• President, Hakon Torjesen, Asst Professor of Global Health, CWRU
• Vice President, Helen Tomlinson PhD, Financial consultant, San Diego, CA
• Treasurer, Georgine Busch, Adviser to non-profit organizations, Kailua-Kona, HI
• John Kennell MD, Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics and Global Health, CWRU
• Erik Torjesen MA, Faculty member, Singapore American School, Singapore
• Kristine Torjesen MD MPH, Global Health Consultant, Durham, NC
• Jennifer Wright, MBA MS, Partner, Tandem Strategy, Raleigh NC

Karen Olness, M.D.
February 8, 2010

The dreadful disaster in Haiti is drawing Health Frontiers volunteers and supporters deeply into efforts on behalf of the hurting children there.

In the early rush, HF authorized the purchase of two loads of medical supplies in the Dominican Republic, for delivery to St. Damien Children’s Hospital in Port au Prince, but the bills were later picked up by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the International Pediatric Association (IPA).

HF’s medical director, Karen Olness, has just returned from an intense week in Haiti, with Iniciativa de Paz from Puerto Rico, treating hundreds of children and adolescents in busy mobile clinics, and making contact with the Haitian pediatricians. HF board member Marisa Herran is leaving for Haiti on Friday to work in needy orphanages. And long time HF volunteer Marlene Goodfriend will leave for Haiti on February 21 to solidify plans with the Haitian Pediatric Society. These three pediatricians have overlapping formal and informal responsibilities with HF, AAP, IPA, and the Center for Global Child Health at Case Western Reserve University, including the collaborative training program on the special needs of children in humanitarian disasters, now in its 14th year at Case. Three of the Haitian pediatricians are graduates of this disaster training program, and key contacts for the work in Haiti.

Concurrently, HF is teaming with Rose Charities in Canada to facilitate a regular flow of pediatricians and nurses to help staff the Haitian hospitals. This requires housing and other logistics that are beyond the capability of our Haitian hosts. Initially, we have an arrangement with an expatriate in Haiti who can billet two volunteers and provide local transportation. Pediatrician Bronwen Anders and pediatric RN Angela Assalone are leaving today to help staff the Hopital Communaute in Port au Prince, and will be replaced in two weeks by pediatrician Collin Yong and pediatric RN Doreen Lore. For the longer haul we need to rent a house, and Marlene has a wonderful lead on a well-located house with office space that could house both the Haitian Pediatric Society (whose office space was destroyed), and visiting volunteers from AAP and other groups. We believe such a home base will be needed for at least a year.

In Marisa and Marlene’s luggage to Haiti this month will be 1,000 “Comfort Kits” for Haitian children, designed by pediatrician Tim Culbert, and donated by Minneapolis Children’s Hospital. These little bags contain items such as squeeze balls, crayons and paper, pinwheels and bubbles for fun or play, but they also contain Creole instructions for using the toys in relaxation exercises to deal with stress and trauma.

The Health Frontiers book “How to Help the Children in Humanitarian Disasters” is now being translated urgently into Creole by Haitians living in the US. As the acute crisis in Haiti recedes, our focus will likely shift to workshops for relief workers, teachers and medical people who work with children, especially on the psychosocial effects of the disaster on children. In collaboration with the IPA, we have supported workshops on these themes in many countries, and our colleagues at Khon Kaen University in Thailand developed many unique interventions after the Tsunami. Dr. Srivieng and others from that effort are planning to come and help in Haiti.

• I invite you to use my Health Frontiers webpage as a template to create a similar page on your website. You may then consider offering your site as a template to your friends and colleagues. Please play a role in creating a community of support for the work of Health Frontiers in Haiti and around the world.

• We have a tremendous opportunity to share the extraordinarily successful work of Health Frontiers. HF needs our support to provide assistance to the thousands of children in Haiti who will be in need of healthcare interventions for a very long time. Please consider passing on this information through your social networks. We have a wonderful opportunity to create a world wide web of support for HF by our "cyber-joining" of hands in this fashion.

• I invite you to use this fundraising opportunity to engage your children in the experience of giving to those in need. Our kids continue to see the pictures of kids in Haiti, and discuss their plight in school. Please consider starting a kids4kids-inHaiti fundraising program in your school with the benefits to go to Health Frontiers. You can offer your children an opportunity to further enhance a community of giving and healing that they may hold deep within for the rest of their lives.

• Soon after the earthquake in Haiti struck, I contacted my network of friends throughout the world to tell them about the decades of success by my friends at Health Frontiers. I asked for support for HF, knowing it wouldn't be long before my friend and colleague Dr. Karen Olness would be flying to Haiti with a team of pediatric healthcare providers. As I reached out my hand to friends for support for HF, I was deeply moved and inspired by a ten year-old daughter of a friend of mine who lives near Los Angeles. Maya raised $600 at her elementary school, to be donated to Health Frontiers. Please give your child the opportunity to have a similar experience as Maya. Maya's inspirational gift is what lead me to enhance this site and encourage the kids4kids-inHaiti fundraising program. This inspiration can heal us all.