These pictures were taken with Jeff Behring’s phone. Jeff, along with two doctors and two nurses, drove for two hours outside of Port-au-Prince to setup a makeshift medical clinic. They gave wheelchairs to people in the village to help transport wounded and sick people to the clinic. The Haitian people were very malnourished and standing 50 deep in line to see doctors for medical attention. Conditions are very grim.
Charli Butterfield of the Wheelchair Foundation
As a first hand report of our first trip into Haiti to provide doctors, nurses, medical supplies, wheelchairs, and other emergency supplies, everything went very smoothly.
We departed from the Ft. Lauderdale airport at 9:15 PM for an arrival into Port-au-Prince at 11:00 PM last night. Everything was dark, so we couldn’t see much from the air on our approach. Haiti has a curfew for everyone which takes effect at 7:00 PM, so the team was forced to sleep at the airport until 6:00 AM, when the curfew is lifted. We were then able to travel to our assigned posts. The landing was smooth and uneventful. We were met by the US military, who was very helpful. We were told when we departed Ft. Lauderdale that the US military needed ice. We brought in lots of ice, 15 pizzas, and Coke. The military was very excited and more than willing to assist us in the offloading of all our medical supplies and wheelchairs. They let our doctors, Wheelchair Foundation volunteers, and DC3 volunteers set up a makeshift camp right next to their central base right at the airport. MedShare rendezvoused with us at the airport to help organize the distribution of medical supplies, and Dr. Janette Nesheiwat led several of our doctors and volunteers to a small village where people were desperately seeking and in need of medical attention this morning. Jeff Behring reported that these small villages were living in tents and had very long lines of people waiting for medical attention. They were doing the best they could but were still in need of more medical supplies such as aspirin, blood pressure medicine, thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, etc. We are actively searching for these items to bring with us on our next trip into Port-au-Prince on Saturday. We have another group of doctors and nurses arriving and another plane being loaded with more medical supplies that are being trucked down right now from Medshare’s Atlanta, Georgia distribution center. We are also working with 4 constituents representing the “Clean Water for Haiti” organization. We couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with. Everyone is really pitching in and doing the best they can to help those in need of medical attention and mobility. I am so proud of our mission, and of those who have volunteered their time and supplies to help.
Charli Butterfield
At 8:30 this morning an MD-87 filled with over three tons of emergency medical supplies and wheelchairs departed Stockton for a humanitarian aid trip to Haiti. There were also 8 doctors and trauma nurses, a documentary film crew and Wheelchair Foundation (a Division of Global Health & Education Foundation) representatives on board. This is a story of many different groups collaborating together in a short period of time to provide important relief to a country in crisis. We will be periodically providing updates of the trip’s progress and experiences.
Shortly after the catastrophic 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010, Dan Catullo III, the founder of DC3 Music Group (www.dc3global.com), contacted the Wheelchair Foundation to see if its founder, Ken Behring, would be interested in loaning his private jet to send physicians and medical supplies to that country. He agreed to lend his plane and crew if sponsors could be found for the fuel. Catullo immediately began contacting his associates in the music industry. Scott Stapp, the lead singer for Creed, and New Kids on the Block stepped forward with substantial donations and encouraged other bands to spread the word on their websites.
Catullo then called Chuck Haupt at Medshare (www.medshare.com), to see if they would donate emergency medical supplies. Haupt responded immediately with 8 pallets of materials like sutures, gauze, syringes, surgical gloves, etc., which are so desperately needed in Haiti. They have been loaded into the cargo section of the plane along with 30 wheelchairs donated by the Wheelchair Foundation. Medshare has also generously agreed to transport another 7 pallets of medical supplies from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale for the second flight to Haiti. These supplies will be given to Partners in Health (www.pih.org) at the Port-au-Prince General Hospital.
John Muir Hospital in northern California also played a major role in supplying antibiotics and other requested supplies. Jeff Behring, the son of Ken Behring, and Glenn Perry, a longtime supporter of the Wheelchair Foundation, had met Senator Bill Frist at an event the previous week. Frist, a surgeon, had just returned from a week in Haiti and told Jeff what supplies were the most important. When Perry contacted Ben Drew at John Muir, the hospital provided everything on Frist’s list.
You also need a “slot time” to land in Haiti. Phil VanderWilt, the MD-87 pilot, was on the phone most of a day trying to secure a position. He finally got one that was six days away. The plane will land in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday night, pick up more doctors, and head to Haiti. The jet will then be unloaded, extract doctors and specialists from Partners in Health and Direct Relief International that have already been on the ground for a week or so and return to Florida. Two days later it will transport another 16 doctors and two tons of medical supplies to assist in the relief effort. The plane will then depart for California.
The Wheelchair Foundation would like to commend Jeff Behring, Dan Cathullo and Chris Rudd for their tireless efforts and passion in making this project come to fruition. We also want to thank the musical performers and their fans for their invaluable support. The people of Haiti need your help now and into the future to rebuild their lives and their country.
The Wheelchair Foundation is a Division of Global Health & Education Foundation.
Wheelchair Foundation Transportation Coordinator, Gerry Riley
Joe Hackman discusses the challenges facing Non Government Organizations delivering aid internationally with Gerry Riley of the Wheelchair Foundation. Gerry Riley has been the Transportation and Logistics Manager for the Wheelchair Foundation since 2003. During that time, he has helped ship nearly 1,500 orders, a total of more than 650,000 wheelchairs, all over the world. He has learned a lot about the problems that can be encountered in trying to send aid. The Foundation provided wheelchairs to several countries following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, the Pakistan earthquake and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Chengdu, China earthquake in 2006. Gerry is proud to have been able to help after these disasters. He’s also happy to have helped get aid to those with daily mobility needs throughout the world.
SOURCE: Blog Talk Radio
A motley crew of musicians manage to pull together $1 million to send medical relief to Haiti.
In yet another much-needed and highly-coordinated effort, a plane carrying a whopping 10,000 pounds of medical supplies, along with doctors and medical staff took off out of Long Beach, CA at 11 a.m. today bound for Haiti’s quake-ravaged Port-au-Prince.
But the MD-80 (a mid-range commercial airplane) isn’t part of a Doctors Without Borders mission. Rather, it’s the result of a $1 million fundraising and volunteer effort by a motley crew of music producers and performers, including Rage Against the Machine, Creed, Godsmack, Eve and New Kids on the Block, among others.
Creed lead singer Scott Stapp is already on the ground in Haiti where he’s been working with the Creed-founded With Arms Wide Open Foundation. Stapp will help coordinate efforts once the plane arrives later today.
Godsmack lead singer Sully Erna, pictured, has donated money himself and has been urging his fans to join the cause.
“A soul is irreplaceable and should never be taken for granted,” said Erna in a press release. ” … And since I can’t be there to help in person, I want to make my contribution as a fellow human being to give what I can while I’m in the fortunate situation that I am to help those that are so unfortunate in this time of tragedy.”
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello was pivotal in starting a network of e-mails that led to doctors, supplies and donations, including a group of Haitian doctors and nurses who will head to Haiti later and stay for up to a month.
New Kids on the Block donated money of their own, then started a Twitter campaign to get fans on board.
And while the plane is scheduled to return either late Friday or Saturday, the effort, dubbed Plane to Haiti, will continue as long as needed.
“As long as the money and support keeps coming, we will keep the supplies going down,” said concert video producer Daniel Catullo who kicked off the initiative in partnership with the Wheelchair Foundation and donations of medical supplies through MedShare.
Catullo’s media company DC3 is also coordinating a massive multimedia effort that will help Haitians leave video messages for their loved ones who have been unable to reach them. The company will also collect footage to be used in ongoing efforts to raise money through public service announcements. Over 40 computers, two satellite dishes and 100 video cameras have been donated to the ground efforts through partnerships with media companies, including CNN.
The entire effort is being coordinated through the Wheelchair Foundation, which is accepting donations at www.planetohaiti.org.
SOURCE: Tonic