Haiti Project

 

Immediately following the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12th, 2010, SHINE/CDRS launched its Haiti Project. Todd Shea and a small team of Dominican staff entered the country by road on January 14th with the goal of providing humanitarian relief and medical assistance by establishing supply lines and coordinating the deployment of aid and human resources via the Dominican Republic. Essentially bypassing the log jam in Port-au-Prince, we aimed to move doctors and available relief supplies into and out of the countryand encouraged others to follow our lead and utilize the open roadway from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince and utilize alternate channels of distribution and communication with the purpose of rapid, timely and cost effective disaster assistance.

 

A young girl receives care for her injuries

 

SHINE/CDRS set up a staging area at Bojeaux Parc, a children's amusement park on the periphery of Port-au-Prince. This space was provided, secured and maintained by local partners Aimer Haiti for use as a field hospital and as base to channel relief goods and healthcare services to earthquake victims throughout Port-au-Prince. Our activities included:

 

• Provision of Doctors, Nurses, medicines, medical supplies and logistics to Bojeux Parc Medical Center with IMANA (Until March 7 2010) and other medical facilities, orphanges and tent villages in the region with JP / HRO and IMANA (Until April 17, 2010). We established referral lines to local field hospitals, so that our more serious patients are first stabilized and then transported there. SHINE/CDRS placed volunteer doctors, nurses and support staff where they were most needed and ensured the teams were well-stocked, looked after and safe.
• The deployment of mobile health units until April 10, 2010. These mobile teams drove through affected areas to dispense first aid and continuing care to earthquake victims. The U.S. Army and the JP / HRO Foundation led this effort and provided security, medicines, transporatation, facilities, logistics and intel.
• SHINE/CDRS and AImer Haiti (with major financial support from The International Development and Relief Foundation of Canada) provided ground support for the movement of large quantities of food, water, medicines and relief goods to victims of the quake who now reside in makeshift shelters in the most hard hit areas. We purchased stocks of food and supplies from private local firms and procuredrelief goods and medicines from voluneers, donors, large humanitarian agencies such as WHO, USAID, UNICEF and the U.S. military and moved them either from the airport in Port-au-Prince and existing supply depots in the city as well as from the Dominican Republic, to where they were needed.

 

The mobile health unit sees patients needing care

 

SHINE/CDRS, IMANA and Aimer Haiti's joint mision at Bojeux Parc Hospital manages more than 15,000 patients from January 17 to March 7, 2010. This figure includes our mobile heath units, which saw 300 to 500 patients a day. As the weeks went by, the nature of health issues and ailments shifted from fractures, infections and dehydration to diseases and waterborne illnesses that come as a result of poor nutrition and sanitation. We also manages patients that needed primary health care due to the near complete destruction of the local healthcare system (Everything from small doctrs offices and medical stores up to the largest hospitals were severely affected). By week 4, our teams focused on primary care, mother and child health and post operative care. Our patients received emergency medical care (including diagnostics, small surgery, post operative care, etc.) as well as donated medication, food and water.

 

SHINE/CDRS and IMANA deployed more than 200 volunteers to Haiti from the United States during this mission. providing support services such as transport, food, accommodations, communications and security.

 

For the Haiti Project, SHINE/CDRS partnered with IMANA, JP/ HRO, Destiny World Outreach, NYC Medics, Partners In Health, IDRF and Global Giving, all of which are in the US. On the ground in Haiti, AIMER Haiti was our local partner during the most difficult period of the emergency phase of relief operations. SHINE/CDRS also coordinated with the U.S. State Department (in Washington, DC and in the field), USAID, WHO, UNICEF and key ground personnel from the US military.

 

One of the young needy victims of the quake in need of food and water