Haiti Relief - Clinic in a Can

Medical personnel in Haiti are currently treating patients out of tents, since many hospitals and clinics were destroyed by the recent earthquake. To meet the urgent medical needs Haitians are facing, Hospitals of Hope plans to construct and send 5 “Clinics in a Can”— self-contained medical clinics built in the back of 40’ shipping containers.

These clinics are durable and designed to survive earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. While hospitals and clinics will take years to rebuild, we plan to have the first “Clinic in a Can” on the ground in Haiti in 5-6 weeks. Learn more about the previous “Clinic in a Can” that we sent to Haiti.

In our initial response, we will construct two clinics, each containing two 8’ x 12’ exam rooms, an 8’ x 11’ laboratory, and a storage area. We will coordinate with other organizations already on the ground in Haiti to ensure that the clinics are shipped to the areas of greatest need.

In the coming months, if funding is available, we plan to build a small hospital by combining three shipping containers in a U-shaped formation. This hospital will contain 1 surgical suite, 1 recovery room, 1 laboratory, 3 exam rooms, and a central courtyard.

If you would like to help build Clinics in a Can or would like to donate medical or construction supplies, please contact the Hospitals of Hope office at 316.262.0964 or via email at daniel@hospitalsofhope.org. To financially support our work in Haiti, please visit our website.

Current Medical Equipment Needs

* 6 roll-around stools
* Scales
* Syringes
* Gloves
* 6 swan-neck or other exam lights
* Orthopedic supplies (plaster of paris, casting material)
* IV supplies
* IVs
* 4x4 gauze
* Kerlix gauze
* Tongue depressors
* Urine dipsticks
* Blood pressure cuffs
* 6 Welch Allyn wall unit otoscopes/ ophthalmoscopes
* 3 mayo stands
* Microscopes and other basic lab equipment
* Manual surgical table (for future hospital)
* Overhead surgical light (for future hospital)

Disaster in Haiti

As I'm sure you've all heard by now, Haiti was hit yesterday by a devastating earthquake, registering 7.0 on the Richter scale. Several of you have contacted us about what Hospitals of Hope's response will be to the disaster and asking for ways that you can get involved.

After thinking and praying about the situation, we believe that organizations such as Samaritan's Purse and World Vision are in a better position to respond to the immediate crisis. These groups already have disaster response teams in motion, so we would urge you to support them, as the first couple of days after an event like this are the most crucial.

We have been working in Haiti for several years now, and we are committed to continuing our work there, especially in the wake of this disaster. We have a team going to Haiti in July of this year, and we may assemble a team to go in the next month or so, as well. If you or your church is assembling a team, we would be happy to donate medical supplies and equipment to support your trip. If you are interested either in joining a team or in donations of medical supplies, please email info@hospitalsofhope.org or call our office at 316.262.0964.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti today, and we will continue to look for ways we can serve in the weeks and months ahead.

He Dwelled Among Us

“He dwelled among us”—this was the theme for Urbana 09, the nation’s largest missions conference. Urbana has been held every 3 years since 1946, and the week after Christmas the Hospitals of Hope USA staff traveled to St. Louis for the 22nd triennial conference.

Urbana always provides a lot of food for thought, as well as being a great way to connect with future volunteers. This year’s conference focused on the incarnation and what that means for the way we should conduct missions.

When Christ came to earth, the speakers pointed out, he “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Phil. 2:7). It’s far too easy for us to get caught up in preserving our own dignity when we do missions. We’re happy to perform surgery, but we’d really rather that someone else emptied the bed pans. It’s easy to think we’re being sacrificial when we get to do the glamorous work; it’s far harder to serve in the ins and outs of everyday life.

Another way we can learn from Jesus’ example is to maintain a long-term commitment to the people we serve. Too often, Western missionaries go to a developing country, make promises to help, and then go home, leaving their promises unfulfilled and people disillusioned. Jesus, on the other hand, came and lived with—and died for—the people he came to save; his was no short-term commitment.

This one is a little harder to apply for most of us. Most of us haven’t been called to spend our lives in a foreign country, among strangers. When we get involved in missions, it’s usually short-term. I still think that we can put this principle into practice, though. While we may not spend our lives on the mission field, we can maintain a long-term commitment, even from home.

Our hospital in Bolivia sees many short-term volunteers who come and go, but many continue to be involved with Hospitals of Hope, and, thereby, the community around our hospital, long after their time abroad has ended. We’re committed to making sure that we provide continuous, quality care at our hospital, and we employ a year-round Bolivian staff to do that, even after volunteers have gone home. Although most of us don’t live in Bolivia full-time, we have made a commitment to the community, and we aren’t going anywhere.

Many of the people who attended Urbana are students, and, as we talked to the ones stopping by our booth, we could tell that a lot of them were really thinking hard about how to apply the things they were learning to their lives. Should they go to medical school and become a missionary doctor? Should they avoid all the debt associated with medical school and become a nurse, so that they could go to the mission field sooner? Should they stay at home in the US and support missions financially?

We didn’t have a lot of answers for most of these students; God has a different plan for each of their lives. But there is one thing that they all have in common with all of us—we are being called to serve with humility and commitment.