Newberg Graphic Online

Medical Teams Int’l. board member discusses relief

Civics — Rescue work in Haiti and elsewhere subject of City Club lecture

• Published: 3/20/2010 12:00:00 PM

   When a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the island nation of Haiti on Jan. 12, killing more than 230,000 people, a Tigard-based team of relief workers sprang into action.
   But as Paul Hathaway, a board member of Medical Teams International said Tuesday at the Newberg City Club, it was far from the group’s first mission abroad.
   Founded in 1979 as Northwest Medical Teams by Oregonians Ron and Jean Post in the wake of another humanitarian disaster — Cambodian refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge — the faith-based nonprofit agency has provided medical and development aid throughout the world.
   Hathaway, a George Fox University trustee, has led missions in Eastern Europe and in the United States, where Medical Teams International maintains a fleet of mobile dental clinics to serve poor communities.
   “It’s an amazing experience,” he said of his time aiding orphans in Romania. “We can’t help everyone, but we do what we can.”
   In Haiti, during the first eight weeks after the earthquake, Medical Teams International sent 13 volunteer teams composed of more than 70 doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
   “These are very dedicated people, willing to give their time and talents to aid others,” Hathaway said.
   The first team arrived in Haiti on Jan. 15 and volunteers have set up nearly 100 small clinics in the areas of Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Les Cayes and Carrefour, to provide care for nearly 15,000 people.
   The nonprofit has also shipped more than $4.6 million worth of supplies and medicines to local hospitals and survivors living in tent cities.
   “About 90 percent of our annual budget is made up of gifts in kind, mainly donated medical supplies and pharmaceuticals — about $120 million per year,” Hathaway said. “What we don’t use, or pass along to established service groups abroad, we trade with other relief agencies here at home.”
   The current mission is by no means the organization’s first visit to Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Medical Teams International first sent volunteers to Haiti in 1994 to aid victims of civil conflict.
   During 2004 and 2005, disaster response teams traveled to Haiti to provide health care services after Hurricane Jeanne, and since 2006 volunteers have provided primary care and training for local midwives in an ongoing program.
   And volunteers will continue to work in Haiti for some time to come to provide medical care to Haitian citizens and support to local hospitals and clinics as they rebuild.
   “Once you’ve passed the first phase of disaster relief, caring for the wounded, you have to start worrying about the spread of disease as refugees are crowded together,” he said.
   The nonprofit will also collect donations of prosthetics and orthopedics for those crippled in the quake, and undertake water and sanitation projects.
   The work can be risky, Hathaway added: A Medical Teams volunteer died March 1 in Port-au-Prince. Matthew Bouthillier, 36, an emergency room nurse from Issaquah, Wash., suffered a heart attack there and died after being airlifted to Miami for treatment.
   “Most of the volunteers who travel abroad are medical professionals — but you don’t have to be one to help,” he said. “You can volunteer at our Tigard center, or contribute; 97 percent of donations go to those in need.”
   For more information, visit www.medicalteams.org.

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