monday evening

Bonsoir!

MN healing hands team divided and conquered again today. Jill, Sue, Dr Matt and Barb went to an orphanage named Food for the Poor. The team had visited this large orphanage (approx 100 children) for wheelchair fitting and initial assessments last year. The team has been working on creating a more systematic approach to medical record keeping for communication between different teams. The team was initially disappointed to find that much of previously donated equipment was not in use. Although disappointing, the MN team was happy to see familiar staff and organization in caring for the children. The MN team was able to make ongoing recommendations for many of the severely disabled children. We made some modifications to several wheelchairs allowing for more comfortable seating and positioning in several children with cerebral palsy. Ongoing recommendations are going to be passed on to the next healing hands team in attempts to best allocate resources.

In the clinic, Mark worked with Nathalie, Al, and Rick for some initial prosthetic fittings prior to their departure to the Dominican Republic for a national conference in O & P.

The rest of the team is looking forward to a fun last night in Haiti, hoping of safe on smooth travels on the 27th.

weekend recap

Refreshed from a wonderful weekend (for half of the MN healing hands team)!! Nine team members returned from a relaxing weekend at Club Indigo. Club Indigo, a former Club Med, was a beautiful beach setting retreat where the team was able to enjoy the beautiful weather and a fantastic sandy beach. Sunburns were kept to a minimum, and the team enjoyed some friendly volleyball with UN members, as well as fantastic Haitiain cuisine.

Several team members continued to work in the clinic over the weekend; finishing an overhead lighting project in the O & P lab.

The MN team is ready for a busy Monday. A group on therapists (and Dr Matt) are off to an orphanage for follow up on several medical and therapy concerns as commuincated from previous teams and the orphanage staff.

Fabulous Friday

Friday was another productive and beautiful day in Port au Prince! The clinic continued to treat patients and the orthotics and prosthetics (O & P) staff were busy. The support staff from our group had the children in the waiting area coloring and enjoying themselves. In O & P, they fashioned and fit a new below elbow prosthesis. They also recapped the week with the Haitian staff and delegated future responsibilities. Rick and Bob made pizza for the staff in the large oven. What a treat!
Dr. Jim and Al met with the country director of Pure Water for the World. In the meeting, they were discussing a plan to provide drinkable water for the future rehab institute. Dr. Steve, Dr. Jim and Al had a meeting with the Minister of Health regarding the plans for the rehab institute. The minister was very enthusiastic about the project and optimistic about our plan. He also agreed to sign the building permit and proper documents.
Sue and Jill had the unique opportunity to ride along on a water distribution in Cite Soleil with our connection from Minnesota, Kevin McClellan. We delivered 3 trips of fresh and clean water to many awaiting children and adults. It was wonderful to be a part of this essential need.
Four of our group traveled to Bible Comprehension orphanage. There are 7 children with disabilities who were served. The majority of time was spent training the mothers, modifying wheelchairs and providing physical and occupational therapy to the children. Thank you to all who donated diapers, toys, cloth diapers and vitamins for us to provide!
Mimi, Nancy and Nathalie worked on a data collection system and clinic fee schedule to aid in the flow in the clinic.
We went shopping for Haitian art in the late afternoon. We gathered metal art and treasures to bring back with us.
In the evening, we had a team dinner at the Hotel Montana to celebrate our hard work and accomplishments from the week.

Thursday evening update (Dr Matt)

Productive day had by all here in Port au Prince. In O&P they had a very "busy" day seeing multiple unique patients. A new 10 year old girl was fitted for the first time with a new above the knee prosthesis and did very well with intitial gait training. After her fitting she helped some of the other team members to paint the clinic with a new floral mural. It looks fantastic and was completed later this afternoon. An amazing team effort led by Mimi's artistic abilities.

The multiple discipline orphange team again also had a very productive day. Both Jamie and Linda provided education in the caregiver school, wrapping up a three day training seminar. The caregiver especially appreciated the gifts and certificates that were handed out for completion of the program! More "high tech" (zip ties and duct tape) modifications were made to multiple wheelchairs for better positioning to several disabled children.

Sue and Patrick spearheaded a short educational seminar to several of the clinic physical therapists for gait training after initial prosthesis fitting.

Dr. Matt and Rick had a busy day at St Vincents; where they gave lectures and led an educational seminar to the staff of various health care disciplines. The tlkas were well received, and a active Q&A session led increased understanding of the standard of care for amputees.

Mimi, Nancy, Bev and Patrick painted an amazing mural for the wall in the waiting area at the clinic. Mimi developed the vision and design. The Haitian staff and patients spontaneously started pitching in on the project. What a team effort!

Furthermore, Healing Hands had an exciting meeting today with the Red Cross which will be delivering a new grinder to the O&P lab. A meeting tomorrow with the Hatian minister of health only adds more excitement by the Minnesota team as to the future of the Rehabilitation Institute.

Good day, good works!

Today, the works of Healing Hands for Haiti were buzzing. We had a number of projects underway. The O & P folks were busy seeing many patients. Of note, was a unique experience of "drive through orthotic service". Bob saw a pt while she was still seated in the front seat of her car! It's like "McOrthotics". Rick fabricated a resting hand splint for a patient out of a knee immobilizer. Creativity and flexibility are key to follow through in Haiti!
Dr. Hofkens provided an inservice to the O&P technicians in the clinic on complications of working with amputations. There were 4-5 staff in attendance.
A group of 7 of our team traveled to Holy Angels orphanage to provide further Caregiver Training to the staff who provide care to the 17 children there. We provided rehabilitation equipment, modifications for care and positioning and new wheelchairs for 2 children. Before we left, 5 children were positioned better and smiling in their wheelchairs. Bev had a group of children coloring, playing and singing songs in the yard. It was a beautiful day!
Right now, the team is relaxing with a game of Uno and a little rum punch. Life is good in Port au Prince.

a Canadian perspective

Hey out there back home in Min. this is my first time with Team Minnesota; they are hard working, fun loving and very coordinated. I'm with Team Canada, and there is no comparison, of course, but I'm impressed anyway 'cause Canadians are so polite and these guys know about snow so we are family. There is a lot happening on this mission. The team is deploying to orphanages and hospitals and manning the clinic. Several members are preparing for an add-on mission to the DR for a P&O conference. In addition, my colleagues from 'head office', Lisa Stein (International Manger) and Jim Stein (Executive Director) are meeting with the admin staff to work on making accounting and clinic reporting systems more transparent and effective and developing fund raising schemes .We are also interviewing candidates for the new Manager of Operations, (Haiti) position. Yes, we are losing Cadet, our tried and true Executive Director these past two years. But change is what we have come to accept and it's onwards to make the 10th anniversary year of HHH a memorable one. Congratulations HHH and our appreciation to all our donors, supporters and volunteers for 10 years of hard, generous work.

Oh ya, for every Minn. blogger who sends a post or blogs in from back home, Team Canada (the best) will donate, let me think... 10 minutes of Haitian cell phone time so you guys can call home when you get lonely.

Eric (go team Canada)
Marketing Director
HHH

Tuesday evening (1/21) update

It was a successful first workday in multiple disciplines from the MN healing hands team. We are now at "full" strength after the arrival of Al (prosthetics) and Nathalie (orthotics).

The team has plans for painting of a mural in the clinic and we have successfully "unpacked" our donations. There are approx 17 children at Holy Angels and our interdisciplinary team of therapists are planning on a in-service in the AM. It was a busy first day in O&P clinic, casting 5 new prostheses and revising 3 others. The Minnesota team will be sponsoring a new prosthesis for a patient who was unable to pay when he arrived at the clinic. Thank you so much for your donations enabling us to provide these type of services!!

In clinic, Dr Fisher, Dr Hofkens and Dr Rhode all saw a variety of patients ranging from children with musculoskeletal disorders to patients with recent strokes. Ongoing organization of the pharmacy and storage areas are providing important information of overall inventory to improve clinic efficiency.

We all remain energized (especially after a nice cool swim) and look forward to the day tomorrow.

We've Arrived!!!

We had a smooth trip today. 20 members of our team arrived today! All bins and bags of donations were accounted for and made it through customs! Hooray! We received a general orientation to the guesthouse and plan for the week, had a great meal, hung our mosquito nets and now a few are relaxing by the pool!

Update from Sue Kodadek - Midday Monday

All,
Made it safely here and the bins made it too. Almost seems easier traveling through Fort Lauderdale. It is HOT!!! Temps in the 80's and humidity must be 120%. I am drenched in sweat. greeted everyone in the clinic. Jody-- Bernie and Hercules said they will miss you, they even had your name on their calender but they said I would do for a team leader. We will all miss you.
Mark and Al, got cell phones, minutes and of course beverages.
Sorry for the impersonal e-mail to all but I wanted to do this while the internet is up and before everyone else arrives.
Sue

Sunday evening update

Sue Kodadek reports she is on her way to Fort Lauderdale for an overnight and then an early Monday flight to Port au Prince. No problems with her bins!!!
The majority of the team travels Monday. Let's hope for similar luck with luggage and no flight delays!!!

Getting Ready

We are busy organizing and scheduling our time for the 9 days our group will be in Port au Prince. On Sunday,19 members and family of our group packed supplies for our trip. We packed 32 pieces of luggage (rubbermaid tubs and hockey bags) to the total of about 1600 pounds of donations! Some of the items consisted of prosthetic parts, tools, toiletries, adult and children's shoes, cloth diapers, medications and toys. We can only hope it all transports safely and without many added charges by the airlines.

Final Preparations

We're busy wrapping up our fundraising and starting to make last minute purchases for our trip. We'll be traveling January 20 - 27, 2009. Check back for more details before we go. We'll be blogging (as electricity allows) while we're there along with posting photos.

Thanks for your support!