Haiti - We Can Help!

The following email is from my grandson-in-law, Phuoc V. Le, MD, MPH.

(Born in Vietnam, Dr. Phuoc V. Le's family settled in northern California. At Dartmouth, he double majored in Biochemistry and Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures. Experiences in China, Bosnia and Costa Rica as an undergraduate formed the foundation of Dr. Le's passion for global health equity. He graduated from the Stanford Medical School, and also earned a Master's of Public Health with a focus on International Health at UC Berkeley. Currently, Dr. Le is a resident in Global Health Equity, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As part of his residency, he spends a significant amount of his time working in Sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti, in collaboration with Partners in Health. Phuoc is married to our eldest granddaughter, Erin Jones.)

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm sure most of you have heard already of the devastating earthquake in Haiti that has caused massive destruction. I was in Port-Au-Prince just two years ago, and am scheduled to go back in March for a six-week stay. I pray that I will be able to be of use to the people there.

At this time, I ask for your thoughts and prayers for the victims of this disaster. In addition, if you are able, I encourage you to donate to Partners in Health, an organization that I work for, to help in their relief efforts. Partners in Health as been working in Haiti for over 20 years, and is currently mobilizing a large scale relief effort.

Please see the e-mail below to find out how you can donate. Thank you so much.

http://www.pih.org/

All the best,
Phuoc



Dear Phuoc and Friends,

Over the past 18 hours, the Partners In Health staff in Boston and Haiti have been working to collect as much information as possible about the conditions on the ground, the relief efforts taking shape and all relevant logistics issues in order to respond efficiently and effectively to the most urgent needs in the field. At the moment, PIH's Chief Medical Officer is on her way to Haiti, where she will meet with Zanmi Lasante leadership and head physicians, who are already working to ensure PIH's coordinated relief efforts leveraging the skills of more than 120 doctors and nearly 500 nurses and nursing assistants who work at Zanmi Lasante's sites.

We have already begun to implement a two-part strategy to address the immediate need for emergency medical care in Port-au-Prince. First, we are organizing the logistics to get the medical staff and supplies needed for setting up field hospital sites in Port-au-Prince where we can triage patients, provide emergency care, and send those who need surgery or more complex treatment to our functioning hospitals and surgical facilities. To do this, we are creating a supply chain through the Dominican Republic. Second, we are ensuring that our facilities in the Central Plateau are ready to serve the flow of patients from Port-au-Prince. Operating and procedure rooms are staffed, supplied and equipped for surgeries and we have converted a church in Cange into a large triage area. Already our sites in Cange and Hinche are reporting a steady flow of people coming with medical needs from the capital city. In the days that come we will need to make sure our pharmacies and supplies stay stocked and our staff continue to be able to respond.

Currently, our greatest need is financial support.

Haiti is facing a crisis worse than it has seen in years, and it is a country that has faced years of crisis, both natural disaster and otherwise. The country is in need of millions of dollars right now to meet the needs of the communities hardest hit by the earthquake. Our facilities are strategically placed just two hours outside of Port-au-Prince and will inevitably absorb the flow of patients out of the city. In addition, we need cash on-hand to quickly procure emergency medical supplies, basic living necessities, as well as transportation and logistics support for the tens of thousands of people that will be seeking care at mobile field hospitals in the capital city. Any and all support that will help us respond to the immediate needs and continue our mission of strengthening the public health system in Haiti is greatly appreciated.

If you are not in a position to make a financial contribution, you can help us raise awareness of the earthquake tragedy. Please alert your friends to the situation and direct them to www.pih.org for updates and ways to help.

Donate now to support our earthquake relief efforts
http://act.pih.org/page/m/27a18468/4693fd26/6c46575a/c8963bc/1703974797/VEsF/

Share this important update with a friend
http://act.pih.org/page/m/27a18468/4693fd26/6c46575a/c8963bf/1703974797/VEsD/

Thank you for your solidarity during this crisis,

Ophelia Dahl
Executive Director

________________________________
This email was sent to:
pvle@partners.org

Partners In Health
888 Commonwealth Ave, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02215

Thank you for reading.

Norah Lynne Brown, VP

Gallery One