Wednesday, 11 January 2012
"There are ten million people in Haiti and when the major infrastructure is damaged in a very fragile state like that it impacted the entire country. So we really focused where we had the relationships in the north, to help them maintain their ability to care for people there. And of course we saw lots of internally displaced people coming out of Port au Prince who were injured and we really tried to work with the public system to that they could be a big part of the response to the earthquake in the north." - Nate Nickerson, speaking about Konbit Sante's response to the earthquake in Haiti
Listen to the interview in its entirety.
Konbit Sante, a Portland based public health partnership that works in northern Haiti, is gearing up for sending their next shipping container in early 2012. We are looking for volunteers to assist in the sorting, packing, cleaning and organizing of medical supplies and equipment that will go to support improved health care for people in Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city and Portland's sister city.
Many people in the US will be upgrading their cell phones in the coming months, and we are in need of smart phones ( Iphones, Android, Blackberry) that are in good working condition. Integrating smart phones into our field work initiatives will allow enhanced data collection and an increase in real time communications. If we can gather enough cell phones to distribute to our community health workers (see below), this will greatly improve our productivity in the field. This technology holds great potential for increasing our effectiveness and efficiency in providing care to patients directly where they live.
