JDP Foundation

Physician gives account of Haiti earthquake

July 26, 2010

Historic City News received word that Jacksonville physician Dr. Harelle Duncan will present her firsthand account of the devastation witnessed last month on her Mission Trip to Haiti with colleagues from Charlotte, North Carolina.

While in Haiti, Dr. Duncan provided medical aid and comfort to victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Duncan is a native of Haiti who immigrated to Florida at the age of nine. She attended Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica and completed her post graduate training in Internal Medicine, including internship and residency, at Mercer University Memorial Hospital in Savannah Georgia.

The presentation will be made Tuesday, August 3rd at 7:00 p.m. at St. Mary’s Missionary Baptist Church located at 69 Washington Street in St. Augustine.

Dr. Duncan, and her husband Zebulun, reside in Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Duncan works for Cogent Healthcare at Shands Jacksonville as a hospitalist.

Original Article.

What’s really happening in Haiti? An interview with 2 people who know

As the six-month mark has arrived, there’s suddenly been more about Haiti in the news, tales of paralysis and corruption and despair. But almost all of these reports are from people who’ve flown in for a quick visit – one Esquire reporter even starts his story describing how he didn’t step outside his hotel during his one-week visit, and only went on drives with his “facilitator.” Which may lead you to wonder what IS actually happening. To find out, I went to people who’ve been consistently involved with Haiti since the earthquake. So who are these people?

Enoch Choi is an amazing individual – a Palo Alto Medical Foundation physician who has, in his free time, organized teams of healthcare providers to go each month to Haiti. Enoch’s approach is different from the usual large relief or non-profit organization – his groups are lean, mean, guerrilla teams with healthcare providers who each pay his/her own way and take 7-10 days of vacation time to work like dogs. There’s low/no overhead, and these teams can move in and out of areas of greatest need with their own supplies. More importantly, Enoch’s groups are still going to Haiti, long after most agencies and volunteers have pulled out. One team is heading to Haiti now, with more teams scheduled for August and October. By September, over 100 healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, therapists and pharmacists) will have gone to donate a chunk of their own time to those still struggling to survive, and suffering from, the aftermath of the earthquake.

The backbone of this incredible, sustained effort is Jesse Mendoza, the on-the-ground organizer for these teams. Jesse is the point man for security, provisions, lodging, and facilitating where the team should see patients each day. Just imagine trying to do his job – catapulting yourself, without a speck of knowledge, into the worst disaster situation known, and then getting to know everyone and making the impossible happen. Since the earthquake, Jesse’s spent way more of his life in Haiti than he has been home in Gilroy with his lovely wife and toddlers. Jesse is affiliated with Jordan Aid International, a non-profit that stepped up to partner with Enoch (who is now on their board) to be a fiscal agent, to make it possible for people to make a charitable donation, and to help make this important work happen.

I interviewed these two people, who have lived and breathed Haiti for the last six months, and whose own personal lives have been devoted to this effort. These two are not celebrities who have swooped in from time to time and blown out again. These are people who have traveled the worst parts of the city, serving the suffering and talking to individual Haitians. They have stayed with it long after the cameras have left. I asked them what they thought about the situation in Haiti and where things stood six months after The Day The Earth Trembled.

1) How has Haiti changed, or how has the approach you/your teams use changed?
[Enoch] Back in February, the camps were a month old and fluid, with areas set up nightly as shelter, in a way tolerated by government and owners. But now, I hear that as those locations have become unliveable, or have tried to get back to their initial intended purpose (e.g the pool hall), the evacuees are sent to desert-like locations in the boondocks, like Camp Corail, where there is no way for anyone to earn a living. For some of the camps who are less well-supported, people have to resort to stealing from other camps for sustenance. It sickens me to hear that these folks are tempted to move from Port-Au-Prince with the hopes of “owning” their tents in these arid wastelands, in an unsustainable location. In February, I took hope in the UN convoy that we tried to sneak into to get through the border at night, because it was a visual symbol that aid was getting through. Now, I’m so upset to see news reports of a pileup of heavy equipment and supplies stuck in the Dominican Republic at the border, unable to be imported due to Haiti’s government-blockade.

[Jesse] I would have to say what has made the most impression on me over this time is the thought that these people have lost and suffered so much and are still standing holding on to HOPE. I have seen so much of what the earthquake’s aftermath caused – in terms of debris, the dead and the injured, an entire city literally collapsed and was left in ruins, yet the Haitian people have not allowed all of that to stop them from living and pursuing their hopes and dreams. Having traveled there 5 days after the earthquake I witnessed a city that was literally paralyzed. Everything was just so recent, people walked the streets with a look on their face of disbelief at what had just happened, without direction as to where to go or what to do. I recall seeing people carrying their loved one’s found body parts in bags, and others just sitting on the sidewalk with their frail frowning faces of sadness. It was a hopeless scene over all. Every month thereafter, the Haitian people have encouraged me to know that you can have hope in the midst of misery. I was uplifted to see on my ongoing trips that the people just started to get back to what they knew to do. To live. They started to sell things on the side of the roads, cooking and opening their shops and marketplaces. It’s a small thing, but I was also moved one day when I saw a group of young men playing basketball.

Helping Haiti, 6 Months Later
KEYT Anchor

Story Updated: Jul 16, 2010 at 11:33 AM PDT

While many Americans naturally focus on the Gulf disaster and the economy, a local organization working tirelessly to help Haiti shared its progress report with others Thursday night who are hoping to put the spotlight back on the impoverished Caribbean Island.

Since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital on January 12, 2010, Direct Relief International has provided more than 400 tons of emergency medical assistance worth more than 45.4 million to 53 Haitian healthcare facilities.

It has also received 6.3-million dollars in cash contributions for Haiti and more than 52-million of product contributions intended for Haiti.

The organization, which has provided support for Haiti since 1964, is also making a long term investment in infrastructure to stay consistent with its mission to increase access to health services and support permanent healthcare facilities.

Original Article

It is sometimes difficult to remember that it has been six months since 12 January.

Many Haitians, when they speak of the earthquake, refer only to “before”. Before they lost, in 35 seconds, so much – friends, family, homes, schools, churches and their visions of the future.

What happened here on 12 January was a disaster of a magnitude that would have set any country reeling.

More than 222,570 people have died, 300,572 were injured and at one point a staggering 2.3 million – nearly one quarter of the population – were displaced.

The government lost thousands of civil servants and most of its key infrastructure was destroyed.

In all, 101 United Nations colleagues perished and many more suffered terrible personal losses, as did many of our colleagues in other humanitarian organisations.
Tent camp in Port-au-Prince 11.7.10 Tent “cities” are still home for thousands of displaced Haitians

Nevertheless, in desperately difficult circumstances, one of the largest humanitarian operations of its kind was mounted.

That response delivered basic shelter to survivors, fed 4.3 million people, installed latrines and vaccinated more than 900,000 people against communicable disease.

Today, humanitarian needs are still acute.

More than 1,300 camps remain, housing 1.5 million people. The response here delivers water to 1.2 million people daily, maintains 11,000 latrines and ensures that basic medical healthcare is free for all survivors.

Mass starvation was averted and perhaps most significantly there has been no outbreak of disease in the camps.

The operation just to take care of humanitarian needs on a daily basis is enormous. But while we do this, there are other challenges too.