Six Shipments Depart for Cap-Haitien

Konbit Sante partner facilities are regularly in dire need of even the most basic health care equipment and supplies. Even when such items are available in Haiti, they are often prohibitively expensive.

To address these needs and as part of Konbit Sante’s ongoing work, six shipments are bound for the port of Cap-Haitien. They are expected to enter the country duty free because of Konbit Sante’s “franchise” (permission granted by the Haitian government after a rigorous application/screening process) and because Konbit Sante is a registered Haitian NGO.

[Top photo: Hugh Tozer positions a pallet of solar panels for loading into the container.]

Volunteers Dave LaQuerre and Matt St. Hillaire organize contents inside the container.

In addition to many basic hospital supplies (gloves, IV tubing, dressings, etc.), here are some of the critically needed items in these shipments:

• An entire 40-foot container of essential medicines, all specifically requested by our partner health facilities, shipped from Direct Relief in Santa Barbara.
• Twenty hospital beds and mattresses for our partner, Unite de Lutte pour la Sante (ULS).
• Lithium batteries and solar panels to expand ULS’ solar capacity for clean and reliable power 24/7.
• Furnishings, including bassinets, incubators, and patient monitors for the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Justinien Hospital.
• Beds, physical therapy equipment, and other furnishings for our long-term collaborator, Hope Health Action’s newly relocated spinal cord rehabilitation center in northern Haiti.
• Furnishings for a new teaching/conference room, as well as an x-ray printer and film for our partners at Serving Sante Hospital.

Strategic Advisor and volunteer, Nate Nickerson and Marcella Felde, Konbit Sante Operations Manager, review the shipping manifest.

What does it take to make this happen? It takes months of work by Konbit Sante staff and volunteers in the U.S. who begin by identifying and sourcing all needed items. They then manage logistics to get them where they need to go, which means packing them, creating a detailed log of every item being shipped along with its value and destination, and actually loading the local containers. On the receiving end, Konbit Sante staff in Haiti track the containers through arrival and customs, working with local shipping agents, and ensure that received items get to their final destinations.

Marcella Felde (left), Nate Nickerson (right) with volunteers Richard Lemieux, Hugh Tozer, and Dave LaQuerre, celebrate the departure of a loaded and sealed container.

Kudos to U.S. and Haiti staff and to volunteers who source, organize, and load containers. Thank you to in-kind donors near and far. And thank you to all of you whose donations make this possible!