Its been a week since I've been home now, and last night it caught up to me. This morning I am thinking more and more of Haiti and all there is to be done there. So much frustration on so many levels to get work done, and so much waiting around and red tape to access the funding. Food distribution (aka rice distribution) stopped in Petionville's IDP camp six weeks ago and people are going hungrier and hungrier. Political upheaval is ripe; opposition parties are calling for Preval to step down in favour of an interim government. The people are beginning to make their voices heard louder; demonstrations have begun. Rains continue. And within all this, the frustration of simply finding a hospital to admit some patients makes you want to scream with the anger and injustice of it all.
Below is the link to a video of Sean describing this frustration, when a patient arrived at our hospital with diptheria. Staff drove around the entire city with him ALL DAY trying to get him admitted and find the antitoxin, only to find out late at night that it had been locked up in a warehouse thirty minutes from our own camp. Everyone was devastated, camp morale plummeted. The next day we closed the hospital to prevent possible transmission to other patients. We immunized everyone. We cleaned, disinfected, and prayed for Oriel, the 15 year old who was an only child.
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/10/video-diphtheria-epidemic-threatens-haiti/
The resources exist, with the hundreds of NGOs and humanitarians pouring in daily. We just have to get them out there, make them available, accessible. Cut the red tape. Stop the bureaucracy. Lets help Haiti rebuild their future- from scratch- NOW. Lets put words into action.
Photos uploaded below. =) Thanks for listening.
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Guin....
ReplyDeleteThe best thing you can do is give Haiti a voice! Which is exactly what you are doing. I think its so sad how the media (and everyone really) watched the wreck in the immediate aftermath and then walked away to sit and watch the next tragedy....from the comfort of their homes. You blog and posts are helping a lot of people realize that the fight isn't over yet, and also realize how ridiculous the government at the moment is behaving in this crisis. I hope more voices join the Haitians as they demonstrate and protest and DEMAND that the political pondering stop.
Jess