Why Would Country Music's Biggest Star Go to Haiti?

Why would Country Music's biggest star go to Haiti with us?  

Perhaps, for Brad Paisley it was the fact that Haitians have no clean water to drink.  In fact, in the area in which we work, Thomazeau, Haiti, all but one of the water sources we tested were heavily contaminated with e. coli, salmonella and cholera bacteria.  

We routinely see mothers filling their baby's bottle with the brown smelly water because that's all they have.  For a nation an hour and a half from our border, it is intolerable that the people have no access to clean water.  Would anyone disagree that clean water is a basic human right? It is unbelievable that the main cause of illness in this Caribbean country stems from dirty water.  

But it doesn't have to be this way.  We can change this blight in the Haitian community. 

 Brad and Kim have decided to do just that.  They are supplying an entire area of Haiti with clean water filtration systems so that all 200,000 people in this area will have access to clean water.  

The Paisleys are transforming Haiti.  

Take the Paisley Challenge.  

Make a difference.

LiveBeyond...

LiveBeyond.org

Haiti 3 Years After the Earthquake

     Three years ago today, we were frantically preparing to deploy our rapid response team to Haiti.  The news reports were grimly reporting the mounting death toll of the 7.0 trembler which struck south west of the tiny island nation's capital.  We loaded search and rescue equipment alongside our surgical supplies and triple checked our disaster relief checklist hoping to get it all on the airplane bound for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  

     As our team approached the American Airlines ticket counter in Nashville, we saw the gate agent's face fall when she spied our eleven overstuffed one hundred pound bags.  The smiling supervisor quickly had our bags loaded on the plane when she heard the details of our mission and profusely thanked us for our sacrifice.  The flight to the D.R. was filled with anticipation of what challenges we would  face and worry over whether we had brought sufficient surgical equipment to repair the shattered lives we expected to see.  

     We landed in Santo Domingo and rented vehicles to make the uncertain trek west to Haiti.  Through a friend of  a friend, we had secured an unused hospital on the border of Haiti and the D.R.  but had only cryptic directions, a tourist map and a finicky GPS.  As darkness fell, we began the trip over rough roads in hopelessly overloaded vehicles.  Because of the excessive weight in the back, our headlights shone at a forty five degree angle upwards.  This made the endless potholes unavoidable but provided a source of mirth for the locals.  We found that as we passed through their villages they would laugh and cheer as we blindly hit their seemingly endless supply of speed bumps at full speed.  Amazingly, the vehicles' suspensions lasted long enough to get us to our destination.  We arrived at the border hospital around 2 am which would serve as a base of operations for months to come.  

     The wounded had heard that an American surgeon was coming and had made herculean efforts to travel to the hospital.  They arrived on foot with friends and family carrying the the earthquake victims with shattered limbs as delicately as they could.  Donkeys were enlisted to bring their injured riders strapped to their backs and groaning with every step to the hospital.  Pickup trucks each laden with twenty or so of the lucky ones ground their gears up the hill to the make shift Emergency Room.  They were waiting when we arrived.

     Thinking that our journey was grueling, we looked forward to a little rest before we started to work, but this was not to be.  As we lugged our heavy gear into the hospital we saw hundreds of severely injured people desperately looking to us for care.  As the only doctor present, I started a triage station to more efficiently deal with the ever expanding number of people wanting to receive care.  Throughout that night and non stop for three more days, we set broken bones, stemmed hemorrhage and amputated crushed limbs.  Many of the most severely injured didn't live to see the dawn, and the body count became overwhelming.  

     Those first seventy two hours were full of blood, shattered bones and screams and bereft of sleep, food and help.  We struggled through with our small team until others arrived.  We had put out the word that we needed help and people responded in droves.  Doctors, nurses and much needed supplies arrived in huge quantities saving the lives of thousands of Haitians.  These unnamed medical staff, logistics experts and churches who tirelessly worked around the clock to bring healing and sustenance to the injured Haitians are the true heroes of this disaster.  

     As the medical staff and support personnel arrived, we began to make daily trips into Port au Prince to help dig people out of the rubble and bring them back to the hospital.  On one such trip, we noticed two helicopters sitting in a baseball field outfield that we frequently passed on our way to the border.  Desperate for a better mode of transportation, we stopped to get more information.  Sitting behind a folding table under a large tent, were three men dressed in black t shirts and military style pants.  Besides the helicopters, there was a large shipping container full of supplies, numerous satellite phones and a large flat bed truck.  Because of their excellent physical conditioning, supplies and style of dress, I immediately thought that they were members of the CIA or some other unknown three letter government agency.  I enquired about the helicopters and they immediately agreed to help transport us to and from Port au Prince to provide care for the injured.  Thinking that they were in a generous mood, I asked to borrow the flatbed truck.  When they agreed to let me use it as long as I needed, I was convinced that they were some kind of government operatives.  This idea was shattered, however, when they saw my sat phone on my belt and asked if I could show them how to use theirs.  It turned out that they were a group of Mormons who had made a lot of money and were just trying to help.  We became friends and worked together tirelessly throughout our stay in Haiti!  One of the blessings of this business is the kind of people with whom you work.  

     We have returned to Haiti monthly since the earthquake providing medical care for the sick, food for the hungry and clean water.  In the years since some three hundred thousand people died, we have developed deep friendships with the Haitian people.  So much so that we have bought land there and are building a hospital, orphanage, school, church, vocational school and a demonstration farm.  There will be more earthquakes but now we won't have to travel to provide relief to the suffering.  

      

Live Beyond Thirst

The people of Thomazeau, Haiti have no clean water in their entire district.  Their wells, streams and and cisterns are all contaminated with e.coli, salmonella and cholera.

We have begun a daring plan to give clean pure water to every man, woman and child in Thomazeau.  Through a system of filtration devices and chlorinators, we plan to do just that.

We have already begun the process by installing filtration devices which are presently purifying 10,000 gallons of pure fresh water per day for the people of Thomazeau.

No longer do mothers have to put foul water in their baby bottles.

Join us in our quest to Live Beyond Thirst!!

LIVE BEYOND.org

Mobile Medical Disaster Relief: MMDR works in Haiti Hurricane Aftermath

Mobile Medical Disaster Relief: MMDR works in Haiti Hurricane Aftermath: A team from MMDR travelled to Haiti after Hurricane Isaac ravaged the country last week.  Twenty four people were killed, several in the Tho...

MMDR works in Haiti Hurricane Aftermath

A team from MMDR travelled to Haiti after Hurricane Isaac ravaged the country last week.  Twenty four people were killed, several in the Thomazeau area in which we work.  The team found flooding and wind damage as well as wide spread crop damage.  The crop damage came on the heels of a previous crop failure which caused widespread starvation.  The team will return this week to continue the work and resupply the people in need.

Hurricane Isaac

Hurricane Isaac has passed over Haiti leaving devastation and death in its wake.  Fox News reports 24 dead and 3 still missing after this terrible storm.  We are sending a team down this week to assist in the aftermath with clean water, food and medical care.  We need your help with funds to be able to assist the greatest number of people.  To donate please click on the following link:  Mobile Medical Disaster Relief

Pray for Haiti: Second Anniversary of Earthquake

Today marks the second anniversary of the crushing earthquake which hit Haiti.  

At 4:53 pm 330,000 people were killed and close to one million were injured in the worst natural catastrophe in recent history.   While billions of dollars and man hours have been spent, Haiti still lies in ruins.  Close to a million people are still living in squalid tent cities with insufficient water, food and hope.  UNICEF estimates that there are 380,000 orphans in Haiti, most of whom receive insufficient care. 

There is still no clean water, minimal electricity, no sanitation, no jobs and scarce food and medicine.  Cholera is still rampant, claiming the lives of thousands of people who have no choice but to drink contaminated water.  

As we go about our day today, eating more than we should, drinking clean water from our faucets, enjoying easy access to the best health care in the world, let's consider our neighbors in Haiti living desperate lives and dying horrible deaths only two hours from our border.  

Pray for the mothers and fathers who are losing their children to the painful death of cholera.  Pray for the grandmothers who are slowly losing the battle to starvation.  

Make a decision to help.  Live Beyond...

Mobile Medical Disaster Relief

MMDR.org