Wednesday 20 January 2010

ShelterBox tents in Haiti put to immediate use

ShelterBox tents in Haiti put to immediate use

Injured girl in Bernard Mews hospital, Port au Prince, where ShelterBox tents are being used to treat the large number of injured people. Photographer: Mark Pearson

ShelterBox tents are being used by hospitals in Port au Prince to provide emergency shelter for post surgery patients in Haiti’s capital.

The first ShelterBoxes to arrive in the country have been immediately utilised by doctors in desperate need of equipment to help treat huge numbers of injured Haitians.

The Response Team in Haiti are facing huge challenges on a daily basis. Large aftershocks were felt first thing this morning Hatian time but the team report they are all ok.

ShelterBox Response Team member Mark Pearson, who has been in Port au Prince since Thursday, said: ‘The first tents are being used by Bernard Mews hospital in Port au Prince. The tents have been immediately put into use by doctors for post surgery patients.

‘The doctors are desperate for all our equipment. The hospital has no electricity, no food, no running water. The injured are constantly coming in with untreated injuries.'

Doctors fear the number of people needing amputations could spiral into the thousands. Amputations are having to be carried out to free people from rubble, to prevent the spread of gangrene and when all attempts to save a severely damaged limb fail.

Planned distribution

400 more ShelterBoxes arrived in Port au Prince yesterday from Miami, accompanied by ShelterBox General Manager and Response Team member Lasse Petersen.

Click here to watch a video of ShelterBoxes arriving in Port au Prince from Miami

‘We’re planning to distribute more ShelterBoxes for emergency medical cases and hospital use today,’ said Lasse. ‘We’re working closely with the UN, ACTED, Rotarians and Haitian authorities to gauge resources and priority needs.

‘We’ll be investigating a major distribution area which at the moment is likely to be Leogane where the epicentre of the earthquake was. The scale of destruction here is even worse than in Port au Prince and there’s an estimated hundred thousand people in need of emergency shelter.’

Another 400 boxes are set to arrive in Port au Prince today on a freighter from Miami, USA while, in the UK, 700 boxes are set to fly out from Newquay, Cornwall tonight directly into Port au Prince. Close to 200 ShelterBoxes are also expected to fly out from France to Port au Prince later on today and 250 boxes from prepositioned stock in Curacao are due to arrive in Port au Prince tomorrow.

Virgin Atlantic has agreed to fly another 500 ShelterBoxes into Miami where the ShelterBox Logistics Team operating from there will send them down to Haiti. More than 3,000 ShelterBoxes have been committed to Haiti and more are being packed at ShelterBox HQ

 

First Shelter Boxes arrive in Port au Prince - pictures and footage
 

Press Release 19 January 2010 First ShelterBoxes arrive in Port au Prince

 

First ShelterBoxes arrive in Port au Prince – pictures and footage

The first ShelterBoxes have arrived in Port au Prince and hundreds more are due to arrive later today.

The ShelterBox Response Team of David Eby (US), Wayne Robinson (US) and Mark Pearson (UK), who have been in Haiti’s capital since Thursday, took delivery of the first ShelterBoxes at Port au Prince airport yesterday.

The team say twelve of these boxes will be used to build an emergency field hospital at the airport.

‘We are helping build a field hospital with these tents at the airport,’ said Mark Pearson. ‘These are desperate conditions, amputations are happening every half hour. There’s an urgent need for tents at hospitals and this is our first priority.’

ShelterBox Head of Operations John Leach said: ‘The safety of our staff in Haiti is of paramount importance.

‘We are working with the agencies on the ground to ensure that ShelterBoxes are not only distributed speedily and efficiently, but that our team on the ground is able to work in a safe environment.’

Hundreds more boxes are due to arrive into Port au Prince later today from Miami on a chartered aircraft. Thousands more ShelterBoxes are being packed and shipped from ShelterBox HQ in the UK.

ShelterBox Founder and CEO Tom Henderson said: ‘The devastation in Haiti has moved everyone here. We now have our boxes on the ground and it’s a privilege to help. The scale of devastation is huge.

‘By the sheer grit and determination of our staff and volunteers we have been able to respond in record time. Our thanks go to the teams of volunteers, as well as to our donors, who have allowed us to do this.
‘ShelterBox relies entirely on public donations and people’s generosity. We receive no institutional funding and no DEC money. I’d urge, if you can, to help us.’

 Public donations are vital to ShelterBox’s continuing work around the world. To make a donation please ring 0300 0300 500 or go to www.shelterbox.org to donate online and get the latest updates on the charity’s response to the Haiti earthquake.