthetic limbs thanks to a team from Connecticut. The hospital, however, has reported that they are in desperate need of prosthesis specialists.

Giving Haitians a Voice in Rebuilding Haiti

"While Haitian resilience has been duly recognized around the world, few appear to be interested in talking to Haitians about how to rebuild their communities and how the billions likely to be pledged to their country will be used. And no one is talking about what recourse Haitians will have if promised projects are never completed, or worse, pledged money never arrives."

Loune Viaud, director of strategic planning and operations at Partners in Health, and Monika Kalra Varma, director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights, recently proposed possible strategies for helping to give Haiti control over its recovery.

To read this article, please click here.

Securing Women's Rights & Health Needs in Haiti

In the Huffington Post, Berlotte Israel and Margaret Satterthwaite discuss the need for empowering women through the country's rebuilding phase. Gender-based violence, high rates of pregnancy complication, and limited access to education are stark and troubling realities prior to and in the aftermath of this disaster. While meeting the immediate needs of safety and shelter, government officials and donor countries must also secure improved maternal health and equal access to education. To read this article, please click here.

Haiti has the highest fertility rate in the Western Hemisphere. Only 40% of the population had access to basic healthcare before the earthquake. Half of all deaths were caused by AIDS, respiratory diseases, meningitis and diarrheal diseases. 90% of children suffer from waterborne diseases and intestinal parasites.

Project Medishare is working to fully equip a new Maternal Health Center in Marmont. According to the Project Medishare blog, "When the maternal health center becomes fully operational it will be open 24/7 and will have trained staff available and living in the connecting residence. The center will focus on providing the full package of women's health services, including reproductive health education and services, family planning, HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, and prevention of mother to child transmission (PTME)."

Dallas Doctor's Moving Letter from Haiti

Dr. Bob Peters of Dallas recently traveled to Haiti with a medical team. He poignantly conveys his experience in a touching letter to his daughters. To read his letter, please click here.

Why Haiti's Quake Toll Higher Than Chile's

In the aftermath of last Saturday's earthquake in Chile, many people have been asking why the 8.8 earthquake, releasing 500 times more energy than the 7.0 in Haiti, caused significantly less damage. In a recent CNN article, Columbia University geophysicist Colin Stark speculated on why Haiti's quake toll is higher than Chile's.

Poverty is what ultimately kills most people during an earthquake. Poverty means that little or no evaluation is made of seismic risk in constructing buildings and no zoning takes place. It means that building codes are not written, and even if they do exist they are difficult, or impossible, to enforce. It means the choice between building robustly or building cheaply is not a choice at all.

Haiti is a tragic illustration of this. Weak building materials and poor construction standards share much of the blame for the grotesque number of fatalities, injured and internally displaced people.

Of course it's complicated. Earthquake shaking is a complex process and the chain of causation from earthquake source magnitude through infrastructural damage to human harm involves factors like the type of earthquake fault, its orientation, the hardness of bedrock or presence of wet soil, and so on. A lot also depends on the time of day the earthquake strikes in terms of how many people are inside the buildings that could collapse. Population density, distance from the epicenter, and the depth of the rupture are the most important factors of all.

Nevertheless, those countries most at risk of seismic tragedy are not simply those on tectonic plate boundaries, but also those with the least money to spend on protecting themselves.

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.

Lake Erie College - Special Thanks

Last week, on Wednesday February 17, Dr. Fitzgerald and Dr. Vanek spoke at Lake Erie College. It was a great success and we raised $1000 for Project Medishare.

I would like to thank the Students In Free Enterprise chapter of Lake Erie College, especially Steven Abbott and Erik Green. I would also like to thank President Michael Victor for his gracious hospitality, and the Center for Entrepreneurship for their generous donation. I would also like to thank Rev. Gerard Mirbel of the Miracle Revival Ministry in Painesville for delivering the benediction. Rev. Mirbel is a native of Haiti who has returned there on nine occasions since moving to the United States in 1983. He helps support a school of 600 students in Miragoane, Haiti and plans to go back in March.

The Politics of Rebuilding

Lake Health Presents "An Insider's Look at Haiti"

Team Cleveland will speak on Thursday, February 25 at 6:30pm at TriPoint Medical Center (in the Lubrizol Conference Room of the Physician Pavilion). The event can also be viewed via video conference in the Main Conference Room of the West Medical Center.

The event is geared towards members of the medical community interested in getting involved in the ongoing Haiti disaster relief efforts. Space is limited. To register, please call the Best of Health Line at 440-953-6000 or 1-800-454-9800.

Lake Health is a leader in community health care in Northeast Ohio and was instrumental in Team Cleveland's effectiveness in the Haiti relief efforts.