It has often been said that if life was a department store, professional sports would be the equivalent of the toy department. That being said, I am fortunate to have a job in the toy department but yesterday I had a chance to venture out and land on the ground floor where all the people that supply the essentials toil virtually unnoticed.
I spent the day in Haiti, yes just one day, and had my perspective readjusted visiting the island rocked by a major earthquake on January 12th. The flight down to the Caribbean island was organized through a partnership between Air Canada (Jetz) and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Ian Clarke, Maple Leafs Sports Executive Vice-President and CFO spearheaded what was MLSEL’s second trip to the island to aid in the relief effort while some of the Air Canada employees in its Jetz division, Jude Welch, Carl Lachelle , Gilles Charette and his wife, Jocelyne Fontaine, a nurse, have made seven separate trips to the island during the relief effort. Others passengers on the flight were corporate partners of MLSEL and were there to give their own time and effort to unload cargo and help in a small way to try and return the earthquake ravaged island back to sense of normality. The aircraft, the same one that flies the Toronto Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs was crammed with 9000 pounds of cargo, 6000 of it being clothing.
The perspective check started the minute we landed in the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince as we were greeted by Alfonso Edwards. His story is one of many encountered in Haiti where a person just felt moved to help people in need after the tragedy. Normally a 9-5 guy in the financial sector in New York City, the Manhattan native was on the other side of the island, the Domincan Republic on a holiday when the earthquake rocked Haiti. He drove over to Haiti in an effort to try and find his sister and once he successfully accomplished that mission he just decided to stay and help. Edwards has been back and forth between New York and Port-Au-Prince and is now acting to coordinate supplies that land at the airport to get them one of the hospitals that is approximately 10 minutes drive from the airport.
After unloading the airplane, we had some time as some of the corporate types headed into a local children’s shelter to deliver toys. It was then we met Private Ryan Sluss, an American Marine from Little Rock Arkansas who lived at the Marine base, actually a bunch of tents that were set up at the airport. Sluss talked about how chaotic the airport had been as the US military presence stationed there tried to keep order with incoming and outgoing flights. Sluss escorted some of us on a 10 minute walk to a hospital operated by the University of Miami where we saw first hand the difficult working conditions where medical personnel were trying to help sick and injured people. A quick tour ensued that was led by Dr. Reger, an Arizona based physician that had been there two days and was leaving Saturday. It is common for doctors, who volunteer, to be in and out after a week on the island.
The tent, where the doctors “lived” held 215 cots. We’re not talking Ritz Carlton here folks. Doctors tried to get as much rest as possible but it’s not exactly spacious. To say they are in close quarters is an understatement. When asked how he slept Reger stated, “not very well.” We saw some other parts of the “hospital” where we observed the “operating room” which was actually just another tent where surgeries are performed under less than optimal conditions. After having been in O.R. myself, it was unbelievable to think surgeries are conducted in that space. As you might expect, the hospital was crowded with people either receiving medical attention or waiting to be attended to when there was an opportunity.
In spite of it all, including another earthquake registering 4.2 on the Richter Scale that hit the morning we landed, people are trying to do their best. The biggest need we’re told is tents and blankets. They are approaching monsoon season, the rainy period of the calendar in Haiti, and many people are still sleeping in the streets. They are afraid to go back to their homes, if it’s still standing, and it is not uncommon to see Haitians sleeping in the streets without any kind of cover or shelter. The supply depot in the U of M run hospital has a trampled dusty base that will be mud when the rain hits so for them the order of the day is building shelves to store medical supplies.
One of the most touching stories was that of a resilient 12 year old boy, Carlos, who was already living with an aunt and uncle because his parents had passed away years earlier. Apparently Carlos was out at the store when the quake hit and when he returned to his home, it was gone and so were his guardians who were killed in the aftermath of the earthquake. Thankfully one of the organizations Partners in Health has recently made arrangements to care for him as he will now be fed and educated with plans being made for his future.
There is another prominent Montreal based association, One by One, (http://www.onexone.org/) that is taking part in the relief effort that is working diligently to help children in need.
It was a moving day to say the least. My perspective has once again been jolted back to where it should be. But it has also restored my faith in the altruistic nature of the human race. If you haven’t done anything as yet to help, there is still time, it’s never too late and no deed no matter how small some deem it, would ever be wasted in this effort.