Haiti Earthquake Update
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Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Before sunrise last Thursday, I started my journey back to the United States after living for three weeks in an IDP camp in Carrefour, Haiti. As we drove by the crowd of people already waiting in line to receive treatment at the health clinic run by buildOn Haiti staff, my mind weighed heavy with the memories of witnessing the lopsided battle between Haitians and nature. Ultimately, my account of Haiti following the earthquake will be balanced on one side with stories of unimaginable suffering and hardship, and on the other side with first hand accounts of Haitians who inspired me with their heroism and courage. Many of the heroes became good friends, but most of them will remain perfect strangers. More than anything, I’ll remember the tireless effort of the buildOn Haiti staff to provide care to those who passed through our lives.
I hope these photos can help tell the story of what we saw and what we did: view the photo gallery.
On behalf of buildOn and the Haiti staff, I would like to thank everyone for their continued support as buildOn works to help mend the deep and fresh wounds that are now left to heal on top of old Haitian scars.
Skyler Badenoch
Manager of International Programs
buildOn
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
We had a busy weekend in Carrefour. The buildOn Haiti staff spent the weekend preparing to open a more formal clinic in the camp for internally displaced people. We ran a small public works program to help build storage shelves for medication, dug trenches for potable water, and cleaned the health facility that will eventually be managed and operated by Hope for Haiti. We interviewed Haitian doctors, nurses, administrative assistants, and security guards who will be key to providing the more than 8000 people with critical health care.
By early Monday morning there was already a line of nearly 200 people waiting to be seen by local doctors and nurses.
We've also been assisting other organizations and the people who pass through our lives.
On Saturday, a young girl named Ronalda du Pierre, arrived at the buildOn clinic with her grandmother. Ronalda was left orphaned and homeless by the quake. For the past few weeks, she was the sole caregiver for her incapacitated grandmother. When her grandmother fell seriously ill due to dehydration and malnutrition, Ronalda wheeled her almost 2 miles to our clinic to seek help. Ronalda is only 11 years old.
Both Ronalda and her grandmother are now being treated and cared for by our friends at the German Red Cross in Carrefour. While they are both in extremely good care, their hardest times are yet to come.
Haiti is full of stories like Ronalda's. Almost every person who passes through the buildOn clinic is coping with enormous hardship. But even in these darkest of times, life here is not full of 24-hour despair. There is hope. You can still hear children laughing and playing in the camps. We've seen friends and family celebrate reuniting for the first time since the quake. Haitian doctors and nurses continue to work at the clinic as volunteers to provide care and consultation to the sick and wounded. More aid from the international community is reaching those in need.
Late last night we stopped by the German Red Cross hospital to check on Ronalda. As her grandmother lay sleeping, we found Ronalda helping doctors feed and comfort other patients in the intensive care unit. We are all in awe of her courage. To us, she represents Haiti's future.
Skyler Badenoch
Manager of International Programs
buildOn
Friday, January 28th, 2010
This week, the buildOn Haiti team continued to run the clinic in Carrefour. We receive about 150 patients per day who need medical treatment for things mostly related to living in the refugee camp. Diarrhea, skin infections, dehydration, high blood pressure, and malnutrition make up the majority of cases we see. We are still using our truck as an ambulance. Two days ago, we took a woman in labor and a man with a severe hernia to the General Hospital in Port au Prince. The woman had a baby boy, the man had a free operation.
The need for first aid has mostly subsided, and the best way to save lives in Haiti is now is to provide general health care, water, food, and sanitation services to the hundreds of thousands living in refugee camps. Shelter is also a critical need, as sooner or later the rains will come. The first hard rain will create another wave of catastrophic events and health concerns. Several international and domestic organizations are coming into the camp each day to assess what can be done.
Our short-term goal is to hand the clinic operations over to Hope for Haiti, our partner organization, and transition back to Les Cayes where we will resume our work building schools. Hope for Haiti has been a terrific supporter of our work here, and we would not have been as effective without their logistical support and critical donations of medical supplies and water.
The buildOn Haiti team has now spent more than two weeks working together in the refugee camp in Carrefour. While it's too early to reflect on this experience, one thing that I've noticed is that we are much closer to one another than we would have ever imagined. We have not only created stronger bonds among ourselves, but we have become a part of the community in the camp. We have friends here who will bring us back whenever possible.
As a team, we have agreed that it's best to transition back to Les Cayes to build schools, because there will be an increasing need for our work. It will be difficult to say goodbye to our friends here, but building schools is where buildOn will be most effective in Haiti's healing process.
Skyler Badenoch
Manger of International Programs
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Port au Prince is calmer today. The fierce urgency to provide first aid to the wounded has started to level off, and the secondary crisis will soon take priority. There are now hundreds of thousands of Haitians battling life-threatening infections, dehydration, hunger, homelessness, and the crippling physical and psychological effects of the 50 earthquakes that have occurred over the past few weeks.
This has been a surreal journey full of tragic stories and incomprehensibly complex suffering. As I walk from tent to tent in the refugee camp in Carrefour, I hear the stories of those who have lost loved ones; I listen to people describe how their homes have been leveled; I follow up on patients suffering from severely infected wounds who were treated at the buildOn clinic; I see the eyes of fearful mothers with critically sick babies; I find cases of elderly Haitians who have been abandoned. When I think of Haiti during the first weeks of this crisis, the collective suffering will always be the first thing that comes to mind. If you could bottle it up, you would have enough energy to equal ten atomic bombs.
When I pull up the gruesome mental images of the last two weeks, they dissolve after a few minutes, and they are replaced by memories of those who worked heroically to save lives and ease the suffering here. In my eyes, the unsung heroes of this tragedy are people like the Haitian doctors and nurses who showed up at our clinic and volunteered non-stop to provide relief and save the lives of their fellow countrymen. I'm equally inspired by the buildOn Haiti staff, as they worked tirelessly to make a positive difference for those in urgent need of help.
As an organization, we held true to our core values. I have never been more proud to work for buildOn. Colleagues, donors, friends and family gave us the support we needed to help us find focus and save lives. However, we should make no mistake about the impact that we had here. Estimates of the dead are closing in on 200,000. Perhaps more than 300,000 people are still injured and almost 1 million people are now homeless. In the past two weeks, we effectively served as a very small lifeboat in a vast ocean of despair.
In the coming days, we will continue to assist local leadership and humanitarian aid organizations as they respond to the needs of the refugees in Carrefour. We will work diligently to seek out individuals in dire need and provide them with our care.
It will take decades for Haiti to recover and rebuild from this disaster, and the country will remain in a state of emergency for a long time. The answer for buildOn Haiti is to continue to do what we do best, build schools and build a lot of them.
Skyler Badenoch
Manger of International Programs
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
buildOn Haiti team goals for today: Start the clinic early; treat more than 100 people; donate 1000 bottles of water to the priests for distribution; take at least 2 people to the hospital; take 2 people home, meet with all partners and check in with Tonise; hydrate. More to come...
Skyler Badenoch
Manger of International Programs
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Yesterday, we invited doctor and three nurses from the International Medical Corps IMC and a nurse representing Hope for Haiti to visit our clinic. Their help was invaluable. They worked side by side with Haitian doctors and nurses to treat more than 100 people with infected wounds, broken bones and other illnesses. They also gave tetanus shots to everyone including our local staff.
The highlight of the day was finally convincing Tonise, a woman with two broken femurs, to go to the hospital for surgery. I met Tonise on my first day at the camp and told her that we would take her in our truck, but she refused because the pain caused by the bumpy road would be too great and she was terrified by the stories she heard about the hospital. Six days later, she agreed to allow us to transport her to the General Hospital in Port au Prince, where IMC doctors are now treating her. I'll keep you posted on her progress.
The IMC staff was extremely impressed by the participation of Haitian volunteer nurses and doctors who have showed up every day to help treat the injured, and they are hoping to replicate our model in other areas. Yesterday was such a success that IMC sent an assessment team to our camp to see how they can scale up their efforts here. They also asked us if we would be willing to organize a latrine-building project to improve sanitation conditions in our camp. It is crucial for us to think about the things we should do immediately to prevent against future problems. Latrines and water sanitation are key.
Today we are getting a fresh set of medical supplies from Les Cayes thanks to Hope for Haiti. The need for medical attention is still very high because there will soon be a second wave of fatalities if wounds go untreated. Our priority at camp is to ensure that doesn't happen.
Thank you again for all of your support. I remind our team daily that so many people are sending their best wishes for our success.
Skyler Badenoch
Manger of International Programs
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Yesterday was a busy day. After we set up our clinic, we drove to the General Hospital in Carrefour and dropped off a box of medical supplies for the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team there. In exchange, they gave us gauze, tape, bandages, iodine and other first aid material for our clinic. The crowds at the hospital are growing, and we were able to take a truckload of people with less serious injuries to our clinic to be treated. This is helpful to MSF because it lets them deal with the more serious cases.
Back at our camp, we met with the head priest and the head nun to discuss water needs. The camp population has swelled in the past few days, and there are about 7-8,000 people here. There seem to be more people at night, as many are still trying to get things from their homes and locate family members. Medical assistance, water, and food are already scarce, and we are trying to convince people to think ahead of what can be done to mitigate the second wave of problems: dehydration, diarrhea, infections, malnutrition, and sanitation issues that are prevalent at refugee camps. They will soon need help with latrines and water systems.
In the afternoon, we headed to the General Hospital in Port au Prince (PaP) to meet with Mikey from Hope for Haiti. The General Hospital is past capacity, and everyone is working around the clock. Mikey was key to getting that hospital back and running after the quake damaged the facilities and hurt many vital staff. I've met a couple of the doctors there who are working 18-hour days--simply heroic. There are so many amputees and people still coming in with life threatening wounds that have yet to be treated.
We left the hospital around 2 p.m. and went to the Hope for Haiti depot where their organization has been successful in procuring and delivering shipments of medical supplies and essentials from their donors in the U.S. They donated at least 1,000 bottles of water and medical supplies to our clinic in Carrefour and helped us transport it all there in their new truck that they bought two days ago.
By night time, we arrived at our camp and delivered the water and materials and headed back PaP to find gas. Fuel, is scarce and selling for about $12 USD per gallon. The fact that we were able to get fuel for our truck for free speaks to our usefulness here.
I've learned a few things that are key to making a difference here that I thought about last night as I was falling asleep.
- Be self-sufficient, flexible, and cooperative.
- Having a local team who speak Creole, know PaP, and have many friends here is invaluable.
- Make sure you help other organizations and they will help you.
- Be creative and willing to do anything. From helping save a life to lifting a box of water, it's all part of the collective effort. Aid workers with egos are sugar in the gas tank.
- Don't complain too much about things not working or lack of cooperation. The complexity is too great to expect efficiency right now.
- Learn people's names and remember them.
- Be wiling to sleep anywhere and shower infrequently.
- Drink water and give water.
- Check up on people and follow through on promises.
Lastly, you should know that the buildOn methodology has been useful to us. We've simply applied its principles to providing a medical clinic and supplying food and water. We have essentially embedded ourselves in this camp, so we know who is who and what is what. Our team sleeps in makeshift tent with the rest of the refugees. We walk the grounds telling people about our services and listen to their stories. I'd say that about 3/4 of the people here say that their homes are completely destroyed. The others are too afraid to go home because even today the earth has not stopped shaking. We have leaders of the camp, much like a PSC, who come to volunteer their help at the clinic. Local doctors and nurses have come to help and they are crucial to the success of our effors. Our job: to bring in the supplies so Haitians can help themselves. Hope for Haiti is sending a team to our clinic this morning to help treat more people.
I've passed along your support to Clerge, Marcelin, Kiki, Garrier, Wadner and all the other volunteers here and we want you to know that it is very appreciated.
Thanks again for your support and I'll try to send another update in a day or so.
Skyler Badenoch
Manger of International Programs
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
We are still safe and are camping in Carrefour, right outside of Port au Prince. We are based out of a campground where there are an estimated 8,000 refugees.
Over the weekend aid groups have started to trickle in, but we are currently one of two very small groups providing assistance in the camp here. The buildOn Haiti team has initiated a first aid center in Carrefour and a number of Haitian Doctors and Nurses are volunteering at the center.
We have used our resources to deliver two trucks full of medical supplies donated by Hope for Haiti to stock the first aid center and treat about 150 people who have major cuts, broken bones, and infections.
We have established communication with a Doctor’s Without Borders team working out of the main hospital in Carrefour, about 2 miles away. We’ve arranged to send the worst medical cases there, and we are using our vehicle to transport the paitents. The Doctor’s Without Borders team is also referring cases to our first aid center.
Water and food are becoming increasingly scarce, but first aid is still the greatest need. The catastrophe here is hard to believe. There aren’t words to describe it.
Skyler Badenoch
Manger of International Programs
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
First and foremost our hearts and prayers are with those in Haiti who have suffered great losses and we hope that Haiti will be able to recover and build anew.
Since 6pm on Tuesday, shortly after the earthquake hit, I have been in communication with our buildOn team in Haiti led by Skyler Badenoch, Manager of International Programs. Skyler was able to communicate with me quickly that he and our buildOn staff were safe in our impact area of Les Cayes and that generally Les Cayes received very little damage. We have also been able to confirm that six of the buildOn schools received no damage or nor were any people in these villages injured due to the earthquake. We are working to contact the remaining schools.
The buildOn staff in Haiti is currently assisting other NGO’s that specialize in crisis and humanitarian aid in order to get medical supplies and food to those in Port au Prince. As the weeks and months progress and the crisis aide turns to rebuilding, buildOn is ready to take the lead in building schools for Haitians who do not have safe and adequate places to learn. Thank you and please keep Haiti in your thoughts.
Brett McNaught
Vice President of International Programs