Dispatch from Haiti: H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Helping to Build Clinic, Homes

A  H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 team has arrived in Fond Parisien, Haiti, where they are taking part in helping to rebuild the country devastated by an earthquake in January 2010. 

H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Executive Board member John Viola lead a team consisting of construction tradesman, firefighters and police officers, who will remain in the country until Saturday.  The team’s “primary goal is to construct a temporary health clinic which will serve a large population of amputee Haitians and their families at the Love A Child Orphanage,” said Bill Keegan, president of the nonprofit volunteer disaster relief organization. 

New Jersey-based H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 has partnered with the  Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma to design and build primary health care centers in Haiti and other locations throughout the world.

On the first full day in Haiti, the group meet with members of Love A Child. After unloading luggage, the team went "immediately over to the clinic site," where they took measurements, ordered supplies and took stock of equipment, according to a note from a member of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11.  

The started the second day on Feb. 14 with a breakfast of "eggs, peanut butter, bread and coffee" before loading trucks with tools, rations and supplies, the note said. 

The team headed  for the construction site and when they arrived they divided into two teams. One team created a "punch lists for 170 houses, which needed to be finished before they could be occupied."   The other team "framed four walls of the clinic." 

The work will continue throughout the week. For any updates, return to The MEMO.   

By 9/11 Memorial Staff