Members and guests of the Rotary Club of St. Croix listened intently as featured speaker and club member Jason Henry spoke about the horrible sights, sounds and smells he experienced while in Haiti, where he volunteered at a makeshift outdoor medical clinic outside Port-au-Prince.
Henry spoke Thursday to a crowd of about 20 Rotary members at Gertrude’s Restaurant.
Recently back on island, Henry is one of seven emergency medical technicians (EMTs) from St. Croix and St. Thomas Rescue who went to Haiti with the Haiti Community Support (HCS) organization, founded by St. Croix residents Mathilde and Bruce Wilson.
Henry, who’s also an avid photographer, presented a graphic slide show on the devastation and talked about the photos of injured people and the patients they treated. Henry said he even delivered a baby while he was there.
He also mentioned an image he’ll never forget: children bathing in the filthy gutters and drinking the water in them. He said everywhere he went, there was the smell of death around the rubble of collapsed buildings. Henry told about a little boy collecting drops of water from empty water bottles to put in his bottle.
Speaking along with Henry was HCS member Peter Dybing, one of the first responders to go with Haitian Mathilde Wilson to Haiti by way of the Dominican Republic on Jan. 15.
Dybing said that despite all their suffering, the Haitians are still calm, patient, and peaceful people. Henry told the crowd gathered at Gertude’s about all the help the Haitians gave to them at the clinic, even though some had lost their entire family.
There was a medical team of 15 working at the clinic made up of EMTs, nurses and doctors, and 20 support staff that served 250 patients daily. Henry said by the time he left Haiti, HCS was setting up another clinic.
Both Dybing and Henry asked the group to continue to help by making donations to big organizations or to smaller organizations like HCS.
“HCS was able to get in quickly and help because they are smaller with less bureaucracy and red tape,” Henry said.
Both speakers said things will just get worse in the months ahead for those affected by the devastation. They said the next disaster will be in the tent cities, with people dying of dysentery. Dybing said there are three million people sleeping outside in unsanitary conditions because the structures in Port-au-Prince aren’t safe.
“Please don’t forget them, because the suffering will go on and on,” Dybing said. “This is my call to action.”
HCS sponsored the relief trip, and supplies were donated by Frederiksted Health Center and Diamond Pharmacy.
“For all of us who went to Haiti, it really changed the way we look at things,” Henry said. “Be grateful for what you have.”
To find out more about HCS or to make a donation go to www.haitisupport.org.