Physicians for Peace Receives $500,000 Grant for Rehabilitation Work in Haiti

The funds will help address physical and psychosocial needs of disabled children and their families of Haiti.

"Working with Physicians for Peace means that children and others with disabilities will receive the support they need and reinforces ChildFund's commitment to creating positive outcomes and lasting change for vulnerable children." - Anne Goddard, president and CEO of ChildFund International.

DONOR REPORT: HAITI

This year, you made a commitment to our Walking Free program in Haiti.

Your generous donation served as a particular source of inspiration and amplified the voice of Physicians for Peace supporters from across the country who seek to make a sustainable difference in the lives of Haitian patients and healthcare professionals.

 Your investment has made a real difference in aiding Haitian patients disabled by the earthquake and laying the groundwork for educational initiatives that will provide training opportunities and improved patient care for years to come. Please allow me to highlight some of the year’s major accomplishments – the many milestones that your gift made possible.

Direct Investments in Haiti

Physicians for Peace is not a relief agency, but we felt compelled to send direct cash investments to help our long-term Haitian partners in the immediate aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake.

Your initial donations in the days after the earthquake were pooled and sent directly to assist St. Vincent’s and Healing Hands for Haiti in their recovery efforts and to support the Haitian Amputee Coalition clinic, which has been the primary site of our work this year.

·       $54,000 - direct monetary assistance in January to Healing Hands for Haiti and St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children, our pre-earthquake partners in Haiti.

·       $35,000 – to fund a generator for Healing Hands for Haiti’s new site in Port-au-Prince

·       $25,000 – direct investments in our Haitian Amputee Coalition work at Albert Schweitzer Hospital.

Rehab Mission Teams

As part of the newly established Haitian Amputee Coalition (a partnership that includes Albert Schweitzer Hospital, the Hanger Ivan R. Sabel Charitable Foundation, the Harold and Kayrita Anderson Family Foundation, the Catholic Medical Missions Board, the Shepherd Center, and others), Physicians for Peace is responsible for recruiting and sending trained physical therapists specializing in rehabilitation of amputees and disabled patients to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles.

Your donations supported the travel, lodging and logistical costs involved in bringing volunteer physical therapists to Haiti.

These physical therapists heroically volunteered their valuable skills and talents, sacrificed vacation time and dedicated themselves to their work with patients. They worked closely with prosthetists from Hanger Orthopedic Group and local Haitian hospital employees to build systems, develop procedures and share techniques. Their collaborative efforts have ensured high quality care for patients and sustainable training opportunities for hospital employees.

Between March and November 2010:

•  Fifteen Physicians for Peace volunteer physical therapists provided amputee patient rehabilitation care at Albert Schweitzer Hospital.
•  These volunteers volunteered a total of 200 days, completed over 1,300 patient visits, and helped 635 amputee patients learn to “walk free” with new prosthetic limbs.
•  Many of the volunteers who served in 2010 already have signed up for follow-up missions in 2011. The first mission of the new year leaves for Deschapelles in early January.

While the above data certainly helps document the impact of our volunteer physical therapists’ missions, we’d also like for you to hear directly from our volunteers. Here are some of their thoughts on what your donations have enabled them to do: 

“The work Physicians for Peace is doing is pretty incredible. Everyone brings their gifts and talents to the clinic for the benefit of the patient. I’m blessed to be able to work here, with so many gifted people from all over the world. We have this connection. There’s more that connects us together than separates us.” Sue Klappa, PFP Haiti volunteer, October 2010

“Had it not been for you, I wouldn’t be here. The support you gave me made the difference between me being able to come and not being able to come. I feel in debt to you. I can’t wait to spread the word of how many people we’ve helped.” Clair Sparrius, PFP Haiti volunteer, October 2010

“I feel like I was here for a reason. I was able to help people and see the results of all the hard work – theirs and mine.” Tom Meenzhuber, PFP Haiti volunteer, October 2010

Gifts in Kind

We are grateful for your support and leadership of the many collection drives around the country.

Your response to our call for mobility equipment was tremendous, and allowed us to collect and send six shipments of medical supplies and equipment to Haiti in response to our partners’ identified needs.

The total value of the donated supplies exceeded $350,000. Physicians for Peace also would like to acknowledge the over one hundred volunteers, who donated their time to sort, pack and inventory the shipments prior to sending them off.   The shipments included the following items:

•  Prosthetic and Orthotic Equipment
•  Mobility DeviceS
•  Hospital Beds and Mattresses
•  Eyeglasses

Prosthetic & Orthotic Training and Certification

In keeping with our mission of providing the education and training needed to meet the long-term needs of Haiti’s disabled, Physicians for Peace is working with the Ministry of Health, the Don Bosco University in El Salvador and other organizations in Haiti to establish a national training and certification program for the Haitian prosthetic and orthotic community. The program will enroll local Haitian prosthetic technicians in a distance learning course in their native language of Creole, and will be complemented with regular, side-by-side training with professionals from the U.S.  A parallel track started on October 13, 2010 in the Dominican Republic.

Your contributions have allowed us to develop the program with our partners and will provide the start-up funding.

Our 2011 goal will be to fully fund the program for the first three years.   

On behalf of the many disabled patients you have helped with your contributions, and the many more that will be helped in future from the training that we are putting in place, we would like to thank you for your generosity.  We are honored that you have entrusted us to use your donations wisely to help improve the situation of the disabled victims in Haiti. We welcome your comments and questions about our work.

Thank you,

Ron Sconyers
President & CEO, Physicians for Peace