AWB Newsletter June 11, 2010|
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AWB Haiti
Project - Very Recent News! June
11, 2010
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This is an update to the eblast we
sent yesterday to announce today's exciting developments.
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New Corporate Support for AWB's Haiti Project:
After
meetings yesterday, three organizations are paving the way for
Acupuncturists Without Borders to
raise the funds needed to train Haitian health care practitioners in the
clinical protocols AWB uses in disaster recovery situations. Their
combined contributions will provide more than half of the $20,000 and
supplies needed to fund this training.
Can you help us raise the other half?
Click here to donate to AWB's Haiti
Disaster Recovery Project
Salesforce.com, which provides
applications for sales and 
management for non-profits,
is contributing $5,000.Beginning in July, for every
dollar you donate to AWB through
their web site, Mayway Chinese Herbs will
match
your
donation up to a total of $5,000.
Lhasa OMS is launching a needle
donation drive to help
fund 
the 1 million needles that will be
required to train Haitian
practitioners
and supply them with
needles for one year.
Stay tuned for more details in the next month about the fundraising
drives from Mayway and Lhasa OMS
and meanwhile, please help us
support this work NOW.
AWB Haiti
Disaster Recovery Project in the News: Read these recent stories about
volunteer experiences in Haiti -
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This
report is dedicated to all of the many people who
have
made AWB's Haiti Disaster Recovery Project possible.
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Greetings!
Five months after the Haiti
Earthquake, teams of AWB Volunteers continue to deliver ear acupuncture
treatments to Haitians and relief workers alike.
Haitian girls with ear needles during
treatment
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We would like
to thank you, our friends and donors, including all the schools and
individuals who have participated in fundraising. Without you there
would have been no AWB Haiti Disaster Recovery Project.
We would also like to
thank
our valiant organizers, Haiti Volunteer Coordinator, Diane Eggleston,
and Haiti Operations Manager, Julia Raneri, for their sacrifice and
dedication in running this program. Thank you as well to our selfless
volunteers for giving so much of themselves and their time (please see
photos in the body of this email, with team lists and additional team
photos included at the end.) Thank you finally to all of the people who
have been ready and willing to serve with AWB in Haiti, whether it
worked out logistically for you to go at this time or not. Your
fellowship and moral support are invaluable to us, and we consider you
part of the team.
| AWB Volunteer Liz Nelson from Team 2
treating
in Haiti |  |
The
results of these combined efforts are amazing - the ongoing need
astounding.
Click here to donate
to AWB's Haiti Disaster Recovery Project
Here
is one example of how the treatments change lives, as reported by
recent AWB Team Member Marc Chery:"We walk into
the post-op tent. It is very hot and there is a feeble little fan not
making much difference....
...There is an
irritable woman being tended to by an ex-husband and others who are
trying to keep her cool and calm with wet compresses... The woman is
combative, restlessly battling in the bed, and cursing at the husband
and anyone else ...who has come to see her...
The ex-husband
summons one of the acupuncturists and requests treatment for her...
Amazingly, the woman... gives permission.... (and) brave acupuncturist
Susan Bloch ... needles the woman's left ear but hesitates to continue
...because the woman has once again become so restless....
Susan confers
with team leader Doris who makes the decision to discontinue treatment
out of concern that the woman may move and hurt herself. However,
unbeknownst to everyone, the woman has quietly fallen asleep and is
breathing peacefully like a baby....the needles are left in her left ear
during the whole time the team is in the tent treating post-op
patients...She is still sleeping by the time the needles are removed and
the team moves to another tent."
| AWB Volunteer Translator Marc Chery
from Team 4 |  |
So far, AWB has sent seven teams to Haiti (including the initial
exploratory trip with Executive Director Diana Fried and Haiti
Operations Manager Julia Raneri.) The fewer than two dozen volunteers on
these trips have provided close to 3,000 ear acupuncture treatments.
Their service has reduced the pain of many survivors, and has allowed
hundreds of others to sleep, think and function once again. But above
all, the treatments have offered the most precious healing assistance
possible: a sense of hope.
Yet the need remains tremendous.
Estimates say 3 million, or 1/3 of
Haiti's people, were directly affected by the earthquake. For many, the
trauma and dislocation they experienced are making it difficult for them
to begin rebuilding their lives.
Nathalie Guillaume, a Haitian national
who is currently completing acupuncture school in the United States,
volunteered with AWB in Haiti providing treatment, coordination, and
translation. She describes the experience of returning to her country
after the earthquake:
"From
the back of the pickup truck I was in, I saw it all....
my old
church, my old school, my old house.... Crushed under the rubble!
Everywhere was
affected.
Everybody
looked older.
The streets
were all wrinkled with sadness....
The
people...afraid...traumatized...quiet...
What shocked me the most as a healthcare
provider were the conditions under which we functioned...because the
basic expectations...you would have (for where) your patient (would
recover) were non-existent!
| Nathalie Guillaume from Team 2 treats
in Haiti |  |
AWB has been
coordinating efforts with the Haitian government and has received
approval from the Ministry of Health to provide services in Haiti for
six months with an option to extend. Meanwhile, many other relief
agencies have left the country.
Here are some observations from Doris
Johnson, recent AWB Haiti Team Leader:
"There is a great need in
Haiti for continued acupuncture services. It seems as if the global
community has already forgotten Haiti and the devastation that the
earthquake has caused...The NGO (non-governmental organization) presence
in Port-Au-Prince seems to have waned..."
| Recent AWB Team 4 Leader Doris
Johnson in Haiti |  |
AWB's first priority currently in
Haiti is to respond to the frequent requests from Haitian medical
personnel to become trained in the use of the ear acupuncture protocol
so they can treat their own people with this technique.
Click here to donate
to AWB's Haiti Disaster Recovery Project
Here are
further thoughts from Doris Johnson:
"AWB's use of the NADA (ear) protocol to
help alleviate stress and symptoms of PTSD has been extremely helpful,
so much so that the (Haitian) people are requesting training to learn
and implement this protocol. It makes perfect sense for AWB
to...provide this training...as many more individuals can be treated as a
result of this training...The training is relatively simple, and can be
done in just a few days..."
In
order to provide ear acupuncture training to 40 Haitian health care
providers, including staff from the General Hospital and
students at Quisqueya Medical University,
AWB will need to raise an additional
$20,000.
AWB's
second priority for service in Haiti is to be able to send in a limited
number of additional volunteer teams who can provide these life-saving
treatments.
Each AWB relief trip to Haiti costs up to $5,000 for
lodging, transportation, communications, supplies, and other expenses,
even when volunteers raise funds for their own airfare and food. AWB's
first trip to Haiti to organize treatment venues, as well as the ongoing
coordination needed from within the U.S., have also required
significant investment. AWB has raised close to $40,000 for this program
- and these funds have already been allocated for the project to date.
The number of
volunteer teams AWB sends to Haiti in 2010 will depend on the funds
that can be raised, and how the need evolves once Haitian health care
providers have received AWB training.
AWB is seeking a minimum of $30,000 to provide ear
acupuncture training and support to Haitian medical personnel, as well
as treatment in Haiti by at least two more AWB volunteer teams.
The aid you provide to Haiti also brings back into the United
States an expanded understanding of the world, and a sense of
appreciation and compassion for our neighbors, far and wide.
Michelle Masangkay, recently returned volunteer from Team
6, shared her thoughts (see Team 6 group photo in Teams List at the end
of this email):
"...l
had a very positive, loving, meaningful experience with the people of
Haiti as well as my awesome team. I loved my experience so much, I
wanted to stay in Haiti and keep doing what we were doing.
I went to
Haiti with the intent to help bring love/healing through acupuncture.
In the end, I think Haiti helped me instead; my priorities of what
really matter are clearer and there MUST be meaning in everything you do
to enjoy the moment AND LIFE!
I feel my
eyes have been closed all my life and just opened up this past trip; and
it feels great to see!"
Betsy Whittemore, Leader of AWB's second team to Haiti, echoed these
sentiments, and talked about the impact of the treatments on the
patients:
"My
experience in Haiti was nothing short of life changing. ...We treated in
the General Hospital in tents on cement. Whole families were
surrounding one patient where open wounds, sawed off limbs, fresh
mastectomies and head wounds with people missing ears prevailed. What
predominated, however, in wounded and caregivers alike, was a look in
their eyes that went right into your heart. There was little reluctance
to agree to be treated, although this must have been foreign to them.
They knew even more than we did that this would really give them
something. As the team worked the tent, the sounds went from chaotic
chatter, yelling and moaning to quiet. All patients sat and lay with
their eyes closed like statues of the Buddha in deep meditation.
When we
removed the needles their eyes were shining, full of Shen. And they
thanked us and Blessed us and our families for bringing this to them.
They also always said," When are you coming back?"
| Betsy Whittemore, Team 2 Leader, far
left, with team members Nathalie Guillaume and Jenny Kjos |  |
$100 will pay for 10 AWB treatments in Haiti. $300 will pay to train a
Haitian medical doctor in the use of the NADA protocol so he or she can
treat thousands of people.
AWB is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit
organization. Your donations are tax deductible. AWB also has a fundraising kit available if you
would like to sponsor a fundraising event for AWB's Haiti
Disaster Recovery Project.
For more information about this kit please email outreach@acuwithoutborders.orgSincerely,
Diana Fried
Executive Director
Acupuncturists Without Borders
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Volunteer Teams to Date: AWB Haiti
Disaster Recovery Project
Team 1:
March 4-12 (From left
above) Graham Marks, L.Ac. - Alfred, NY; Victoria
Szatkowski, Translator - Portland, ME; (in the back) Julia Raneri, Haiti
Operations Manager, Team Leader, L.Ac., LMP - San Francisco, CA; and
Sue Larkin, L.Ac. - Truro, MA
Team 2:
March 25-Apr 2 (See photo of some Team 2 members earlier in this
email. )
Betsy
Whittemore, L.Ac., R.N., Team Leader - Pewee Valley, KY; Nathalie
Guillaume, Translator, Acupuncture Intern, Liaison - Miramar, FL; Jennie
Kjos, L.Ac. - Wilsonville, OR. Team members not in this picture: Liz
Nelson, L.Ac., R.N. - Tamarac, FL; Richard Pierre-Louis, Translator -
Hollywood, FL
Team 3: April
6-14 (Not pictured) Deployment of this team was
deferred for logistical reasons. Some went on later trips, and some are
serving Haiti through fundraising with AWB or working with other
organizations. Sally Van Snepson-Barnett, L.Ac. - Naples, ME; Rachel
Kelley, L.Ac. - Talahassee, FL; Nancy Miller, L.Ac. - Arlington, VA; and
Susan Lorraine Phillips, L.Ac., R.N. - Brooksville, FL
Team
4: April 16-24 (From left
above)
Doris Johnson, Team Leader, L.Ac., Los Angeles,
CA; Susan Bloch, L.Ac., R.N. - Philadelphia, PA; Kathy Dean, L.Ac., R.N.
- Shelburne Falls, MA; Marc Chery, M.L.S., Translator - San Diego, CA
Team 5: May 1-10 (Not pictured) Sally Van
Snepson-Barnett, Co-Team Leader,
L.Ac., P.A. - Naples, ME; Helen Aylward, Co-Team Leader,
L.Ac., R.N. - Portland, ME; Joseph Williams, A.P.,
D.O.M. - Gainesville, FL; Dina Gosse, L.Ac. - North Bend, WA
Team
6: May 20-29 (From
left
above) Michelle Masangkay, L.Ac., San Francisco, CA; Rachel
Kelley, L.Ac., Tallahassee, FL; Daphne Jochnick, Team Leader,
L.Ac. -
Hyannis, MA; David Sniezek, M.D., L.Ac., D.C. - Washington DC
Team 7: June 8-16 (not yet returned) Coleen
Connolly, Team Leader, L.Ac., R.N. - Pownal, ME; Sarah Sanford, L.Ac. -
Robbinsdale, MN; Laurence Lisa Lebreton, D.O.M. - Santa Fe, NM; Cynthia
Waymegwance, L.Ac. - Paauilo, HI
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