Your constant concern is priceless to the people suffering in the aftermath of this earthquake.

Many of you have expressed an interest in returning to Haiti to work through us.

Since this will not be possible after May 14, 2010, we would like to notify you of other possibilities.

Global Therapy Group (Haitian Community Hospital), Route Freres, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

**For Physical and Occupational Therapists**

Donna Hutchinson: dhutchinson@globaltherapygroup.org

Fishers of Men (Morning Star Christian Academy)-Delmas 31, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Cedric Bryant: widzabryant@comcast.net

Don Luszczewski: don@elysiumchurch.com

Mission of Hope-Ti Tayen, Haiti

Amy: amy@mohhaiti.org

JPHRO-Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Thomassin Guest House-Fermathe, Haiti

Beth Charles: 011-509-3422-9954

Willem Charles: 011-509-3449-0996

thomassinguesthouse@gmail.com

Dordy & Amos Joseph

Dordy: 845-596-1997

Amos: 845-729-5388

Haiti Line: 011-509-3609-8371

dordy@earthlink.net

gpeople1pet29@aol.com

Adias Marcelin-Vivy Mitchel, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

amarcelin@gheskio.org

011-509-3463-0162

011-509-3840-7767

We hope that this information is useful. Please email relief@quisqueya.org if you have any questions.

Blessings!

The need for medical volunteers will continue, but QCS is not positioned to continue housing teams after the end of May.  Right now the last day we can accept teams is May 14, and all teams must transition out by the end of May.  We need to stick to this time table in order for classrooms to be put into shape for the 275+ students that we are expecting – and it will take a tremendous effort to get our school back in shape – rebuilding the libraries and redoing the computer lab will take a significant amount of time.  The best way that QCS will be involved in the rebuilding of Haiti is for us to focus on being the best Christ-centered school that we can be, serving the children of missionaries, pastors, relief workers and others.

But our relief efforts will continue as well, through raising funds to rebuild houses for our employees and helping rebuild clinics and various other projects that our school will take on.  As far as housing, we will be glad to research options and to facilitate finding rooms.

Blessings!

I want to extend a personal thank you for allowing us to stay at your amazing school during our relief efforts in Haiti. I had a beyond wonderful experience serving the people and working along side your staff. You are truly doing amazing things for the people in the community and to be able to be a part of that was nothing short of a life changing experience. Thank you again for opening your school to our team and I wish you all the best during the continued relief efforts.

Sincerely,

Amber Willson, RN
Saddleback team, California

Statistics: From January 17 To Date

*Number of Patients Treated: Over 55,000

*Number of Medical Personnel That Have Worked Through QCR: Average of 50 medical personnel per day for 80 days.

*Value of Donated Medications Received and Distributed By QCR: Over $4.2 million (USD)

*Number of Hospitals & Clinics (Stationary & Mobile) That Have Received Aid from QCR: Over 80 (This does not include tent-city sites.)

Thank you to all who have helped and served!

We feel it urgent to invite more medical teams to come and serve Haiti through QCR. Many of you have already worked long hours with us and your efforts are greatly appreciated. That being said, the harvest is still ripe in the tent cities and hospitals all over the country. They are asking for our help and we have had to turn them away. Help us spread the word! If you would like to send a medical team to QCR, please fill out a Group Information Form and email relief@quisqueya.org.

“Oh Haiti!”  “Oh Haiti!”  Literally feeling the pain, anguish, disappointment, confusion, a groan for a nation.

All around the wails of the Haitian locals filled the air.  “Surely they must be dead.”  The flash of the destruction, all they had survived, only to end up under the crush of their vehicle.  “How is this happening?”

We had gone up to a remote mountain region of Haiti “Bel Fontaine” to do a medical outreach to those who rarely see outsiders.  The trip up was a 4 + hour, 4 wheel drive, epic journey from Port-au-Prince, that landed us in the heart of  the dry, rocky high desert of Haiti.  We, 4 Americans, 1 South African and 1 Egyptian along side our 7 Haitian coworkers/ translators, labored serving the medical needs of this hard to reach people.  The severe nature of the habitat produced equally devastating sickness and disease; this had left us bonded as brothers of war, but quite exhausted after attending to nearly 300 patients.

After 4 days of toil, we headed down the mountain in 2, 4 X 4 vehicles.  We were slightly ahead of the other vehicle, so we were constantly on the lookout for our friends.  As we arrived at the riverbed after a particularly steep, precarious section, we caught a glimpse of our other truck.  We preceded ahead a short while when Junior started to scream, “Oh No!”  We turned to see the other truck, loaded with our friends careening down the mountain and flying the last 50 feet landing on its nose in the riverbed and then settling onto its back with a cloud of dust.

All but myself and the driver were out and running covering the 250 meters to the crash site as we turned the truck around and raced to the other truck.  We passed Junior kneeling among the rocks, heart broken, hanging his head, unable to urge himself forward, raising his arms in anguish totally overwhelmed at what he had just seen; his brothers, girlfriend, friends all lost.  “Oh Haiti!”

As we arrived, preparing our hearts for what we would see, we found bodies scrambled, broken and bloodied that began to pour, or rather be extracted from the vehicle; 7 in all.  3 were critical with significant head and internal injuries, while the other 4 were broken and bleeding.  With 3 EMT’s and a Medical Doctor, we quickly assessed the situation and stabilized the patients/ our friends.  The look in their eyes as they looked up from the ground, desperation, literally a sucking of soul and hope…”Are we going to be alright?”

We were hours away from any help at all, over some of the most treacherous roads I have driven.  Would they even survive such a ride was the question.  Rowen (our team leader) and I made our way up the mountain to see if we could get a phone signal.  We were able to connect with Quisqueya Crisis Relief (QCR) via phone (http://qcsrelief.quisqueya.org), and relay to them the GPS coordinates based on the iphones Google earth! Our hope was to get a helicopter in to evac the most injured, but as we walked back to the crash site, the report was that this would not happen.  We were left to literally begin to make life and death choices…who would live who would die?

“Oh Haiti!”

As we began making a plan to camp overnight with the least injured, and drive out the 2-3 worst injured, who would go, who would stay…suddenly we heard the thump thump thump of a distant helicopter…

Wildly we began waving space blankets, the 100+ Haitians began cheering wildly, I found myself bursting with joy, relief and tears of exhilaration.  Words cannot explain the emotion that ripped through our little band as hope welled up!  They circled out of sight behind the mountains, had they seen us?

Then a bird was upon us, having dropped down from several thousand feet, they were hovering just over head looking for where to land! Not one, but TWO US Navy choppers landed and loaded all the wounded.  They had been on their way back from another mission when they got the call.  This meant low fuel and little time to move all the wounded.  These rescue swimmers saved at least 2, maybe more lives that day!  The groan was heard!

It was surreal as they left, and all we had was the aftermath and images rolling through our heads of what had just happened.  So, we decided to bath in a crystal clear river with a bunch of Haitians enjoying the show!  A cleansing that truly was deeper than the dirt and grime we were covered with.

QCR and the US Army had sent vehicles hours before, and as they arrived and shuttled us home over foggy, treacherous, now dark roads, we had a yet another adventure whilst the movie of what had happened danced in our head.

Psalm 91 9-12 states:

9 For you have made the LORD, my refuge,

Even the Most High, your dwelling place.

10 No evil will befall you,

Nor will any plague come near your tent.

11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you,

To guard you in all your ways.

12 They will bear you up in their hands,

That you do not strike your foot against a stone.

All 7 were taken to Miami Hospital near the airport and released that very night!  There is no way possible, outside the hand of God sparing them, that we were not burying several of these saints.  I believe the Lord’s hand was directly involved in the rescue and eventual health of the 7.  Even at the worst, they were giving testimony to the Goodness of God when all hope was lost.  It was a privilege to be with a company of people, who responded with Grace and decisiveness in the worst of circumstance, from our dear team, EMT’s, QCR, US Navy, and the beautiful Haitian people.

Some of what I learned that day:

1. The high value of Team ministry. I believe each person, from the Haitians that provided the door to their house for a back-board, the Navy pilots, the Navy swimmers, QCR, apple, others whom we won’t recognize until Glory, to our little band was hand-picked to participate in something much bigger than ourselves.  We had grown in love for one another, by serving and laboring together…the fruit this day was lives being saved.
2. There is a shaking coming to the earth. I believe the Lord is raising up those who can lead in the midst of crisis.  He is training many across the earth to do extraordinary exploits under extraordinary circumstances.  Is that you? Much could be said about this, but I’ll leave it here for now.
3. The Church (global) has much to glean from the Haitian believers. The general response of the church throughout Haiti has been to first turn to Him.  In the midst of great suffering and trial, they have exuded great joy and confidence in who they are in Him.  A real rending of heart, and Turning to the Lord is exhibited by many ordinary Haitians (Joel 2:11 ff.). The believers at the accident (some of the worst injured), spoke of Hope, and the Goodness of the Lord as they lay on a bed of rocks with little to no hope of getting out alive.  We have much to learn about sharing in the sufferings of Christ.
4. The Love Christ has for EVERY tribe, tongue, people and nation.  I was able to literally FEEL His love for this nation.  It would/ does hit me in waves, Christ’s passion for the Nations; every nation. There is something glorious He created in the Haitian to give Him Glory (Malachi 1:11).
5. We aren’t ready. This is huge, we as the assembly of Believers, are not ready…only by going low, being humble are we going to be able to move forward in the coming days.  Today is the day to begin preparing to be the Bride prepared and awaiting the coming King.

By Leonard Hays  (http://asojournerssiftings.wordpress.com)

The quality of life in these tent cities is beyond poor. The people do not have enough food and drinking water; therefore, they are dehydrated and malnourished.  They do not have access to clean water for bathing or washing dishes, so they struggle with the problems that stem from these dirty conditions.

Many are struggling with gastro-intestinal illnesses, bacterial infections, scabies and anemia.  As we enter the rainy season, germs will contaminate the water and spread through the tent cities and the streets.  The unsanitary conditions of the tent cities are not conducive to the healing process. We saw one little girl who had been injured in her leg during the earthquake.  The wound was still infected over 2 months later.

Below is our little “pharmacy”.

The Haitian people are appreciative of each way we are able to serve them.  It was wonderful to bring smiles to the faces of these beautiful people!!

“She” was one of several patients at L’Hôpital de la Communauté Haïtienne (Haitian Community Hospital), a 75-bed private hospital just outside Petionville that had opened its doors to the community in the aftermath of the disastrous Jan. 12 earthquake. More and more of the patients are at the hospital for reasons having nothing to do with the quake, but quake victims who do remain have suffered injuries that will require weeks or more of therapy.

Thankfully, among the other recent arrivals at the Quisqueya Crisis Relief Center this week, was Ann, a physical therapist from Vermont. I was fortunate to be able to accompany her on her rounds of the hospital as her translator.

This particular girl was about 14 years old. According to her records, she was trapped in her mother’s house when it fell down, and she suffered a number of broken bones. From everything we can tell, it’s a miracle that she survived.

A limited miracle.

Her right leg was amputated below the knee, and her left arm, which remains in a splint, is so sensitive that even a light touch to her fingers or the palm of her hand causes intense pain.

And that, presumably, is why for the past two weeks, she had barely done any of the exercises that a team of Canadian physical therapists had assigned her to do. As a result, she could bend her arm only with great difficulty, and she could barely move her hand.

“Li fe-m ma anpil! ,” she said through a tightened face, as Ann helped to straighten her fingers. “It’s agony.”

Ann was sympathetic but unrelenting. “I know it hurts, but if you don’t do these exercises ten times every hour, you may never use your arm again.”

Ann agreed with my assessment when I voiced it outside. The progress this girl has made at recovering from her injuries has been nothing short of tremendous, but unless she overcomes her aversion to the pain and makes those exercises a priority, her disabilities will become permanent.

Crushing as that is, you couldn’t ask for a stronger contrast with some of the other patients we saw.
There was Livye, for instance, a feisty woman in her 60s or older. Livye couldn’t wait to get out of bed and start walking. I had barely uttered the word mache before Livye had grabbed her walker, stood up, and started making her way to do the door.

“Alé!,” she told me when I blocked her from leaving the room. “Move!.”

Unfortunately, Livye was a little too eager to walk. Her left leg is still in a fixator, an external contraption of metal rods that is screwed into her leg bones to immobilize the broken pieces until they have healed. She needs to do exercises with her leg, but when she walks, she needs to support her weight with her right foot and her arms.

It took some effort to convince her.

“Si ou mete pwa –an sou pie goch ou, w-ap kraze-l nèt,” I had to tell her not once, not twice, but something on the order of five times. “If you put your weight on your left foot, you will break your leg entirely.”

By the time she told me to get out of her way, the entire room had joined in with me, clamoring for Livye to listen to what Ann and I were telling her. She finally got the idea, and though it was exhausting work, she agreed to do it Ann’s way. She’s headstrong, but that determination is going to carry her a long way. (Livye’s fixator was removed, and she’s in a cast now.)

Then there was Felix, the first patient whom we saw. Felix had suffered multiple fractures in both his legs, and he couldn’t wait to start doing his new exercises. We worked with him for more than half an hour, getting him to turn his foot to the right, and  then to the left; getting him to lift his leg up in the air and hold it there for ten seconds; and even to lift his derriere off his bed and keep it in the air. He did exercises lying down, and he did them sitting up.

It’ll take him a while, but Felix will walk again.

Or there was Darlene, who had the bed between Livye and the girl who had lost a leg. Darlene’s hip was still sore from having the external fixator removed the day before, and at first she was reluctant to get out of bed and walk, but when we stopped by the room again that afternoon, some of Livye’s determination had rubbed off on her.

Darlene grabbed her crutches, worked her way to her feet, and took off for the door. I had to carry her saline drip behind her, and Ann walked right next to her to catch her if she fell, but once she had started, Darlene didn’t want to stop.

“Can you remind her that she’ll still need to walk back to her room?” Ann said, obviously consumed with visions of Darlene collapsing on the floor of the hall.

“Ou va bezwen mache a cham ou oui,” I put in, drawing a mild chuckle from Darlene. Then for good measure, I added, “Wa kouri byen kouri tale, non? You’ll be running a marathon soon, won’t you?”

Collapse Darlene did, but onto a chair instead of the floor. And then, after resting there for ten or fifteen minutes, she walked her way back.

People like Darlene, Livye, and Felix are the new face of need in post-quake Haiti, and workers like Ann are the face of the medical help that is going to be sorely needed. To be sure, there are health concerns about the crowded conditions in the makeshift tent cities that have blossomed all around Port-au-Prince, but the need for emergency medical care is receding.

Along with disease prevention, the medical need that is emerging right now among survivors of the quake is for physical and occupational therapy. Quake survivors must learn once again to use battered hands to grasp things, to lift with once-crushed arms, and to use once-shattered legs to walk.

If you are a therapist and you can offer these skills, Haiti needs you. With your abilities, the injured can be healed, and the lame can walk once more.

P.S. Germain did receive his leg. Judeline decided to walk today.

Statistics: January 17-March 16, 2010

*Number of Patients Treated (To Date): Over 40,000

*Number of Medical Personnel That Have Worked Through QCR (To Date) : Over 1000

*Value of Donated Medications Received and Distributed By QCR (To Date): Over $3,000,000 (USD)

*Number of Hospitals & Clinics (Stationary & Mobile) That Have Received Aid from QCR (To Date):

Over 80 (This does not include tent-city sites.)

Blessings!

Greetings from Haiti!

Today marks two months since the earthquake that changed our lives, and we wanted to give you an update from Quisqueya Crisis Relief. We are still helping our medical teams treat every medical issue imaginable (from headaches to life-threatening tuberculosis) by providing food, lodging, and transportation. QCR is still working with the local hospitals (remember, over 80% of all medical institutions have been damaged or destroyed) to make sure that personnel are working in the most needed areas, including mobile clinics in remote areas of Haiti.

There is still a great need for medical relief work as we shift towards the long-neglected primary care and infectious disease. We want to invite more medical teams to come to QCR to serve in Haiti. Help us spread the word!  Please visit relief.quisqueya.org for more information. If you would like to send a medical team to QCR, please fill out a Group Information Form and email relief@quisqueya.org.

This is a report on Bojeux Parc-an urgent care center. This highlights the need for long-term care.

Judy Sandick is concerned about the public health issues that are slipping under the radar.

I met Judy, a doctor who had come to Haiti from Maine Miles Hospital in Damariscotta, Maine, with Comprehensive Disaster Relief Services, at Bojeux Parc on March 6, when I took a trip there with a medical team from the Quisqueya Crisis Relief Center. Aside from a few cases of follow-up care — a minor head injury, a lost toe — most of the 300 or so visitors to the health clinic were not there for any health difficulties related to the Jan. 12 earthquake.

“It’s transitioning to more of the regular care, which has been totally inadequate until now,” Judy said of the clinic, echoing statements other doctors have made about the nature of care at other medical clinics in the country. “The goal of the organization I’m with now is to set up a sustainable health care system in line with the national plan.”

Even “routine” health care can be a challenge in Haiti. For many, this care has been delayed because of the more emergent situation brought on by the earthquake, and for others, situations that would pose no difficulty at a modern facility in the United States are life-threatening here.

Consider, for example, the case of one woman who had been coming to the clinic at Bojeux Parc for prenatal care. Now nine months pregnant, she had lost her house two months earlier in the quake and is one of many refugees with no tent to sleep in.

If that were not bad enough, she also needs to have a Cesarean delivery because her baby has his back against her cervix, and not his head.  Without the clinic, it’s probable that both mother and child would die when labor begins.

Difficult and upsetting stories like hers have always been a part of the health care scene in Haiti. What has Judy concerned is the hidden toll the earthquake is exacting right now, now that the eyes of the world have moved on.

Life in Haiti is a challenge even in the best of times. Even before the quake, life for millions was a matter of bare subsistence, with little to spare for luxuries.

January 12 made a difficult thing even worse. In the 40 seconds that it rattled Haiti, the earthquake claimed the lives of somewhere from 2 to 3 percent of the nation, and destroyed the homes of countless more. Now even the bare memory of that quake is enough to drive everyone outside in a panic and leave them frightened of what the future may bring.

For women especially, the hidden cost of the earthquake runs especially high. Sexual assaults have been on the rise, to the point that women in tent cities have become virtual prisoners in their emergency shelters, unable to walk by themselves in the dark if they need to use a camp bathroom. Often the greatest danger they face is the men in their lives, who may have no job, no home, and no outlet for their anger — except for the vulnerable woman who is too frightened to leave.

One woman had come to the clinic a few days earlier to receive treatment for an injury on her forehead. She and the man in her life, and their three children, have been living in a tent. He had snapped, and thrown something sharp at her head.

“The man doesn’t come home, except to demand sex — and to hurt her if she doesn’t arouse to his satisfaction.” said Judy. “Her parents both died in the earthquake, and so she has no one to turn to.

She has absolutely no resources, so she gets sutured up and goes back. Historically, these women get beat up more and more until they’re killed.”

Her youngest child, incidentally, is only 10 months old, and she already is pregnant with her fourth child. The woman herself is only 25, and other women in her situation reportedly are trying to make themselves miscarry, rather than bring a child into a world as frightening as this one has become.

“People don’t want to be pregnant right now,” said Judy. “Women are trying very hard not to get pregnant right now.”

Beyond the immediate difficulties of living in the aftermath of the shaking earth, the threat of disease is rising. For the hundreds of thousands of people who no longer have a roof over their heads, the lack of proper sanitation is a time bomb that is counting down to a health care crisis of alarming proportions.

With a pre-quake population of more than 2.5 million people, Port-au-Prince is the largest city in the world without a functioning sanitation system. Garbage accumulates in ravines and along the streets, where it molders and reeks under the tropical sun. Trash is burned, when it is not simply discarded or dumped; and indoor plumbing is a luxury of the bourgeoisie.

“That’s not good sanitation,” said Judy. “People are defecating everywhere. With the rainy season, there’s a high risk of typhoid and cholera.”

And in the tent cities, people are crowded together even more closely than ever. These are horrible conditions for people, but for pathogens and disease vectors, they are a paradise. With the rainy season now imminent, contagion can bloom like a bed of flowers, and disease can pass through the tent cities like a sickle in a field of ripe grain.

In these conditions, and with a national childhood immunization program nonexistent, Judy estimates that measles alone could claim a half-million lives.

Our conversation took place at Bojeux Parc, which, in better days, was a place where families with means could go to spend an afternoon. There were video games, a little train ride, tabletop activities like Foosball and air hockey, and even a boating activity celebrated by a giant sign that gloriously declared “Disco Boats.” It is an incongruous location for a discussion of cholera and typhoid outbreaks.

Over 300 people came to the clinic that day, which included a team sent by the Quisqueya Crisis Relief Center, and another team of doctors from Colombia as part of the U.N. mission. None of those cases were as dramatic as what put Haiti in the news two months ago and drew many of us to Haiti in the first place.

But if Judy and the experts familiar with the sanitation issues in the tent cities are correct, the need for medical support in Haiti is far from ended. In many ways, it’s just getting started.

David Learn