Take a drive around Port-au-Prince…

Immersive Media developed a camera with roughly 15 lenses all shooting at the same time and the technology to allow the viewer to choose the vantage point while wacthing the video play back. Basically, you can “take a look around the frame” in a full 360 degrees. In this video someone stuck the camera to the roof of a car and drove around Port-au-Prince. Take a look… Video

Support RMF Haiti

After Haiti’s quake: children in Pétionville danced at a day care program run by the French Red Cross. More Photos »

By SIMON ROMERO

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“…but long-term care isn’t even on the horizon.” –Associated Press

Maybe, but we just signed on to pay long-term, living wages for local medical staff in Port-au-Prince. There is still a lot to do–people are sleeping under sheets in the rain, there is still no food or clean water–but there are still groups trying …to help Haiti get back home again. Find out more: www.realmedicinefoundation.org

Billions for Haiti, a criticism for every dollar (AP)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The world’s bill for the Haitian earthquake is large and growing — now $2.2 billion — and so is the criticism about how the money is being spent.

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Haiti Relief efforts
March 1, 2010
By Jonathan White

➢    Number one issue is provision of adequate shelter/housing.
➢    Food assistance moving into second surge phase with food baskets.
➢    Decongestion of settlement camps and creation of adequate sanitation is top priority.
➢    Rubble/Debris removal begins with over 86,000 Haitian workers hired.

The latest OCHA situation report from the UN reports that while the immediate emergency needs (food, water, health care) in Port-au-Prince are being covered, organizations continue to deal with many requests from outlying areas.

While the Port-au-Prince and directly surrounding area suffered the highest levels of destruction, the other provinces of Haiti have seen an inflow of over 400,000 people from the capital.  This has put a tremendous strain on already struggling communities and the humanitarian assistance provided must be balanced between these two areas.   Updated figures in this report include the latest estimate that 222,517 died and over 1.2 million are in need of shelter.

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Port-au-Prince, Haiti
February 20, 2010
By Kevin Connell

Much-Needed Rehab Equipment Obtained through Portlight.org
We made a great connection tonight with a supplier from Portlight.org working out of Quisqueya University.  The school was shut down after nearly all of its building collapsed in the earthquake, but it is currently being used (along with the other Quisqueya schools) as a staging point for relief operations.
As mentioned in the previous post, our partner, Sacred Heart Hospital, has been inundated with amputees for weeks without the proper human or physical resources to treat them.  In our efforts to get help with supplies, one of our contacts here in Port-au-Prince Tweeted a request for physical therapy equipment (crutches, walkers, etc) on our behalf, setting the process in motion early this afternoon.
Two hours later through the help of Twitter users all around the world, we were sent word of Portlight’s supply of rehab products located less than five minutes from our location at the hospital and ready for distribution.  After a simple phone call, we had setup a time to meet their coordinator, Richard Lumarque, fifteen minutes later for pickup and were on our way.  With a little help from Google Maps, Mel (physical therapist) and I made it to Portlight’s depot at Quisqueya before sundown and were reviewing inventory with Richard for receipt.
Soon we had stuffed my small SUV rental from Avis full with a three-wheel walker, 23 walkers, some crutches, two boxes filled with platform attachments used for complex mobility needs and a load of neck braces.  The equipment was added to the supply room at Sacred Heart, set to be handed out to the 50+ Sacred Heart amputees who have been bed-ridden since January 12th.  Mel estimated the equipment to be worth roughly $5,000—a big score for the community at Sacred Heart, waiting to walk again.. and not bad for two hours of effort.
Many thanks to Richard Lumarque, Portlight.org, and the Twitter community for making it happen.

Mel with our impromptu supplier, Richard from Portlight.org

Mel and I after loading the car full of rehab equipment for her clients at Sacred Heart.

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IPS

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

Haiti’s misery after last month’s earthquake will be compounded by a food catastrophe if the international community continues to ignore the country’s agricultural needs, the United Nations has warned.

Despite pledges covering over 95 percent of the 575-million-dollar target set for the U.N.’s Flash Appeal to rebuild Haiti, where food insecurity was a massive problem even before the earthquake that killed over 200,000 people, there is a big shortfall in the campaign’s agriculture component.

Indeed, only eight percent of the 23 million dollars required for the sector’s immediate needs have been raised, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said.

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Notes from RMF’s Kevin Connell, on the ground in Haiti
These are photos of Quisqueya, a Christian School on Delmas 75 that has turned into a coordination center for relief efforts in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. They have meetings every night with the heads of some major health NGO’s, suppliers and hospitals, acting as a platform for people to exchange information, resources, etc.

Quisqueya is also housing docs/nurses/ents and has been allocating them to health facilities, tent camps, etc each day (including ours). They have supplied our medical staff each day for the current week.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti
February 18, 2010
By Kevin Connell

Haiti – Learning to Walk Again

Real Medicine, in partnership with Chadasha Foundation, has been allocating volunteer medical professionals to Sacred Heart Hospital (Hôpital Sacré Coeur) near the heart of the city to help in ongoing treatment and rehabilitation services.  One of the biggest challenges in Haiti is rehabilitating the new population of amputees.  The first few weeks are critical to getting these patients mobile as much as possible, strengthening what physical resources remain in the process.  Oftentimes this process is more mental than it is physical.

Today I had a chance to catch up with a physical therapist working as part of our team Sacred Heart, Mel Hoffman, and learn more about her work at the facility.  As the only PT currently working at the hospital, Mel has been in high demand, serving the 60 in-house patient populations by herself, about half of whom need daily rehabilitation sessions.  Mel is also working to provide each of them with training regimen overviews, introductions to their new prosthetic equipment and direct counseling.  Mel is very comprehensive in her approach, going out of her way to build relationships with each of the patients she serves.  Mel says that building trust is critical to making progress in her physical therapy sessions, and is particularly important with the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.  Most of them are suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), having been trapped under rubble for hours or even days before being found.  Having suddenly found themselves living in tents out in the day’s heat, surrounded by strangers and missing a leg, it’s understandable how many could feel uncertain or discouraged.   

Mel also tells me that many patients refuse to do therapy until they’ve been assured that the therapist is not leaving.  They have been subjected to a constantly-revolving staff of medical professionals, probing, prodding, measuring them each day since the disaster hit.  The patients may only know a professional for the few minutes he or she visits with them before passing them off to the next volunteer rotating through.  Mel insists on being present at the hospital as much as possible to build rapport with the patients, something that is unheard of at most facilities treating victims.  It is also a real world example of RMF’s mission to build sustainability into its clinics, ensuring that patients develop relationships with their providers and receive care and treatment not just during the immediate humanitarian crisis, but on a regular basis well into the future.

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