Earthquake - DR Report

Pictures (note: some show open wounds)

From Moise Sam, 2/3/2010

To date, 3 weeks after the earthquake, the Dominican Republic has received more than 20,000 wounded people of all kinds. All the hospitals of the country one way or another have helped, but the heavy load fell most of all on the areas near the border, so you can easily imagine that the 2 state hospitals in Barahona have been filled until they could not stand it anymore a week after the quake.

What did Mission Possible do in Barahona to help through its churches?

Impressive is how we can describe what we did. I found myself without word when I saw the mobilization of the young people starting with the girls. Since I was busy in other things, I had no idea what was going on in the hospitals until I saw a girl, Carmen Margarita being impatient on the yard of the school. When I asked her what she was up to, she showed me a bag full of clothes and her answer was that she was waiting for some other girls to go the hospital. I asked some more questions and learned that there was a group of girls going to the houses of the church members from Ebenezer I [ the Mission Possible Spanish church] and II [the Creole church] asking for help.

Later I realized that these girls had given almost everything they had to help the victims. When they had nothing left, they had the idea of asking for help. The leaders of that movement are Yessica Constant, Carmen Margarita, Nahomi Gonzalez, Cedonia Feliz, Sophiane Pierre, Fernande Joanis. That team encouraged more people to get involved. Since Thursday evening, January 14^th the situation got complicated and more hands were needed to help. Renald [Pastor and Mission Possible teacher] and was already coordinating the help; he called me asking for more people and money. Then I asked Joyce Dora [team leader from Michigan] and her team to get involved directly which they did with all their heart. We are very thankful for their acts of love. On Sunday we call all the voluntaries of both churches to a special meeting to coordinate our help better. We were able to have a group of 42 people divided in groups of 8/10 people (male and female) and a team of reservists all with Mission Possible T-shirts. We decided to focus on Hospital Jaime Mota, the main hospital in the city of Barahona.

Let me give you an idea of the titanic job of the teams of Ebenezer/Mission Possible. An ambulance arrives or maybe it’s a truck, or any other vehicle with wounded people; their work starts: transportation into the emergency room, translate for the doctors, get something to eat for the relative of the patient and/or the sick person himself if necessary, get them clothes and personal hygiene effects, sheets and sleepwear, underwear, drinking water… Take the patients on the stretchers to the 2^nd floor where the rooms are (no working elevators), take them up and down as many times it is necessary for X-rays, sonograms or any other exam. You can imagine: people without a foot, a leg, an arm, burned people, people with multiple broken bones and any kind of trauma or large cuts…they need to have a lot of courage.

In the rooms: clean, bathe, take to the toilet or help so they can do their needs on the bed since there is no other option for those who recently had surgery or those who can’t move or be moved.

In the operating room: assist the overloaded doctors and nurses (not an easy thing). Many have lost their sleep, so did I.

In this tragedy many are suffering and are traumatized for the rest of their life:

• The parents, their children were buried alive, the survivors have been amputated, some children are blind or minus valid for the rest of their life.

• The children don’t really understand what happened, some asked for their amputated extremities after the surgery, many are orphans and were witness of their parents’ violent death.

• The doctors: many after their shift gather together or get isolated to cry.

• Some church members lost some relatives among them Jose Medina lost 9 people to the quake, Sadrac lost his uncle, Jean-Pierre Jean-Simon lost his mother…

In this tragedy many have helped among them:

• Nahomi, she works in the morning, attends class in the afternoon and goes to the hospital from 6PM –midnight.

• Sophiane, recently had a pelvic surgery spends all day in the hospital.

• Santiaguel nurse student sponsored by MP works almost 24/day when things get tough.

• Many are not even 18 years old like Yessica, Carmen Margarita who were among those who took the initiative of the movement.

• Some Ebenezer friends: Alicia Aponte, Milagros Matos…

• The ladies: some provide clothes, others cook while some others wash the clothes and beddings.

• Renald helps provide solution to all kind of problems. He uses his scooter to be in 3 hospitals: Jaime Mota in Barahona, Jaime Sanchez in Villa Central and the hospital of Cabral at 15 miles from Barahona; he also checks on patients in casa Caribe, improvised  shelter where they send those who are recovering while they make space for new patients. He helps with his team to locate relatives, find transportation for the patients who need to go to Santo Domingo to a better hospital but have no money to afford it, Renald also helps the relatives to find legal permit to be able to go to Haiti and be able to come back with no problem, or people trying to find family members in hospitals in the D.R. with photos….

For a good control of the activities, it was decided the following:

• All the teams should meet at Ebenezer at noon to pray, eat and evaluate the situation. They all must wear Ebenezer/Mission Possible T-shirt.

• Not give help to any opportunist but to the real proven victims. They must coordinate with me, Renald, Sophiane or Fernande.

• Those who opened their house to receive refugees must be very cautious and inform the church about it.

• Not to receive children or young people under 18 who don’t have an adult relative with them. The children must be referred to the Haitian Consulate in Barahona and/or to the Committee for Human Rights that has a special place for them.

• Give good psychological support to the victims.

We give special thanks to Mission Possible for the spiritual and financial support they provided.

In Christ,

Moise

Pictures (note: some show open wounds)