Locals respond to Haitian earthquake and local fund-raising efforts organized

Initially they worked on providing food to local residents and helping with a medical clinic where more than 1,000 people were seen on Thursday and Friday, January 14 and 15. This week, Zweig and her team headed to smaller villages outside of Port au Prince where no aid teams had yet gone.

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Zweig has been able to communicate via email with her husband, Tom Barefoot, who provided updates to The Valley Reporter.

"Photos are difficult of large crowds -- that is not safe for us. Today we're off to some villages no one has been to yet. Things deteriorating healthwise -- not enough medicines. We treated 150 to 200 yesterday at Didi's, held a medical camp for local people who are living outside, no homes, etc. Had the help of three doctors from Chile, lots of infected wounds that would be treatable if we had the drugs," Zweig reported via email.

"In a phone call from Haiti early Tuesday morning, Joni lamented the lack of basic medicines like antibiotics that is causing treatable wounds to become infected and life-threatening. She says they are doing what they can, but medical supplies and drugs are badly needed everywhere. Hospitals have run out of supplies. The two schools that we have been running for 20 years survived, one with no damage and the other with minor damage which has been repaired so that the buildings are safe to use as clinics and feeding centers. Joni set up a coordination center in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, to coordinate with other NGOs and with our teams inside Haiti," Barefoot wrote in an email.

Amurtel is providing relief inside Port-au Prince and is also setting up child-friendly receiving stations in the countryside outside the demolished city, where stability, food, water and medical care can be more easily provided. For more information or to make a donation go to www.amurtel.org, or checks can be sent to AMURTEL, P.O. Box 232, Warren, VT 05674.

Other local fund-raising efforts include American Flatbread benefit bakes as well as a bake sale held at the Big Picture Theater over the January 16 and 17 weekend when Anda Gulley and Ayla Fidel baked and sold eight dozen cookies to raise $102.06 to send to UMCOR, a nonprofit, international, humanitarian aid organization that provides relief from hunger and disasters. The money will be earmarked specifically for Haiti.

Small Dog Electronics last week was matching donations made to Haiti relief and portions of the MountainTop Film Festival proceeds also went to Haitian relief.

The American Flatbread benefit bakes will take place in Waitsfield on January 22, in Middlebury through January 23, and in Burlington through January 27.

Waitsfield native Daniel Richards, CEO of Global Rescue, has also been active in the Haitian relief effort. The son of Stuart and Miriam Richards was among the first to be able to fly relief supplies and personnel into Port au Prince and continues to provide space on flights for medical personnel as well as emergency supplies.

January 20 email update from Joni Zweig

Update 1

Namaskar all, finally internet access and electricity! I am a bit overwhelmed.

Yesterday, we went up to Carrofore with our nurse and three Chilean doctors and one of their nurses, plus lots of meds. One of the teachers at our school lives up there and had come to see us to ask for some help. This is an area that was very badly affected and has a lot of untreated injuries.

We packed up the truck and, after arriving on this steep mountainside community, we offered our assistance. Immediately people came forward and found us a flat space that was relatively safe to set up on. Then they organized some security on their own, called all the people, and we were in business. We set up tarps overhead to ward off the intense heat, and later, the rain. Some of the first patients were in pretty bad shape. One older man had been taken to the hospital after the earthquake and they had released him with a few bandages in place. 

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When he was carried in on a board he could barely breathe and was in very bad shape. His house had fallen on top of him crushing his chest, with the result of two ruptured lungs and air filling his chest and abdomen. The facial injuries were bad but not life-threatening, but the internal injuries were. The doctors were able to give him something for the pain and arranged for one of their team to see him in the hospital, although they did not think he would make it. We used our Amurt/el truck to transport him.

INFECTED WOUNDS

There were a number of people with fractured legs, arms, hands and feet, who had not been treated yet, along with infected wounds. Earlier that morning we had seen a person with serious gangrene in his foot from a deep wound. It is terrible to think he may lose his foot. Here in Haiti people do not have many options for work, for transport, etc., and the loss of a foot will be a terrible blow to this man and his family. And all because there was not adequate medical care in the first 48 hours.
 
After we finished seeing patients, I asked two of the local men to take me on a tour of the area. The amount of damage was overwhelming: their church, their school, and just about every house on the mountainside. Many, many lost their lives here and many more were injured. All were living outside in the street under sheets and blankets tied overhead. There is little water or food and very unsafe conditions. Everyone is worried about what will happen to the pieces of wall that are still standing if a hard rain falls.

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A COMMUNITY

It is important for the public to understand these people are like families everywhere. They worked and saved to build their homes. They chose furniture, curtains and decorated their homes. Their kids had toys and books and friends came over to play. They were a community moving forward in their lives. Now they have lost everything but a few clothes they could pull from the ruins. Living on the streets, no toilets, no facilities for bathing and, most important, no idea how to rebuild. Needless to say, they do not have insurance. When I asked my guides about employment, they shared that few now have jobs or any hope of getting the money needed to rebuild.

What they still have though is a strong sense of community and a commitment to take care of each other. This along with the inherent strength and determination will have to provide the foundation for their future.
 
Today we got news that we have a signed contract with the World Food Program. This means we can finally do some serious food distribution. Dhyana, our Amurtel coordinator, made a great contact with a Spanish corporation who has promised us tents. So things are moving forward.

OK, off to a UN meeting on medical response.

Love to all,
Ciras (Joni) 

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Update 2

From: Joni Zweig

Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 2:38 PM

Subject: please forward to distribution list

I was able to see some CNN news the other night when we were doing internet. There was someone named Anderson something or other broadcasting from Port au Prince. He seems like a good guy, but I felt really bad that all CNN was only presenting the Haitian people in such a negative light.

I realize I only saw this one clip, so perhaps that's not an accurate statement. But from what I saw, I can say, other than the looting, etc., but the reality is quite different. The communities we are visiting and working in are filled with hard-working, caring people, who are reaching out to their neighbors to make it work for everyone. They are not waiting for aid but doing whatever they can to make shelters and making sure everyone is okay. I would love to take this reporter to some of these places to see the other side of the violence and looting, i.e., the real Haitians.

Any idea how to do this?

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