(Photo courtesy For Haiti with Love via Facebook)
Haiti (MNN) — For Haiti with Love’s hospital clinic has been busier than ever.
“It’s making for very, very busy days,” says For Haiti’s co-founder, Eva DeHart. “Lots and lots of burn supplies and just kind of an overwhelming situation right now.”
Kids in particular have been getting burned. Girls and boys take public transportation on their way to school. But public transportation in Haiti comes in the form of motorcycles. Often, girls wear jumpers to school, so their legs are exposed and vulnerable to burns from the manifold pipe.
A contact in Haiti told DeHart it seemed every time she would finish patching up one kid, two more would come in.
The clinic has also recently seen extreme cases like a four-month-old baby whose back was severely burned by boiling coffee.
In another case, “We had a man brought in totally naked because his burns were so extensive, he couldn’t stand anything touching his body. There had been an explosion in his work place. His burns were front and back, really extensive,” DeHart says.
“Each burn patient has their own story. Each accident happens in a unique, different way. But the blessing is: they know where to come. And our contributors have made it possible for us to have the supplies in place to treat them.”
For Haiti has also been seeing the contamination of fish making people sick. DeHart explains waste has been thrown into the water contaminating everything in and surrounding the area.
“One of their sources of protein is now one of the things that’s creating big problems in the hospitals and making people really ill…. Poverty just seems to feed one complication after another. One problem creates another. It’s really tough living and right now, just like in the United States, everything is focused on politics. So other things tend to fall by the wayside until the issues are resolved.”
Even so, along with treating illness, wounds and bad burns, For Haiti’s staff shares the hope of Christ.
“The Gospel comes in with every patient sitting in front of our team on a table,” DeHart says. “You pray with the patients. You pray with the people coming in with them. There’s constantly an opening for the staff to be witnessing to the people bringing the patients in or the patients themselves.”
Pray for the staff of For Haiti with Love as they meet physical and spiritual needs. You can also help by donating supplies here.
