“The challenge is to make improved health for poor people a central goal and a binding measure in the planning, execution, and evaluation of economic and social policy on the local, national, and international levels.”
our good friend and Partners In Health Co-founder Jim Yong Kim wrote those words many years ago. (more…)
A support group in Rwanda tends to the mental health needs of patients. (more…)
By Kathryn Mahoney, PIH Haiti Communications Coordinator
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Construction site of the new Mirebalais Hospital at sunset. |
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At dusk on March 19th, just as the “supermoon” was rising, PIH doctor David Walton took me on tour of the site of the future Mirebalais Hospital. Normally, it’s bustling with more than 100 Haitian construction workers who work around the clock, even over the weekend. But on the eve of the second round of presidential elections, they had all returned to their homes to vote on Sunday, offering us a rare and quiet opportunity to explore the site.
A few weeks prior, I found myself standing on the roof of the hospital, overlooking the future location of the OB-GYN and inpatient women’s ward. At the time, I contemplated the footprint of the buildings and grew lost in a forest of steel rebar. I tried, and failed, to imagine what the building would look like when the walls are raised. (more…)
Billions of dollars donated, but earthquake survivors still hungry, homeless
As of last week, donations for earthquake relief for Haiti have surpassed $2.5 billion, with another $1.2 billion pledged, according to UN reports. But this money has yet to improve the conditions on the ground for hundreds of thousands of desperate survivors. (more…)
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Neg Mawon Statue with the crumbled palace in the background. |
PIH Medical Director Dr. Joia Mukherjee arrived in Port au Prince less than 48 hours after the 7.0 earthquake left hundreds of thousands of people dead, injured, homeless and afraid. As she recalls the smell of decomposing bodies in the street and dust from the rubble that choked her breath and stung her eyes, it is clear she has seen horrors that she will not soon forget. It is even clearer, however, that the image burnt most powerfully in her memory is one of hope.
After her first day—a day during which she, along with PIH physician David Walton and a team from Medicines Sans Frontiers Belgium, treated over 800 people—Joia asked the Zanmi Lasante driver “Kote Neg Mawon?“ (Where is Neg Mawon?) He brought her to the destroyed National Palace, and there in front of it was the statue of Neg Mawon. The symbol of Haiti, Neg Mawon means at once marooned man, the runaway man and the free man.
In 1804 the Haitian slaves defeated the army of Napoleon making Haiti the first and only nation founded by a slave revolution. At the time of the revolution, 70 percent of the slaves had been born free men and women in Africa. This victory resulted in Haiti being feared by the world’s powerful countries and thus politically marginalized or dominated for the next 200 years. Symbolizing this epic struggle, Neg Mawon stands, shackles broken, machete in hand, defiant and unafraid. He blows a conch to call others to freedom. (more…)
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Generation NXT emergency event |
We’ve been incredibly touched and inspired by the outpouring of support we’ve received in the past few weeks. From to celebrities to sports teams to activists–we are so thankful to all our partners in health. Below is how some of our hippest supporters are standing in solidarity with PIH, and with the people of Haiti.
Months of careful planning over late night sushi usually precede Generation NXT’s fundraising events. But when this New York City-based non-profit heard about the disaster in Haiti, they knew that they had to act fast.
“We arranged an “emergency event” because that’s exactly what the situation is,” said Louis Levy, Chairman of Generation NXT. Members are a mix of young men and women consisting of entrepreneurs, doctors, full-time students, teachers, and artists, ranging in age from about 18 to 35. United by a common desire to combine philanthropy and fun, Generation NXT raises awareness for different types of causes by hosting charity events at various New York City hot-spots. Their eleventh-hour Haiti fundraiser proved to be hit among the hip and humanitarian. (more…)
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The solar panels at Boucan Carre. |
“A lack of power was responsible for a lot of deaths in the first few days [after the earthquake],” wrote PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl in a recent message.
With electricity knocked out around the country, surgeons were forced to operate on patients using flashlights. Laboratory and diagnostic equipment were rendered useless. Electric water pumps were nonfunctional. Gas generators helped fill the gap. But finding fuel quickly became difficult, and gas that could be found carried price tags as high as $20 a gallon in the days following the earthquake. Many of our clinics powered by gas generators came uncomfortably close to running out of fuel. (more…)
Nurse Erik Bartkowiak accompanied four critically ill patients on a medevac plane out of Haiti to receive the medical treatments they desperately needed–treatments that no medical facility in Haiti could provide. Read his story below.
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Nurse Erik Bartkowiak (above) and his father (below) tending to patients on their 5 hour flight from Port-au-Prince to Philadelphia. |
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I would like to give you my account of the events of January 16, 2010, when I worked with Drs Joia Mukherjee and Evan Lyon and their Haitian colleagues to evacuate four Haitian survivors of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince. I am a Registered Nurse with over 12 years of emergency and trauma experience.
Previous to this, I was in the US army, and only mention this because, in a strange coincidence, I was part of a 7-man special operations team that helped remove Raul Cedras and reinstate Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in the fall of 1994. (more…)
new young professionals in dentistry-blog 