Medicine for Peace

Medicine For Peace: The Past Twenty Years

2011-11-25T22:30:00.005-05:00

In the early 1990s, I and a group of concerned individuals on Long Island (NY) began sending essential medicines to villages in war torn El Salvador. When the desperate health situation in Iraq – after the First Gulf War – reached the news, we decided to send a medical team to conduct a damage assessment. The report we produced, “Health Crisis in Baghdad”, worked its way to the Security Council of the United Nations, and our films of that assessment were televised world-wide. Following that trip, we formally founded Medicine For Peace. Our mission addressed the need we saw at the time, to assist women and children who were victims of war.

Our health teams remained in Iraq for five years, during the course of which we performed nutrition assessments, established a pediatric clinic in a Baghdad hospital, delivered more than a million dollars of pediatric drugs to needy clinics, and transported many children to the United States for life-saving surgery. In 1996, the Ba’athist Government expelled us from Iraq for reporting human rights violations. We were unable to return to the country until 2003, when we successfully re-established a health program and produced the first comprehensive health report after the U.S. invasion.

The experience we acquired in Iraq in the 1990s prompted us to turn our attention elsewhere, and in 1995 we sent a medical team to the Tuzla refugee camp in Bosnia. Survivors had fled to Tuzla from the massacre at Srebrenica, which was the worst human rights atrocity in Europe since the Second World War. For the next five years, MFP worked with Moslem mothers and children who had survived the ethnic cleansing of the town of Kozarac. Oslobodjendje, the well-respected Sarajevo newspaper, described our school-based mental health project as “a model of co-operation between American health workers and Bosnian women organizations.”

In 2001, we expanded our mission to assist women and children in rural Haiti. Over the last decade, MFP volunteers have persevered in Haiti through a political coup and the ensuing violence, through hurricanes Fay, Gustav and Hanna, the 2009 earthquake, the ongoing cholera epidemic, and most challenging, through the entrenched poverty and deprivation suffered by the Haitian people. Most recently, Medicine For Peace has joined with a coalition of women’s organizations to develop a women’s health initiative for the upper Artibinite region. The program is based at the Alma Mater Hospital in Gros Morne, with mobile units that travel to rural dispensaries. As of October 2011, we have screened more than 1,500 women for cervical and breast cancer (the leading cancers found in Haitian women), sexually transmitted infections, and a community education program to promote health This initiative, which is saving women’s lives, is one of the largest and most comprehensive on the Island, and a source of great pride for both Medicine for Peace and the Gros Morne community.

Our expertise caring for victims of war trauma and torture paved the way for the MFP Health Center for Torture Victims in Hyattsville, MD. Since November 2009, with our service partners, we have provided medical, psychological and social services to patients who have been tortured in other countries, primarily in Africa and Asia. MFP has We have taken an active role in the world-wide movement to abolish torture.

Over the past twenty years, we have been unwavering in our mission; in the process, we have learned that there is a critically important role for a small, focused, medical relief organization – provided it is bold and willing to undertake high-impact projects, often in areas where larger organizations are unable to negotiate. MFP’s success is a result of the courage and enthusiasm of our nurse and physician volunteers—often working at personal risk—and the financial support of our loyal donors, We have just begun and, with your help, there is so much more we shall do.

Michael V. Viola, M.D.

Director

Women's Health Initiative Expands

2011-06-14T13:43:00.004-04:00

HAITI: MEDICINE FOR PEACE OPENS SECOND WOMEN'S HEALTH CLINIC IN GROS MORNE REGION

Medicine For Peace(MFP) has opened a second screening clinic for detection and treatment cervical cancer and other sexually-transmitted diseases in the northern Artibinite department. The "screen and treat" clinic is located in Pendu.

The MFP Women's Health Initiative is based at the Alma Mater Hospital in Gros Morne. Since May 2010, Haitian and American health professionals ( doctors, nurses and educators) have cared for 1,300 women including breast and abdominal examination, colposcopy, and STI screening. Five percent of patients were found to have precancerous lesions of the cervix, and were treated with cryosurgery. A number of patients with invasive cervical cancer underwent curative surgery. More than 500 women were treated for sexually-transmitted diseases. An important aspect of the program is education of Haitian women in health promoting behavior.

"Cervical cancer incidence rates are extremely high in Haiti," said Dr. Michael Viola, Director of MFP. "The success of the early detection program has been due, in large part, to our education efforts, and the promotion of mass screening by women's organizations in the community."

The town of Gros Morne has a population of 22,00 residents, with an estimated 100,000 people living in the surrounding mountainous villages. In the next phase of the program, mobile cervical cancer detection units will examine women in the rural mountainous villages inaccessible to health care in Gros Morne.

###

MFP is a Washington, DC based medical relief organization dedicated to providing medical care to women and children who are victims of war and extreme poverty. MFP has had medical programs in El Salvador, Iraq and Bosnia, and operates the Medicine For Peace Health Center for Torture Victims in Hyattsville, MD.

For more information on the Haitian Women's Health Initiative contact: Michael V. Viola, M.D. at 202 441 4545 in Washington, 509 31 64 81 57 in Haiti, or at medforpeace@aol.com.

Gerandale Thelusma

2010-12-20T17:01:00.010-05:00

Gros Morne, Haiti.
It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Gerandale Thelusma, our local representative in the House of Deputies. Gerandale was involved in an auto accident on the road from Gros Morne to Port-au-Prince. The road is in deplorable condition, pock-marked with large gulleys and craters, especially in the rainy season. Gerandale is another in the long list of Haitians who have died on that road.

Gerandale was a strong proponent for women's rights in Haiti and actively campaigned for Medicine For Peace's Women's Health Initiative. She spoke to many civic and religious organizations about the program- urging women to safeguard their health. She understood the vital role of women in this society, and how women empower themselves by protecting their physical and mental well-being.

2010-12-07T08:37:00.002-05:00

COOPERATION CONTAINS THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC

Gros Morne, Haiti.

The U.S. media is quick to point out poorly planned, uncoordinated or failed efforts of the Haitian Government, and non-governmental relief organizations, to respond to the crises in Haiti. In the press, Haiti has become a cliche for the mismanagement and misspending of relief funding. However, there has been much work accomplished in Haiti that is constructive, and, at times, heroic.

When the first cases of cholera were reported on October 19 in Saint-Marc, about 30 miles south of Gros Morne, the Alma Mater Hospital and the entire Gros Morne community responded promptly. Treatment tents were put up around the hospital and as newly diagnosed cholera patients were seen at the hospital, they were swiftly taken either to an oral rehydration area or, if more serious, to an area for intravenous and antibiotic therapy. Many hospital workers, including Medicine For Peace personnel, worked double duty and joined in the administering of treatment to stricken patients. When intravenous replacement fluid stores became low, the Daughters of Charity, a religious order from Spain, donated a large shipment of intravenous fluids. As the epidemic flared and our fifty bed hospital became overrun with patients, the Ministry of Health recruited Medicines-sans-Frontiere-France physicians to help in patient treatment. They came with more tents, cholera beds and latrines.

While treatment of ill patients is ongoing, a massive education campaign has also been undertaken to instruct citizens on proper water purification, waste disposal, hand washing and rapid presentation of affected individuals, especially children, to treatment centers. People have been encouraged to use safe water supply distribution centers in town. In the rural mountainous regions, a number of non-governmental organizations distributed 5 gallon containers with faucets (so the water was not touched) , and chlorine solution for the proper decontamination of potentially cholera-infected water. Food for the Poor bought a large water purification system which was installed at the most popular well in town by Water Missions International, a U.S. based organization.

By the first week in December, only a handful of cases were being admitted each day at Alma Mater Hospital and fewer cases were being treated in the rural clinics. The worst is clearly over in this region. The death toll is far less than expected, although we know that many patients died at home or on the way to receive treatment. Specials teams have been trained to properly treat and bury the dead.

But, for the families of the dead, there is no consolation in knowing that the epidemic could have been worse.

-M.Viola

2010-11-18T11:05:00.004-05:00

The Cholera Epidemic: how did it begin, and when will it end?

Since the January 12 earthquake, the dread of another catastrophe has hovered over Haiti. The effects of the earthquake were devastating: 250,000 people killed, 300,000 injured, and 1.3 million residents of Port-au-Prince (PAP) living in camps in tents and under tarps. The situation in PAP’s infamous slums is even worse than in the tent cities where there is some access to potable water and modest sanitation facilities. The conditions were ripe for an outbreak of an epidemic of infectious disease: improper disposal of human waste, overcrowding, and flooding, now that we are in the midst of the rainy season.

Artibonite: the epicenter of the outbreak

On October 19, the first confirmed cases of cholera were reported, not from PAP, but the town of Saint-Marc in the rural Artibonite department 30 miles north of the capital. The cases were reported along the contaminated Artibonite River where it is suspected that a broken septic tank leaked into the river. The disease took hold in Artibonite, and over the next month spread to six of the ten departments. As of November 16, there were 16,799 hospitalized cases and 1,039 deaths reported. We have been hard hit in Gros Morne, 20 miles north of Saint-Marc where close to 1,000 patients have been admitted to hospital and 36 deaths have been reported. The number of cases in the national statistics is underreported since we know of many patients who die at home and are unable to get to hospital. The Alma Mater Hospital only has a fifty-bed capacity; the area surrounding the hospital is dotted with cholera tents where patients are cared for either by oral rehydration salts or intravenous fluid replacement therapy.

Based on experience with cholera epidemics in other countries, recently in Zimbabwe, and in 1991 in Peru, this epidemic is likely to affect more than 250,000 Haitians. The epidemic in Peru dragged on for six years. The Haitian epidemic is further complicated by the fact that Haiti has not seen cholera in a century, and the habitants of the island have no immunity to the disease.

Containment Efforts

Cholera is an intestinal disease caused by the exposure to and ingestion of food or water contaminated by the highly contagious bacterium, Vibrio cholera. Approximately 20% of infections cause violent diarrhea and vomiting, and death from dehydration can occur in a few hours if the disease is not treated promptly by fluid replacement. Cholera is a preventable, containable and treatable infectious disease.

The response to the epidemic has included large scale hygiene promotion: improving sanitation, distribution of clean water, decontamination of human waste, and prompt treatment of affected individuals. There is a massive education campaign in the camps, on radio and in the community focused on hand washing technique, purifying water, and disposal and decontamination of human excreta. Soap, chlorine, disinfectant tablets, and jerry cans to properly clean water, are being distributed country-wide.

Cholera treatment centers have sprung up across the country; some are stand- alone units for the treatment of mild cases with oral rehydration salts, other centers are in close proximity to hospitals, such as the Alma Mater Hospital in Gros Morne, where serious cases are treated with intravenous fluids. Rural communities such as ours, are short of cholera beds (cots with a hole in the bottom to collect excrement in a bucket), and lack adequate stores of disinfectant and intravenous replacement fluids.

MFP Campaign For Haitian Women

2010-09-15T12:54:00.023-04:00

A small tent city on the outskirts of Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince

Since the January 12^th earthquake, Haiti has become an island of grim statistics: more than 230,000 people dead, 2 million people displaced, and 1.3 million living in temporary settlements. Unfortunately, we have become use to the tent and tarpaulin camps that are scattered through center city and outskirts of Port-au-Prince, and wonder how many years it will take to dismantle them. What is not often mention is that this tragedy has placed a disproportionate burden on Haitian women, who suffered higher death rates, now have lower income and more physical insecurity than do Haitian men. The tent cities are particularly hazardous for women. In addition to living in squalid conditions, there is the constant threat of sexual violence particularly in the poorly lit camps at night, women have to bathe in public, and often find themselves sleeping next to strangers.

There has been a long history of lack of human rights and insecurity for women in Haiti. The United Nations Development Fund for Women has published statistics concerning the status of Haitian women prior to the earthquake. Haitian women are frequently victimized by domestic and sexual violence, are often the primary caregivers to children and dependents, and have the highest illiteracy rates (40-60%) in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Because of the critical role that women have in Haitian society, Medicine For Peace has joined with a coalition of women’s organizations and with the Alma Mater Hospital to develop a women’s health initiative for the upper Artibinite region.

Children before classes at the Foni Bo School in Gros Morne

The women’s initiative touches many aspects of the lives of girls and women. We have begun a house construction program to provide secure single family homes for displaced people from Port-au-Prince who have returned to Gros Morne. Our partner, the Children’s Scholarship Fund for Girls has committed to the long term support of a number of teachers and girls at the Foni Bo primary school in Gros Morne. In addition to providing an excellent foundation on which to build further education, the school provides two nutritious meals each day.

The cornerstone of our program is the women’s health initiative at the Alma Mater Hospital. The MFP cancer detection program initiated in the spring of 2010 has screened more than 900 women for cervical cancer and other gynecological disorders. We anticipate screening more than 2000 women in the first year of the program. There is a high incidence of cervical cancer in Haiti and we have detected a large number of women in the early curable phase of the disease. The GYN program has been expanded to screen for breast cancer, high blood pressure, and all sexually transmitted infections. By the first end of this year, we intend to have initiated a psychiatric support network to provide community mental health services which are currently lacking in this region.

.Dr. Michael Viola and Jacqueline Picard, RN discuss early cervical cancer detection with a women's group in Gros Morne.

The present success of the program is due in large part to the support of the community, particularly women's groups. Our nurses spend considerable time in outreach, talking frequently to scohol and community organizations, and are frequently featured on local radio stations. The program has taught us that Haitian women are deeply aware of the importance of their health, and that of their children, and will enthusiastically participate in programs that will improve their health when those resouces are made available to them.

Orna Louise Dieunane, RN, who with Clarice Carroll, RN, NP run the cervical cancer detection clinic.

2010-07-05T10:45:00.008-04:00

The Gros Morne Cancer Detection Team (from left, Fils Gardy, MD, Orna Louise, RN, Michael Viola, MD, Clarice Carroll, RN, Jackie Picard, RN)

Orna Louise, MFP nurse educator, instructing a group of women
about the essentials of a female examination at the Alma Mater Hospital.

The Poto Mitan

Anyone who knows Haiti from the inside knows that women are the “poto mitan” (central pillar) of the society. It is they who are often left to carry on with the children while fathers are off to foreign lands or to larger cities trying to eke out a living. Or it is they who are left with the children when the men have abandoned there responsibilities to the children they have fathered. The women are often the ones who are the “bread winners” since their work of selling in the market place goes on (more or less) in spite of earthquakes, hurricanes, political unrest or a failing economy. This is just the way it is, and the women carry this position with dignity and courage. So with this background in mind, you can imagine what happens when a women falls sick or dies.” - Jacqueline Picard, RN

Because of the central role of women in Haitian society, and the poor health of Haitian women, Medicine For Peace has planned a Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) for a number of months. Because women have suffered disproportionately following the January 12^th earthquake, we felt an increased urgency to rapidly initiate the project. Haitian women have one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world, and the country has limited facilities to treat advanced disease. Therefore, the first aspect of the WHI was a cervical cancer screening program designed to detect early cervical cancer in all women between 30-60 years of age in the Gros Morne region. The medical team is a collaboration of Haitian (Dr. Fils Gardy, gynecologist, Ms. Orna Louise, RN) and U.S. (Clarice Carroll, a GYN nurse practitioner from the University of Mississippi, Jackie Picard, RN, Dr. Michael Viola, an oncologist) health workers. This summer we are joined by two medical students from University College Dublin Medical School. The program has had strong support from women’s groups, and civic and religious organizations in the area.

In the first month of the program, gynecological exams have been performed on more than 400 women, and it is anticipated that we shall screen and care for between 1500-2000 women in the first year of the program. In addition to detecting a number of early cervical cancers, we have discovered a wide range of medical problems in the women we have examined, and we shall provide them with continuing care. Health education is a major part of the program, and Ms. Orna Louise has been trained as a nurse educator to reach out to women(see photo). The program is now focused at the Alma Mater Hospital in Gros Morne, but in the coming year, we shall employ mobile clinics to care for women in more remote regions surrounding Gros Morne.

MFP Team Returns to Haiti

2010-06-23T09:49:00.006-04:00

On Wednesday, June 23rd, a Medicine for Peace team leaves for Port-au-Prince and Gros Morne, Haiti. The purpose of this visit is two-fold: A) continue to assess and report on the critical damage caused by the recent earthquake and B) oversee and assist our counterparts in Gros Morne with MFP's new Women's Health Program.

This past Sunday was not only Father's Day, but also World Refugee Day. Medicine for Peace asks you, our volunteers and supporters, to keep our neighbors in the Caribbean at the forefront of your thoughts. Thousands of refugees have fled from Port-au-Prince and remain in limbo. Haiti has fallen from the media spotlight but this is not an indication that the situation on the island is any less dire.

Please continue to check here for updates from Haiti -- MFP will be posting up-to-the-minute reports on the conditions in both Gros Morne and Port-au-Prince.

"Men anpil chay pa lou." - Many hands make the load lighter. Help make Haiti's load lighter.

Chris Hansen, MD - A Friend of Haiti

2010-04-29T18:32:00.007-04:00

Chris Hansen practicing pediatrics at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince

Chris Hansen, pediatrician, colleague in the field, MFP Board Member, and a special friend, died on February 3rd of a bone marrow disease. It is appropriate that Chris’s life is praised in this column because of his great love for the children of Haiti.

The style and character of Medicine For Peace volunteers have had a strong influence of the ethic of this medical relief organization. Physician and nurse volunteers tend to be idiosyncratic, risk takers and altruistic. Chris had been a MFP volunteer since the early 1990’s, and no one infused MFP with his character and idealism in quite the way that Chris did.

Chris’s education and medical training would seem to have prepared him for an academic career: medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, residency at the Philadelphia Children's Hospital, a Masters in Public Health from Harvard, and a Fellowship in Developmental Disorders at the University of London. However, Chris’s life, strongly influenced by his Quaker faith, took a very different path. Chris and his wife Alex, moved to the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona, where he worked for the U.S. Public Health Service, caring for Native American children. Following a stint with the Peace Corp in Turkey, he returned to the U.S. to work at the Tufts Delta Health Center in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. While Chris worked in the clinic, Alex worked in a black parochial school. Working in the civil rights movement strengthened his resolve to care for children who were victimized either by politics or the circumstances of their birth.

Chris developed a passionate concern for children in the developing world, particularly those countries plagued by war. He flew into Biafra in the 1960’s to assist children who were being starved by the Nigerian government, worked with Kurdish children in the refugee camp in Zakho in northern Iraq, treated Rwandan children suffering from epidemics of cerebral malaria in the Burighi refugee camp in Tanzania, and conducted a MFP nutrition study of children in a poor section of Baghdad after the first Gulf War. Chris had a special affection for Haiti, and helped organize a clinic for children with developmental disorders in Port-Au-Prince.

Chris was an imposing figure: six foot four inches tall, a shock of white hair and beard, decked out in cowboy boots, and a string tie with his signature Navaho tortoise clasp. His dress seemed to fit his life’s work. In addition to his work abroad, Chris was the Chief Pediatric Consultant for the Division of Youth Services and Family Services in New Jersey. His job was to provide services to mentally and physical abused children. He worried constantly about those children and the awful things that had happened to them. His colleagues attest to his optimistic spirit, but I know that what he had witnessed took a toll on him.

I remember most vividly one conversation I had with Chris when we worked together in Baghdad after the First Gulf War. The hospitals were crowded with a seemingly endless stream of severely malnourished children with marasmus and kwashiorkor. I expressed to Chris my discouragement at our inability to help many of those children. He looked at me with the determination he always seemed to have in those situations, and said,

“Well Mike, we’re going to save these kids, one child at a time.”

2010-04-09T09:11:00.002-04:00

You can view the Medicine For Peace press release on the women's health initiative in Haiti on the United Nations ReliefWeb website at:
http://www2.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-83C2KP?OpenDocument

The Forest in Gros Morne

2010-03-28T08:43:00.026-04:00

Erosion along the banks of Riviere Marcelle in Gros Morne.

The Forest in Gros Morne

Haitian painting is rich in brilliant colors, whimsical scenes, and

joyous tones. The richness is particularly manifest in the abundant paintings of jungle scenes. With their majestic trees clothed in thick foliage, tigers, lions, and giraffes, these images could have come straight out of Brazil or Kenya. The scenes raise a conundrum; almost no Haitian has seen a rain forest or jungle animals. Haiti is the most deforested country in the Western hemisphere; most of its mountains are brown and denuded. And except for a few rare specimens, Haitian wildlife has been reduced to rats, bugs and birds,” wrote Beverly Bell, in her book, Walking on Fire.

Since Ms. Bell wrote her book, many of the birds have disappeared. I recall talking to an older man in our clinic who told me that when he was a boy, Haiti was full of the most brilliantly colored birds, exotic parakeets, and parrots. One morning he woke to a deafening roar coming from his back yard and found a whole flock of parrots in a mango tree. The birds were hawking wildly and chowing down on the green fruit. I was lucky enough to spot a rare Hispaniola Amazon parrot in a tree outside of Gros Morne. The bird was over a foot tall, had a white forehead with a hooked yellow beak, emerald green feathers covering iridescent blue primary feathers, and a belly splashed with blood-red blotches. This beautiful animal is now an endangered species.

Wildlife has almost disappeared from Haiti because the trees are gone. Seventy-five percent of Haiti was once covered in virgin forests. At present, only 4% of the land is forested, with millions of trees continuing to be lost each year. The extreme poverty has forced people in the countryside to cut down the forests to sell the wood for charcoal, the main fuel for cooking in Haiti. During the torrential rainy season, the denuded hills and mountains cause mudslides and flash floods, washing away fertile top soil. Floods lead to more land degradation and erosion, and in the process carry away many peoples’ dwellings.

If you take the dirt road north out of Gros Morne and travel along the Riviere Marcelle, you will see the devastating effects of erosion. Wide cliffs have cut into the river bank; if fact, part of the town has dropped off the edge into the river (see photo). But further upriver, you come upon an incredible sight: a small mountain (Tet Mon) dense with trees.

Hiking up Tet Mon

“It’s not technically a forest yet, but it will be shortly. We have acquired a number of acres on the far side of the mountain, and will expand planting soon. Then, it will be a real forest,” says Sr. Pat Dillon, who with her determined Haitian colleagues developed this reforestation project. The program began in 1999, with the development of a nursery to grow seedlings, and when they were robust enough, they were planted strategically on the mountainside. The program was supported by Haiti Reborn, a non-profit based in Washington, DC, and by other donor partners.

Tet Mon now has more than 250,000 pine, eucalyptus, mahogany, and indigenous trees covering the mountain. In fact, the forest can be seen in photos from Google earth. The nursery has also expanded to grow hundreds of thousands of seedlings each year which are distributed to the neighboring communities to control erosion along the entire watershed. The program (named the Jean Marie Vincent Education Center) from the nursery, to soil preparation, to nurturing of planted saplings has been a great success, and a source of pride in the community, which has participated at every step. Townspeople are very protective of the mountain. They walk through the forest, but would not think of removing a tree; this wooded area may save th

eir town. – M.Viola

Sister Pat Dillon at the rest area on top of Tet Mon

2010-03-07T22:53:00.014-05:00

Deputy Thelusma addresses women leaders in Gros Morne. Dr. Viola and Jackie Picard, RN are in the background.

PRESS RELEASE ....................

HAITI: MEDICINE FOR PEACE INITIATES WOMEN’S HEALTH PROGRAM IN GROS MORNE REGION

Source: Medicine For Peace (MFP)

Date: 08 Mar 2010

Gros Morne, Haiti - Medicine For Peace (MFP) will begin a new program focused on the early detection and treatment of cervical cancer and other sexually-transmitted diseases in Gros Morne in the northern Artibinite department. The program will formally begin on March 8 - International Women’s Day.

“Haiti has one the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world, and few resources for the treatment of advanced stages of the disease. Early detection is essential. We see this program as the first step in a comprehensive women’s health initiative,” said Dr. Michael Viola, MFP Director.

“This program will go forward, even as we continue efforts to respond to the earthquake, and assist the large number of people who have fled Port-Au-Prince and settled in Gros Morne.”

The town of Gros Morne has a population of 22,000 residents, with an estimated 100,000 people living in surrounding mountainous villages. Many of the buildings in the region suffered structural damage during the earthquake, but there were no reported deaths. Approximately 25,000 people fled Port-Au-Prince and have resettled in Gros Morne; efforts are being made to provide shelter, food and water to the displaced families.

The cancer detection program will be centered at the Alma Mater Hospital and includes a team of Haitian physicians, nurses and a community educator. The focus will be on education of women with respect to cancer prevention, and the early detection and prompt treatment of cervical cancer. A mobile cervical cancer detection and treatment unit will travel to clinics in the surrounding areas.

On January 22, MFP and Haitian health professionals met with 26 women leaders representing women organizations in the region. Gerandal Thelusma, representative from the Gros Morne district in the Haitian House of Deputies was also present.

“Haitian women must take control of their lives, for themselves, their families and their children. Now more than ever, we need strong, healthy women, “ said Deputy Thelusma. “We must all work together to make this program a success.”

2010-03-04T11:25:00.012-05:00

On Stealing Haitian Children

Gros Morne, Haiti.
The recent melodrama at the Haiti/Dominican Republic border involving ten missionaries who attempted to abscond with a busload of thirty-tree Haitian children without proper documentation highlights an important issue—the extreme vulnerability of Haitian children.

In the 1990’s Medicine For Peace transported Iraqi children to the United States for elective life-saving surgery. At the time, Iraqi hospitals were barely functioning, and there was a paucity of food and medicine because of the effects of the economic embargo. The rules for bringing Iraqi children to the U.S. were strict-- perhaps too rigorous for present day Haiti: all children needed passports, parents signed detailed consent forms, host families entered into a contract agreeing to care for the children and return them to their parents, hospitals made assurances to provide medical services, and the U.S. Consulate in Jordan reviewed and expedited each child’s travel. Even with the understanding that the children were temporary visitors, attachments formed quickly and most host families balked at returning the children to an Iraq in turmoil. But there was no question of the children reuniting to their parents after they recovered from surgery, even though many parents, unable to provide adequately for their children, would have agreed to allow the children an extended stay in America.

In contrast, the American missionaries accepted the Haitian children solely on the word of a third party, without any clear evidence as to whether they were parented or orphaned. The missionaries were more than “naive”; they were ignorant of National and International laws and guidelines devised to impede traffickers who convince poor families to give up their children with the promise of a better life for them. Many of those children end up in illegal adoptions, prostitution, or slavery. Child slavery, the restavek system, is widespread in Haiti. The UN Convention on the Rights of Children provides a framework for caring for children in crisis situations, and the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children presents guiding principles for looking after children separated from parental care because of extreme poverty exacerbated, in this instance, by a natural disasters. The optimum place for a child to be cared for is within the family; if that fails, it is the responsibility of State authorities to provide alternative care. Relief efforts should be directed to provide shelter, food, and security to support the family; removing the child is an act of last resort, and the State should be diligent in monitoring the process.

The drama of the jailed missionaries has resulted in a surplus of hypocrisy on all sides. Spokespersons for the Haitian Government were indignant that their Government’s sovereignty was violated by the attempted theft of the children. I have not heard the same indignation from the Preval Government about the estimated 300,000 orphans in Haiti, the hundreds of thousands of restavek children sold into slavery, or the appalling fact that only 2% of Haitian children finish secondary school. Take a hard look at the malnourished children roaming in gangs in Cite Soleil, La Saline, Carrefor, and the other slums of Port-Au-Prince, and then try to convince the outside world that the critical issue in this case is one of National sovereignty.

The U.S. State Department has responded to the Baptist missionary incident with terse comments about honoring the integrity of the Haitian justice system, implying that we only undertake humanitarian interventions in Haiti. Consider these statistics concerning Haitian children: Haiti has the highest infant mortality and under-five mortality rates in the Western Hemisphere; treatable diseases (malnutrition, diarrhea, respiratory infections) are the major cause of death, one-quarter of children have moderate to severe malnutrition, and over a million children in Haiti live in absolute poverty. Over the past two decades, our response to those statistics has been a series of political interventions that have destabilized the country, an economic embargo, and during the last administration, the U.S. blocked all loans from the InterAmerican Development Bank for health, sanitation, and road building projects in Haiti.

The news is not all bad for Haitian children. UNICEF has worked hard to get immunization rates well over 50%; and, neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality rates are showing a positive trend. Perhaps the present disaster will result in enhanced administrative capabilities within the Haitian Government, a focus on sustainable infrastructure development, and coordinated and long-term relief efforts by large donor groups. But until we consider the sight of black children with bloated bellies an obscenity, this disaster will be just another of many suffered by an inconsequential island off the coast of Florida. - Michael Viola

Dr. Michael Viola is Director of Medicine For Peace a Washington, DC based medical relief organization working in Gros Morne, Haiti.

2010-03-01T23:32:00.005-05:00

Update from Port-Au-Prince and Gros Morne.

Port-Au-Prince. Seven weeks after the earthquake, rubble is slowly being cleared from the main streets of Port-Au-Prince. Two hundred and eighty-five thousand destroyed buildings and houses can make a lot of rubble. The destruction of much of the city has forced about 700,000 residents into planned and spontaneous tent encampments. The planned camps have family sized tents, and some of those residents have kitchen implements, sanitation kits, blankets, and mosquito nets. The spontaneous settlements (photo-left) consist of huts constructed out of cardboard, plastic, and distributed tarpaulin; families just huddle in them. Latrines continue to be constructed close to the camp sites. The rainy season begins later this month, and there is concern that the camp plots will turn into a sea of mud, wreak havoc with sanitation, and contagious diseases will become a major threat.

The World Food organization has distributed food (rice, beans, oil, salt, corn-soy blend) to more than four million people. Children under three with increased risk of malnutrition are receiving supplemental nutrition. With the increased availability of food, the much-reported thefts, violence, prostitution have decreased considerably. However, special police units have been formed to assist in protecting displaced women and children against violence.

Hospital services (in existing institutions and those set up in response to the disaster) are slowly being restored. A system of triage to specialized centers is operating fairly efficiently. Many of the foreign physician and nurse teams are still working round the clock, but there is less need for trauma and orthopedic surgeons now, and more for primary care physicians and rehabilitation specialists.

Gros Morne. The disaster has created different problems in rural areas than in Port-Au-Prince. While buildings did not collapse in Gros Morne, many developed cracks in walls and are unsafe work or live in. A number of structures at the Alma Mater Hospital and one of our rural clinics had to be vacated. We are in need of structural engineers to assess the safety and possibility of reconstructing these structures.

Medicine For Peace is involved in two major activities in Gros Morne: house building and improving the health of women. The influx of 25,000 people from Port-Au-Prince, who are unlikely to return to the capital, has created crowded, unhygienic living conditions for many families. MFP with its partners in Gros Morne has undertaken a project to build single family dwellings that conform to quake-resistant building codes. Employing earthquake-resistant features adds minimally to the cost of construction. The homes will be built in safer sites with local materials, and will be constructed by Haitian workers.

MFP’s women’s health initiative is centered at the Alma Mater Hospital, the government designated hospital for the 125,000 residents of the greater Gros Morne. Meetings have taken place all week between MFP staff, our Haitian medical partners, the hospital board, and women’s organizations to develop strategies to promote the educational aspects of the program. The goal of the program is the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer, and other sexually transmitted diseases in women in the Gros Morne region.

2010-02-24T15:32:00.004-05:00

Update #2

Gros Morne, Haiti

Port-Au-Prince has become a tent city. Of the more than 1 million people who have fled the city to find shelter in the countryside, 25,000 people (including 5,000 school-age children) have been welcomed into the town of Gros Morne.

Gros Morne is a town of 27,000 people, 65 miles north of PAP in the northern most part of Artibonite district. The trip from PAP takes 5-6 hours by truck. There are an additional 100,000 people in the surrounding mountainous region that depend on the town for supplies and for medical care. The influx of displaced earthquake survivors has created daunting challenges with respect to providing food, medical care, shelter and provisions for children. Gros Morne is a desperately poor region where families subsist from day to day with great insecurity with respect to food and shelter.

Food supplies for displaced people have been provided to Gros Morne by Food for the Poor and Catholic Relief Services. The challenge is transporting the flour, beans, rice, and oil on treacherous secondary roads from the capital city to Gros Morne. Inadequate secure storage space here in town limits food supplies for families to a two week allotment.

The schools are absorbing the additional children and attempting to find funds to pay for books, uniforms, and the one hot meal a day which is provided by the school.

Overcrowding and unhygenic living conditions have created an upsurge in cases of respiratory and diarrheal diseases, particularly among children. One and two room houses (huts) now provide for multiple families of 8-10 people. In addition to its medical programs in Gros Morne, Medicine For Peace has undertaken a home-building program to help accomodate the earthquake survivors now living in Gros Morne. It is unlikely that these people will return to PAP. They have had their homes destroyed, and there is fear of additional earthquakes. MFP will use local labor and local materials to build the additional homes.

Last night at 4:10 AM aftershocks were felt in Gros Morne. - Michael Viola

2010-02-24T14:37:00.004-05:00

UPDATE #1

2/21/10

Gros Morne, Haiti

The team of Medicine For Peace physicians and volunteers arrived in Port-au-Prince on Friday, February 19th. The team is currently working in Gros Morne, Haiti (located 65 miles north of Port- Au-Prince). The town of Gros Morne has, on average, approximately 27,000 residents, with an additional 100,000 persons living in mountain villages that surround the town. Following the earthquake, 1 million people left Port-Au-Prince; approximately 20-25,000 of these people resettled in Gros Morne, including 5,000 school children. The town is desperately poor with few resources to support its own residents, let alone the influx of displaced persons. Nevertheless, the residents of Gros Morne have welcomed their relatives and friends into their homes, and continue to do so; more are likely to come to the town as Port-Au-Prince is still experiencing aftershocks. The Medicine For Peace team is mapping out a long term plan with community leaders and hospital administrators to provide medical care for the displaced Haitians and to ensure that they have access to food. More updates to follow from Gros Morne.

2010-02-16T21:14:00.001-05:00

Commencing this week, all reports will be posted by MFP workers directly from Port-Au-Prince and Gros Morne, Haiti.

2010-02-10T14:27:00.006-05:00

A Medicine For Peace medical team and a shipment of medial supplies will arrive in Port-Au-Prince early next week. The team will join colleagues working in clinics and in a hospital in the countryside north of Port-Au-Prince. Since the earthquake, nearly a million residents of Port-Au-Prince have fled the capitol into the countryside, where there is an critical need for medicine and primary medical care, particularly of infectious diseases.

2010-02-02T09:28:00.012-05:00

Haitian Women: Before and After the Earthquake.

It was with great sadness that we learned of the deaths of Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin, and Anne-Marie Coriolan, who perished in the recent earthquake. All three were human rights activists who played a major role in providing shelter and medical care to women who were victims of rape and violence, and in leading the campaign to criminalize rape in Haiti. While the deaths of these courageous women received prominent attention in the press, word from KOFAVIV, an organization we know well, went unnoticed. KOFAVIV is an group that offers medical attention and peer support to political rape victims, and importantly, documents the criminal activity. KOFAVIV women come from the poorer sections of Port-Au-Prince, often from the sprawling slums. Eramithe Delva and Malya Vaillard sadly reported that approximately 300 of the 1000 KOFAVIV women were killed in the earthquake along with their families.

At this time, having learned of the death of the women rights activists and of the victims of violence against women, it is worth while to consider what life was like for Haitian women before the earthquake, and how they, and their children, will become more vulnerable after the catastrophe.

Before the earthquake. By all measures: access to water and sanitation, infant mortality, universal malnutrition, and illiteracy, the situation in Haiti is bleak, particularly for women. Nearly half of all households are run by women, which includes not only caring for children, but for the elderly and ill, as well. Women often must support the family (average income is $1 per day, and earn half of what men take home.

The average life span of a Haitian women is 61 years; the good new is that it has increased over the past ten years. But unfortunately, this low life expectancy is likely to decline in the years following the 2008 hurricanes and the recent earthquake. Two statistics: a high fertility rate, and an extremely high maternal mortality rate (approximately 670 deaths per 100,000 live births) make for a lethal combination. The high maternal mortality rate is due to low numbers of skilled birth attendants, malnutrition, anemia and, and primarily, a lack of medical care to control complications associated with pregnancy and delivery. Further, the early initiation, often forced, to sexual activity, multiple partners, and lack of marital fidelity has contributed to the highest HIV infectivity rates in the Western Hemisphere. It is hoped that the promising news that HIV infectivity rates in 2006 rates began to drop in Haiti will persist and continue to decline. For all the reasons that HIV infectivity rates are high, the incidence of cervical cancer in Haitian women is the highest in the world. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths for Haitian women. Medicine For Peace has focused its efforts in cervical cancer detection and treatment in the rural region north of Port-Au-Prince.

In the context of a society suffering from extreme poverty, female vulnerability, and a machismo culture, there has been a history of impunity with regard to violence against women in Haiti. The valiant work of women rights activists has been important in the modest gains that have been made to date. Rape became a political weapon to silence opposition following the military coup that removed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power in 1991. After the rebellion and foreign intervention that removed Aristide again in 2004, numerous gangs participated in widespread lawlessness and violence against women. Many of the women active in the human rights movement were victims of that violence. A 2006 study by the Inter-American Development Bank in Haiti, and a 2008 Amnesty International Study reported that a third of all Haitian women have suffered physical or sexual abuse, and fifty percent of the victims were under 18 years old.

After the earthquake. A number of observers have commented that the lines of people jostling one another as they wait for food handouts are composed primarily of men. Obtaining aid appears to be an activity requiring physical strength, and there is fear that women, and their children. are not getting their fair share of the desperately needed food. In response to women being muscled out of food lines, the World Food Program has developed women-only food distribution centers. CARE is using gender specific distribution cards for women entitling them to their allotment of rice , beans, and oil. Hopefully, the distributed allotments will become large enough to last for a few weeks. Young women, pregnant and nursing women are particularly at risk for malnutrition during this period. Also, there are 30,000 pregnant women in Haiti at the present time; there is concern that because of the flooding of hospitals with emergency cases, these women will not receive the necessary medical attention to assist in difficult deliveries and to treat complications when they arise.

As homelessness and civil disorder persist, there have been initial reports, and considerable fear, that there will be increased sexual violence against displaced women. This is a common occurrence in the aftermath of large disasters, and was documented after the tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004. The UN Stabilization Force in Haiti have received gender training and education in human rights; they are well-meaning, but seem ill equipped to deal with this problem.

If I have given the impression that Haitian women are weak, docile and passive, that is far from the truth. There is a Creole saying, kampe djann, which means "standing tall", which perfectly describes the women of Haiti. In the face of the difficulties of their daily existence, and of keeping their dependants alive through this disaster, they exhibit enormous strength. It is called - kenbe la- "holding the line". - Michael Viola

Information in this article is from personal observations, colleagues on the ground, reports from CARE, Amnesty International, UN Development Agency, ActionAid, Pan-American Health Organization, World Food Organization, and Reuters.

2010-01-25T22:48:00.009-05:00

Health Update.January 25,2010.

Nearly 2 weeks after the earthquake hit Haiti, more complete assessments of the damage have been assembled. 111,481 people are confirmed dead and 609,000 are homeless and in the streets in Port-Au-Prince alone. 20% of the building have collapsed in the capitol; further west, closer to the epicenter in town like Leogane and Carrefor, 50% of the structures are down. Approximately 500 tent cities have sprung up around Port-Au-Prince(PAP) and the Government is making a decision about consolidating these temporary camps. It is estimated that 100,000-300,000 people have left the city and returned to families living in the countryside(see map). The Government is encouraging migration out of the city, and it is anticipated that close to a million people will leave Port-Au-Prince within the next few weeks. The internal displacement of Haitians is already putting an enormous burden on poorly supplied and inadequately equipped hospitals and clinics in towns outside of Port-Au-Prince, changing the the relief priorities of the disaster. It should be kept in mind that the mean income of people living in the countryside is 1 dollar/day, a cumulative resources hardly enough to sustain a large displacement of the population without food assistance.

Medical Care Needs. There are 48 hospitals and 8 field hospitals with surgical capabilities in PAP. Numerous makeshift mobile clinics have sprung up around the city with varying amounts of medicine and supplies. Jackie Picard, RN, the co-director of Medicine For Peace's Women's Health Initiative in Gros Morne has been working in CDTI Hospital in PAP since shortly after the earthquake. She reports:

"During the immediate period after the quake the CDTI surgical team did primarily acute trauma and a large number of amputations of limbs. We ran the OR's constantly. We had plenty of anaesthesia but ran out of surgical supplies, things like gowns, masks, gloves, etc. Unfortunately we lost a number of young people from renal failure from crush injuries--they just got to us too late. But that phase of treatment of acute trauma is over. Now we need space and nurses to help with post-operative care and for the general medical care of patients."

Jackie's assessment is echoed in official reports from the from the health cluster of the World Health Organization and Pan-American Health Organization. In this phase of the disaster, medical care needs will move towards primary care, surveillance for infectious diseases, prompt treatment of infections, and resuming of the nationwide immunization program(UNICEF) that has been put on hold. Chronic diseases still must be treated. There are 130,000 patients with HIV infection in Haiti; nearly fifty percent of them are receiving anti-retroviral agents. They must resume therapy that has been interrupted for many because of flooding of the health care system with acute injuries related to the earthquake.

Medicine For Peace is assembling containers of antibiotics and medications for the treatment of infections, tetanus antisera, and drugs for chronic diseases that have been neglected during the crisis. Health improvements we have made in the past must not be set back. Medicine and hospital supplies will be distributed in hospitals north of PAP where there has been a large, and increasing, migration of people searching for security and shelter.- Mike Viola

2010-01-22T21:29:00.002-05:00

For all of our friends and supporters in the Washington and Baltimore area please come for cocktails and good conversation but most of all to help our Haitian patients, friends, colleagues and all the victims of this terrible calamity.

2010-01-20T20:32:00.002-05:00

January 20, 2010 Update
The Executive Board of Medicine For Peace has made a number of strategic decisions regarding MFP's role in in crisis in Haiti. The Board has agreed on the following:

Fundraising activities should be accelerated and specifically focused on preventing a second wave of deaths from infection caused by unsanitary conditions and the contaminated water supply. Children are particularly susceptible to infections following catastrophes that destroy the civil infrastructure. Fundraising should be focused on purchase of antibiotics and oral rehydration salts, and targeted to stock hospitals in the countryside that have been neglected, poorly supplied, and now overrun with patients fleeing Port-Au-Prince.
MFP disaster response medical personnel that have been assembled and waiting to be deployed should wait until logistical problems (transportation, food, shelter) that are plaguing the relief effort have been solved on the ground.
The ongoing work of Medicine For Peace in the impoverished and under served region of Gros Morne should not be interrupted, even though the region did not suffer major damage during the earthquake. It is critical that The Women's Health Initiative focusing on early cancer detection that was initiated last fall should move forward as planned.

Medicine For Pace will continue fundraising through direct pleas for assistance, over the Internet, and through a series of fundraisers. A major fundraiser will take place next Wednesday night(January 27) in Washington, DC. ( more to come later on the time and location of the fundraiser).- M. Viola

2010-01-18T14:59:00.002-05:00

Health Update. January 18, 7am.

Since the last MFP Report, food, water, and medical aid are beginning to be distributed to residents of Port-Au-Prince(PAP). Five days since the earthquake struck, we still have incomplete assessments of the damage to structures and of the population needs. This lack of information, complicated by enormous logistical hurdles in relief delivery, have slowed relief efforts. Nevertheless, distribution of aid is taking place in a number of places in the city. Food and supply depots are filling up with thousand of tons of relief supplies and are en route from around the world by air and over land from the Dominican Republic. Nevertheless, adequate water, food, sanitation and medical care remains a critical need for most inhabitants of PAP.

A worrisome deficiency is damage assessment of towns west of PAPA (e.g. Legane and Gressier) which have suffered extensive damage to structures and have a high number of casualties. Little aid has reached affected areas west of Carrefor( see map).

The violence in the streets is being overplayed by the US press but it is clear that hundreds of angry and hungry Haitians looted shops in downtown PAP and swarmed a number of food distribution centers. Bolstered US and Canadian troops, and Haitian police are guarding desperately needed food in central depots, and a 6 pm curfew is being enforced.

Search and rescue teams. There are now 43 teams in place with 1,739 rescue workers and 161 rescue dogs. Live Haitians are still being pulled out from under rubbles. 71 Haitians have been found by rescue teams.

Shelter. Tent cities are springing up around PAP. The Government intends to construct a temporary settlement for 100,000 people, with a goal of housing 200,000 families (1 million people) in a number of settlements within the next few weeks. The temporary settlements will give residents access to water, food, sanitation, medical care and anti-malarial mosquito nets.

Hospitals and medical personnel. The Hopital de L'Universite d'Etat d'Haiti is the major general hospital in downtown PAP. The medical and maternity units are functioning, but the surgical unit has been damaged and is not operating. The Pan-American Health Organization(PAHO) and the Boston-based Partners in Health are charged with restoring services at the University Hospital. We have received reports of a number of hospitals in PAP, including St. Francis de Sales that have the capacity to perform surgery. A number of field hospitals have been set up at strategic locations by foreign governments (Israel, Russia) and five more are scheduled to be operating shortly. The Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have sent a number of "rapid deployment hospitals" which will have the capacity to perform trauma and orthopedic surgery.

There has been displacement of people out of the PAP region, and injured people are seeking medical assistance north of PAP, particularly in St. Mark and Gonaives( see map), where hospitals have been overwhelmed. Hospitals at the border with the Dominican Republic( in Jimani) are caring for a large number of Haitians who have crossed the border, as well.

Numerous relief organizations have offered assistance and remain on standby to depart to Haiti. At the present time, only organizations who can provide their own transportation, food, shelter, and medical supplies should consider travelling to Haiti. Relief organizations presently working in Haiti have expressed a special need for physicians and nurses skilled in trauma and orthopedic surgery, and in post-operative care.

Burying the dead. There is no systematic way to identify the dead, and mass graves are being used at present. The Haitian Government states that 13,00 bodies have been buried. It is estimated that the total dead in the catastrophe is approximately 50,000 Haitians. Refrigeration units have been requested by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA) to store dead bodies for identification.

Information used in this report was from colleagues on the ground in PAP, and from reports from OCHA, PAHO, Reuters, and the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

2010-01-15T23:43:00.000-05:00

The Health Situation in Haiti as of January 15, 10 pm.

At this stage of the crisis following the earthquake of January 12, health assessments have been fragmentary and anecdotal. A comprehensive damage assessment is essential to developing an acute and long term response plan. What appears certain is that at least 50,000 Haitians have perished, and another three million are hurt or homeless. Many of the most vulnerable are children. Further, the infrastructure in Port-Au-Prince (PAP) (water, electricity, sanitation, and telephone service) has been nearly completely disrupted. UN and foreign Governmental Agencies have initiated plans to open the airport, which is now closed to non-governmental relief groups, repair the cell phone system to establish communication to coordinate relief efforts, clear debris from streets to develop a rudimentary transportation system so supplies accumulating at the airport (180 tons of relief supplies delivered so far) may be distributed, and placing more police and soldiers on the streets to maintain security. There are scattered reports of looting, and violence at a number of food distribution centers. People are under extreme stress and losing patience.

The most pressing health-related needs, not yet in place mainly because of logistical difficulties, are the following:

· Secure shelter. The Government completed a number of over flights to determine where to establish 14 camps around the city to provide temporary shelter for the homeless. A number of the camps will be situated close to the large slums in PAP. Temporary camps can offer an opportunity to deliver food, clean water, sanitation and first aid to a large number of displaced people.

Some items have been distributed (tarpaulins, plastic sheeting, etc) that may provide temporary makeshift shelter.

· Food and water delivery. Clean water was available to only fifty percent of the population before the earthquake, and is now in critically short supply. World Food Program distributions included high-energy biscuits, jerry cans and water purification tablets to only 13,000 people, but hope to reach 1 million people in the next two weeks

· Search and rescue teams. The major priority still remains the rescue of survivors trapped under fallen debris. Twenty-six search-and-rescue teams from around the world are on the ground at the present time. Trauma, crush injuries and fractures of the lower limbs, hips and spine are common during and after an earthquake and there is a pressing need for medical teams expert in both acute stabilization of the injured, as well as definitive treatment of injuries(by emergency medicine specialists, and trauma and orthopedic surgeons).

· Health facilities and supplies. Hospital and local clinics have been severely affected and many are not functioning. Structural damage assessments have not yet been made. The main hospital in PAP has collapsed and a number in the outskirts have been destroyed. Plans to partially restore services in hospitals and to establish mobile clinics to administer first aid are underway. Two mobile field hospitals will arrive from the United States within the next few days. Thirteen countries in the Americas have stated that they have dispatched medical teams to Haiti. Numerous medical relief organizations, including Medicine For Peace, are coordinating efforts to provide medical care once logistics of transportation and housing have been settled.

· Burying of the dead. President Rene Prevail announced that 7,000 bodies were buried in a mass grave. There were 1,500 hundred corpses piled up in front of the main hospital before they were buried. Heavy equipment is needed for the rapid burial of dead bodies that are unable to have a private burial by family members.

Information obtained from colleagues on the ground in PAP, and reports from the Haitian Red Cross, Reuters, Oxfam, UN World Food Program and Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Organization for Migration, IRIN, and Partners in Health.- M. Viola

2010-01-15T17:35:00.003-05:00

Jan.15, 2010- Medicine For Peace Operations in Haiti

2010-01-14T13:53:00.002-05:00

Thursday, Jan. 14, 12 noon. I want to thank all of our friends and supporters who have called and emailed us expressing concern about our safety and that of our co-workers in Haiti. As of now, the situation in Gros Morne, the town where we work 65 miles north of Port-Au-Prince (PAP) is as follows:

A few buildings were destroyed. The public high school was in afternoon session at the time of the quake and was damaged, resulting in a few students suffering broken bones. Thankfully, there were no deaths in town that we know of.

The situation on PAP is quite different, as you know. A number of families in Gros Morne have children studying in PAP. The devastation of school, university and dormitory buildings in the capital has resulted in a large number of student deaths. The Monfortain Fathers who are important in health care delivery in the Gros Morne region were all attending a seminar in PAP at the time of the catastrophe, and eight seminarians and one priest were killed.

We are coordinating medical relief efforts with other agencies at the present time and intend to be part of the acute and long-term rehabilitation efforts in PAP.

A report on the present medical situation in PAP will follow.

M.Viola

Help us respond to the earthquake in Haiti.

2010-01-14T11:59:00.001-05:00

MFP News Blog about the crisis in Haiti.

2010-01-13T22:44:00.005-05:00

Welcome to the new Medicine for Peace news blog. Help us respond to the crisis in Haiti: please donate now.