Monday, April 19, 2010

The Winning Goal

Crystal Wells is a Communications Officer for International Medical Corps and is currently in Haiti helping with the relief effort

Wilson has always loved to play soccer, especially the feeling of kicking the winning goal. This was a sensation that at only 20 years old Wilson very nearly lost forever, but thanks to the quick and thorough care of International Medical Corps volunteer doctors and nurses, he is now returning home to play the game he loves.

I met Wilson on his eighth day at the University Hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince, where he was making small laps around the ICU tent braced by a walker and his family beside him.

Aside from the walker, everything about Wilson looked healthy and strong, from his slender, athletic frame to his easy, fluid smile. I wondered what could have made this young athlete so cripplingly sick to land him in the ICU for a week unable to walk.

The answer is malaria.

Transmitted by mosquitoes, malaria infected an estimated 243 million people and led to nearly 900,000 deaths in 2008, according to the WHO. It is endemic in Haiti and affects tens of thousands each year. The predominant strain in the country P.falcipurum or cerebral malaria is the most deadly and can lead to impaired consciousness, convulsions, and coma.

Wilson's story is probably not too uncommon for post-earthquake Haiti. Displaced by the earthquake, Wilson now lives with 16 of his family members in a camp in Carrefour, just outside Port-au-Prince. One day, he started to feel nauseous. The flu-like symptoms continued for an entire week and then, on the eighth day, Wilson's legs gave out. "I could not even stand," he said.

Wilson panicked and sought medical attention immediately. His cousin carried him all the way from their camp, taking buses or tap taps wherever they could until they reached the University Hospital. He was rushed into the emergency room where International Medical Corps volunteers received him, completely unable to use his legs, and quickly tested him for malaria. When it came back positive, they transferred him to the ICU for round-the-clock monitoring and treatment.

Over the course of a week, Wilson's movement and condition improved bit-by-bit. He began physical therapy to strengthen and stretch his legs. Eventually, he could stand, and then walk, on his own. "The care, everything, was perfect,"he said with a grin.

And now Wilson, having defeated malaria and regaining his strength by the day, is well enough to head home. "I am so proud of you,"said Mary Perry, a volunteer nurse with International Medical Corps who worked in the ICU for two weeks. "When he got here, he couldn't even stand and now look at him."

Watching Wilson smile and laugh with his family, so excited to get home and play football with his friends, I felt so proud and inspired by what he and volunteers like Mary Perry overcame in this swelteringly hot ICU tent following one of the most catastrophic disasters in centuries.

It's the ultimate winning goal.



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Friday, April 16, 2010

Michelle Obama's Promise to Haiti

Crystal Wells is a Communications Officer for International Medical Corps and is currently in Haiti helping with the relief effort.

First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to Haiti brought with it a familiar frenzy of flashing cameras, microphones, fresh legal pads – and a lot of chaos. But the best part was how welcome it seemed to have the world’s eyes back on Haiti.

Because there is a lot that needs to be done here.

My colleague Dina Prior, head of International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team, attended the meeting during which the First Lady and Dr. Jill Biden thanked relief workers for our efforts here. To Dina and me, and probably many other international assistance workers in Haiti, the most rewarding message out of this meeting was not her words of appreciation, but her promise of continuing to support for this battered country at a time when the emergency phase is officially winding down and public attention is waning.

We all saw the heart-wrenching images that poured out of Haiti in the weeks immediately following the January 12 earthquake, the bodies scattered across the streets and search-and-rescue teams frantically moving iron rebar and heavy rubble from destroyed buildings to rescue those who were trapped.

The world shook with Haiti. And all levels of the international community - the United Nations, NGOs, governments, corporations, and individuals all around the world chipped in what they could or got on a plane to help. The result was unprecedented. Millions of dollars were raised. Hundreds of thousands of lives were saved. And a country did not lose hope even in its darkest hour.
Despite the scale of the relief effort, the truth is that Haiti is about to face two more emergencies, and much of the world is unaware of it. I’m afraid the world is now numb to Haiti’s troubles, and I’m hoping the First Lady’s visit will remind people that our commitment to Haiti should not end with the official emergency phase.

The heavy rains are starting to fall nightly, and the United Nations and NGOs, including International Medical Corps, are working together to start the long process of relocating camps that either are perched on a hill or buried in the crevice of a riverbed - so that thousands of lives are not lost in landslides and flash floods.

International Medical Corps is already facing increased operational challenges trying to prepare for these rains. We are fortifying our clinics with sandbags, plastic sheeting, even platforms so they do not close when the rains fall hard. We also need to heavily stock our field sites outside of Port-au-Prince so that they can continue their programs even if roads and bridges are washed away. Our clinics, many of which are located in camps, could be even more critical during rainy season, as diseases like malaria and typhoid fever and ongoing issues like malnutrition are likely to increase.

And all of this will be followed by the second emergency, hurricanes, which could begin as early as July.

These are challenges that now face a country that is still reeling from a 7.0 earthquake that killed more than 230,000 people and left another million homeless. And Mrs. Obama’s pledge that the United States will not forget Haiti, that it is committed to helping it recover and rebuild, was one that I hope inspired others to not forget Haiti, even when the camera lenses are pointed elsewhere.






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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Haiti's Future is Now

President and CEO Nancy Aossey has led International Medical Corps for more than 24 years and has overseen its expansion to include over 50 countries.

The mothers sit in a circle, babies on their laps, sharing stories of lost homes, husbands, and livelihoods. They ponder basic needs like clean water, sanitation, and getting out of makeshift tents as the rainy season begins. But most of all, they express an overwhelming fear of what the future will bring.

Recently I traveled to Haiti, where International Medical Corps has been operating since 22 hours after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck.

This disaster zone is among the worst I have seen in my two dozen years of international relief work. Building after building flattened, tent cities numbering in the hundreds. I truly don't have words strong enough to describe what has happened to Haiti - or the look on the faces of the women I meet at the Petionville Country Club camp, so named because it sits on the grounds of what once was a country club for the nation's elite.

Here, our volunteer doctors and nurses from around the world are providing primary health care, psychosocial support, nutrition services, water and sanitation – while training Haitians to provide these services in their own communities over the long-term.

My dozen new acquaintances display an admirable resiliency. However, they and all 60,000 or so of their fellow tent-dwellers in Petionville camp, are in danger. Built on a precarious slope, Petionville is highly susceptible to mudslides and flash flooding as the tropical rain season begins.

They and the nearly one million others displaced by the quake face the ever-mounting risk of a “second humanitarian crisis”, not only from being washed out of their homes but from the infectious and water-borne diseases that could result in many additional deaths. For these women, the crushing weight of their day-to-day struggles is being compounded by the fear of what very well could lie ahead.

The issues and uncertainties they face echo in the far-away policy world, where the international community has made a nearly $10 billion commitment to rebuilding Haiti. But the $10 billion question is how do we address Haiti’s long-term and short-term needs, both of which are immense? We feel it can and must be done.

Even in the middle of an emergency, International Medical Corps works to establish a stronger, more accessible health care infrastructure over the long-term. The two must happen simultaneously. Haiti’s health workers badly need training and updated standards for integrated primary health care delivery. So from the day our doctors and nurses arrived in Haiti and began treating patients, they also trained our Haitian counterparts to do the same.

As we have learned over the past quarter century from our operations in other crisis areas around the world – places like Afghanistan, Somalia, and Indonesia - one of Haiti’s greatest needs is a broad-based training program in integrated primary health care practice for all health workers. That desire for a more comprehensive and resilient Haitian health care system came through clearly and consistently in my meetings with the Minister of Health, the director of Port-au-Prince's University hospital, our Haitian doctor-colleagues, and the community health workers who are the engine of Haiti’s health system.

That training of front-line health workers at all levels is essential and already underway. They help to treat tuberculosis, dengue, malaria, HIV, and other diseases; support safe motherhood and child survival; provide nutrition education; and deliver psychosocial support. They promote improved hygiene and sanitation to protect against an outbreak of diarrhea and ensure that all mothers - such as these with whom I sat - have access to clean water and readily available oral rehydration salts for their children, and understand how to protect them.

I’ll never forget the women sitting in a circle with me at Petionville camp. For them, I’d like to envision a future in which their families have access to a level of care that did not exist before the earthquake – and a health care infrastructure that can withstand the uncertainties that lie ahead.




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Friday, April 2, 2010

Haiti: Thankfulness and Compassion Amid the Destruction

British nurse Nancy Connolly volunteered with International Medical Corps for two weeks in Haiti at the Petit Goave mobile clinic.

I left for Haiti on Jan 25th, two weeks after the earthquake and spent the next 2 weeks primarily in Petit Goave setting up remote clinics, following a couple of days at the hospital in Port-au-Prince.

When you leave the airport, you drive past incredible destruction. At first you take a few pictures but as the reality settles, you simply stop. It is difficult to comprehend the amount of devastation. Spray painting on the outside walls of buildings looks at first to be graffiti and then you realize it is a message: the building has been searched for dead bodies.

The road out to Petit Goave is cracked and rockslides continue with the daily after-shocks. International Medical Corps set up clinics in 4 locations and we saw over 1,000 patients in little over a week. I want to stress that entire population is living outside in tents or under tarps, offering little protection from the coming rains. Portable water has to be transported from a clean well and medical supplies are being brought in but overall resources are limited.

I will hold many people close to my heart from my time in Haiti. One little boy, probably 11-years-old. sat before me with such dignity while he told me his symptoms and as I asked questions I discovered that all of his family were dead. He was now alone. I saw one woman sweeping off her brick makeshift steps in case a guest visited. She now lived under a 4x4 sheet, in a camp on the side of the road, but she took pride in keeping it clean. The 80-year-old woman who volunteered to translate all day and thanked us for helping her country. The many priests and ministers who preached to the Haitian parishioners a message of cooperation and asked them to thank the people who had come, and to work with them as they were all trying to help. All this amid a constant stream of funerals each weekend.

During the week the Haitian people are digging themselves out using shovels, pick axes and sledge hammers.

The last impression I will share is one of hope. Relief efforts continue and will be needed for a long time to come. Haiti was in trouble prior to the quake, that is true, but no country can function when so devastated. I saw the Haitian people working to bring order and although there are troubles, there is a rising intolerance toward trouble-makers. The majority are speaking out and letting it be known they want and respect the assistance they are receiving.

If you would like to see more images of Nancy's experience with International Medical Corps in Haiti, click here.


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