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.

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.