Saluting Humanitarian Spiritby Margaret Michniewicz
In this issue, we hear from Vermonters Lois Farnham and Holly Puterbaugh who traveled recently to Haiti as part of the ongoing disaster relief efforts bringing medical assistance and supplies to the people there (see accompanying article). The photos they and others have shared reflect both the sober realities of life in the Port-au-Prince vicinity as well as the resilience and spirit of the Haitians.
Members of the local nurses union – the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals – joined by other individuals who simply wanted to help, have been volunteering their time and skills to the project. They have paid their own way to get there; suffice it to say, there have not been bargain rates on airfare to Haiti.
I sat in on a meeting of the Haiti volunteers on a late March evening. Lois and Holly were among those there to offer their perspectives on what volunteers can expect, for the benefit of the women and men about to embark. Though they would want the emphasis to be on the plight of the local people, I’ll list just some of the conditions that volunteers are encountering:
- Oppressive heat hovering around 100 degrees (“You’d break a sweat brushing your teeth,” according to Holly). A supply of children’s chewable vitamins was lost to the heat.
- Poor air quality, due to the dust from the quake, as well as the pre-quake conditions of people burning almost anything and everything – tires, garbage; plus pollution and emissions from old vehicles.
- Volunteers were transported to the clinics each day on the back of flatbed trucks, seated on benches that were chained down to the moving vehicle; the journey sometimes took an hour, through streets without working traffic lights.
- Twelve-hour days working in makeshift hospital clinics, within tents held up by improvised objects such as I.V. stands, or crutches.
- Risks of contracting TB and malaria, not to mention the possibility of suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (for which counseling sessions have been in place for volunteers upon return home).
Nonetheless, Holly and Lois readily state they would do it again in a minute; the steep cost of airfare is the only thing currently preventing this.
Following the meeting on the drive home, I recalled the huge outpouring of sympathy and exchanges of information on how to help the people suffering in the quake’s aftermath, on venues such as Facebook and other social networking sites. Then I thought of the reactionary comments that made the rounds, with people grumbling about the problems faced by the citizens of this country, and shouldn’t we be helping them – presumably instead of people in Haiti. Hopefully people harboring such indignant feelings have since volunteered their time or contributed money to charitable organizations to help Americans. In the meantime, a tip of the hat to Holly, Lois, and their colleagues for their humanitarian spirit and efforts in Haiti helping people in need.
April is Sexual Violence Awareness Month |
