A Message from the Executive Director of Project Medishare

Here is an abridged version of a letter sent out by Ellen Powers, Executive Director of Project Medishare:

Dear friends of Project Medishare,

Some 16 days after the Haiti earthquake, Project Medishare continues saving lives. The news cameras are beginning to leave but the most difficult work still lies ahead.

At the request of the Haitian Government, we are operating one of the largest field trauma hospitals in Port-au-Prince and have deployed more than 500 medical, administrative and logistic professionals to staff this 300-bed, tent-based critical-care hospital with four operating rooms and an ICU.

Retired NBA star Alonzo Mourning has provided generous funding to help pay for the hospital and has traveled to Haiti with our teams twice to help. Please click here to hear a special audio message from Alonzo Moruning.

Project Medishare has also assumed the role of triage alongside the U.S. military and managing medical evacuations of the most critical patients.

Project Medishare has a permanent presence in Haiti and we are committed to staying in this fight for the long haul. Already our long-standing rural health programs are being overwhelmed by the exodus from Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands of women and children still need access to prenatal care, vaccinations, nutritional monitoring and other lifesaving healthcare.

Eventually our plan is to transition our tent-based field hospital to a Ministry of Health-managed permanent facility, leaving behind a first-class trauma hospital where none has existed before. We are also integrating local Haitian doctors and nurses into our operations in an effort to better train each other.

Ellen Powers, MPH
Project Medishare
Executive Director