2/22/11 St. Suzanne gets help with water. Tampa attorney and HBHH Advisory Board Member Ron Hobgood returned to Haiti last week to repair the broken wells in the village of St. Suzanne. Ron fixed 3 wells while continuing to teach the local Haitian team how to repair wells in the future. Ron also repaired and cleaned the broken cistern. Christ the King Catholic Church in Evansville, IN donated fuel costs so that this cistern will supply clean, safe water every day to the villagers.
Also, cholera cases in the area have stopped thanks to the training team that went house to house teaching the residents how to protect themselves from contracting cholera.
1/7/11 New school in Trou du Nord opens. An opening ceremony for the new school we helped to build in Trou du Nord was held on January 7. St. Dominic Savio School has a capacity of 1,200 and offers high school education, something not commonly found in Haiti, and will serve students in Trou du Nord and surrounding villages.
1/4/11 Container loaded today. A 40-foot container loaded with pallets of food, clothing, medical supplies, school supplies, soap and other hygiene items, and over 60 cases of bleach to help reduce the spread of cholera, was loaded today at our warehouse and is being shipped to Cap Haitien.
1/3/11 The clean water program is underway. Sixty schools in the Nord-Est area are now being identified that will each have bio-sand water filtration systems installed for clean drinking and washing water. The program is accompanied by education and training in proper hygiene methods to reduce the occurrences of water-borne illnesses, including cholera.
1/4/11 Health workers helping to reduce spread of cholera. Fr. Medenel in St. Suzanne reports that, thanks to the education efforts of the health care workers, funded by HBHH, he has seen a great reduction in the spread of cholera n that area.
12/28/10 Cholera Prevention Education. We have 19 trained health workers going door to door on foot in the mountains of St. Suzanne to teach proper hygiene methods to the people in order to prevent the spread of cholera. The Ministry of Public Health in Haiti has also designated the clinic in St. Suzanne as a Cholera Treatment Unit (CTU), and another CTU is being set up in Cotelette.
Some of our sponsored children from Jacmel wrote letters to their sponsors. You can read some moving excerpts from these letters on our Student Sponsorships page.
11/29/10 Supplies to combat cholera delivered to St. Suzanne. Dr. Eugene Maklin, one of our contacts in Haiti through the Cap Haitien HealthCare Network, was able to deliver soap, clorox and aquatabs for water purification to St. Suzanne to help prevent the spread of cholera there. He emailed us this photo of the delivery.
11/18/10 Urgent! The North-East Department is now affected by cholera. St. Suzanne, Cotelette, and Fort Liberte, primary service areas of HBHH, are in this area. We urgently need supplies and/or money to buy supplies needed to ship ASAP. HBHH has transportation to get the items to Haiti. Can you please help? We need: IV Fluid & Catheters & tubing; oral re-hydration salt; salt chlorine tabs (aquatabs); water purification systems; water purification tablets; cipro; bleach, clorena (pesticide), decontamination sprayers, 5-gallon buckets and lids, assistance transporting materials to Florida.
10/24/10 HBHH team returns from trip to Haiti. Donations for Cholera outbreak needed. Chairman Patricia Eddy, Vice Chairman John Laurent, and new Executive Director Sr. Christa Rowe recently took a trip to Haiti October 22-24, visiting Fort Liberte, St. Suzanne, Cotelette, and Port-au-Prince. In response to the curent outbreak of cholera in the Artibonite region, HBHH has been offered free air transport for any medicines and supplies to help with this outbreak. We are accepting donations of IV fluids, Cipero, Tetracycline and Doxycycline, or funds to help us purchase these supplies. Contact us at 813.832.HBHH(4244) or at HBHH123@gmail.com for more information.
6/5/10 USF sends team of Doctors to a small village in Northeast Haiti with the help of HBHH. HBHH helped to organize the team's first medical mission by arranging all travel and accommodation, interpretors for the USF team, as well as sending HBHH's local Doctor to help. The 2nd and 3rd picture show HBHH's Haitian doctor, Dr. Djenane Pierre, who helped the team understand the differences between Haiti and US medical treatments. Click on link to see article: http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/now/?p=13765
6/1/10 HBHH moves into its first office space, donated by Christ The King Catholic Church. The office is now located at St. Michael Legal Center, 3816 W. Morrison Avenue, Tampa, FL 33629. Furniture for our two offices was donated by Decorator's Office Furniture of Tampa Bay. We are grateful for their support!
6/4/10 May Medical Team in USF Health News. USF Health News featured an article on HBHH's May medical mission trip to Miragoane, Haiti. The team included Tampa doctors Mitch Hoffman and Kathleen Kilbride, and nurse Karen Carraher and anesthesiologist Lilia Pereiras.
5/14/10 Successful surgery for Haitian child. Our ittle heartpatient, Deve, received surgergyat St. Joseph's Children's Hospital and will now grow up and have a normal life. See the St. Pete Times article here.
1/31/10 - Journal from Medical team in Miragoane
Another great day. It was wonderful watching Haitians, Cubans, Americans, and Dominicans all concerned and caring so much for the people of Haiti. Though a bit of territorial tension started (not sure from where in particular) things changed quickly and all for the better. I found an empty inner courtyard and hired the help of some young men and set up some planks between two roof line, asked Dr Laroche to provide a large tarp: there we had enough elbow room to start casting and triage ( I have pictures of Dr Horan sitting on the gravel floor tending to the funniest old man one will ever meet. Meanwhile, Dr. Joel is every bit busy in the emergency room, sorting, dispatching to radiology, lab work and diagnosing chronic and acute cases. He found and quarantined a TB case the patient has had for years.
First operation in the morning Horan fixed a broken femur that had become infected. The poor woman could have died with a massive hematoma growing her thigh three times its normal size. Steve, Michael and Scott were phenomenal in performing this operation given the limited OR facility. You have to have skill beyond any to think as fast and remain cool and effective. Second operation: jaw repositioning for a 16 year old whose head been pinned under rubbles. Most tools missing, these angels improvised and successfully allowed this child the hope of ever being able to chew hard food.
Joel is a bit frustrated because he had to leave so much needed medications for blood pressure and strokes. He cannot find any at the hospital and we doubt going back to PAP would yield much. He is doing a whole lot of good and even more. Patients after patient keep asking me to bring them "sa ki ro a ki pale Kreryol la". (Meaning," the tall one who speaks Creole") I must then tell them what he had recommended and that he must see and make many more patients feel OK too.
1/29/10 - HBHH 1st Earthquake Medical team arrive home Thursday night.
HBHH 2nd Earthquake medical team leaves for Haiti to replace work done by medical team sent last week.
1/28/10 HBHH 1st Medical Earthquake Team returns from Haiti. (see pictures)
1/25/10 - Second Medical Team Scheduled to Depart
Thursday will see the departure of the second medical team that HBHH has coordinated. They will relieve the first team that has been in Miragoâne since Sunday. Continue to pray for their work! Medical supplies are always needed. Please visit our earthquake donation page for an updated list of requested supplies.
1/24/10 Bartow High School students start Fundraiser for HBHH
Three students get approval to start a student fundraiser. Day 1 all students bring a penny; Day 2 all students bring a dime; Day 3 all students bring a quarter; day 4 all students bring 1 dollar. They hope to raise close to $2,000 to help those in affected by the earthquake.
1-24-2010 Channel 8 covers departure of HBHH medical team
1-23-2010 TBO coverage of HBHH Medical Mission trip to Haiti
1-23-2010 HBHH Medical Team arrives safely in Port-au-Prince with a team of 4 doctors and 2 nurses.
I received a text saying, " We arrived safely. No problems. Good flight. Loading up now." at 8:43am.
The team was excited about the trip and anxious to get to PAP to start their work with helping in everyway they can. The team will travel by car escorted by Haitian native Dr. Ralph Gousse of Orlando. The team of surgeons is comprised of Dr. Timothy Bradley, Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon, HealthPoint Medical Group/St. Joseph's Children's Hospital of Tampa; Dr. Henry Claude Sagi, Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon, Florida Orthopedic Institute/Tampa General Hospital; Dr. Hank Hutchinson, Director of Orthopedic Trauma, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital; and Dr. Kathleen Kilbride, Obstetrician-Gynecologist, Women's Care Florida and surgical nurses Eunice Laborde and Joyce Sierra. The surgical team will travel two hours outside of Port-Au-Prince to the city of Miragoane and town of Paillant where the doctors will take care of the most severely injured and dying. This village is the same distance from the center to the earthquake as PAP. There are many villages hard hit from the earthquake that have had a tough time getting doctors in to take care of the wounded from the earthquake.
Jeff Patterson with Chanel 8 news WFLA-TV was there to film. Check the news at 6 or 6:30 tonight to see coverage of the group leaving.
Senator Bill Nelson had to cancel his trip with HBHH last night because he could not secure a flight back to the US. It was too late to fill the empty seat, however this enabled the doctors to take all of the medical supplies.
HBHH hopes to have a 2nd team of doctors leave Wednesday or Thursday this week.
Please keep the entire team in your prayers.
1-22-2010 Senator Bill Nelson to join the HBHH medical team to Haiti leaving Satuday 1-23-10
1-21-2010 Private plane full of doctors and medical team leaving from Tampa on Saturday to go to Haiti. Another plane with a medical team to leave next week.
1-20-2010: Fr. Jean called. Here is his news: Radio Soleil is completely destroyed. If Fr. Jean had been in his office, he would have died. 3 employees have died. The Radio tower is fine. Fr. Jean asked us to please pray. The Vicar General of the diocese has also died, they have not been able to get his body out from the ruble. Fr. Jean is living in a tent and he has lost everything. Fr. Jean hopes to get the equipment he needs to get the radio station back on air as soon as possible.
Fr. Jean said: "I have to stand and fight to help the people. I am ok, don't worry about me. I so appreciate your people from the US, they are so involved. I appreciate it so much. Thank you, Thank you for all of your support and prayers. All of my family is ok except my nephew. We have some food, don't worry about me. Tomorrow they will distribute food and water. I so appreciate your prayers and help, that gives me strength to stand up and fight. They need a strong priest. Today I said a mass in the camp, this gives the people hope. I have gotten all of your messages, that gives me more hope. Thank you for your love and support. We are now working on the funeral of the Archbishop and the Vicar General. I love you all so much."
1-19-2010: The impossible happened. In one day, a medical team of doctors and nurses changed their schedules and bought and gathered medicine and medical supplies with a promise to go to Port-au-Prince on a chartered plane to leave at 7:30am Tuesday morning. Double Harvest - with a modern hospital 30 minutes from Port-au-Prince that is stocked and supplied with food, water and medical supplies - has been begging for doctors. All was set to go, a team of 8 dedicated Doctors and Nurses. Yet at 11pm last night, Double Harvest called and said they were sorry, they did not realize that they did not need the doctors, there was no room, and they had too many doctors. We scrambled to try to find another place, but now in Port-au-Prince there is little food, water, shelter and gasoline for cars. We found many places to go, but could not find transportation, food, water or a place to sleep. To the disappointment to all, the trip had to be canceled just before midnight. What a shame! So much need, doctors and nurses willing to sacrifice and go, yet the devastation of Haiti made it impossible for this mission trip to happen.
1-18-2010: Andrea and Jack arrived home. Sergo, our medical student is alive.
1-17-2010: Andrea and Jack are stuck in Cap Haitian hoping to get out tomorrow. The plane did not quite make it to Haiti on Saturday. There should be 2 flights leaving today and we hope and pray they will be on one of them. Andrea and Jack are also having trouble finding a ride from the hotel to the airport because of the gas shortage. I am confident they will get there.
1-16-2010: HBHH has decided to bring Andrea and Jack back for a while to the US. Due to problems with phones, Internet, and emergency issues, HBHH feels they can better help in our relief efforts from the US until services are restored. This was a tough decision for them, please pray for this transition. Hopefully they will be able to get on a flight today.
01-15-2010: CGI (www.cgi.com) sent out to its 26,000 employees across the US, Canada, Europe and India a press release encouraging donations via HBHH. Donate now! CGI has agreed to match all employee donations to help our efforts for our earthquake relief work.
01-14-2010 UPDATE: Father Jean is safe!
01-13-2010: Earthquake has devastated Port au Prince, Haiti! Jack and Andrea are safe in the north area of St. Suzanne. Cell phones are out in the country and communication is difficult. The Cathedral is destroyed in Port-au-Prince. Many have died, it's a crucial situation. Please pray for those in Haiti. Monetary donations are being collected to help us help those in Haiti. If you can help us, please see the donate page.