Medical:

Because the school was acting as the site for the post-quake emergency clinic, it was determined that the school was just that--a school- and the clinic should be moved and put into Haitian hands. Since the immediate health crisis passed, Haitians could now go to their previous places for treatment. LFH would contribute all their donated supplies and in that way support the local clinic. We took over twenty boxes of medical supplies, filling their shelves with much-needed medicines! The Love for Haiti pharmacy contributions were moved to a local free clinic about two miles from the school. Records of folks we treated were transferred too. Tina Edraki (Ob/gyn) from CA has returned several times to see patients on her own.
It is hoped that other specialists would be returning in the next year. The head of the clinic has requested pediatricians, eye specialists, OB/GYNs, and general medical staff to assist in their clinic. They are open 6 hours a day and can't see all the patients needed.

Dental:

Galina Mohebat from Canada has established all her dental equipment in one of the new clinic rooms. She recently served at the clinic for 5 days and saw many, many patients. Her intention is to get one or two US /Canadian dentists to volunteer each month so people have a place to come for treatment when needed. A dentist from Portland, OR, Dr. Hooman Shakiba, is already on the schedule. At this time there is no plan for Haitian dentists to use her equipment.

Building:

LFH contributors paid for the rebuilding of two residences - Sue Puzo's (former director of AZ) and Gaby Vincent's (kindergarten teacher).

Several possible home models were constructed by LFH volunteers with re-bar and tarps; nura domes were constructed as meeting places in at least two tent cities; a school in Cite de Soeil was given rebar, a large tarp and detailed instructions on building a shelter for their children. Long range plans include a possible community center which would serve as a school to street children staffed by Haitian teachers. It is hoped that community college architectural students in US would be able to work with older Haitian youth, collaborating concerning building styles and methods. Just ideas at this point.

Water:

Jahan Travangar has returned to Haiti several times, installing water treatment systems in several schools and orphanages.

Mental Health:

This team of psychologists been most active in training locals to train one another. They daily hold seminars, using a manual they have written in three languages (Kreyol, French and English) with information in strategies in how to respond to disasters. They have returned at least five times - and are leaving March 13^th once again. One volunteer even spent the entire month of December seeing patients there. This trip four of them are staying at JP/HRO tent camp and serving some of the thousands of people still living there. They will also return to Anis Zunuzi School to serve the classrooms there. There is a great need to help those still affected by the quake, sharing coping mechanisms for their dire situations.

Education:

Teacher training in art basics last November for one week was very successful and the school asked for more support. So, a Haitian art teacher was recently hired for the school and an American artist is working daily with her to illustrate the creative integration of art techniques to reinforce academics. Hopefully, this two month training/support will be enough to set the new teacher on a path of training and encouragement for the teachers for the remainder of the year and on to next year. We're currently looking for funding and materials support for this program for next year. All materials and teacher's salary were contributed by family and friends but it's not sustainable for next year right now. The school supply store usually used as a classroom resource was destroyed. Even paper is difficult to get, let alone paints and pastels. Hopefully, this curricular addition will bring peace, encourage self-expression, allow new experiences and share a new way to think about possibilities in life.

(Reprint from thestar.com 10/20/2010)

Lovely Avelus has her teeth examined in a dental clinic in Fermathe, Haiti.

Catherine Porter/Toronto Star

Article from Resouces blog of  Seattle University — College of Arts And Sciences

Mauseth Develops Haiti Mental Health Support Team

Kira Mauseth, Department of Psychology , returned from her third visit in Haiti where she is developing long-term mental health support for communities in Port-au-Prince. Mauseth, back row, second from the left, is an adjunct professor who has been on the faculty since 2008 and specializes in disaster mental health and abnormal psychology.

Working with a team of psychologists, Mauseth developed the Haiti 1:1 Health Support Team. This program teaches local volunteers the basics of psychological first aid, disaster mental health, and techniques and tools they can use to assist and support their fellow citizens. More than 70 Haitians have been trained and are now working in their communities to provide critical mental health services.

Mauseth returns to Haiti in late October to expand the training program. Using a “train the trainer model” to empower Haitians to teach additional volunteers, she is building a sustainable program of mental health services, an essential component for Haiti’s long-term recovery from the massive January 12 earthquake that devastated the country.

Seattle University College of Arts and Sciences offers 33 undergraduate degrees and 7 graduate degrees, including a Master of Arts in Psychology .

http://www.seattleu.edu/artsci/News_Article.aspx?id=64262

This article was published on July29, 2010 in NorthJersey.com.

Student finds inspiration despite ‘little change’ in Haiti

Thursday, July 29, 2010

LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY JULY 29, 2010, 1:20 AM

BY KELSEY BUTLER

TOWN JOURNAL

OF TOWN JOURNAL

Northern Highlands Regional High School student Jenna Wasserman took some time from her summer vacation to travel to Haiti as a volunteer with Love for Haiti, a non-profit that sends medical assistance and supplies to the country to help those affected by this past January's earthquake.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNA WASSERMAN

Northern Highlands Regional High School student Jenna Wasserman recently spent a week in Haiti as a volunteer of Love for Haiti, a non-profit group that donates medical assistance and supplies to provide relief following the earthquake in January. Above, Wasserman, front row with arm on her shoulder, and a group of the other volunteers.

Wasserman, who is entering her sophomore year in the fall, said that she became aware of the organization through family friend Maryanne Fike, who helped to establish Love for Haiti after being moved to action by the devastation she saw on the news.

"My girlfriend, Muni Tahzib, and I were moved after watching CNN just after the earthquake and decided to go," Fike said. "We posted on Facebook and had many doctors and medical professionals volunteer from all over the U.S. and Canada. I contacted friends of mine in the Dominican Republic, as I didn't know any one in Haiti. It was all coordinated and we flew into the D.R. and rented a bus and drove to [Port-au-Prince]. We camped at the Anis Zunuzi School in Lilivois, Haiti just on the outskirts of [Port-au-Prince]. We set up two clinics and treated literally hundreds of patients."

The organization sends dozens of volunteers to the country, who bring medical and other supplies with them, approximately every four to six weeks. Wasserman attended on the group's most recent trip in mid-July. She assisted in helping to rebuild a school for local children and assisted the group's dentist in organizing and bringing tools to serve numerous area patients.

She says the strongest memory of her seven-day trip, though, was visiting an area orphanage near Haiti's capital.

"One of my best memories was of the orphanage; I'd never been to one before," Wasserman said. "You would walk through the door and these kids would just grab onto your arms for dear life, and they just have so much joy. These kids who have nothing have so much joy."

Wasserman, who hopes to pursue a career in photojournalism, said that she enjoyed photographing and meeting all the people that she did during her stay in Haiti. One local, in particular, stuck out because of his proximity in age to her, but lived in incompletely disparate living conditions.

"I met a kid my age, his name was Ralph and it was really exciting to meet someone your own age, yet with such different atmospheres in which they live in," she said. "Because we both had so many things in common, except for one thing: our living situation."

According to Fike, there has been "very little change" in Haiti since the earthquake.

"I'm sorry to say, I have not seen any reconstruction. Only additional tarps for temporary housing," she said.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that 1.6 million Haitians are still homeless and only 5,657 of a promised 125,000 transitional shelters, the tarps that Fike mentioned, have been built in the country.

Though both Fike and Wasserman acknowledge that there is much to be done in the country, both acknowledged that helping victims of the earthquake has been rewarding.

Fike said, "The most rewarding part is the people!"

She added, "Both the Haitians who continue to inspire me, with their resiliency, strength of character, certitude and cheerfulness in spite of such adversity and suffering. And our [Love for Haiti] volunteers - people who have made huge sacrifices and given their time, expertise, and service and commitment for our Haitian brothers and sisters. It is quite moving!"

For Wasserman, the trip was an eye-opening experience. She added that this type of service for others is something she hopes other young people will consider pursuing.

"I really think that's something that helps you grow as a person," she said. "Being able to travel and just experiencing something out of your own box that you don't get to see every day. I'm really grateful."

Seattle University Spectator > News

Psychology prof Kira Mauseth provides therapy to hundreds of Haitians

By Chelsea Nehler

|

Published: Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Updated: Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Photoby: Mary Bryant-Likens | The Spectator

Professor Kira Mauseth provided mental health services to Haitians.

Editor's note: This story has been edited to note that Kira Mauseth said that a minority of psychological traumas were caused by the earthquake. Furthermore, Mauseth didn't say that Haitians lost their homes because they lost their community, as the story indirectly quoted her as saying. We regret the errors.

Much of the Haiti relief effort has focused on delivering essential supplies and funds to the Caribbean country. One Seattle U professor brought more than that, offering mental health services to earthquake survivors.

Kira Mauseth, a psychology professor, was one of two practicing clinical psychologists who traveled to Haiti in early March with the organization Love For Haiti. 
Mauseth served in two locations—a building of Anis Zunuzi School and in a tent city. At each location 200 to 300 patients per day awaited a range of medical and psychological assistance. At one point, the tent city clinic saw more than 250 people in seven hours.

“Most could not tolerate sleeping or even being in a building,” Mauseth said. The school children were holding classes outside because the children did not want to be inside, she observed.

Mauseth observed that many of the mental health problems people reported had nothing to do with the earthquake. She said a minority of the psychological traumas resulted directly from the disaster. 
Typically, those in need of psychological assistance were suffering from acute stress disorders. The most common symptoms included insomnia, stomachaches, headaches, trouble concentrating, decreased appetite and a heightened startle response.

Haiti is home to some of the most impoverished people in the world and has a history of political corruption. Resources are fairly scarce and given Haiti’s propensity for hurricanes, frequent storms destroy much of the infrastructure Haitians are able to establish, according to Mauseth.

“People who had nothing, now had less,” she said.

Tens of thousands Haitians now live in tent cities. “Sticks with blankets or bed sheets” separate the displaced unless they are fortunate enough to have personal tents.

It is Mauseth’s goal to bring basic supplies to the people of Haiti. She and other volunteers arrived in Haiti with 64 boxes of medical supplies and toiletries, some collected by Seattle U students.

There is still overwhelming need for vitamins, baby formula and even reading glasses, she said. 
However, Mauseth said “flying down once a month and throwing Tylenol at people” is not going to help in the long run.

“They need to know how to help themselves,” she said. “To see themselves as resilient and as agents of change.”

Mauseth intends to teach relaxation exercises and other therapeutic techniques to community leaders so they can continue the healing process within their own communities. 
She plans to return to Haiti with the same organization in May.

“We were actually able to make a difference for some people,” Mauseth said hopefully. “Service to other people is one of the most important things you can contribute in your life.”

Chelsea may be reached at cnehler@su-spectator.com

The Benjamin H. Josephson, MD Fund
Scott Levine, Paramedic
Haiti: March 2010

On March 3rd, I departed the United States for Haiti as part of an ongoing relief effort. I was recruited by a grass-roots organization of doctors, nurses, paramedics, medical technicians, teachers, architects and other volunteers. We brought with us, approximately 3,000 lbs. of medical supplies that were donated to the organization. In addition cement, rebar and lumber were transported by ground to help teach the locals how to rebuild. Clinics were held at schools, tent cities and orphanages. In a 48 hour period, over 1000 patients were triaged, diagnosed and treated. In addition, older children were taught how to care for the younger patients' wounds. The architects built three domed structures and helped assess the stability of some local buildings for occupancy post-earthquake. One of our members brought a water purification device and installed it at a local school. This device will yield 300 gallons a day of fresh drinking water.

http://www.bhjfund.org/report-levine.html

This article was published on 3/28/2020 in "The News Tribune" and "The Olympian".

Cutting through the red tape, an informal group of professionals takes on the task of helping a country to heal

ITANNA AND YOSAFE MURPHY

Itanna and Yosafe Murphy pose with Carlos Augustin, an orphan the Tumwater couple befriended during their time in Haiti.

LISA PEMBERTON; CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Published: 03/28/1012:05 am | Updated: 03/28/10 2:34 pm
Before the dust settled from the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, Itanna and Yosafe Murphy were ready to pack their bags to help treat survivors.

But when they approached Doctors without Borders, the American Red Cross, and other disaster relief organizations, they were turned away.

“Either we didn’t have enough field experience, could not volunteer six weeks, or the organizations were not accepting volunteers,” said Itanna Murphy, 32, of Tumwater, who is a physician assistant. Her husband is a respiratory therapist.

Meanwhile, their friend Dr. Muni Tahzib of Hoboken, N.J., was facing similar bureaucratic red tape. She decided to go to Haiti on her own, and posted a message on the social networking Web site Facebook.

“I said, ‘I’m a doctor, I’m going to Haiti on Monday,’ ” Tahzib said. “ ‘If you want to come, please call my cell phone.’ ”

The Murphys were among the first to volunteer.

Since then, they have made two trips to Haiti as part of the informal group of doctors, nurses, teachers and others who call themselves Love for Haiti.

The group established a medical clinic in tents and classrooms at a school on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Members of the group see scores of patients each day they are there, treating everything from broken bones and deep cuts to respiratory illnesses and post traumatic stress.

The volunteers have vowed to try to return every four to six weeks to staff the clinic and continue treating patients.

It will take a long-term commitment: The quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, injured 300,000 survivors, and left nearly 1 million residents without homes.

“It’s going to take decades for Haiti to get back to order,” Itanna Murphy said.

But behind those horrific numbers, there’s a great sense of hope and humanity among the Haitians, Murphy said.

“The people are incredible,” she said. “They are very, very proud, and resilient and gracious and generous.”

AN OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT

Love for Haiti volunteers collected as many medical supplies, tents and other disaster relief donations as they could before making their first trip.

“Within two days, we had all of the supplies we needed,” Itanna Murphy said.

Many of the donations were shipped from the Northwest: Itanna Murphy’s employer, Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, donated several hundred pounds of bandages, IV fluids and other medical supplies. A clinic in Puyallup sent antibiotics and other medicines. A pharmacy donated gloves and first-aid supplies. One of the Murphys’ friends who works at Trader Joe’s donated cases of Clif Bars to keep the volunteers nourished. And a Cabela’s manager in Lacey gave the group a hefty discount on tents and other gear when he learned the items were bound for Haiti.

Other donations trickled in from family members, friends and strangers who learned about the effort through posts on Facebook and other social networking sites.

“There are so many people behind the scenes who were responsible for us being able to go,” Itanna Murphy said.

In late January, while survivors were still being pulled from the debris, 19 Love for Haiti doctors, nurses and other volunteers met in the Dominican Republic and rented a bus to cross the border to Haiti.

Itanna Murphy worked with volunteer Judy Rector of Richland to transform part of a schoolhouse into a walk-in medical clinic and pharmacy.

“It’s in a very poor part of Port-Au-Prince – the houses just fell down and there’s rubble everywhere,” said Rector, 64, a retired school teacher.

Meanwhile, Yosafe Murphy, 30, and some of the other doctors signed up for volunteer shifts at a nearby hospital.

“We just came in and said, ‘Where can we help?’ ” he said. “The days were basically continuous. You would probably work for a good nine or 10 hours, maybe take a nap, and get back to work when you were needed.”

CHALLENGES AND HIGHLIGHTS

The work wasn’t easy. Medical supplies were limited. Tents served as surgical recovery rooms. And doctors from all over the world had descended on Haiti, which meant that most charts had notes in several languages, which made translations extremely difficult, Yosafe Murphy said.

And there were some turf wars.

For example, one of the Love for Haiti doctors wanted to help a child at a Red Cross camp, but the workers wouldn’t allow him past the gate.

Emotions ran high. People were exhausted. Things got a little tense.

“They were like shoving him out – they had security come,” Yosafe Murphy said. “With a lot of the bigger groups, there’s a lot more politics, a lot more rules. They’re kind of marred down by, like, protocol.”

Still, they say the positive experiences outweighed the negative ones.

In January, the orthopedic surgeons with the group treated a little boy who had been walking around for days with a hip fracture. By March, “he was walking around without a limp,” Itanna Murphy said.

When they weren’t working at the hospital or schoolhouse clinic, they piled into the back of pickups and visited orphanages outside of town.

Tahzib described the Murphys as “fearless” because they were willing to go into some areas that were extremely dangerous.

“Some people would say, ‘Should we really go? Should we really do this?’ They were like, ‘Let’s go, let’s do this,’ ” she said.

And one night, by the light of headlamps in an old classroom, the Murphys helped deliver baby Tina Rose into the world. The baby’s parents were so grateful for the help that they asked the Murphys to be her godparents.

“It was pretty amazing,” Itanna Murphy said.

“She is now two months old, fat and happy. Her parents still live in the tent we gave them.”

A CHILD WARMS THEIR HEARTS

The Love for Haiti group hopes to build a community-based health program that’s supported and sustained by residents. During their visits, they asked Haitian youths to help translate for them, and in turn, they trained the young helpers how to clean and bandage wounds and administer other basic first-aid measures.

One of their most eager assistants was 13-year-old Carlos Augustin, an orphan who was living on the street, displaced from the quake.

“He was outside (his orphanage) when the earthquake hit,” Rector said. “The building fell down, and it killed almost all of the children and people in there.”

The boy speaks four languages, and has a natural interest in medicine. He bonded quickly with the Murphys.

Itanna Murphy was adopted from the Philippines, and she and her husband have long been open to the idea of starting their family through adoption. They didn’t go to Haiti to find a child, but once they met Carlos, she said they knew he was supposed to be with them.

In just a week, they asked him if he’d like to be adopted by them.

“He replied, ‘Of course, it is a gift from God,’ ” Itanna Murphy said.

The couple began filing the paperwork for a legal adoption.

“We speak on the phone every day,” she said. “Carlos calls us mom and dad. In our hearts, he is already our son.”

TIME BRINGS CHANGE, CHALLENGES

The Murphys’ adoption of Carlos is expected to take more than a year because of a crackdown on Haitian adoptions. Many cases were put on hold because government buildings that housed necessary documents were crumbled in the disaster. In addition, the government is scrutinizing more adoptions following some highly publicized cases of alleged child trafficking, including an Idaho church group that’s accused of trying to remove 33 Haitian children from the country without proper documentation.

A crackdown on travel and shipping also is presenting challenges. During Love for Haiti’s second trip earlier this month, the doctors and other volunteers had a difficult time getting their supplies into Haiti.

“We heard many stories of people having to pay $1,000 and more for overweight baggage,” Itanna Murphy said. Those fees had been waived for their previous trip.

The second time, the group spent nearly three hours at the border, begging, pleading and refusing to pay taxes on donated supplies. “There have been reports of people, businesses, groups trying to use the Haiti earthquakes as an avenue to profit,” Itanna Murphy said. “It was definitely a hassle.”

But much of the panic had died down by their second trip as well.

“There were many open markets where people bought produce and goods,” Itanna Murphy said. “Even in the tent cities, commerce was alive and well.”

Still, reminders of the devastation were everywhere: Many survivors were learning to live as amputees, as orphans, or as parents without their children.

“You can still smell the dead bodies when you drive by the collapsed buildings,” Itanna Murphy said. “Although some of the rubble is gone, most of it is where it was a month ago.”

The volunteers treated different medical concerns on their second trip as well.

“We definitely saw the emotional aftershocks of the earthquake this time around,” Itanna Murphy said. “Instead of just treating acute injuries and illnesses, we were seeing how trauma can affect the body. Many patients had chronic headaches, stomachaches, insomnia, poor appetite, etc., which began after the earthquake.”

MORE WORK TO BE DONE

The Love for Haiti effort isn’t formally affiliated with any church or organization, which means that its work can go in many directions, Tahzib said.

On their most recent trip, the doctors and nurses were joined by some structural engineers who inspected about 100 homes, churches and other buildings to determine which ones were still usable, and which ones were unlikely to survive another major quake, Tahzib said.

Volunteers also installed a water filtration system so that locals can drink tap water without having to boil it. “It’s unheard of there,” Tahzib said.

By the second mission, their group had doubled in size, and included a dentist and dental hygienist, an optometrist and a psychologist. Haitians stood in long lines to try on boxes of donated eyeglasses. Most received their very first dental exams.

Rector took boxes of friendship letters that were sent from an elementary school in Spokane.

“They were so pleased and so excited,” she said. “They said, ‘For me? I have mail from the United States?’ ”

Rector also took puzzles and craft projects to work on with the children.

“They loved it; they don’t get crafts,” she said. “Paper is expensive and anything colorful – it’s just not done.”

Like the Murphys, Rector has bonded with the Haitian people. And she plans to continue going as often as possible because she simply can’t stay away.

“It’s like another planet – life is such a struggle to stay alive,” she said. “And I can’t enjoy living here unless I’m helping.”

Yosafe and Itanna Murphy said they feel the same way.

Itanna Murphy’s mother was under the care of hospice, but she urged her daughter to follow her heart to Haiti in January. She died on Valentine’s Day, shortly after the Murphys returned home from their first trip.

“One of my friends reminded me to just stand like a Haitian,” Itanna Murphy said. “I just dealt with a really tragic loss, but at the same time I just need to get up and stay focused and do what I need to do.”

And for her, that meant planning future trips to Haiti.

HOW TO HELP

To make a tax-deductible donation, go to www.monafoundation.org, select “Haiti Disaster Relief” and earmark a donation for “Love for Haiti.”

For information on donating supplies or volunteering to help on future missions, go to www.love-for-haiti.com or e-mail Muni Tahzib at info@love-for-haiti.com.

The group especially needs baby formula, tarps, tents, bandages, antibiotic creams and other first-aid and survival gear. Airline miles also can be donated to help curb the transportation costs for volunteers.

Norwood resident shares experiences from trip to Haiti
Thursday, March 18, 2010
LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY MARCH 18, 2010, 3:53 PM
BY TARA DRIGGS

When Norwood nurse Rose Cabot assisted in the birth of a baby girl in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti Jan. 27, she didn’t know her reaction would be so emotional.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RAMIN TALAIE
Norwood resident Rose Cabot, who is a nurse, examines a Haitian boy at a makeshift clinic in a school in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince Jan. 26.
But as she looked back, Cabot said the birth was one of the most memorable experiences of her life.

Part of the non-profit group "Love for Haiti," Cabot was one of 19 individuals who flew to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and drove to Port-au-Prince, Haiti Jan. 25, about two weeks after the earthquake hit. Only a couple of days after the group set up in Anis Zunuzi School outside of Port-au-Prince, Cabot helped Magdalah Wome give birth to Rose Tina.

"Somehow we found a hospital bed and we put her in one of the dingy rooms to induce her and monitor her as best we could," Cabot said. "She had the baby at 8:02 p.m. and it was absolutely amazing. The same cry came out of me when I saw my daughter for the first time."

FAST FACTS
* Main Goals: To respond to victims with basic medical, wound and orthopedic care; to teach volunteers to care for their community members’ basic health and to arrange for a rotating schedule of surgeons, specialists and volunteers.

* Founders: Maryanne Fike and Muni Tahzib, MD

* Members: Volunteers of various backgrounds from all over the country. The growing Love for Haiti group presently has members from Texas, California, New York, Washington, New Jersey and more.

* Volunteers pay their own way to Haiti and many plan to go back every month throughout 2010.

* For more information about Love for Haiti, visit www.love-for-haiti.com

Cabot said Wome did not allow her emotions to come out until after she heard her baby cry, as she had previously lost three children right after birth.

Patients wait for a medical examination at a makeshift clinic in a school in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince.
At first the newborn was named Tina Rose after Dr. Tina Edraki, an obstetrician from California and Cabot. But when the group went back for their second trip to Haiti during the first week of March, Cabot found out they had switched the names around.

"On our March visit, I got to see the baby and she was nice and chubby and so healthy," Cabot said. "I brought her a little gold bracelet and some clothes and I was so happy when I found out they named her after me."

Although there was a sense of joy when this new life was brought into the world, Cabot said she was sad to know they were releasing the family to an unprotected tent. She plans to check in with the baby when she and other members of Love for Haiti visit once a month over the next year.

Offering both medical resources and building materials to the Haitian people, Love for Haiti was founded by former Tenafly resident Maryanne Fike and Hoboken pediatrician Muni Tahzib. Days after the earthquake, the two women attempted to find groups they could travel with to Haiti, but kept coming to dead ends.

"We tried calling organizations but we were told either we didn’t have enough experience or we couldn’t commit long enough," Fike said.

"The doors were shut on us so we decided to form an organization and make the best use of our work."

The women posted a notice on Facebook Jan. 20 and four days later they had 17 doctors, nurses and business people ready to join in their impromptu trip.

By their March visit, engineers, architects, psychologists and psychiatrists had joined on board, making a total of 36 individuals.

The group split into three clusters — one doing triage at the local school, another helping at a nearby orphanage and the architects and engineers walking around to help with demolition and rebuilding. Cabot said assisting with the children in the orphanage was one of the harder experiences she had to go through, for personal reasons.

"I was orphaned and grew up in foster care and I have an adopted daughter from Korea, so it really touched me," she said. "You had to treat the kids with compassion and love but you couldn’t let your feelings overflow."

Cabot, Fike and others in Love for Haiti made a commitment to go back to assist every month for the next year.

Although they hold fund-raisers to obtain money and supplies to bring with them, the group members will pay their own way every time.

Cabot has held a couple of major fund-raisers already and is looking forward to a garage sale to be held at her house, 5 Meadow Court, Norwood from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 27 and 28. Donations to Love for Haiti can be made through two other non-profits, www.educatethesechildren.org and www.monafoundation.org. Fike said the most needed items include medical equipment.

"Money is certainly good, but we need nebulizers for people with asthma and respiratory problems and diabetic supplies," she said. "Pain killers and wound care like gauze and Neosporin are also needed." Cabbot said "children’s underwear and socks, bandages, bandaids and anti-fungal cream" were additional necessities.

Fike said that although they are providing any needed assistance they could to the Haitian people, Love for Haiti is also leading them in the right direction to live healthy lifestyles for years to come.

"We are not just there to put on bandages," she said. "To help the Haitians, we are involving them – teaching them first aid, basic wound care and nutrition.

We need to empower them because ultimately they really have to do this."

Moved by tragedy, some Americans dropped everything to assist in Haiti
'This Is What Being Human Is All About'
by Jocelyn C. Zuckerman
published: 02/28/2010

For some Americans, the call to go help in Haiti was deeply personal. Four years ago, Muni Tahzib, a pediatrician in Hoboken, N.J., watched as her 3-year-old son, Max, nearly died from an allergic reaction to penicillin. During the six weeks he spent in intensive care, she recalled, "We received an incredible amount of love from absolute strangers."

So when Dr. Tahzib, 40, saw the terrible damage wrought by the 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, she "couldn't just sit there." She called Unicef, the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders to volunteer. "Do you have five to 10 years of field experience?" the organizations asked. She didn't. Frustrated, Dr. Tahzib logged on to Facebook.

"My friend & I are putting a medical team together to go to Haiti on Monday," she posted on Wednesday, Jan. 20. "Anyone who wants to join us, please call ASAP!"

Others were responding to something more visceral--a gut punch to the psyche, an instinctive urge to help. That same week, firefighter Nelson Estremera, 31, had gathered his wife and three children around their dining-room table in Jersey City to tell them he wanted to go to Haiti. "Daddy," his kids said, "they need you there."

The recent earthquake has elicited an enormous outpouring of aid from around the world. By Feb. 10, donations to U.S. organizations alone had exceeded $713 million, according to Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy. Patrick Rooney, its executive director, attributes the outpouring of altruism in part to the legacies of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. "Certainly those disasters have raised our empathy."

Americans' financial generosity, especially given the recession, is impressive. But just as amazing are the ad-hoc actions of ordinary citizens like Estremera and Dr. Tahzib, people who dropped everything to board planes and pitch tents in the yards and parking lots of Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns.

Four days after posting her plea on Facebook, Dr. Tahzib had found 17 doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and others to sign on to her impulsive plan. She knew only half of them, like her neighbor, TV graphics designer Barbara Colegrove Bravo, who had booked a flight for the sole purpose of carrying an additional 140 pounds of the medical and humanitarian supplies that had piled up, unbidden, on Dr. Tahzib's front doorstep.

The group flew to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic on Jan. 25, spent the night there, and drove across the island to Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, in a school bus crammed with medical supplies, flashlights, baby formula, tents, sleeping bags, 200 gallons of water, a diesel generator, and a week's worth of meals. With locals to assist as translators, they shuttled among hospitals, clinics, and orphanages and glimpsed sights like the once-grand National Palace, collapsed now upon itself like an ill-conceived wedding cake, and a primary school with a scribbled sign that read REFUGEE CAMP. PLEASE HELP US. Throughout the city, pedestrians clasped bits of fabric to their faces to stanch the smell of decay.

By the time Dr. Tahzib and her team arrived in Port-au-Prince, firefighters Estremera, Jose Cruz, and Andy Azize were on their third day of sweating among the hundreds of bandaged and amputee patients crammed under the tents serving as a ward outside the overcrowded University Hospital.

"You guys know how to give shots?" an onlooker inquired as one of Estremera's group injected morphine into the arm of a newly paralyzed young Haitian woman. "We do now," he shrugged.

Taking a break from efforts to locate the relatives of some fellow Mormons was Jeremy Fuller, 40, from Chandler, Ariz. Like many American volunteers, he had come in response to a higher calling. He'd also felt moved to help after Hurricane Katrina and had spent two weeks in Mississippi waterproofing damaged homes. Fuller was leaving Haiti soon but will return in a few months. "We know we've got a lot of work to do," he said.

Emerging from a back room of the building next to the hospital that housed the nonprofit International Medical Corps, Gabriela McAdoo, a nurse from Palo Alto, Calif., tore open a packet of crackers. She spread them with the peanut butter that completed her MRE, or military meal ready to eat. The sleepy-looking mother of two said she'd finally crashed after going nearly nonstop since she arrived in Haiti the day after the quake. McAdoo, 35, had been tending to the physical and emotional needs of one of the disaster's success stories: Monley Elize, 5, who was rescued after eight days under the rubble that had killed both his parents.

Like everyone else, McAdoo had witnessed her share of horrors. There was the mound of corpses next to the morgue that her group had seen when they'd arrived, she said, and the patient who showed up with a bone hanging out, maggots in his wound. Two weeks after the initial quake, she was beginning to observe its psychological fallout. "People come in with headaches, stomachaches, backaches," she reported. "They can't breathe; their hands are tingling. That's anxiety." Through it all, the Haitians she'd treated had been remarkably strong. "Their pain tolerance is incredible," she said. "In a way, you have to tell them what it's okay to say, because they've never learned to complain."

On the afternoon of Jan. 28, Dr. Tahzib and part of her group were working at an orphanage in the Petionville neighborhood. They'd ended up there through the direction of Lisa Orloff, 44, a former fashion designer, and Matt Begert, a 25-year veteran of the Marine Corps. The pair represented the World Cares Center, which Orloff founded after 9/11 to facilitate "spontaneous volunteerism." Dr. Tahzib grabbed dirty sheets from the rickety beds and fixed them with duct tape to the floor to create makeshift stations--one with cough medicine and antibiotics, another with infant formula and oatmeal. Then she examined some 150 young patients.

That evening, in a classroom at a school on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince where Dr. Tahzib and her crew had pitched their tents, they welcomed a new life into the world. Magdalah Wome, a 38-year-old Haitian who'd already buried three children, named her baby Tina Rose--for Dr. Tina Edraki, a California obstetrician-gynecologist, and for Rose Cabot, a New Jersey nurse, who had responded to Dr. Tahzib's Facebook post. The baby's new godparents: Yosafe Murphy, an African-American respiratory therapist, and his wife, Itanna, a Filipino-American physician's assistant, who had traveled from Washington state to lend a hand in that dusty room.

Three weeks after the quake, as Dr. Tahzib and other volunteers started to trickle back to their husbands and wives, sons and daughters, and dogs and cats, many vowed to return. All had been changed by their experiences. Somewhere amid the heat and blood and cries of distress, they said, a sort of autopilot functionality had kicked in, erasing their surface differences along the way. "From now on," McAdoo said, "any type of disaster, I am ready to come help."

One afternoon earlier that week, Angelo Maino, 43, a tattooed firefighter who'd come to Haiti with Estremera, looked on as his brawny buddies effortlessly worked in synch with a goateed Los Angeles doctor they'd only just met.

"I wish my kids could see this," Maino marveled. "This is what being human is all about."

http://www.parade.com/news/2010/02/28-this-is-what-being-human-is-all-about.html

Barbara, Maryanne and I were interviewed by our local paper; it's a great way to get lots of donations; our town of Hoboken was SO awesome:

Hands-on in Haiti
Local women need supplies for relief effort
Please click on the photo to read the entire article.