“It’s really hard to say what is the state of Covid-19 in Haiti right now. Many people don’t believe in the pandemic in Haiti. People are staying home and self-treating. They’re not going to the hospital,” said Margarett Lubin, country director of Haiti for CORE, a nonprofit started by Sean Penn after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. She, and colleague Dr. Floris Nesi, added that a lack of testing has also contributed to the opaque situation.

Commingled with these issues is widespread mistrust amongst the population towards the government and public health authorities, who often must battle misinformation, which can further stigmatize patients seeking care.

Despite ongoing outreach campaigns to counter these conspiracy theories with scientifically-supported public health policies, progress has been meager, according to Nesi.

“For the most part people are not listening,” he said, which Lubin said is also reflected in the crowded Port-Au-Prince streets as well as the open markets, offices, including government offices, and international airport. Nesi said many Haitians “Don’t believe in the care they provide in hospital,” and that they prefer to treat themselves using traditional medicines, including teas made from armoise (mugwort) and other local plants. He said that people have tended to only visit hospitals only in the late stages of the disease when positive outcomes are far less likely. Lubin said that for many, staying at home or adhering to public health recommendations is difficult due to their need to continuing earning income.

But even if people change their perspectives, and seek care in hospitals and clinics, it is unlikely that the nation has the capacity to treat them, Nesi said.

“The big challenge is the health system is not ready for this virus. We have only 1,120 hospital beds,” Nesi said. A 2019 report in PLoS ONE found that the country only has 124 ICU beds.

Lubin also pointed out that a Covid-19 response also has to be integrated into a healthcare system that must continue to treat those with malnourishment, diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic conditions. Nesi said that many people are forced to travel far distances in order to access care, leading him to believe that a proper solution must be a joint program with several ministries, including those responsible for transportation, education, health, agriculture, and food.

Despite the many unknowns, Lubin and Nesi feel comfortable declaring that there is currently no surge in Haiti, even as testing rates remain relatively low, thanks to more traditional modes of communication.

“News travels so fast here, in cholera you knew exactly what was happening, also from the media, and because people were dropping dead. We’re not seeing any of that and we haven’t heard that either,” Lubin said. “There is no way the government would be able to hide a real outbreak,” she said, though cautioned that one could very well be impending, given the pervasive lack of adherence to social distancing and other public health directives.

Learning From Cholera

CORE and other NGOs have been relying on lessons from their response to cholera and the 2010 earthquake in order to inform their operations and communication strategies for this current outbreak. The Covid-19 pandemic in Haiti, the second-most populous country in the Caribbean with about 11 million people, comes after a cholera epidemic that killed at least 9,200 Haitians and infected at least 820,000 people, according to the Pan-American Health Organization.

Starting in 2010, the last case was identified in January 2019. Beyond the sheer scale of destruction, that experience also had a lasting impact among the population. Despite substantial evidence to the contrary from as early as 2011, the UN officially denied responsibility for years, before finally admitting their role in 2016, as the outbreak was shown to have originated from UN peacekeepers from Nepal.

“The people telling them to wash their hands were infecting them,” said Mark Schuller, an anthropology professor at the Northern Illinois University and president of the Haitian Studies Association. “It struck as hypocritical and infantilizing,” he said, noting that the years of denials “cost the UN any kind of legitimacy amongst most professionals in Haiti.”

That legacy is something CORE is having to deal with now. The NGO has sought to do so, in part, by finding the most influential members of a given area. “When you go into a community and you try to collaborate and engage with leaders to participate, don’t just look for local officials, but really look into those people that the community looks to up and listens to and try to integrate them into the program,” Lubin said.

When she and her team first started their outreach programs, Lubin said there was widespread resistance to establishing Covid-19 clinics in some communities due to unfounded fears that such clinics would help spread the disease. It was only after CORE mobilized local volunteers to engage locals and explain the situation that leaders changed their minds.

Other, more subtle strategies emerged only after trial and error during this pandemic. When CORE members visited the most vulnerable neighborhoods in Port-Au-Prince and more remote areas in the western part of the county to hand out masks, many did not want to accept them, since the masks being handed out were different than the masks CORE staffers and volunteers were wearing.

A Legacy of Mistrust

Schuller said that the origin of mistrust in Haitian society towards their government, the UN, the U.S., Europe, and other actors is deep-seated and based on centuries of adverse, and even punitive, policies.

“Haiti has been subjugated because of its role as a foil to slavery. It’s unbroken. Haiti was invaded 26 times,” he said. Since the U.S. left in 1934, policies set in Washington and Brussels have also propped up unpopular Haitian regimes, which Schuller said has created “two layers of distrust for specific foreign injustices.” Prior to the Covid-19 conspiracy theories, this mistrust was also exemplified by widespread protests last summer and fall as well as earlier this year over, inter alia, $2 billion in missing public funds for large scale infrastructure projects, government spending decisions, and working conditions for police.

“People are very suspicious of the government and you have to collaborate with the government to do this work, so people see you as choosing sides. We received masks from the Ministry of Health and people recognized masks as being from the government and thought they were contaminated,” Lubin said. To allay such fears, she mandated that CORE personnel would wear the government-provided masks during distribution, in order to help build trust.

Public health challenges in Haiti have been more fundamental. As late as June, in some western parts of Haiti, people had not heard of Covid-19, Lubin said.

Underlying issues of poverty on the island are also impairing the ability of healthcare workers to respond in this pandemic and to chronic health issues in general. As is often the case at community health centers in the U.S., Nesi gave the example of instances when he prescribes patients medicines that have to be taken with food, and patients have responded that they are food insecure, before asking if he could prescribe another drug that does not require food.

Even as these issues persist, there are some bright spots.

“They say it’s a disease from foreign people who are trying to kill them, or they say don’t believe in it, but many do something underground, like with cholera. They start washing their hands more,” Lubin said. “But it was only when they saw people die in the streets during the cholera outbreak that they really started to follow recommendations.”

Since the nature of Covid-19 is different, such visual clues might indicate a situation that is already out of hand.

“We are very scared about the situation in 2 to 3 months. We don’t have collective immunity… It might come, I hope it doesn’t,” Nesi said.

Since 2010, Direct Relief has delivered $348 million in medicines and medical supplies to Haiti in support of 224 healthcare centers. Support has been built around several disasters including the 2010 earthquake, cholera outbreak, Hurricane Matthew, and ongoing public health initiatives.  Direct Relief’s year-to-date support to Haitian healthcare centers is valued at $20.8 million and has supported 23 health centers. Direct Relief’s Covid-19 response in Haiti has included the delivery of oxygen concentrators, Emergency Medical Packs, Covid-19 ICU kits, as well as financial support to groups providing medical care in the country.

The post Haitian Medical Providers Remain Wary with Covid-19 Case Counts Unclear appeared first on Direct Relief.

The growing support from donors came in a year when Direct Relief extended help to more people in need than ever before in its 69-year history, furnishing essential medications, vaccines, instruments and supplies through 13,554 deliveries to all 50 U.S. states and 86 countries. Direct Relief is supported only by private, charitable contributions, and accepts no government funding.

In the Forbes ranking, Direct Relief earned a perfect score of 100 percent in fundraising efficiency (percent of private donations remaining after fundraising expenses) and a 99 percent rating for its charitable commitment (charitable services as a percent of total expenses).

Direct Relief has also earned a place on the Perfect 100 list published by Charity Navigator, one of only 65 charities to achieve 100 percent scores out of the nearly 8,000 organizations rated by the charity watchdog for accountability, transparency and financial health.

From July 2016 through June 2017, Direct Relief’s activities included the following:

• Provided $129 million in lifesaving medicines and other medical aid to more than 1,300 health centers and clinics throughout the United States, helping patients face challenges including chronic diabetes and opioid addiction.
• Responded to Hurricane Matthew in Haiti and prepositioned emergency medical supplies along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean in advance of the devastating 2017 hurricane season.
• Supported doctors in Syria with urgently needed medical items, including a chemical weapons antidote, after a deadly series of attacks on Syrian medical facilities.
• Bolstered Yemeni hospitals with medications and supplies to combat a rapidly expanding outbreak of cholera.Since 2009, Direct Relief has provided more than $4.4 billion in lifesaving medicines and medical resources to help low-income people in 115 countries and all 50 U.S. states. The only organization to obtain VAWD accreditation to distribute pharmaceuticals in all 50 U.S. states, Direct Relief operates the country’s largest charitable medicines program.

The full list of Forbes’s ratings and methodology for The 100 Largest U.S. Charities of 2017 is available here.

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The hardest to reach people are often the most in need. Armed conflict, ­and the complex political, socioeconomic and geographical factors that characterize conflict zones, not only produce human suffering but also militate against humanitarian aid. What’s more, as people flee the fighting and populations disperse, humanitarian crises can escalate quickly across vast geographies – both within the country, where families survive as internally displaced people (IDPs), and across borders, where they seek safety and security as refugees.

The resulting challenge for aid agencies is to negotiate the various barriers to delivering aid to those in need. These can include inaccessible ports, roads and bridges, checkpoints, and no-go areas. Such physical obstacles often are coupled with administrative hurdles and a limited capacity to store and transport supplies securely. Direct threats to personnel, drivers and those receiving aid also factor into the difficulty of getting assistance to areas of need.

The ongoing civil conflicts in Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria have created the biggest flow of refugees and one of the greatest humanitarian crises since World War II. The scale of the crisis is hard to fathom and is occurring simultaneously across multiple countries with common and discrete local characteristics.

Afghanistan: The United Nations estimates that nearly one-third of Afghanistan’s population will need aid in 2017. Recognizing the ongoing need, Direct Relief has sent nine shipments of medical aid to Afshar Hospital in southwest Kabul since July 2016, allowing the hospital to carry on their life-saving work in underserved communities. The latest shipment, which arrived Dec. 15, 2016, journeyed almost 8,000 miles through some of the world’s most treacherous territory.

The shipment, which was sent from Direct Relief’s Goleta warehouse, wound its way through the rugged Khyber Pass before crossing the Torkham border from Pakistan into Afghanistan. The shipment took over three months to get to Kabul, primarily because the country’s board of pharmacy was disbanded, and newly appointed officers instituted different importation rules.

The delays added on to the shipment time, but Direct Relief met the criteria, and the shipment of surgical supplies, antibiotics, syringe needles, gauze, bandages and other items arrived at Afshar Hospital.

Syria: With civilians under constant siege, area hospitals in and around Aleppo have also been under attack. Several of these hospitals were destroyed while awaiting shipments from Direct Relief. With doctors and nurses administering care wherever they can, a follow-up shipment from Direct Relief will provide emergency medicine and supplies to treat patients, as well as three medical tents to serve as makeshift hospitals.  Five solar suitcases, which will provide power for the tents, are also en route from Turkey.

Direct Relief also works wherever it can around the edges of the conflict. One example is the Jordanian government, which is supporting more than 1 million Syrian refugees. Donations of medical supplies and medicines from Direct Relief are also enabling medical groups in Turkey and Greece to care for refugees.

Yemen: A similar shipment is on its way to Yemen, which has been in humanitarian crisis since 2015, with children particularly impacted. Direct Relief has shipped medical tents, an emergency health kit and solar suitcases to the country by way of neighboring Djibouti. Yemen’s airport remains closed, leaving sea transport as one of the only options to get aid into the country.

In each place, Direct Relief pursues the same goal of delivering medical aid to refugees who have been forced to flee their country and to those displaced within their country’s borders. To make this possible, creativity and the continual search for excellent partner groups on the ground is key.

Getting aid to those in need in conflict zones is perhaps the hardest challenge faced by Direct Relief. As conflict erupts, access to food, shelter, water and health care is threatened. As people are displaced by fighting, the needs expand even more. It’s not always possible, but often – and always in partnership with local groups – medicine makes it to the people who need it.

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Direct Relief staff stage hundreds of pallets bound for Haiti in the organization’s Santa Barbara warehouse on Dec. 20, 2016. The shipment, valued at $39.9 million, is the largest in the organization’s 69-year history.

Direct Relief’s warehouse staff worked through the holidays to prepare 258 pallets of essential medications and supplies with a wholesale value of $39.9 million. The shipment – the largest by value in Direct Relief’s 69-year history – traveled by a chartered cargo jet from Los Angeles to Port-au-Prince.

Dozens of health care companies that support Direct Relief’s humanitarian health efforts contributed the supplies, augmented by funds contributed by donors to Direct Relief specifically for Hurricane Matthew assistance.

While the Haiti crisis has faded from the headlines, the situation remains urgent. More than 1.4 million people require assistance months after the storm wiped out food crops and damaged more than 90 percent of fruit and forest trees, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Direct Relief responded to requests for help from Haiti immediately after the storm made landfall, but a critical and ongoing need for aid persists.

“The facilities receiving support from this airlift were especially hard-hit and are struggling to recover from the effects of Hurricane Matthew,” said Andrew MacCalla, Direct Relief’s Director of International Programs. “Many of their patients had homes damaged or destroyed and their livelihoods cut off.”

“The situation in southern Haiti after Hurricane Matthew is dire, and the risks of disease and famine are dangerously high,” said Conor Shapiro of the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, a Direct Relief partner that provides health care, educational opportunities and community development programs.

The supplies on this shipment were requested by 37 Haitian organizations, including St. Boniface, that represent more than 200 health care facilities in Haiti, which often are unable to access or afford the essential medicines they need to meet the demands of their patient populations.

Among the airlift’s contents are 16 specially designed cholera modules that include infusion therapy supplies to help rehydrate patients, as well as antibiotics. Each module can treat 40 severe and 60 moderate cases of cholera.

Because cholera prevention hinges on the availability of safe drinking water, Direct Relief is also sending enough P&G Purifier of Water sachets to purify 1.5 million gallons of water. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the sachets were “designed to reverse-engineer a water treatment plant, incorporating the multiple barrier processes of removal of particles and disinfection.”

Haiti has also seen a rise in cases of diphtheria, a potentially deadly bacterial infection. To help patients suffering from diphtheria, the shipment contains antibiotics and respiratory supplies. Also included in the shipment are hygiene products, soaps, detergent and bleach, and medications to treat chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension and depression.

This delivery adds to several from Direct Relief to Haiti since the storm hit, including a 17-ton consignment that FedEx delivered in October free of charge on a chartered 757 flight.

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More than 1 million people in Haiti are still in need due to the hurricane, and disease remains rampant, with almost 4,000 cholera cases reported since Oct. 4.

Direct Relief was quick to respond to healthcare partners after the storm and will continue to do so through the recovery.

Financial Summary

Direct Relief received more than 3,000 Hurricane Matthew-designated financial contributions totaling $827,962; including pledges, the total increases to $1,071,266.

Direct Relief recognizes that the generous supporters who pledged and gave more than $1 million in response to Hurricane Matthew did so with the express intent that their contributions benefit people affected by the storm.

In accepting funds for Hurricane Matthew, Direct Relief understands that both those who contributed — and the people for whose benefit the contributions were made — deserve to know, in detail, how Direct Relief is using these funds.

*Direct Relief does not rely on government funding.

The Response

As the world’s attention shifts, Direct Relief remains committed to supporting the needs of local healthcare providers in Haiti and the U.S.

United States

Direct Relief shipped $1.3 million worth of supplies to impacted communities in the U.S. after Matthew. Five tons of medicines and medical supplies were sent in 29 different shipments.

Before the storm made landfall, Direct Relief had prepositioned emergency medical modules in the hurricane’s path. Two were opened after the storm, one at the Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in North Carolina, and another at the Franklin C. Fetter Health Care Network in South Carolina.

Each U.S.–bound pack contains enough medicines and supplies to treat 100 patients for three to five days after a hurricane hits.

Haiti

Roadways and bridges were washed away by the storm, and some of the hardest-hit communities in the southwestern part of the country also proved the most difficult to access. In the following weeks, Direct Relief used any means possible to transport aid, including by helicopters and ships.

Since Oct. 4, Direct Relief delivered $10 million worth of medicines and medical supplies to Haiti – nearly 20 tons. That included more than half a million daily doses of medication.

Material Support

Below is a list of companies that contributed medical resources to the response.

Looking Forward

Cholera persists as a life-threatening force in the country, and Direct Relief will continue to supply partners with supplies to treat this preventable, but deadly, disease. Direct Relief is continuing to deliver shipments of oral rehydration salts, IV equipment and other needed supplies.

The next delivery is scheduled to arrive in the coming days with more than 500,000 water purification sachets. Each sachet can clean 10 liters of drinking water. In total, the shipment will result in nearly 1.5 million gallons of safe drinking water.

The shipment will also contain oral rehydration salts, which can be mixed with the purified water to restore the electrolytes of a dehydrated person.

The post Hurricane Matthew: The Response Continues appeared first on Direct Relief.

Some of those places include:

Clarksburg, West Virginia, where a woman who was recently diagnosed with diabetes came into a clinic in desperate need of syringes she could not afford. She had been able to get insulin from her doctor’s office, but not syringes, according to James Harris, executive director of Clarksburg-based Health Access, Inc. When she took her prescription for the syringes to the drugstore, she discovered that syringes cost $10 per box.

“She cried as she said that it might as well be $1,000 because she didn’t have the $10 to purchase the syringes,” Harris said.

The situation changed when she turned to the Health Access clinic that Direct Relief supports. “She left our clinic that day with a box of donated syringes, and since that time she has become a patient at our clinic and receives necessary insulin supplies on a monthly basis here due to the generosity of programs like those offered by Direct Relief,” Harris said.

Rural Tanzania, where a woman named Agnes recently underwent surgery to repair a fistula at Selian Lutheran Hospital, a facility that Direct Relief supports with medical and surgical supplies. Months later, Agnes gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She named her baby Anna after her nurse at Selian Lutheran. The two returned home to their family in good health.

This year, Direct Relief equipped health care facilities throughout Africa with the resources to provide 3,750 women the fistula repair surgery that Agnes received.

Syria and beyond its borders, where Direct Relief continues to provide medical assistance to doctors, medical missions, and local organizations that are caring for refugees. This past year, Direct Relief has provided more than $4 million in critically-needed medical items to support health services in the Syrian border nations of Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Ecuador, where a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 16, 2016, caused untold devastation. In response, Direct Relief chartered a 767 cargo aircraft that delivered 47 tons of medicines and supplies worth $2.1 million – the largest single shipment of emergency medical assistance. Six months later, Direct Relief is still working to strengthen the resilience of the health system and help the country recover.

India and Nepal, where people living with lysosomal storage disorders, hemophilia, and other rare diseases often lack access to treatment due to the extremely high costs and a lack of availability of specialized medicines. Over the last year, Direct Relief provided life-saving enzyme replacement therapy to 89 patients who otherwise may not have survived.

80+ countries in which Direct Relief has responded to more requests for assistance than ever before in its nearly 70-year history.

Thanks to everyone who makes this work possible.

The post In Haiti and Throughout the World, The Work Continues appeared first on Direct Relief.

In spite of this, Direct Relief has been working to get aid delivered using whatever transportation is required, including by helicopter, fixed-wing airplane, road and water transport.

Portions of Haiti’s southwestern peninsula, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Matthew, remain inaccessible by vehicle, so supplies were delivered off the coast of Les Anglais by sea.

Aided by the Royal Dutch Navy, Direct Relief transported and offloaded medical supplies Monday to an area of southwest Haiti inaccessible by road.

The shipments, which contain essential medicines to treat diseases like cholera, were offloaded onto smaller supply vessels and taken to shore.

The organization is currently coordinating closely with the United Nations World Food Program and other responders to get these essential supplies to where they’re needed.

While the shipments were being offloaded in Les Anglais, the Direct Relief emergency response team delivered emergency supplies and cholera medicines to five health facilities that could be accessed by truck from Les Cayes to Port-a-Piment, a stretch of coastline seriously impacted by the hurricane.

Direct Relief will continue to work and coordinate with the UN, local and national government authorities and local partners as part of the ongoing Hurricane Matthew disaster response.

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Nearly 17 tons of medical supplies and medicines were loaded onto a FedEx 757 plane in Memphis Wednesday morning and will go to victims of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti.

Included on the chartered 757 flight — which was donated generously by FedEx — were medical supplies to fight cholera, infections, wounds, hypertension and other diseases that are now threatening thousands in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.

The 757 took off at 7:30 a.m. from Memphis, and one of the items aboard was a hurricane preparedness pack, filled with enough medicines and supplies for a large hospital to treat 3,000 people for three months.

The shipment also included items specifically requested by local providers to address cholera, including IV solutions and antibiotics.

Three hours later, the 757 landed in Port-au-Prince, where Direct Relief staff stood waiting to start transport. The team was able to clear customs, load trucks and begin distribution and deliveries within a few hours.

https://youtu.be/wjZM0A00v-8

The items that had yet to be distributed were secured in a warehouse by sunset, and deliveries were ferried by helicopter to affected areas on Thursday.

The view from the air will allow staff to see road and bridge conditions as they plan to transport aid in the coming days.

Much of the aid transported Wednesday and Thursday will help deal with the many cases of cholera that have sprung up in the hurricane’s wake. Some cholera-related deaths have already occurred in the storm’s aftermath, and these shipments are filled with disease-fighting supplies.

Direct Relief will continue to work with local providers to ensure they have what they need to keep more patients from losing their lives to this deadly disease.

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Before the storm, Direct Relief prepositioned hurricane preparedness packs with health care partners in hurricane-prone states. Each pack contains enough medicine and supplies to treat 100 patients for three to five days.

The Fetter Health Care Network in Charleston, South Carolina – where power is limited – has opened the pack in their area, and also requested additional supplies.  Another pack was opened and is being used for hurricane relief by the Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in Ahoskie, North Carolina.  Reports there indicate that major flooding has occurred in five counties as the center responds to its community.

Another provider, Goshen Medical Center in North Carolina, reported that many of their sites have been closed due to water damage, power outages, and road closures. Refrigerated medicines have been lost in the outage. Anticipating a need for items such as insulin, vaccines, and inhalers, Direct Relief is preparing a shipment for delivery in the coming days.

Personal hygiene kits have also been in high demand. To address the need, over 60 volunteers gathered Tuesday at Direct Relief’s Goleta warehouse to pack over 3,000 care kits. Each kit contains items such as toothpaste, soap, and other hygiene supplies. The kits will be sent to Hurricane Matthew victims in the U.S. as well as Haiti.

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Flooding in storm-affected areas can spread the disease. Damaged sanitation infrastructure can leak sewage into rivers and other water sources. Because the bacteria has a short incubation period, cholera often has an explosive pattern of outbreaks, especially during the rainy season, which lasts from May through October.

Direct Relief continues to monitor the situation and will report on incidences of the disease caused by the storm.

The post Cholera in Haiti: The Crisis After the Storm appeared first on Direct Relief.

Her fundraising page can be seen here.

It all started with uncharacteristic silence at the family’s dinner table earlier this week.  The family had been talking about Hurricane Matthew, which was then about to make landfall in Haiti.

“We talked about Haiti and Cuba and how their buildings weren’t as strong as some of ours here in the U.S. and there were probably people there that didn’t know the storm was coming,” Madeline’s mother, Erin, recalled.

Erin, a certified National Weather Service SKYWARN spotter, said weather conversations are commonplace in their home. When Madeline asked about what might happen in the wake of the hurricane, her parents were honest.

“We told her people may lose their homes, school belongings, access to food, medical aid and clean water, and unfortunately, some their lives,” Erin said.

The family talked about how people in their home state would also lose a lot and be without power for a long time.

“Madeline got very quiet, which is a rarity for her as she is a very charismatic child, and then told us how bad she felt for the people the hurricane was going to hit,” her mom said.

After dinner, Madeline went to her room. When she returned, she announced that she wanted to help fundraise for Hurricane Matthew victims.

The third grader had done other fundraisers for school, and she and her mother sat down to examine which organizations were helping those in need.

After some research, the pair chose Direct Relief as the organization to benefit, wanting to make sure as much funding as possible went to people in need.

After posting a fundraising page on the fundraising site, Mighty Cause (formerly Razoo), Madeline got her elementary school involved and even made a presentation on their morning news broadcast to spread the word.

For each dollar donated to Madeline’s page, Direct Relief will be able to send more than $30 worth of supplies and medicines to hurricane victims, leveraging partnerships with medical and pharmaceutical companies.

As they raise money, the family is also enduring the storm themselves. They live in Tampa and don’t have to evacuate, though they will get tropical storm force wind and rain.

“We are heartbroken over what is about to happen to our state,” Erin said Thursday.

They are taking in friends who live in the path of the storm, however, and have family and friends in Georgia and South Carolina that are also in the path of Hurricane Matthew.

In the meantime, Madeline is doing her part to help others.

“Her empathy for others is beyond amazing and she has a heart of pure gold,” Erin said.  “It does not surprise me that she wants to help others in need.”

To donate to Direct Relief’s hurricane efforts, click here.

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Haiti Response

Over the past week, Direct Relief has been coordinating its response with local partners Haiti, where two emergency modules were prepositioned before the start of hurricane season. Each prepositioned module contains enough medicines and medical supplies to treat up to 5,000 people for a month.

In times of crisis, clinics and hospitals are often underequipped to handle large influxes of patients. To help prepare local healthcare providers for an event like Hurricane Matthew, Direct Relief runs the largest hurricane preparedness program for medical supplies in the world.

Direct Relief also shipped another 86 pallets to Haiti. The shipments, sent in preparation for the storm, are equal to about five ocean freight containers, with a total value of $13 million. When the country’s roads open up, the supplies will be delivered to at least a dozen hospitals and clinics.

As damage assessments are completed, Direct Relief will mobilize additional resources in response to the specific needs of health facilities

U.S. Response

As the only humanitarian nonprofit with a fifty-state license to deliver prescription medicine, Direct Relief works with more than 200 health centers and clinics in regions affected by Hurricane Matthew.

In advance of the storm, nine emergency medical packs were stationed along the hurricane’s coastal path. Each pack contains enough medicine and supplies to treat 100 patients for three to five days after a hurricane hits.

Direct Relief is preparing additional deliveries of medical assistance in response to requests from health centers and clinics in affected areas

Mapping Hurricane Risk

Direct Relief conducts vulnerability analyses to inform emergency preparedness efforts ahead of expected storms and guide response activities in their aftermath.

While much of the attention in a hurricane focuses on the physical destruction, a storm’s human cost is determined as much by a community’s ability to react and bounce back as by its wind velocity and the volume of rain it packs.

In fact, many of the locations most vulnerable to hurricanes are inland and in rural areas. One reason is that people living in coastal regions tend to be wealthier, better prepared, and able to evacuate if needed.

Direct Relief’s latest analysis looks at four factors that make people especially vulnerable to hurricanes: mobility, poverty, health, and language.

The report is publicly available here:

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That’s because a hurricane’s human cost is determined as much by a community’s ability to react ­­–­ and bounce back – as by its wind velocity and the volume of rain it packs.

A multitude of social and environmental factors influence a community’s vulnerability to hurricanes and other emergencies.

These four top the list.

1. Mobility: In advance of Hurricane Matthew, Florida and the Carolinas have called on coastal communities to evacuate inland. For elderly residents and those without access to a car or other forms of transportation, compliance with evacuation orders can prove challenging. Geography can also present an obstacle. For example, islands in the Florida Keys are connected to the mainland by a series of bridges.

2. Poverty: Not everyone within a hurricane’s path is equally at risk. In fact, many of the locations most vulnerable to hurricanes are inland and in rural areas. A Direct Relief study looked at a decade of hurricane data and found the ten counties where people would likely be overwhelmed by a hurricane’s impact. None of the counties were coastal. One reason is that people living in coastal areas tend to be wealthier, better prepared, and able to evacuate quickly if needed. Inland areas may also suffer from flash flooding and mudslides.

3. Health: In emergency situations, people who depend on medications for chronic conditions – primarily diabetes, asthma, and hypertension – are particularly at risk if their medications are unavailable. People often leave their medication at home during mass evacuations. Also, power outages can compromise insulin or other supplies that require refrigeration.

4. Language: Language barriers can hinder all areas of emergency response. They can prevent residents from communicating with dispatchers and keep doctors from talking with patients in a triage tent.

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Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas are in the hurricane’s most direct path, and millions of residents have been warned to evacuate and seek shelter.After causing devastation days earlier in Haiti, Hurricane Matthew’s impacts are expected to be extensive in the U.S., with flooding – coastal as well as inland – reaching levels that haven’t been experienced in decades.

The National Hurricane Center reported winds of 140 miles per hour on Thursday, while forecasters warned of even greater wind speeds, storm surges that could exceed 10 feet, and widespread power outages along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Direct Relief’s Response

Direct Relief has made available its entire inventory of medicines and supplies – valued at nearly $100 million – to help people affected by Hurricane Matthew. In addition, the organization has committed up to $250,000 in cash to assist with the storm response.

Haiti

Over the past several days, Direct Relief has been coordinating with staff  and partner health facilities in Haiti, where it prepositioned two specialized modules in Haiti in anticipation of this type of event.

These modules contain enough emergency medicines and medical supplies to treat up to 5,000 people for a month and ensure healthcare providers have what they need to treat patients on-site after a disaster. This way, the damage that occurs to roads, bridges, and ports does not affect their ability to respond.

Another 86 pallets were shipped recently to Haiti and have arrived in the country. The shipments, sent in preparation for the storm, are equal to about five ocean freight containers, with a total value of $13 million. When the country’s roads open up, the pallets will be delivered to at least a dozen hospitals and clinics.

United States

Direct Relief works with more than 200 U.S. health centers and clinics in regions affected by Hurricane Matthew. In advance of the storm, 9 emergency supply packs were stationed along the hurricane’s coastal path.

Each pack contains enough medicine and supplies to treat 100 patients for three to five days after the hurricane hits.

As the situation changes in communities affected by the storm, Direct Relief will mobilize additional resources as they are needed.

Though the storm poses a threat to anyone in its path, certain populations are more vulnerable to its effects than others.

That’s because a hurricane’s human cost is determined as much by a community’s ability to react — and bounce back – as by its wind velocity and the volume of rain it packs.

A multitude of social and environmental factors influence a community’s vulnerability to hurricanes and other emergencies.

These four top the list:

• Mobility: In advance of Hurricane Matthew, Florida and the Carolinas have called on coastal communities to evacuate inland. For elderly residents and those without access to a car or other forms of transportation, compliance with evacuation orders can prove challenging. Geography can also present an obstacle. For example, islands in the Florida Keys are connected to the mainland by a series of bridges. There, and in similar areas, transportation is a problem on a good day. Hurricane Matthew could compromise mobility even further.

• Poverty: Not everyone within a hurricane’s path is equally at risk. In fact, many of the locations most vulnerable to hurricanes are inland and in rural areas. One reason is that people living in coastal areas tend to be wealthier, better prepared, and able to evacuate quickly if needed. Inland areas may also suffer from flash flooding and mudslides. Medical clinics that serve the poor and underinsured are often the most impacted by hurricanes because the populations they serve are disproportionately affected. Without the ability to pay for care, patients may avoid follow-up appointments or forgo treatment altogether.

• Health: In emergency situations, people who depend on medications for chronic conditions – primarily diabetes, asthma, and hypertension – are particularly at risk if their medications are unavailable. People often leave their medication at home during mass evacuations. Also, power outages can compromise insulin or other supplies that require refrigeration. Disabilities are another risk factor. People with hearing or visual impairments may not receive real-time evacuation information, and people with physical limitations may be unable to heed public safety warnings.

• Language: Language barriers can hinder all areas of emergency response. They can prevent residents from communicating with dispatchers and keep doctors from talking with patients in a triage tent. Effective communications are also critical before a crisis. For example, certain communities are more likely to receive warnings from and rely upon social networks rather than official channels. These communities may experience delays in receiving warning messages as a result.

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Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti just west of Les Cayes, bringing with it winds of more than 140 miles per hour.

A storm of Matthew’s strength would present a serious threat anywhere. The risk is even greater in Haiti, where a variety of challenges concerning health, the economy, and the environment are present already.

Direct Relief’s Response

757 Cargo Plane Lifts Off for Haiti, Carrying 16.7 Tons of Life-Saving Medical Aid

Direct Relief’s extensive hurricane preparedness medical supply program — which has grown into the world’s largest in recent years — has pre-positioned two of the specialized modules in Haiti in anticipation of this type of event. These modules contain enough emergency medicines and medical supplies to treat up to 5,000 people for a month and ensure healthcare providers have what they need to treat patients on-site after a disaster. This way, the damage that occurs to roads, bridges, and ports does not affect their ability to respond.

In Haiti, two of these modules were prepositioned in the hurricane’s path. Additional modules are staged in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and multiple hurricane prep packs – a smaller version of the medical modules – are prepositioned along the southern and eastern coasts of the U.S.

Another 86 pallets were shipped recently to Haiti and have arrived in the country. The shipments, sent in preparation for the storm, are equal to about five ocean freight containers, with a total value of $13 million. When the country’s roads open up, the pallets will be delivered to at least a dozen hospitals and clinics.

Direct Relief is mobilizing additional items that are a priority for medical care during the storm. These include antibiotics, vaccines, rehydration products, wound care supplies, IV solution and tubing, and medications for a range of chronic health conditions.

Long-Term Commitment

Since the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Direct Relief has been the largest private provider of medical aid into the country. This includes responses to a number of disease outbreaks including cholera, dengue, chikungunya, and most recently, Zika. To date, Direct Relief has supported over 200 medical facilities with donations of specifically requested items totaling $220 million wholesale.

Direct Relief will mobilize additional support and respond to the needs of local partners.

Support the Response

Policy Regarding Hurricane Matthew Donations

People who would like to contribute to Direct Relief’s Hurricane Matthew response can do so by visiting Direct Relief’s donation page and directing their donation to “Hurricane Matthew.”

As with other large-scale emergencies, Direct Relief will use all contributions designated for Hurricane Matthew solely for relief and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Matthew.

No portion of any contribution for Hurricane Matthew will be used for fundraising purposes. A bequest pays 100% of Direct Relief’s fundraising expenses.

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The post Hurricane Matthew: 5 Top Concerns appeared first on Direct Relief.

With the U.S. National Hurricane Center anticipating winds as high as 160 mph and forecasters warning of heavy rain, Matthew could prove devastating as it makes landfall Monday in eastern Jamaica and southwestern Haiti.

National disaster authorities, residents in Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba, and Direct Relief staff on the ground continue to prepare for the impact of the category 4 hurricane.

Jamaica and Haiti were expected to start experiencing hurricane-force winds Monday, and the hurricane’s slow forward movement is cause for additional concern. That is because communities impacted on the ground will be subjected to the hurricane-force winds and torrential rain for a longer period.

Light wind and rain so far, expecting things to worsen in the coming hours. We are prepared to shelter in place #HurricaneMatthew pic.twitter.com/CBTboTrJ0f

— Health Equity International (@StBonifaceHaiti) October 3, 2016

This drastically increases the risk of severe flooding and mudslides as well as the likelihood of damage to shelter and infrastructure – predictions indicate that southern Haiti around Jeremie and Les Cayes may experience up to 40 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.

Cuba, the Bahamas, and Miami also fall within Matthew’s projected path, though landfall is expected in the following days.

Direct Relief’s Response

Direct Relief is in regular contact with local partners and health officials throughout the Caribbean, having delivered more than $100 million in essential medicines and supplies to the region in 2016. This includes the strategic pre-positioning of emergency medical modules at healthcare facilities in areas of extreme hurricane risk.

Three of these modules are stationed with partners in Jamaica and Haiti in Matthew’s projected path.

Direct Relief runs the largest hurricane preparedness medical supply program in the world to help prepare its healthcare partners for an event like Hurricane Matthew. Modules filled with enough emergency medicines and medical supplies to treat up to 5,000 people for a month have been pre-positioned with healthcare facilities along Matthew’s projected path. These kits allow care providers to address a variety of conditions, from basic trauma injuries to chronic illnesses, for a one-month period, during which follow-on support can be mobilized.

Currently, there are two modules in Haiti and one in Jamaica, and additional modules are prepositioned in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua. Multiple modules are also stationed with health facilities along the south and east coasts of the United States.

Direct Relief also maintains pre-packed and ready-to-ship emergency health kits that contain the essential emergency medicines and medical supplies needed by a health facility or medical team to treat 1,000 people. Additionally, Direct Relief can deploy emergency medical tents that can be used for the provision of medical care inside when other facilities have been damaged or destroyed.

Since the earthquake in 2010, Direct Relief has been the largest private provider of medical aid into Haiti and has supported over 200 medical facilities with donations of specifically requested items totaling $240 million wholesale.

Due to the need that still exists, Direct Relief continues to have staff based in Haiti and operates a medical supply depot to facilitate the receipt and onward distribution of essential medical products to the facilities. Direct Relief has recently sent Zika modules and cholera kits to help address those ongoing crises as well.

Direct Relief has provided $26 million wholesale to 15 healthcare facilities in Jamaica over the same time period and is also actively involved in a Zika Response there.

As Hurricane Matthew tracks northwards, Direct Relief is maintaining close communication with our partners in Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba, and stand ready to dispatch additional emergency supplies and funds as needed.

Policy Regarding Hurricane Matthew Donations

People who would like to contribute to Direct Relief’s Hurricane Matthew response can do so by visiting Direct Relief’s donation page and directing their donation to “Hurricane Matthew.”

As with other large-scale emergencies, Direct Relief will use all contributions designated for Hurricane Matthew solely for relief and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Matthew.

No portion of any contribution for Hurricane Matthew will be used for fundraising purposes. A bequest pays 100% of Direct Relief’s fundraising expenses.

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