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Help for Haiti

NASHUA – Southern New Hampshire Health System will send $20,000 worth of medical supplies to help with relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The majority of the donation, $15,000 worth of needed goods, will go to Haiti through Partners in Health.

“We have chosen to donate to Partners in Health because it is an established organization that has been in Haiti for 20 years,” said Tom Wilhelmsen, president and chief executive officer of Southern New Hampshire Health System. “There are currently two teams of doctors and nurses from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center working with them.”

Partners in Health is a nonprofit organization based in Boston that works in nine countries around the world. Last week, the organization sent out a list of needed medical supplies through the New Hampshire Hospital Association and set up an airlift from Lebanon to fly these goods directly to the doctors and nurses on the ground in Haiti.

Southern New Hampshire Health System will send desperately wanted supplies, including medications, sterilizing solutions, braces, dressings, batteries, catheters, syringes, casting supplies, surgical supplies and gowns, gloves and masks.

“We want these products to quickly reach the people who need the help,” Wilhelmsen said, “so we are sending them directly to Haiti through the Lebanon, New Hampshire, airlift for use at their hospitals in both Hinche and Port-au-Prince.”

The health system is also sending $5,000 worth of surplus medical supplies and equipment to the stricken area. These are being packed and sent to the Dominican Republic by the International Medical Equipment Collaborative and will go directly to two hospitals along the Haitian border that are treating the injured Haitian refugees who are fleeing the Port-au-Prince area.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, which has offices in Nashua, has sent multiple teams of medical volunteers, as well as critical medical supplies and equipment.

DHMC doctors are working side-by-side with Haitian Partners in Health doctors and nurses at the University Hospital in Port-au-Prince. Partners in Health has been designated by the World Health Organization to serve as the primary coordinators of the main hospital in the capital to address the thousands of critically injured people from Port-au-Prince.

DHMC doctors are also providing critical medical and surgical support to the Haitian medical teams at Partners’ long-standing medical facility in Hinche.

So far, Dartmouth-Hitchcock has contributed more than $200,000 in supplies and equipment for the relief effort, more than $55,000 of which has been donated by its suppliers.

“The strong bonds between Dartmouth, DHMC and PIH, and the presence of PIH health care facilities in Port-au-Prince and the central plateau, have made a rapid response possible,” said Jim Yong Kim, president of Dartmouth College and co-founder of Partners In Health.

“Through six logistical support flights, we have sent 20 medical professionals and 15,000 pounds of relief supplies. Dartmouth students have also raised more than $138,000 for PIH online and are serving as the organizational model for student fundraising efforts nationwide.

“I am so proud of the way this community has stepped up on behalf of the Haitian people.”

Partners In Health has been providing vital health care and social services in Haiti for more than 20 years and has more than 100 doctors, 600 nurses and 4,000 employees on the ground in Haiti.

Schools

In three days, Bishop Guertin High School raised more than $12,000 for the Brothers of the Sacred Heart schools in Port-au-Prince and the nonprofit hospital in Milot.

A “Red and Blue” schoolwide dress-down day took place Friday, Jan. 29, when students, faculty and staff donated a minimum of $2.

In addition, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart received supplementary donations from parents of current students.

“Although there are many agencies seeking assistance for relief services in Haiti, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart have a unique link with 58 Brothers of the Sacred Heart serving in Haiti in more than eight schools,” said Brother Mark Hilton, SC, president of Bishop Guertin High School.

“Five of those schools are in the capital of Port-au-Prince, and all but one suffered extensive damage. Thankfully, no brothers were killed in the collapses, but some students and teachers were unfortunately not so lucky.”

For information on how to donate to the Brothers of the Sacred Heart relief effort, visit www.bghs.org or call 889-4107.

As soon as the news of the disaster in Haiti hit local news stations and newspapers, Sister Maria Rosa, principal of Presentation of Mary Academy in Hudson, sent a letter to parents and students asking them to donate $5 for the relief fund in Haiti. Every student who donated $5 was granted a “dress-down week” at school.

In less than 24 hours, the school collected $7,000 from the parents, students and staff.

Sister Maria then decided to extend the invitation to local businesses to offer their employees a week of dress-down days and have employees donate to the Haiti fund.

Presentation of Mary is a small Catholic school of 400 students, and Sister Maria hoped to raise $2,400. To help exceed this goal, children brought extra money in from their piggy banks and weekly allowances, and they even used money they had to buy snacks at school.

The total collected thus far is $9,200, with more money coming in.

On Saturday, Jan. 22, the school had “A Day of Prayer for the Children of Haiti” who are now orphans as a result of the earthquake. Each classroom in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade spent 15 minutes in silent prayer in the school chapel to pray for the needs of the children, families, relief workers and all the people who are participating in some way to help the people of Haiti.

The students at Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua held a four-day “Change for Haiti” loose-coin drive. In that short time, $620 was raised for Doctors Without Borders, which will help aid those in Haiti.

Students from St. Christopher School in Nashua placed their spare change in jars in every classroom and raised more than $2,000 for relief efforts in Haiti. The donations will be sent to the Religious of Jesus and Mary mission in Haiti.

Community

The parishioners of the Parish of the Resurrection in Nashua have contributed more than $20,000 to be sent to their sister parish, Our Lady of Grace in Hinche. The Rev. Ilric Louis Jeune, the pastor of Our Lady of Grace, will use this money to help meet the immediate needs of food and shelter for his parishioners and their families.

Through the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas, the Parish of the Resurrection was twinned with Our Lady of Grace in 2004. Since then, the Resurrection parishioners have raised $150,000 to build a parish center for Our Lady of Grace and have sent the Haitian parish $1,000 each month to help with their expenses.

In addition to the earthquake aid for Our Lady of Grace, the Resurrection parishioners made donations totaling $3,700 to support the earthquake relief efforts of Catholic Relief Service.

A member of the Congregational Church of Hollis secured the free use of a 53-foot container truck and transportation, and the goal is to fill the truck.

The church is a collection point for summer-weight clothing and shoes, sheets, towels and lightweight blankets. Deliver bagged and itemized donations to the church office, 3 Monument Square, through Sunday, Feb. 21.

For more information, visit hollishelpshaiti.org.

A Community Prayer Vigil for Haiti will be from 7-8 p.m. today at Milford Town Hall. The Rev. Pierre Willems, of Colonial Hills Baptist Church, will lead the prayer vigil, which is nondenominational.

There also will be a bake sale, with proceeds going to the Red Cross for Haiti relief.

Businesses

A donation drive to support Haiti relieve efforts at the UPS store in Hudson, 142 Lowell Road, wraps up today. Monetary donations are being collected to support UNICEF’s aim of bringing aid to the children of Haiti.

Continental Academie of Hair Design in Hudson will host Haircuts for Haiti from Feb. 9-11. All proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders to help with disaster relief in Haiti. Donations will continue to be accepted through February.

Appointments are recommended. For more information, call 883-2285.

Hanger Orthopedic Group, 7 Riverside St., Suite 103, Nashua, has launched a nationwide prosthetic limb drive in partnership with Physicians for Peace and Heather Mills.

The effort was developed to help the multitude of those suffering from amputations and other physical disabilities in Haiti.

Donated prosthetic limbs will be collected at any of Hanger’s 670 patient care centers (www.hanger.com) and will be shipped directly to Physicians for Peace.

Through Physicians for Peace’s partner network of Healing Hands for Haiti and St. Vincent’s School for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince, prosthetic donations will be used to help new amputees in Haiti.

With support from Hanger Orthopedic Group, the internationally recognized nonprofit Physicians for Peace has been providing amputee rehabilitation services in Haiti since 2005.