Medical Brigade at Hope Fellowship Community Clinic
July 2014 Haiti Mission
This last July, Pure Works VP, Jonathan Graves returned to Haiti…four years after the earthquake. He still remembers the chaos.
HAITI ARRIVAL – DAY 1 EVE
DAY 1 – 7/7 – PW SoCal KICKS OFF
DAY 2 – 7/8 – EMOTIONAL & EFFECTIVE
DAY 3 – 7/9 – MOUNTAINS FOR SEAS
DAY 4 – 7/10 – SPAN THE SPECTRUM
DAY 5 – 7/11 – KEEPS EYE ON FUTURE
FOLLOW UP – SPECIAL THANKS MOH
“Everywhere,” Graves said. “Just chaos, and I mean that in every sense. Victims. Dead people. Rescue workers. Hospitals. Nurses. Surgeons. Medics. Ambulances. Just people wandering around aimlessly crying. That’s the best way I can put it — it was chaos.”
Four years ago, the world watched in horror as a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the small island nation of Haiti, leveling the capital of Port-au-Prince. Graves was at ground zero within days to provide emergency medical services to the local victims.
“It took the country from bad to worse,” he recalled, “because before the earthquake, it was bad. The earthquake made it worse. And it has not yet achieved the level of bad again. It’s trying to get back to bad. This is an ongoing problem and more than likely, baring a divine miracle of people from around the world coming together, there is always going to be a need.”
Now, Graves, and a team from the Pure Works Foundation EMS SoCal operation, are headed to Haiti to help address that need, providing emergency treatment, medications, and general care from July 5-12 in coordination with locally based Mission of Hope: Haiti (MOH).
Four years ago, Graves, who has worked as a paramedic for 25 years and has been a part of medical outreach teams for nearly 20 years, worked with MOH. These days, the organization provides a vibrant array of services to Haiti, including child sponsorship, medical aid, and faith-based outreach.
According to MOH, 96 percent of the county lives without basic medical coverage. To combat this void, the organization coordinates mobile clinics in nine different villages, bringing care to the people. That’s where Pure Works comes in.
“Unfinished business,” Graves said of the return trip. “When we left there, it felt like we were abandoning them. We were only financed and able to be there for a certain amount of time. It was horrifying.”
In fact, the goal of the Pure Works team this time around is two-fold. Aside from providing medical care, Graves hopes to make this a “pioneering effort” that begins a consistent rotation into the country in the years to come.
To do so would establish a regular medical presence in the country as well as provide training for medical professionals to work in third-world conditions.
“It would feel less like putting a band-aide on a gunshot wound,” he said. “In addition to that, every single trip doesn’t need to be a medical team. We can make evangelism trips, and do vacation Bible schools with kids, other kinds of teaching, pastoral training and worship.”
The sky is the limit, and with God’s grace, Pure Works’ outreach could be long-lasting — for the people served as well as the team.
“I’m hoping the outreach doesn’t just give them an appreciation of what we have,” Graves said of the team. “I hope it grows their compassion for human beings.”
You can stay up to date on the outreach by following us on Twitter (@PureWorksFound) and liking us on Facebook
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