NATURAL DISASTERS
Over the last few days Haiti has been challenged by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that has injured over 6,000 people and taken the lives of almost 2,000 people with the death toll rising by the minute. Countless structures have been destroyed leaving thousands homeless as a tropical storm battered the island just one day after the earthquake, causing landslides and flash flooding. Healing Art Missions was fortunate that most of our projects were far enough away from the epicenter that there was no significant damage to our facilities and we’ve accounted for all our staff.
CHALLENGES WE FACE AND OUR RESPONSE
As the earthquake tore through infrastructure leaving countless individuals wounded, hospitals are overwhelmed by thousands seeking medical care as supplies and international support are not entering the country fast enough. While HAM’s primary projects focus on community-based healthcare, education, clean water, and employment, involvement in responding to natural disasters in Haiti also fits within HAM’s mission. Given our facilities were relatively undamaged, HAM’s Medical Director Dr. Jacques and the Board of Directors on Healing Art Missions realized we were in a unique strategic position to respond to the crisis. As of a few days ago we did not have the resources in-house to support such a major project as sending a medical team to the communities most affected by the earthquake. As a response, HAM has been working quickly to partner with other organizations and foundations to respond to the crisis.
Our Medical Director, Dr. Jacques, also works with the Haitian Association of Surgeons as well as teaching in the Surgery Department of Haiti State University Hospital. He has been directly involved in organizing an initial response to the earthquake. The Haitian Association of Surgeons sent out transport vehicles to bring victims back to PaP for treatment, and the first Ambulance, with 12 patients, was kidnapped by gangs controlling the roads. The Ambulance and patients have since been released. Seeing the risks involved with trying to transport patients requiring surgery firsthand, he and his team immediately pivoted to sending surgical residents in Port-au-Prince out to the affected areas to care for patients on location. Unfortunately, like most of Haiti these organizations lack the resources to support any robust response required of such an emergency of this magnitude.
OUR PARTNERS
While Dr. Jacques and HAM strategized how we could successfully launch an emergency response to the affected areas, Together Rising reached out to HAM to check in on our programs and discuss support. We proposed our relief strategy involving Dr. Jacques and our partnership with the HaItian Association of Surgeons. Within a day, we had emergency funding from Together Rising, allowing HAM to work with The Haitian Association of Surgeons to provide trauma surgeons, orthopedists and anesthesiologists along with wound care experts, nurses and administration support to coordinate a widespread effort to help those injured by the quake and by being able to bring surgeons and staff to the communities devastated the most.
HAM’s goal is to support in collaboration with the Haitian Association of Surgeons and Haitian State University Hospital (HUEH) a well trained team of Haitian specialist surgeons to give a quick and appropriate response. In the post earthquake often serious post traumatic complications occur after 24 hours and require specialized management by well-trained specialists who are not always available in the affected areas. With these heightened and variable needs, Dr Jacques and our partners are working on mobilizing a surgical team that is expertly equipped, including a disaster trauma surgeon, a thoracic surgeon, a vascular surgeon, a wound care expert, two anesthetist nurses, a senior general surgeon, an orthopedist, an anesthesiologist, ten surgical, trauma, and anesthesia residents and coordination staff.
Working directly with Dr. Jacques as the nexus for the Haitian Association of Surgeons, the Surgery Department of Haiti State University Hospital, and HAM, we are mobilizing to maintain surgical teams where needed in the Les Cayes area of Haiti. The emergency funding from Together Rising will include coordination between the project’s three partners, Healing Art Missions, Haitian Association of Surgeons, and Surgery Department of Haiti State University Hospital. HAM will lead the coordinated effort in managing labor, transportation, supplies and equipment, as well as the medical follow-up of patients following surgery. We will be initiating two phases of the response, Phase 1 covers the first 15 days post-earthquake medical response, and Phase 2: from 15 to 30 days after earthquake.
DISASTER RELIEF IN A FRAGILE STATE
Dr. Jacques has said “After the 2010 earthquake most of the specialists came from USA,Spain,France and Canada but with the COVID- 19 health crisis and the insecure situation in Haiti, it would be more practical and reasonable to mobilize local skills for a more efficient rapid response. Despite the availability of qualified local human resources, financial resources and supplies are often lacking and all of this is in line with Healing Art Missions which is to help qualified Haitians to help others by providing the necessary resources to do this.”
We recognize the grand scale of organizing this response to help those who are injured and lack access to medical care. With help from Together Rising, the Haitian Association of Surgeons, and Surgery Department of Haiti State University Hospital, we have a chance to access patients in a dire situation. We are in deep gratitude of all those who have inquired to check in on the health of the Dumay Community, and residents of our other programs. Your concern and help allows us to grow and expand our programs to reach otherwise vulnerable individuals in rural Haitian Communities. Please click the button below if you would like to contribute to our disaster relief efforts.