It was only last week that Steve Studdert began circulating an email and then placed an article on Meridian appealing for volunteers with skills in medicine, construction and French/Creole language to come to Haiti to help in this time of devastation. He said, “This is NOT an official Church delegation, but priesthood men being "anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do(ing) many things of their own free will, and bring(ing) to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them...” (D & C 58:27-28).
This morning, just a few days later, after scrambling to get off work for 21 days, receiving inoculations, and leaving behind family members who were jittery for their safety, 125 men and women boarded a 737 jet, leaving from Salt Lake City airport, heading for Haiti.
In an outpouring of generosity, Steve received well over 4,000 emails from people, eager to help, and qualified 850 people for this mission of mercy. If he can get funding, he hopes to fill up three and maybe four more planes of LDS volunteers. Among this first group are 21 doctors, 22 nurses, 30 medical support, 49 construction workers and 70 French/Creole speakers.
As Meridian’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Scot and I are accompanying the group to bring their experiences and the stories of the Haitian Saints back home to you through vivid photography and writing. We will take you there, let you experience first-hand with us what it is like to be on the ground trying to make a difference in Haiti.
USAID
A glut of planes, carrying humanitarian aid, seek to land at the airport in Port-au-Prince, but have been stymied by conditions. In the last few days there has been a backlog of 1400 planes waiting to land at an airport only capable of receiving about 140 planes a day. Some groups, like the physicians, sent by the Church, have been forced to land in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and then take the 8-hour journey overland to Port-au-Prince.
Steve Studdert, however, worked in the White House during three different presidential administrations, and has experience seeing how the U.S. government responded to natural disasters. With a healthy dose of boldness to even envision making a call for volunteers and organizational abilities to pull off making their time useful in Haiti, Steve stepped forward.
He is as anxiously engaged as he is helping others to be.
This expedition, though LDS, is going under the auspices of the USAID with two major purposes. The first is to rebuild the Healing Hands for Haiti medical clinic which collapsed under the pressure of the buckling earth and the second, to supply medical personnel and translators for USAID projects.
Steve said the whole thing got started because he got a call from the Under Secretary General of the United Nations who said that in their whole network of those trying to help, they only had 4 Creole speakers. “What we need is your Mormon missionaries. We need their language skills.”
The Healing Hands for Haiti non-profit organization, launched in 1998 by LDS physician and returned missionary from Haiti, Jeff Randle, had done “extraordinary good works” according to Steve. In this time when thousands of people have untreated injuries and are vulnerable, it is time to get this clinic operating again.
Thus, with USAID help, the plane that left this morning will fly to Florida and then on directly to Port-au-Prince. Even with the USAID help, however, the actual day the plane would leave Salt Lake has been up-in-the-air, pending receiving a slot at the airport. Last Saturday, the request for a time went through 15 different government offices before a time could be granted.
Originally scheduled to leave Wednesday, the plane’s departure could have been any day until Saturday, and group members, who weren’t certain until last Saturday that they had been chosen for the expedition, had to be ready go. At a meeting on Wednesday night, the number who had intended to leave Thursday were trimmed by 25 because of weight considerations on the plane.
Because of conditions at the airport, planes going into Haiti have to carry enough fuel to fly in and out of Haiti as well as circle for four hours if need be while they await their turn to land.
Praise for the Team
Those organizing the LDS team of volunteers is already garnering praise from USAID.
The Haiti Earthquake Response Management Team said, "What a blessing to live in a land where people so generously give of their time and talents. Your group appears to be more "put together" then any team I've seen during my time here at AID. Kudos to you."
They remark also on the skill level of this team that was so quickly assembled. Who are these people with this high level of ability who materialize out of nowhere at an Internet request?
If the team on this end is organized, however, “To say things are chaotic in Haiti is a vast understatement.” Things change by the minute as the organizers work to bring in these volunteers.
Officials from the World Health Organization say, it’s the worst disaster in terms of human costs in the history of the world. One to three million people are homeless and hungry, and as of yesterday meals had only been given to 325,000.
Perhaps as many as 700,000 have untreated injuries, and as the days go by they become infected and their situation gets worse.”The problems on the ground are beyond anyone’s imagining, you can’t even begin to comprehend the enormity of this disaster,” said Steve.
Orphans
Perhaps most touching in Haiti is the number of orphans. Even before the earthquake, the number of orphans was estimated at well over 300,000, and since the earth shook that number may have doubled. The plan is to bring back orphans in the empty plane returning to the U.S., but that too is a daunting task. Yesterday the task force thought they had at least 70 orphans who would be coming to the U.S.; today it appears that the government of Haiti is stalling in a sea of red tape.
A Tough Challenge
The intrepid people who climbed on the plane this morning knew they were going “essentially into a war environment,” where conditions are terrible and deteriorating rapidly. Steve reminded the group that they may be called on to do more than they could imagine. “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape,” he quipped.
Still they had been forewarned. Instructions to participants included this: “We want you to be fully mindful that this task force is heading into extremely harsh and worsening conditions, with high temperatures and high humidity, where resources are essentially non-existent and astounding challenges are innumerable. There is disease, sickness, and dangerous conditions. With the terrible conditions present, you are likely to see much death all around us. You need to be fully aware that the conditions are EXTREMELY poor and if this makes you leery or uncomfortable at all, we ask that you consider withdrawing your name from the list. This is not a touchy feel-good mission. Please be aware of this. This is not an easy or comfortable trip; it will be physically demanding and uncomfortable. Theft is rampant. Circumstances change by the hour.”
They have also been advised that once in Port-au-Prince, though trucks have been scheduled to pick them up, road conditions are such that they may not make it, and the team may have to walk with their gear the four miles to the place where the Healing Hands clinic now lies in rubbles.
Among their supplies will be supplies furnished by the Church that contain 21 MREs, a hygiene kit, a pad, blanket, and water purifying bottle.
It will be rough and not for the faint-hearted.
The Utah Hospital Task Force wrote that while we are in Haiti, “This is not a time for lone rangers. We will divide into three organized teams. The Red Team, White Team, and Blue Team. All this is being done to maximize effectiveness and to ensure your safety and security, yet make it so you can be deployed to the most urgent human needs. Flexibility will be our watchword.
“There will be two teams dedicated to treating patient calamities. The third team will be devoted to implementing facilities for emergency medical care, especially in helping to bring the Healing Hands for Haiti medical facility back to service.”
Since Saturday, the construction team has already met to determine plans and make assignments. They will hire Haitian workers to labor along with them and have been advised about how to delegate their work. They will need to bring most of their own building materials including: fuel tanks, lights, rebar straighteners, levels, masonry and concrete tools, wheelbarrows, shovels, nails, tin snips, hinges for doors and the list goes on—all assembled in just a few days.
In the same way, the medical team is bringing medical supplies.
And in just the last few days significant donations have been rolling in from so many who would be there to help in Haiti if they could.
As for us, we’ll look for electricity, Internet connections and a way to get the stories to you that we will see every day and everywhere.
All this comes from the heart—and has been translated into a dynamic engine that has been put in place in just a few days, inspired by the leadership of Steve Studdert.
At Tuesday’ night’s meeting, Lisa Blair, whose paramedic husband, Dave is going to Haiti looked around at the outpouring of love, cooperation and self-sacrifice and said, “As Latter-day Saints, this is just who we are. It is who we are.”
So this volunteer band of Latter-day Saints got on the plane this morning, cheerful, and a bit weary, probably hoping to catch a nap on the cross-country flight. It may be the last time they relax in a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment