Archive for the ‘jacmel’ Category
Heart for Haiti Auction – update
The Heart for Haiti auction is live and the bidding has begun.
My aerial of the National Cathedral of Haiti, shot after the earthquake and fire, is part of this auction and show at the Aperture gallery in New York City. The exhibition opens this Wednesday evening at six.

All proceeds from the auction go to Doctors without Borders/MSF. I have worked with MSF/Doctors without Borders in partnership with the Community Coalition for Haiti, an NGO whose members have worked in Haiti since the mid-eighties. I have been a member of their board since 2001.
Most images in the auction started off with an initial bid of $250. As of this morning, my print is currently at $525. The aerial is LOT 33 in the auction.
Please check out the auction site and if in New York, the gallery opening.
Alien Skin twenty-percent sale for Haiti Relief
The good folks at Alien Skin software (the makers of the incredible Exposure 2 plug-in for photoshop) are donating ten-percent of their sales through the end of the month to the Red Cross and the Community Coalition for Haiti – the NGO that I shoot for and am a member of their board of directors. In addition to donating ten-percent of their sale, they are also offering twenty-percent off through the end of the month. Which is pretty cool!

Last Haiti Post for a while.
Yesterday I photographed dedicated utility crews working to restore power in Northern Virginia. The Mid-Atlantic rarely is slammed with heavy snows and this is the second of the season – both twenty plus inches. Another storm is workings its way across the country and I expect we will see between eight to ten inches by Wednesday morning.

Canadian Forces members who helped CCH transport a mobile operating room from Santa Domingo to Cayes Jacmel. Also shown is Karen Carr, Director of CCH and Knox Singelton, Chairman of Inova Health Systems and CCH board member.
I wanted to update everyone about the Community Coalition for Haiti impact so far. What has helped us is our long standing commitment to Haiti. Core members of our group have been traveling to Haiti to perform and assist Haitian medical professionals since the late eighties.
TO DATE CCH HAS:
Treated over 8,000 patients in PAP, Pignon, Jacmel, Cay Jacmel, and Leogane.
Shipped in 22 tons of medical supplies including a 16 ton mobile Operating Unit donated to CCH by a Swiss consortium.
Shipped in 2 tons of food and water, 1 ton of tents and tarps, with more cargo planes flying in this week ($1 provide 1 lb. of food directly to areas where 50-75% of the structures were damaged and people are living in tents cities to survive)
Sent in 7 medical teams (49 doctors and nurses) to some of the most devastated areas of Haiti including Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Cay Jacmel, Pignon, and Leogane.
Organized the collection and distribution of medical supplies for the Southwest Department of Haiti in cooperation with the Haitian Health Minister of the Southwest
Established ambulatory care system fro patient transfer and treatment in the Jacmel region
Providing ongoing triage and primary care at Hospital Saint Michel in Jacmel
There is a good chance that I will return to Haiti in late February for a week. This will be a good one. We will travel to remote villages where I’ll shoot stills and video of Haitian patients, villages and our team.

Patients waiting for treatment at Hospital Saint Michelle.

On the road to Lavalee in the mountains near Jacmel.
Jacmel, Haiti #4 | The Smile
A glimpse of normalcy.






Jacmel, Haiti #3 | The Collapse




Hospital Saint Michelle | The Carry

Stretchers everywhere. People just arrived as if almost by stealth mode. Some come in with a rush of emotions. Others, like this young man, found on the ground and no one saw the people who brought him to the hospital.

The entrance to our makeshift primary care unit was blocked by an abandoned ambulance. This elderly woman was carried by these two men to a emergency room physician who saw her right away.

This man carried his mother away from the hospital. I don’t know if he was taking her to another facility or why.

The Haitian Scouts were essential in helping keep order and to provide a sense of security to the people. They were a constant presence at the hospital and often helped carry patients into or from our ward.

This young woman suffered a significant injury to her right hip. Erin, a doctor from the Delaware group that worked alongside the CCH team, set the splint and arranged for her to be triaged to Cayes Jacmel hospital.
Jacmel, Haiti #2

The Sisters of Salesia have a small school and convent near Jacmel. They graciously allowed us to camp on their grounds and use one of their school rooms as a medical depot. Every morning as I made tea, the sisters would sing their prayers in French. Their voices lifted in harmony as they sang the Lords Prayer. It helped keep me centered and on track for the day ahead. On evening, the Sisters turned on the radio and started dancing with several children from Port Au Prince. I joined in and shot as they danced around me.

Every morning when we arrived at St. Michelle Hospital in Jacmel there was several lines of patients waiting for the doctors to attend to their needs. The CCH team worked alongside physicians and nurses from Delaware and Cuba. CCH hired a fixer to coordinate translators and drivers. Mel Schorin, an Emergency room physician from Boston, who joined our trip because his brother works for Inova, wrote a Creole-English medical glossary that he distributed to the nurses and physicians. You can download it here.

When we were traveling between the three hospitals, I would often shoot people with my 18mm and fill-flash as we barreled down the bumps and dips of the dirt roads that connect all of Haiti. This man is carrying a load of sugar cane stalks.
