“January 12, 2010 will always be with me,” says Dana Bordenave, a Haitian-American registered nurse who recently returned from Haiti after helping earthquake survivors. She shared her experiences last month at a fundraiser in Randolph organized by Georja Joseph, owner of Tete-a-Tete Beauty Salon. Bordenave went to Port-au-Prince with the Haitian-American Nurses Association ten days after the earthquake hit the island nation.
“I wasn’t prepared for what I encountered. The magnitude of the problem is beyond words,” said Bordenave, who works at Rhode Island Hospital. She last visited Haiti in 1989. Upon her arrival this time, she had to wait at the airport for five hours before being taken to the General Hospital, where her group set up shop.
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(Updated March 10)- President Obama hosted Haitian President Rene Préval at the White House today (March 10). In a summary of their remarks issued by the White House, President Obama discussed the ongoing American response, warning that "people should be under no illusions that the crisis is over." He added: "The challenge now is to prevent a second disaster" and said, "America’s commitment to Haiti’s recovery and reconstruction must endure and will endure." Full remarks after the break.
Read moreThe Archdiocese of Boston says it expects that its special collections at local Catholic parishes will net Haiti relief efforts in excess of $2 million.
Read moreA pair of US Senators — including Massachusetts' own John Kerry, who is Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee— are urging Western Union and MoneyGram to "eliminate or reduce the fees for money transfers to Haiti through June 2010 after the
Read moreCongressman toured Haiti capital with eye on troop levels, relief
Updated Feb. 25— State Rep. Marie St. Fleur, who became the first Haitian-American state elected official ion Massachusetts history in 1999, will not seek re-election to the Massachusetts House of Representative this year. St. Fleur delivered the news to a gathering of Dorchester Democratic party activists on Saturday morning (Feb. 19), according to our sister newspaper, the Dorchester Reporter, which has a full report on her announcement here. St. Fleur did not say what she plans to do after her term expires in January 2011.
Read moreNelson Aquino, a nurse anesthetist from Children’s Hospital Boston, went to Haiti last month with a group of Children’s clinicians as part of a disaster response team. Now, after two weeks back in the United States, he reflects on the life-altering experience in the video above. For many more accounts of the way Children's Hospital Boston has helped respond to the disaster, please check out their blog dedicated to Haiti. Thank you to our friends at Children's Hospital Boston for their ongoing efforts.
Read moreMore than $500,000 in federal funding will be distributed by state officials in the coming weeks to assist with mental health counseling and other social services related to the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti. According to Gov.
Read more“Framing Haiti: A Brown University Teach-In” will be held Friday, Feb. 19, from noon to 3 p.m. in the Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences, 185 Meeting St. All events are free and open to the public.
Read moreThe White House issued this statement today on the one-month anniversary of the Jan. 12 earthquake:
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Many readers have inquired after the BHR's own Richardson Innocent, who provided some of our early reports from Delmas — where he survived the earthquake on Jan. 12. Rich spent the next three-and-a-half weeks helping out friends and neighbors all over the PaP area. On Wednesday, he came home to Boston to regroup. Rich hitched a flight to Florida's Fort Rogers courtesy of Missionary Flight International and then made his way back to Boston via Miami.
Richardson is pictured in this photo (above) as he assisted in a search and rescue operation in Delmas. Innocent says he intends to return to Haiti in the near future.
An interdenominational prayer service is set for this evening at 6:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston's South End to mark the one month anniversary of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
Read moreFamily members of Haiti earthquake victims who are enrolled in state-subsidized health care plans would get a reprieve from premiums this year, under plans outlined by state health care regulators Thursday.
Read moreSeth Rolbein, a Boston University news editor, offers an interesting first hand account of his post-Jan. 12 visit to Haiti in the online BU Today.
Read moreThe city of Boston has organized a community forum for Thursday to address what Mayor Tom Menino calls “potential scams and fraudulent activity” that are targeting Haitians in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Read moreStudents at Harvard University have organized a Friday, Feb. 12 concert that will raise funds for Partners in Health. The event will be staged from 7-8:30 p.m. at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. Tickets: $10 student, $25 regular admission (buy here or at the Harvard Box Office in Holyoke Center; all proceeds go to Partners In Health (PIH).
If you can't make it: There will be a live webcast of the event, so you can still watch and donate here.
To end your evening: Mingle with performers and speakers after the event downstairs at Cambridge Queen's Head Pub at SAGHAH's* Gateway to Global Health!
Performers and speakers include: President Drew Faust, Dean Evelynn Hammonds, PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl, Mass. State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Director Michael VanRooyen, award-winning internationally acclaimed violinist Ryu Goto, internationally acclaimed pianists Charlie Albright and Malcolm Campbell, Harvard Glee Club, the Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble, the Caribbean Club Dance Team, Kuumba, and more.
Donations are accepted before, during, and after the concert.
Updated Feb. 9, 2010— Read this op-ed in today's Boston Globe by Dr. Laurence Ronan and Dr. Lisa I.
Read moreThe folks who developed the Mission 4636 project — which is helping Kreyol-speaking Haitians and Haitian-Americans in the States direct help to earthquake survivors. This video gives an overview of the project and gives guidance on how we can help.
Mission 4636 from CrowdFlower on Vimeo.
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