Greater Caribbean Energy & Environment Foundation (GCEEF) has a highly cost-effective and medically efficient effort in Haiti. They mounted their large effort to help Haitian Physicians and medical workers to get support and training in emergency medicine simultaneously with treating injured Haitian via numbers of US and international medical teams helping victims of the earthquake on the ground in Port-au-Prince last week Wednesday. Team 1 was the 23-person medical team from Notre Dame they helped fly in on Jan 12th. Team two on Sunday Jan 17th was 30 Haitian physicians and a French TV crew of 2. Team 3 flew in Wednesday the Jan 20th with 5 including 2 physicians, and experienced emergency nurse and a United Nations emergency coordinator. Team 4 with 4 physicians and 3 nurses flies in Wednesday Jan 27th from Miami. Team 5 is international medical rescue workers from Asia and the tsunami and will be on the ground on Feb. 3rd at the Dr. Sanon clinics. The Greater Caribbean Energy and Environment Foundation, founded in 1986, is based in Miami and headed up by former Peace Corps Director in Malawi and Jamaica, development CEO of Partners for Productivity Andrew Oerke (Vice President), and his partner, Dr. Anitra Thorhaug (President), who is also faculty at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and The Secretary General of the United Nations Boutros Ghali sent them to 7 Gulf nations to make the definitive emergency response and restoration plan for the Gulf War II Oil Spill. They have been involved in many disaster rescue and long-term relief efforts around the world in the last decades. Anitra Thorhaug is also on the Faculty of Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and is a former faculty at Univ. of Miami Medical School and Medical School Univ. California at Berkeley.
[Andrew Oerke (PC Staff: Tanzania, Uganda, CD Malawi, CD Jamaica 1966-71) Last November, Andrew was presented with the USA Club of Rome Lifetime Achievement Awards for his cutting edge work in microfinance in more than 60 nations around the world since 1966.
Back to Haiti. Although many granting agencies shun giving money to Haiti because of widespread corruption, Andrew Oerke’s GCEEF has a proven track record in doing credible work there in micro-finance, cleaning up oil spills, and helping to protect drinking water. They have an established office in Port-au-Prince with an active staff of eight Haitians.
In Haiti, teams will be working with a well known Haitian physician, Dr. Christian Sanon, who has 3 clinics and also works now from several converted churches. They have converted Dr. Sanon’s primary care clinic into an ER. A UN/FAO coordinator has joined the team in Miami. There are two trucks from Servol Kredi and two jeeps which will coordinate delivery of medical supplies, water, and food for the injured in the clinics.
The team will also will receive a much needed shipment of medications from Senora Marta S. Fox, the wife of former Mexican President, Vicente Fox, as a gift from the Mexican people. .
Jack Allison, Anitra, Juan March, Andrew, Pierre Armand and the others are still looking for medical teams after February 11 onward. Because there are many health care providers and they encourage RPCV those who are interested in serving with GCEEF to provide health care and train Haitian medical workers simultaneously contact Anitra at 305-858-0014 or fax 305-858-6697 or email thorhaug@msn.com.
E. Jackson Allison, Jr. MD/MPH, FACEP (Malawi 1967-69) (the chief physician of the medical rescue mission in Haiti) is a Professor of Emergency Medical Care at Western Carolina University. He also served a 3-year tour with the Peace Corps in Malawi, Central Africa, where he was a public health Volunteer in the bush. After Peace Corps, Jack went to medical school, and recently retired after a 30-year career in academic emergency medicine. He has done three public health stints in Africa — a USAID mission in Tanzania in 82, a Project Hope Mission in Malawi in 94, and US State Department mission in Malawi in 05 — the latter two involved helping to eradicate AIDS in that Central African country. The other team leaders of physicians are Juan March.
GCEEF will be able to accept donations via credit card on its web site http://www.gceef.org. If you are willing to help, you will definitely be confident that your donation will get directly to the injured and needy people of Haiti. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Andy and/or Anitra directly @ 305-858-0014.