This is a personal “From the Field” story by Direct Relief Employee Alivia Birdwell, Partner Liaison for USA Programs. May 22, 2012 marked the one year anniversary since the deadly tornado that struck Joplin, MO, devastating much of the community and resulting in the death of 161 people. One year later, the damage of the tornado is still apparent. However, while
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By Carl Williams, Direct Relief Japan Recovery Coordinator While on a return trip through the broken and washed away city of Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture to meet with two nongovernmental organizations Direct Relief supports, I saw a familiar house on the other side of a huge ship grounded among immense piles of debris. It was a two-story house, which I remembered
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This is a personal “From the Field” story by Direct Relief Employee Jenny Hutain, Emergency Response Manager. September 11 marks the six-month anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. As we reach this milestone in the recovery process, Floyd Mori (Executive Director, Japanese American Citizens League), Bhupi Singh (Direct Relief’s COO/CFO), Carl Williams (Direct Relief’s Japan Disaster Relief Coordinator), and I
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Yesterday afternoon my colleagues and I took the thirty minute flight from Port au Prince to Port de Paix in the far Northwest of the country. We came to the north to visit two more hospitals to upgrade the conditions of their maternity wards and encourage more women to come to the hospital for pre-natal visits and delivery. As we
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This is a personal, From The Field story by Andrew McCalla, Direct Relief’s Emergency Response Manager. We arrived at the small medical clinic in Petit Trou de Nippes about five hours after we left Port-au-Prince that morning. The distance is only 75 miles but the unpaved roads, traffic, and small lakes and rivers we had to drive through to get
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Lindsey Pollaczek Medical Research Center, Tonkolili and Bo Districts, April 19-20 About 15 percent of all deliveries will be complicated and will require emergency obstetric care. Many complicated cases can be managed at a lower level facility if the skilled birth attendant is trained in the management of basic emergency cases and has the tools they need to do their
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