Hospital furnishings are loaded at Portland’s waterfront warehouse.

Thirty Konbit Sante volunteers helped load the container bound for Cap-Haitien.

Polly Larned, John Devlin (furry hat only), Nate Nickerson, Hugh Tozer, Steve Larned, and E.J. Lovett with full container bound for Haiti.

Nate Nickerson, Steve Larned, and John Devlin prepare to close and seal full container bound for Haiti.

Konbit Sante Sends Seventh Shipment of Medical Equipment and Supplies to Haiti

On Monday, February 5, 2007 a 40’ sea container of medical equipment and supplies left Portland, bound for Cap-Haitien, Haiti. The container will travel overland to New York and then by ocean-going vessels to Haiti, arriving early March. This is the seventh container sent by Konbit Sante, a Portland-based non-profit organization whose mission is to develop local capacity for Haitians to care for Haitians.

What’s in the container? This container includes:

Hospital beds and mattresses donated by The Cedars.
Over-the-bed tables, desks, chairs, files, shelves, and other basic furnishings for patient wards, clinics, and medical teaching facilities, donated by Maine Medical Center and the Mid Coast Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Surgical equipment donated by Maine Medical Center.
Pulse oxymeters donated by Orthopaedic Associates of Portland.
Electrical inverters donated by CURE International to provide a more consistent and stable power supply to the Justinian Hospital’s two operating rooms.
400 feet of flexible seamless pipe, provided by funds from GlobalGiving, for water system improvements.
Staples in the shipments include donated bandages, sutures, gowns, gloves, and other medical supplies.

Space to store and stage shipments is donated by the City of Portland’s Ports and Transportation Department as part of Portland’s Sister City relationship with Cap-Haitien.

In mid-March, Konbit Sante volunteers will meet the container in Cap-Haitien and go to work. Konbit Sante’s infrastructure team will make electrical improvements to the operating rooms and main power supply at Justinian Hospital, a 250-bed teaching hospital operated by the Haitian Ministry of Health. They will also launch a project to improve water quality and quantity at the hospital by installing an automatically operating water pumping system to improve the quantity of water at the hospital, and re-routing the water supply around the hospital’s cesspool so that contamination does not seep into the line. Clinical volunteers will focus on teaching and program development in women’s health, public health, and internal medicine.

The following story by Noel K. Gallagher appeared in the February 4, 2007 issue of the Maine Sunday Telegram:

Mainers heed need, ship hospital goods to Haiti
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/post/070204haiti.html

Would you like news updates? Just call us at (207) 347-6733 or email info@konbitsante.org.