By Caitlin Bartkus | Associate Specialist, Resource Development
This will be our final update as International Medical Corps’ emergency response to the Haiti earthquake draws to a close.
To continue supporting International Medical Corps, please visit our “Emergency Response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19)” project to learn about our global response to the pandemic.
Learn more about our Coronavirus response here: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-the-coronavirus-2019-ncov/
On August 14, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti’s Tiburon Peninsula, causing 2,248 deaths and injuring more than 12,760 people.
International Medical Corps deployed its Emergency Medical Team (EMT) Type 1 Fixed medical facility to Aquin, in southwest Haiti, in late August to address the urgent health needs of earthquake-affected populations. The EMT is a self-sufficient outpatient health facility that is fully equipped to serve a minimum of 100 patients per day.
“When we got there, there was a strong feeling of despair and fear, and of just being overwhelmed,” says John, International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Lead in the United States. “But we were able to come in and provide clinical services typically provided by the hospital, which was still trying to treat patients, but outside.”
“The combination of it being an isolated location, with only a couple of ways in and out—mixed with gang presence and widespread damage to roads, airports and seaports—made it really, really hard to get supplies, equipment and personnel into the area,” says John.
Despite the difficulties, our team remained committed to providing care to those who needed it most – including a severely malnourished infant. A mother brought in her two-week-old infant explaining that he was not eating and was becoming less responsive. Our team immediately got to work trying to get the infant to nurse and then resorting to other means to hydrate the child. Once the baby was hydrated, the team was ready to transport him to the hospital for further care. Two days later, the team received a call from the hospital letting them know that the baby was doing well.
As of November 9, staff at the EMT had provided 4,759 medical consultations to area residents. Additionally, our team reached more than 4,591 community members with hygiene promotion and provided 244 mental health and psychosocial support consultations.
International Medical Corps is grateful to the GlobalGiving community for raising awareness of the needs following the August 2021 earthquake in Haiti.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
