Rescue Squads from St. Croix and St. Thomas are sending emergency medical providers to Haiti Friday in answer to a request from Haiti Community Support, a V.I.-based non-profit that has established a clinic in the earthquake-ravaged country.
Bruce and Mathilde Wilson, directors of Haiti Community Support, requested Rescue help with sending emergency medical responders and medical supplies to Haiti. This will be an ongoing project lasting months, Bruce Wilson said.
Mathidle Wilson arrived in Haiti last week, days after the earthquake that devastated the country, accompanied by Peter Dybing, an emergency medical technician, and the two of them set up the clinic in La Plen just outside the airport.
The first group of Rescue members will travel Friday to the Dominican Republic and go into Haiti on Saturday. The volunteers from St. Croix Rescue are Albert Malliard, Jason Henry and Chief Gregory N. Richards. The St. Thomas Rescue volunteers traveling are Chief Gerry Simon, Victor Adams, and Ronald Shaw.
“All of these Rescue members are volunteers with full-time employment in private business and government," explained Rescue Public Information Officer Elizabeth Goggins. “Arrangements have been made to grant them administrative leave. This does present a hardship locally," Goggins said, "but there is an overwhelming desire by everyone in the Virgin Islands to help the effort in Haiti.”
Once they saw the conditions and the needs of the Haitians, the request to St. Croix Rescue was expanded to include physicians, nurses and more medical supplies.
The response has been overwhelming, said Richards.
“As word got out about our commitment to Haiti Support I have received so many calls from medical personnel ready and willing to go to Haiti,” he said. “We now have a long list of people that will be going to Haiti in the coming weeks and months.”
Frederiksted Health Care, Inc. has donated boxes of requested supplies, which the Rescue members will bring with them when they travel Friday. They are also assisting with necessary vaccinations and prophylactic medications the responders need.
Simon said he and Richards would be “in the first team going to Haiti so that we can lay the groundwork for the upcoming months. The logistics of this effort are monumental and the safety of the responders is paramount.”
Anyone wishing to help can donate to Haiti Community Support online at www.haitisupport.org, while checks made out to Haiti Community Support can be dropped off at Mt. Victory camp, St. Croix and St. Thomas Rescue. As the umbrella organization for this mission, Haiti Support will handle expenses.
St. Croix and St. Thomas Rescue Squads are private, nonprofit emergency responding organizations set up by the V.I. Legislature.
Further information can be obtained by contacting Elizabeth Goggins at 771-4420.