HAITI EARTHQUAKE: HUMANITY FIRST TEAM ON SCENE; ROADS SLOW ASSISTANT EFFORT

“There is a lot of trauma for the Haitian people that will remain, I think. I don’t think I will ever forget it. I can hear the ‘boom, boom, boom,’ and the screaming in my head sometimes.” Eyewitness

"It's very difficult out there. We're doing triage on the streets." Ataul Aziz, field operations manager, Humanity First.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Frederick, Maryland
Source & Credit: Frederick News Post | January 25, 2010
By Ron Cassie | News-Post Staff 
News story excerpts by Ahmadiyy Times

With a backlog of flights trying to land inside Haiti and the Port-au-Prince docks in shaky condition, teams of volunteers have been flying into Santo Domingo and renting vehicles, taking public buses or connecting with contacts in the Dominican Republic to reach earthquake victims.

It’s not an easy journey in either direction and the small border town of Jimani has become a crowded way station for those leaving Haiti and those attempting to bring food, water and medical assistance to earthquake victims.

Earlier Saturday night, three surgeons, an anesthesiologist and a team of emergency medical technicians with Humanity First, was forced to settle in at the Dominican Republic police station just past Jimani.

With little sleep, they had risen early that morning in Santo Domingo, planning to reach Port-au-Prince by SUV before darkness fell to set up a surgical clinic at the Humanity First compound near the crumbled Haitian Presidential Palace. Instead, they were bogged down by traffic and broken, single-lane roads for the next six hours – and then one of their vehicles broke down.

That same Humanity First group, which included doctors and medical professionals from Baltimore and Northern Virginia, had met Dr. Julian Choe, of Frederick , and his Mission Ryan project partner, Mark Zimmerman, in Santo Domingo earlier Saturday morning.

The Humanity First group asked if Choe and Zimmerman could carry extra medical supplies to Port-au-Prince in their Ford F-150 XL, which local pastor Onelis Rivas had arranged for the Frederick team. Choe and Zimmerman’s group battled the same traffic and rough roads, and also needed to bunk down at the border Saturday night.

“The roads are extremely crowded, and the roads here not great to begin with – before adding all the traffic heading to and from Haiti,” said Zimmerman, who has made six previous mission trips to the Dominican Republic. “Frustrating would be a nice word to describe it.”

There have been other issues as well.

Dr. Ken Crawford, from Baltimore County, said his Humanity First group brought 15 duffle bags of equipment. His group wanted to bring 10 more, but their airline carrier rejected the request.

Read full article here: Haitian families still looking for children; roads slow assistant effort

HUMANITY FIRST USA (HFUSA)
To continue ongoing medical camp and relief operations of Humanity First at their compound near the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince, four additional doctors including two renowned Neurosurgeons, Dr. Osama El-Mefty and Dr. Kenneth Crawford have departed for Haiti. The Humanity First, USA team will join the team members from Humanity First Canada which includes 6 doctors and from Humanity First UK team of 3 physicians. Currently, Humanity First has also established a logistics center in Santa Domingo and the Dominican Republic. Humanity First command centers are located in Canada, USA and UK with hundreds of volunteers working around the clock to support the relief work in Haiti.

Humanity First USA is also accepting donations for the relief work. You may donate online by going to http://usa.humanityfirst.org.

About Humanity First, USA (http://usa.humanityfirst.org), a 501(c) 3- registered nonprofit organization, was established in 2004 to restore disaster-stricken and under-developed and vulnerable communities around the globe. Humanity First is a leading non-profit relief organization whose board of directors, management team, and project staff running the day-to-day operations are all dedicated volunteers with diverse professional backgrounds including business, healthcare, and education sectors. Humanity First has been expanding over the last few years to now being a registered charity in 29 countries worldwide.




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