We are blessed at Friends for Health in Haiti to have a number of wonderful partners who help us accomplish our ministry in Haiti. One of our partners is Avera Health System in Sioux Falls, SD and they donate much-needed medical equipment to us for our clinic in Gatineau. Another partner is Harvest Call, the mission arm of Apostolic Christian Church (ACC) in Bluffton, IN, who allow us to ship supplies and equipment on their containers coming down to Haiti. Helping us coordinate all of these supplies and transportation are FHH Logistics Managers Ray and Donna Moon, who are based in Milwaukee.
We recently were notified that a container with equipment of ours arrived at the ACC warehouse in Cayes. So, we made several trips with our driver in a big box truck to get the equipment, bring it to Jérémie and up to the clinic in Gatineau. I want to share with you the complicated process!
Delicate clinic equipment is packed in plywood crates in the US in order to ship it down to us safely and without damage. The crates on this shipment weighed between 1200 and 1800 pounds each and were put on the shipping container with the use of a fork lift. In Cayes, they were put onto our truck also with use of a fork lift. But, once they get to our clinic, the crates had to be taken apart on the truck and each piece of equipment removed and taken into the clinic by hand. In other words, the equipment was carried by several strong-bodied young Haitian men!
The crate containing the portable xray machine being taken apart on the truck.
The xray machine is maneuvered onto a plywood ramp where it is rolled down to the clinic sidewalk.
All hands help to get the xray machine carefully from the ramp onto the concrete sidewalk.
End result with xray machine safely in the clinic radiology room. Hooray!
A similar process was followed to get the ultrasound machine off the truck and into the clinic.
Likewise, three examination tables were taken off the truck and carried into the clinic. Each table weighed over 500 pounds and boards needed to be placed under the base of the tables to allow them to be carried by several men on each side.
Six men carry one of the examination tables into the clinic.
Cherlie makes sure the table is positioned correctly and is in good working order.
My consultation room received a beautiful new exam table, this one without torn upholstery as the last one had!
Before moving it off the truck, the table had to be connected to electricity to allow the head to be put flat so it could be carried into the clinic.
Two of the tables are adjustable, so the gynecologists can adjust the height of the table according to the procedure they are doing. Dr. Gil and Kathy English acquired them and sent them down to us, thanks to Avera Health System.
We’re grateful to all who were involved in getting this equipment to us and safely into the clinic. As the Haitian saying goes, “many hands make light work”.