“It just brings tears to your eyes because you know how horrible it is there anyway and when they get hit with something as terrible as this, they have nowhere to turn,” Diana said. “Here we have immediate response teams, but there in Haiti there are no fire departments, no Red Cross to help.”
The couple, who have traveled to Haiti for the past 10 years through Hope for Haiti to build schools and offer eye exams, planned to travel to the country this Saturday as part of another week-long medical mission. Now they are in limbo because the airport was destroyed.
They also are concerned about 11-year-old Peterson Jean, a boy they sponsored who lives in the “land of cartons” slum known as Cite Soleil outside of Port-au-Prince. Homes there are mostly made of garbage, but they paid to build his family a cinder block home, which could have been more dangerous to be inside following the quake.
Donald Henderson is trying to remain positive.
“We have so many patients. My hope is that in some way this will bring awareness to what it is like down there,” he said.
After similar disasters, Roy Cline, president of Caring Partners International, a Franklin-based medical missionary, and his team of staff and volunteers typically jumps into action.
But in response to the Haiti earthquake, considering what he called a “logistic nightmare,” Cline isn’t sure when — or if — his organization will assist.
He called Haiti the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and the earthquake’s devastation only “adds to the terrible dilemma” the residents there face.
Rita Cuntz, missions coordinator at The River Church in Liberty Twp., said a mission to Haiti was planned for February through the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. But that may be put on hold due to the earthquake.
She’s worried about the group’s national program coordinator, who was in the country when the quake struck and has not been heard from yet.
After witnessing the devastation a series of hurricanes reeked on Haiti, she said it is important to get funds for food and medical supplies to the area soon because “after the hurricane, it really affected the economy and food and fuel prices skyrocketed.”
Ray and Joan Conn, of West Chester Twp., are directors of the Jean Kadet Restavek Foundation that cares for Haitian children who have been sold into slavery. The Conns arrived in Haiti last week, and when the earthquake hit they were in Port Salut, 100 miles from Port-au-Prince.
An office worker said they have received limited e-mails from the Conns, but they’re safe and beginning their relief efforts.
Dr. Robert Lerer, Butler County Health commissioner and chairman of Caring Partners, said he was in Haiti this past summer on a medical mission.
He’s been in touch with a two humanitarian centers he’s worked with, but since most medical facilities were in Port-au-Prince, help could be hours away.
“What was a spotty system before the earthquake, at least temporarily has become null and void,” he said.
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