Primacy parishioner leads healthcare team to Haiti
Anita Harron, a member of Christ Church, Primacy, has just returned from co–leading a team of 11 local healthcare professionals who provided care for Haiti’s earthquake survivors and training for volunteers and staff. The quake killed 300,000 people and left 2.1 million homeless on 12th January 2010.
“When we arrived and saw that so many people were still living in camps it first appeared that little had been done,” said Anita, a speech therapist working in Belfast (wearing striped top in centre of photo). “However, when we met survivors we began to appreciate the complexities of disaster response in a country where the infrastructure has been all but wiped out by the earthquake. We also saw the difference which agencies like Tearfund and their partners are making in helping local people rebuild their lives in challenging circumstances.”
Churches that were among the first to respond in the quake’s aftermath, opening their compounds and providing shelter and food, have continued to provide longer term development support, such as education, counselling and health care. Tearfund works with local churches that are often at the centre of communities and are quick to identify the needs. Among their priorities has been the provision of clean water, counselling and restoring education for children. To date, Tearfund partner agencies have been able to bring help and hope to over 490,000 people.
Tearfund also deployed its own team response in the more rural and mountainous Leogane region. Disaster Management specialists have restored natural springs and constructed much improved sanitation systems. They have rebuilt and repaired some 1700 homes and shelters and re–established over 100 schools, restoring education for thousands of children.
“The assessment of UN and other agencies was that Haiti’s recovery would take ten years,” says Jean Claude Cerin, Tearfund Country Representative in Haiti. Although we never lose sight of the scale and this context, we are now seeing hope and real progress among communities that we are working with. Their resilience and sheer determination has been extraordinary as we have helped them, and continue to help them, rebuild their homes, schools and their livelihoods.”
During their visit, the Northern Ireland team delivered seminars to staff, student nurses and community volunteers on issues including public health, nutrition, environmental health and post traumatic stress. GPs gave support to outpatient clinics and an anaesthetist also worked in theatres.
“I feel privileged to have seen firsthand how it has helped survivors rebuild their homes, schools and livelihoods” said Anita. “I’ll never forget one woman who was HIV positive and whose husband died in the earthquake. Tearfund was helping her to access ARV medicine and assisting her four children to go to school. She said with a smile on her face ‘Tearfund has helped me laugh again.”