Independent Relief Teams in Haiti: Quick Summary of Activities

As we arrive home, after the second wake after the earthquake at Haiti, I wanted to share a quick log of activities undertaken by the independent volunteer teams that joined us this week. All of this was done with no budget and any coordination than mobile phones, facebook posts and twitter messages. No central organization and no hierarchy.

(read from the bottom up)

Fri. Jan 29, 2010

7pm Drive back to Santo Domingo. Stop by Good Samaritan to pick up 2 physicians from Vermont who have just spent 10 days in the field. I learn there are over 25 doctors from Vermont, doing voluntary medical work at Good Samaritan Hospital. I also learn their hospital made it very clear to them that what they were doing was a personal choice and not related in any way with the hospital and that their volunteer days would come out of their vacation days! their hospital also informed them that whatever they do here is not covered by their malpractice insurance.
4pm I drive PT Donna back to Good Samaritan.
3pm I meet with Harvard's team to discuss the iphone application for patient data gathering.
1pm After Dr. Tyrell's assessment, I make a request for additional crutches at Good Samaritan and drive an additional load of crutches to Fond Parisien. Physical Therapist Donna wants to assess the compound and rides with me.
11am We load part of the supplies to the pick up truck and Felipe and Watson head to Cabaret, 30min. North of Fond Parisien with Danny.
10:30am We unload our supplies from the truck at Fond Parisien and let the truck go.
10am Dr. Tyrell wants to visit Fond Parisien, so we offer him a ride and drive him to Fond Parisien with another physician. I wait for them to assess the facilities and drive them back to Good Samaritan.
9am We help them move hundreds of crutches from one warehouse to another. We mention Fond Parisien could use some crutches, they send some crutches over with us.
8:30am I inform Dorothy (in charge of Good Samaritan) if anyone needs a ride to Santo Domingo at the of the afternoon as we will have room available. She suggests I take two doctors from Vermont with me.
8am Drive to Good Samaritan Hospital and ask them if they need any of the supplies we have. They are running out of water and food. We give them most of our water, a bag of 100 pounds of rice and 10 bags of beans. They give us plenty of medicine (pain killers, antibiotics, diarrea medicin, etc.).

Thu. Jan 28, 2010

11:30pm I meet by chance with UNICEF and UNCHR personnel and share with them our patient registry template and pilot data from the field and invite them to comment on it.
4pm We leave for Haiti.
2pm We wait for additional supplies.
11:30am Truck heads to warehouse for additional supplies collected by Claudia Pellerano and business colleagues.
11:00am They then head to Mead Johnson to collect 62 boxes of baby formula bought by One Race Global Film Foundation.
10:30am They then head to Casa de Teatro to pick up food collected and donated by Aura Vargas and friends.
9am Felipe de Souza meets Danny from One Race Global Film Foundation at hotel and head to Zona Franca Las Américas to pick up donations collected and bought by Claudia Pellerano.

Wed. Jan 27, 2010

10am Marel inform his fans through Twitter and Facebook he is joining us in bringin music relief to earthquake survivors this Saturday.
11am Meeting with Haitian students to determine needs and work on short, medium and long term plan of actions and strategies. Watson is with them and I invite him to join us in our trip to Haiti the next day and he agrees without hesitation.
3pm Erica is making arrangements for transportation for tomorrow's trip: a pick up truck, a truck and a small rented car.
5pm Meeting with Architect Simón López Morales to review and brainstorm features of sustainable, affordable and locally relevant housing and community solutions for Haiti survivors.

Tue. Jan 26, 2010

3am Prepared this log to document and summarize activities
3pm Sent a Facebook message to young popular Dominican singer to join us in sharing music with earthquake survivors, sending him a link to Youtube videos we took of them singing in the field.
4pm Meeting at local World Health Organization / Panamerican Health Organization headquarters with UNIBE and Harvard and local UN Health cluster. Laura, Alejandro Miranda and myself attend. Darwin Muñoz from UNIBE, Dr. Elizabeth Cote from Harvard, and Dr. Alejandro Báez from UN Health Cluster and Dr. Román where present.
7pm Marel calls me and says we can count on him to join us.

Mon. Jan 25, 2010

10pm - Finally made it home.
8pm - Invited Miles and Michael, pilots of the Sykorsky choppers from Era who have been most helpful for over a week to stop for a second at a friend's house for a friendly chat, soda and discuss how to best continuing support to Haiti's recovery in the following weeks.
7pm - Operation Smile team staying at Fond Parisien, #Haiti - we lent them 5 tents to sleep in. An honor to be of service to such gr8t ppl. Left my nephew's acoustic guitar and electric bass with them.
5:30pm - Laura is the flight nurse for a lovely 4yr old girl with tubes all over flying to santo domingo from #Haiti on a Guardian Helicopter
5:15pm Stopped to pick up 2 baby patients at Jimani on our way back to santo domingo from #Haiti on a Guardian Helicopter
5:10pm - Flying back to santo domingo on a Guardian Helicopter from #Haiti thnx Graydon and Franklin Polanco, senior and junior
5pm - Good friends never leave you stranded: not one, but two choppers actually stopped to pick Laura and me at #Haiti and give us a ride to Santo Domingo. Thnk u Franklin and all. Haiti luvs u.
4pm - Reviewed patient registry done by Laura and took some patient pictures to improve/update/test it.
3pm - Gave a week worth of groceries to friends from Port-au-Prince.
11am - Got a full load of medicines, mosquito nets, fuel, walkie-talkies and other stuff for American Refugee Committee at Fond Parisien.
10:30am Creation by Margarita of MedApps4Haiti collaborative group on Google Groups, to facilitate drafting the specs of digital patient registry:
http://groups.google.com/group/medapps4haiti
10am - Got a ride to Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani for Operation Smile advanced team, rode with them to get some supplies.
9am - Laura enters data collected by hand the day before by hand on a Google Docs spreadsheet and shares it with the international group working on drafting specs (Harvard, Stanford, India, United Nations, Dominican Republic Ministry of Health, UNIBE university, etc.).

Sun. Jan 24, 2010

7pm - Meet the Operation Smile advanced team and put them in contact with doctors at Fond Parisien (both at Love a Child and outside Love a Child).
12:30pm - Returning to #Haiti with 2 doctors (incl. neurosurgeon from Stanford), supplies (including shovels), an acoustic guitar and an electric bass: project Musique de l'Espoir (Music of Hope) is born today
10am - start of e-mail exchange with international IT, social work and relief work experts to define, implement patient registry digital system.

Sat. Jan 23, 2010

3pm - Driving back to Santo Domingo from #Haiti with Paul and friends - arriving at 10pm - going back to Haiti tomorrow morning
12:30pm - Laura's sister does rounds with the doctors, reviewing/completing patient registry. Laura's cousin does heavy loading/unloading stuff and Luis Pérez - Laura's uncle - takes measures and makes drafts of shelves needed at pharmacy for medical supplies, and other rooms serving as warehouses.
12m - A group of volunteer at improvised field hospital in Fond Parisien, Haiti, found an old piano in an empty church on a short break from taking care of wounded survivors of the earthquake in Haiti and sing with hope from their honest hearts. I listen to beautiful singing and lovely music and discover them and made videos of them with my Flip cam. I promised them to return the next day with guitar and the intention to do more music. Idea for project Musique de l'Espoir is born.
11am - Laura starts working on patient registry, taking info manually and writing it in a notebook.
9am - Alejandro Miranda jr starts working with Seth from Harvard on defining specs for patient registry data system.
6:30am - Laura's uncle, Luis Pérez, leaves from Santo Domingo with his son Jorge and Laura's sister to come to Fond Parisien, Haiti and do volunteer work at Love a Child compound.
8am - Paul's team set up rest of tents sent by Franklin Polanco+Ico. No longer will ppl sleep in the open or spend day in the Sun. Thnx all.

Fri. Jan 22, 2010

8pm - Paul's team set up first tents sent by Franklin Polanco+Ico. No longer will ppl sleep in the open or spend day in the Sun. Thnx all.
7pm - made it safely to Love a Child at Fond Parisien
6pm - traffic jam/rush to leave Port-au-Prince before dawn with tents for earthquake survivors at Fond Parisien.
5:15pm - Jesse, Shannon and I, find Laura and Paul and the nice marine helps us load the tents on top and the back of Shanon's SUV and we drive quickly to leave Port-au-Prince and bring the tents to Love a Child compound at Fond Parisien.
4:50pm Paul decides to sit on the tents and Laura goes inside the airport building to charge her iPhone and SMS me where they are to arrange for pick up.
4:45pm Laura, Paul and the nice marine finally find the tents in a corner of the airport, next to three pallets with huge boxes with dozens of other tents, which Yuko had said they had not.
4:30pm Laura and Paul are appalled to confirm that the airport is overblown with supplies, including those Yuko told them earlier they had not when he refused to help them and sent them shopping for a hardware store in earthquake ravaged Port-au-Prince.
4:25pm Laura phone dies as batteries run out and we are incommunicated. No idea how we will find them and pick them up.
4:20pm Franklin Polanco informs me by phone that the tents are near the traditional cargo area of DHL.
4:15pm Laura and Paul enter the runway and a US marine recognizes Paul and is excited to drive them around the airport looking for the tents.
4pm - Laura spots the green Caribou plane on the runway and points it to the clueless military personnel trying to locate the tents.
3:45pm Shannon, Jesse and I leave for Port-au-Prince to pick up Laura and the tents.
3:30pm - No one in the airport has any idea of where the tents are or have been put at, although Laura is on the phone with me and I am on the phone with El Higüero airport from where they were sent.
3:15pm I arrange for Shannon, from American Refugee Committee, to drive me and Jesse into Port-au-Prince to pick up Laura, Paul and the tents,promising her the tents for the homeless survivors they are going to be building a camp for at Fond Parisien.
4pm - Erica and team pick up volunteer med students from UNIBE (Andrés and his friends) and head back to Santo Domingo.
3pm - Laura has to let the volunteer team go, as they must return to Santo Domingo. She stays with Paul, with no vehicle at Port-au-Prince airport, to wait for the tents arriving from Santo Domingo.
12:45pm - Having completed the list of items needed, Jon Katz decides to hitch a ride to Port-au-Prince where he thinks he will be more helpful and takes off with his backpack, no plan and no guarantee of how he will return or confirmed contact. A true free spirit willing to help others.
12:30pm - Ico, working for United Nations at El Higüero airport in Santo Domingo, manages to track 13 large tents donated by Taiwan and thanks to the support of Franklin Polanco loads them on a Caribou plane leaving for Port-au-Prince airport.
11:30am Laura, Erica and Paul head to Petionville, where they finally found an open hardware store and buy some shovels, wire, duct tape, etc.
11am - Laura, Erica, Paul and others are turned down at the airport, where Yuko from United Nations tells them they have no supplies available, although we had been informed of the availability of the stuff they were requesting. Yuko suggests they find and go to a hardware store in Port-au-Prince and buy what they need - this is just days after the earthquake and we know for a fact the airport is full with supplies sent by people worldwide - but apparently Yuko wants them for himself!!!
9:45am - Jon Katz surveys the installation and prepares a list of what is needed to provide them with electricity and extend the wireless network and Internet access in the facilities.
9:35am Laura, Erica, Paul and two others from his team quickly leave for Port-au-Prince with Paul to get supplies for Love a Child initiative.
9:30am - The two volunteer med students that came with Erica get busy right away and are really helpful.
9:00am - Laura, Erica, Jon Katz and two volunteer Med Students arrive at Fond Parisien from Jimani.
8:30am - Jesse and Brandon start doing volunteer heavy physical work and remain doing so for the rest of the morning and early afternoon, stocking the warehouse and unloading shipments of stuff at Love a Child compound.

Thu. Jan 21, 2010

11:15pm Ruth is happily reunited with her parents in Santo Domingo.
4:45pm Laura, her uncle and a volunteer Haitian stop at Love a Child, Fond Parisien on their way to the border, where we meet. Laura stays with us at Fond Parisien and the rest of the team and the rest of the team continues their trip back to Santo Domingo with Ruth's parents.
4:30pm - Paul and friends get busy helping to unload stuff from trucks arriving and carrying wounded patients arriving in buses at Love a Child compound, Fond Parisien, Haiti.
3:30pm - I Fly with Paul and friends on a Sykorsky chopper to Love a Child compound at Fond Parisien, Haiti.
3:00pm - Erica and friends pick up 2 volunteer med students from UNIBE and Jon Katz at El Higüero airport and head to Haiti from Santo Domingo. They will have to spend the night in Jimani as they will arrive late, after the border is closed.
2:30pm Laura, her uncle Luis and a volunteer Haitian student have a successful rendezvous with Ruth parents in front of Parc Industriel Métropolitain, pick them up and drive out of Port-au-Prince.
12:30pm - Erica rents a pick up truck with a driver on her own means to join us as a volunteer to Haiti.
9:00am - Engineering students from UNAPEC university start working on building first prototype of affordable temporary housing solution built with supplies available at any hardware store for less than US$80 each.
8:30am - I get a call from 2 med students from UNIBE university offering to volunteer in Haiti. I tell them to come join us at the airport.
6:30am - Me and Jon wait at the El Higüero airport.
5:45am - We then head to Basanta Films warehouse to meet the family providing the trucks. The father, son and other relatives are there at 6am and load the truck themselves. We gladly inform them we will only have to drive to El Higüero airport, and they all decide to come and help us unload the truck there.
5:30am - Jon Katz picks me up at home, we head to Publicitaria Cumbre to collect donations and supplies sent by people for Haiti.
5:15am - Laura leaves with her uncle Luis Pérez, on his Land Rover, and a Haitian student to Port-au-Prince. Where they will pick up an elder couple, parents of Ruth, a Haitian student at the University Laura works at and drive them to Santo Domingo, where they have reservations on a flight to the USA.
2am - Fernando Báez, Hardy Cross and Alejandro Miranda leave for Haiti to reach a remote town needing help on the way to Leogane (Fondoi, Sondwa or something like that, not even on the map).

Wed. Jan 20, 2010

10:00pm - Get a call from Franklin Polanco, telling me they can make roomon a chopper leaving at 6:30am to Port-au-Prince and deliver the baby formula donated by One Race Global Film Foundation.
9:30pm - Get a call from a family of construction and electric installations contractors with a great heart offering to provide two trucks with driver and fuel to deliver the donations to Haiti. Make arrangements to meet them at Basanta Films at 5:30am to load up and leave early for Haiti.
6:45pm Doctors crash at Erica's home for the night.
6:15pm Erica offers her house for the doctors to spend the night as it is easier and closer to pick them up there at 5am the next morning.
5:30pm Samantha from One Race Global Film Foundation goes with Phedra and buy a truckload of baby formula for orphanages in Port-au-Prince.
5:00pm Ramón Cáceres brings a donation of tents and other supplies for Haiti.
4:30pm - Our teams of volunteers meet representatives of One Race Global Film Foundation and Yele Foundation and brainstorm ideas and alternative ways of helping Haiti effectively.
4pm - We unload the medical supplies donated by One Race Global Film Foundation for Haiti at Basanta Film's warehouse.
1:45pm Laura's uncle, Luis Pérez, confirms he is willing to drive with Laura to Port-au-Prince, leaving Santo Domingo at 5am, transport the doctors to Saint Damiens and pick up Ruth's parents in front of Parc Industriale and drive them back to Santo Domingo.
1:15pm Sachi Hoshikawa informs Mite Nishio she can arrange for the doctors to spend the night at Aparta Hotel Colonial for free.
1pm - Fernando Báez and I go in his SUV to pick up medical supplies donated by One Race Global Film Foundation for Haiti at Farmaconal.
12:00m I tweet the need for a place for the doctors arriving to spend the night for it is unlikely we will be able to get them to Port au Prince today.
9:30am I create the Restarting Education collaborative group on Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/group/haiti-education

Tue. Jan 19, 2010

4:15pm Laura is approached by Ruth, a Haitian student at UNAPEC, who inquires if she is going back to Haiti and if she could find and bring her parents back safely. Laura assures her she can and makes it a personal mission to do so.
3:45pm Erica Suelen and Alejandro Miranda make arrangements for Fernando Báez to pick up the doctors at the airport on Wednesday.
3pm Samantha from One Race Global Film Foundation buys a first load of baby formula for orphanages in Port-au-Prince.
2:50pm Chris J, referred by Gina G. informs it's only 3 of them (2 surgeons and 1 family practice I think) and confirms flight info for Wednesday.
11am Samantha from One Race Global Film Foundation pay for a large donation of medical supplies at One Race Global Film Foundation at Farmaconal.

Mon, 18 Jan 2010

6:58pm Christopher Jones, MD, part of the doctors referred by Gina G. writes informing their flight info and that it's 4 doctors and 1 assistant willing to fly to Santo Domingo on Wednesday.

Sun, 17 Jan 2010

7:45pm I reply to Gina from my Blackberry that we are on our way back to Santo Domingo from Haiti, but to tell the doctors to fly to the Dominican Republic, that we will get them across the border.
7:15pm Gina Giudicelli sends me e-mail telling me about 4 doctors interested to come to the Dominican Republic and from here reach Saint Damiens pediatric hospital at Tabarre, Port au Prince.
12m Meet Israeli Ambassador by chance and he invites us to meet their field hospital.
11am We meet a doctor running an improvised Trauma center at Parc Industrial. He makes a desperate request to have some of the supplies we have as he has 42 people on the floor of the improvised trauma center. I ask him to show me, he takes me there and the scene is Dantesque. The airport 5 minutes away is already full with supplies and this people here are passing away in pain. Laura calls Nathan informing him of the situation, he replies for us to use our best judgement, and so we do it. We provided the doctor with part of our supplies. They would rip them open and use them right away in the patients in front of us.

Sat, 16 Jan 2010

6:45pm We arrive at Jimani, unload the truck and spend the night. Send the truck back home.
7:35pm Spoke with Defensa Civil and they said they can help us get the supplies into Port-au-Prince in the morning next day.

Fri, 15 Jan 2010

6:45pm Finally got all supplies, decide to leave early next day.
5:45pm Ramón Cáceres donates tents, sleeping bags and flash lights.
9am We spend the days getting supplies and donations. Employees of Casa de Teatro, Publicitaria Cumbre and individuals make significant donations of food and supplies.

Thu, 14 Jan 2010

5pm Laura's uncle, Luis Pérez, says he's coming with us in his Land Rover. We are now going to Haiti, have supplies until the border and have a vehicle to get us in and out of there.
4pm Laura informs me that UNAPEC university students have secured a truck with driver and fuel until Jimani, the border. We are now going to Haiti and have supplies and a truck until the border.
11:00am Get a call from Nathan Kenneddy. He says he hears I am going to Port-au-Prince. He tells me he has a load of supplies to send and if I can carry it there. I tell him yes. He asks if I have a truck. I reply that I don't but that I will get one. We are now going to Haiti and have supplies.

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

9am Upon seeing the devastation caused by the earthquake, I decide to go to Haiti and share my intention through Twitter and Facebook and to friends.
10am My wife Laura says she's coming with me. We are going to Haiti, but we have no money, no supplies and don't even have a car.

Ps: There are still many things missing from this log, including the first trip, donations by Ramón Cáceres, Claudia Pellerano, Mitsuteru Nishio, Hallam Hope, Cathy Healy, Publicitaria Cumbre and Casa de Teatro and others, etc. as well as support by Franklin Polanco junior and senior, Heidy Berroa, Mitsuteru Nishio, Arturo López Valerio, Yuri Miranda Levy and many others. Will complete and update later. Thank you all for your support to Haiti. Please comment and add additional credits.