Friday, January 29, 2010

Foundation in the News

The following appeared in the Grand Island Independent. While it isn't 100% accurate, the article features Kristin Hamner and included a nice plug for FFP at the bottom.


Haiti: So much need
By Sarah Schulz
sarah.schulz@theindependent.com


Something about the small, sobbing boy in the back of the makeshift ambulance caught Kristin Hamner's eye.

She walked over to him to offer comfort and when he grabbed hold of her hand, he held fast.

"This poor little boy," she thought.

He was burning up with fever, so she left to get him some Tylenol. He screamed as she walked away.

When she returned, so did his firm grip on her.

"I stayed with him, holding his hand as the doctors cut off bandages," she wrote on her Facebook page. "When opened, it exposed a severe gash down his entire arm which was full of infection and gangrene was already setting in. They immediately took him to surgery to amputate his arm to save his life. I found out later that he had lost all six members of his family and was now alone in the world and missing an arm."

Hamner has dozens of stories about her time on the Dominican Republic/Haiti border, helping those injured in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12. On Thursday, she returned to her home in Santo Domingo to fly to Miami for a weekend conference. Today, she will return to the island of Hispaniola and to her work on the border.  Read more. . .

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Thankful Even Still

Leah's been with the Foundation for Peace only since the beginning of January. The following is excerpted from her personal blog.

It is easy now to break up my time here so far in to two segments. Before the earthquake and after the earthquake. I say this because I feel that so much has changed since the earthquake hit Haiti.

Before the earthquake, everyone here in my house was busy preparing for education conferences, unpacking shipping containers, following baseball teams coming from the states, and preparing for a large nursing team.

A few days after the earthquake in Haiti we left for Jimani. Jimani is a town in the DR located at the border between the Dominican and Haiti and is about 4-5 hours from Port-au-Prince.

On the way in to the town I was shocked by what I saw. The entire town had been turned in to one large trauma center. Virtually every church, hospital, school, pharmacy, and every possible building had been turned into trauma centers. Huge army tents had been sent up all over town housing patients that the other buildings couldn't accommodate. Baseball fields and other large grassy areas had been turned into helipads for the helicopters that continuously brought in more patients from the capital city.

Pastor Brony Novas, who's working with our group, was in the car ahead of us. He called and told us that what we were about to see was really horrible. That it was going to be really hard and he offered us the chance to stay at a local pastor's house if we didn't think we could handle it. We explained to him that we were ready.

After Pastor Brony's call, I started to pray silently. I prayed God would give me the strength to get over my fears of not being able to handle what I was about to see so that I could serve God and the Haitians to my fullest ability.

Since the center of Jimani was so busy, I figured our relief site couldn't possibly be busy as well. I soon found out that I'd greatly underestimated the number of victims who were able to cross the border in search of help. When we arrived at our makeshift hospital, a soon-to-be orphanage, hundreds of refugees flooded the area.

Staring at all the chaos around me, I felt like I was in a war scene. I took one deep breath in, (Be still), and exhaled, (and know that I am God.) and got out of the car. We were all put right to work by Renee. Ruth and I found all the people who were not injured in the earthquake and organized them to move patients around and basically do whatever the doctors needed. We moved patients from one area to another by picking up their mattresses with the victims on them. We organized ambulances and later trucks to transport patients from one building to the other where doctors performed amputations and operations.

At one point, Renee told me he wanted four patients moved from a grassy spot outside to a room inside. I was relieved they were finally being moved out of the sun. Later I learned that Renee wanted them moved because these patients’ injuries were too great and he wanted them to have a private room until they died.

I was surprised that I didn't really have a period of "getting used to" people dying and seeing dead bodies and horrible injuries. I guess when you are put in this type of situation you recognize that no one will benefit from you crying. You just enter in to work mode and stop thinking about what fears you may have had.

Chaos continued throughout the day and actually became worse whenever there was a shift in doctors. There was no continuity between shifts and doctors were not communicating with one another about patients, medicines, techniques or anything. nothing. As a non-medical person I had little to offer but muscle, willingness to do anything, and love.

Love. I couldn't help but feel love for these patients. While the doctors performed amazing feats taking care of the physical needs of the patients, the enormity of the situation, the general chaos and the language barrier made it near impossible for the doctors to really communicate with the patients. As a result, patients were fearful, bewildered and confused. I saw patients wake from surgery missing arms and legs and not understand why.


One woman, with a broken leg, was surrounded by tons of people who were all yelling at her while she lay sobbing on a mattress, holding her baby. They wanted her to get off the mattress, but she refused. I don't know what came over me, but I pushed my way through the crowd and even though I don't speak Creole, I was able to tell everyone to go away.
I knelt down beside the woman and tried to console her. I waved Olson over, a 22-year-old boy I'd befriended and whose mother was at the hospital. He spoke English and Creole and translated for me. We learned the woman thought she was being forced to get in the back of the truck so they could take her back to Haiti because she had been treated. She thought that she'd be dropped off in Haiti, with no family, no food, a new baby and a broken leg. In reality she was being moved to another refugee camp for post-op recovery. Once Olson and I explained the situation to her she left relieved knowing that she was still going to be cared for and watched over.

After this encounter I made it a point to make eye contact and smile with the patients I walked over and between. I started to understand that maybe God sent me this way so that we could minister to one another like this. With love and compassion and simple smiles that lets one another know you acknowledge them, you feel for them, and that you are here with them. There is no one beneath us. We are all the same. Created equal in God's eyes.

By about 3am most of our patients had fallen asleep. The chaos quieted. About four hours later the morning silence was broken by the most beautiful thing I have ever heard in all my 23 years. Songs of praise and worship filled the room that held our most serious patients (some of whom were dying). All of them were singing. All of them. Those who could sit, supported one another. Those who were paralyzed or couldn't sit up, raised their hands as high as they could. Everyone sang, worshipped, praised God, and thanked Him for all that He is and all that He has given us.

It is an amazing privilege to meet people like Olson, his mother and all the other patients, who are so strong in their faith. Though they have lost much (even everything) they remember to give God thanks for their blessings.

I ask that you continue to pray for the Haitians who are still in need of medical care. Pray for the doctors and the volunteers who are reaching out to the millions of people affected by this tragedy, and please pray for the Foundation for Peace that God would continue to guide us to where and how He wants us to serve.

To read Leah's entry in its entirety, click here to go to her blog.

Monday, January 25, 2010

The People of Haiti Urgently Need our Assistance

The Foundation for Peace (FFP) is actively helping in Jimani, while most international effort is focused in and around Port-au-Prince. FFP staff members Kristin, Luke, Julian, Isidro, Ruth and Leah have already been working in the overwhelmed hospital, manning a makeshift pharmacy and helping in any way they can.

We are also organizing to send water from our water purification system in Anse-a-pitre, Haiti to Jacmel, a hard hit area south of Port-au -Prince.

You can be part of the effort in two ways:
  1. Make a donation at: Donate Now
  2. Read on to find out how you can help in person

    1. Join a mission team to serve in person

    We are sending teams to Jimani to serve injured Haitian refugees who have been transported or walked to the border of the Dominican Republic (DR). The need is great and this location offers safety for our aid workers until the chaos is stabilized on the other side of the border. This is a logical crossing point, since it is a direct route to the DR from Port-au- Prince (see map).

    Our teams (maximum of 20 each) will arrive on Sunday, stay overnight at our FFP House in Santo Domingo for team building and preparation before traveling to the border the following morning by bus. If you are under 18 years of age you must be accompanied by a parent. The team will be housed in the hospital or an adjacent guesthouse.

    We will then assist in whatever ways we can, primarily with patient care before returning back to Santo Domingo on Friday night for departures on Saturday. The cost of the trip will be round trip airfare to the DR (Santo Domingo airport-SDQ) and $90 per day including the day of arrival and departure. The FFP will use those funds to pay for the teams transportation, food, water, lodging and assistance for the Haitians.
    The initial trips for February are open for sign-ups for the following dates. Go the sign up page by clicking here.
    1. January 31 - February 6
    2. February 7 - 13
    3. February 14 - 20
    4. February 21 - 27
    The trips listed for March will be opened for applications on February 8th after a review of the mission effort has been undertaken to see if we need to change our area of focus:
    1. February 28 - March 6
    2. March 14-20
    You will be notified of the schedule for team preparation meetings (in person and by telephone) that will be mandatory and begin soon.

    To better understand our work on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in recent years, click here. to watch a video of our past work.

    2. Help collect items and load a shipping container

    We are planning to load a 40 foot shipping container of goods to send to a Dominican port for transport to the border and into Haiti. We will be loading a 40 foot shipping container at:
    Long Valley Presbyterian Church
    39 Bartley Road
    Long Valley, NJ 07853

    The loading times will be:

    1. Friday, February 5th from 7- 9 p.m.
    2. Saturday, February 6th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

    The items needed for the container are:

    • Electrical generators
    • Bedding: sheets, pillows, twin bed mattresses and blankets
    • Food including dry goods including bags of beans, bags of rice (not minute rice), powdered milk, high protein flour and pasta, vegetable oil, canned tomato paste, canned sardines, canned tuna and baby food; all with an expiration date of more than a year
    • Healthcare supplies (cannot expire before September 2010): Bandages, gauze, tape, antibiotic cream/ointment, acteaminophen, ibuprofen, sanitary napkins, diapers, alcohol swabs, betadine, toothbrushes, toothpaste, bars of soap, shampoo, crutches, walkers and wheel chairs
    • Building materials: Wood (1/2 inch thick plywood, 1x12, 2x4, 2x6, 2x8 and 2x10), Electrical (wiring-12 gauge, light switches, light fixtures, switch boxes, switch box covers, and PCV pipe), louvered metal windows, doors (wood and metal), door handles and hinges
    • Medical clinic items: casting materials, furniture, crutches, slings, examination tables, IV poles, IV fluids (expiration after 2010)
    • New and used clothing: underwear, socks, summer clothing, shoes, flip-flops, and sandals . These items can only be used as packing for fragile items since they cannot be otherwise imported according to Dominican law)
    • IMPORTANT NOTE: Used Clothing should be placed in bags, not boxes. All other small items should be placed in a box that is taped shut and a list of the contents are written on the outside of the box. 
    We want to thank you in advance for helping us meet the needs of our Haitian brothers and sisters. 
    You can contribute on-line at by clicking here OR
    Send a check as soon as possible that is payable to Foundation for Peace and mail to:
    Foundation for Peace
    P.O. Box 424
    Ironia, NJ 07845

    Please remember to hold all in your prayers. Thank you.