Friends, sisters

Although aid begins to flow, it is increasingly clear that it is not enough to respond to the magnitude of this tragedy. Missions of many of your governments had landed in Port au Prince and powerlessness and despair by thirst and hunger begins to find answers.

At a meeting held today between civil society organizations and UN organizations based in the Dominican Republic, it was agreed to work in coordination and focus on the care of the wounded that were transferred to hospitals in the border area and in Jacmel.

We are trying to ensure supply of these hospitals with the help of the Dominican population, who have invested heavily in donations of food and medicine, but specialist medical staff is still needed urgently: Surgeons/traumatologists/radiologists/anesthesiologists and orthopedists, are the specialties that are most urgently needed, given the type of injuries people have experienced, mostly from collapsed homes and shops.

We ask you to organize campaigns and calls from your organizations and NGOs so that specialists of those areas consider coming, even for a short period, via Santo Domingo, to bring aid to the Haitian border.

The Health Commission will be responsible for assisting with visas, if necessary, receiving volunteers at the airport, and transportation to the border. So far we can only offer tents for accommodation, but we are currently identifying some houses for lodging.

THIS IS AN URGENT REQUEST! Official aid is coming to Port au Prince, and even a hospital ship, but we have a great demand on the border and we want to focus there for now, as civil society, to avoid duplication. The staff in the country — which is not very large — is completely overwhelmed, and still there is a wave of injured people that continue arriving, many of them with infections or to be amputated.

In addition to my email mail address stated below, I'm including here one that we opened to ensure the continued attention of interested people. The email address is: personalmedicoparahaiti@gmail.com. Please always include a copy to me.

Friends, colleagues, this is a concrete and urgent action. We count on you to promote this call, to motivate and support the travel of medical personnel! A big hug and thanks to all supportive responses.

Magaly Pineda
Sergia Galván
Health Commission
personalmedicoparahaiti@gmail.com