Global Links Continues Haiti Work

Pittsburgh-based Global Links is putting out the call for some unusual supplies and making plans for the long haul in Haiti. The group has partnered with Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, Haiti (3-4 hours north of Port-Au-Prince) as doctors there try to deal with the aftermath of last week’s earthquake. Global Links Executive Director Kathleen Hower says nearly all supplies are in high demand but there is a dire need for crutches and the tools used in amputations. Global Links is shipping materials from its own storerooms and asking for donations from local hospitals, corporations and individuals. Hower says when doctors head down to Haiti they are taking very little in the way of personal items and her organizations is loading them up with much needed supplies such as sutures, bandages, surgical instruments, gloves, and casting materials. She says getting the supplies from Pittsburgh to the hospital is at times harder than collecting the donations. The Airport in Haiti is small and overburdened with international aid flights and the roads between the capitol city and the Albert Schweitzer Hospital are poor.
Global Links has started to make plans for the future. Hower says after the cameras leave and the public’s attention shifts there will still be a great deal of need in Haiti and her group is drawing up plans to help sustain the hospital’s needs going forward.