Ever since a deadly, 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010, Mercy Urgent Care has dispatched a team of volunteers, “Team Mercy,” on 19 separate trips to provide medical care to the people of this devastated Caribbean country.
These medical service trips are part of Mercy Urgent Care’s ongoing “Have a Heart for Haiti” efforts, which raise more than $20,000 annually to send medical teams and supplies.
An estimated 600,000 Haitians have been living in tents since the earthquake, with abject living conditions contributing to rampant medical maladies. On the trips, Team Mercy volunteers treat patients for a host of ailments including fungal infections, worms, and hunger – most children in Haiti eat just once, every other day. The volunteers also treat many for cholera, which affects an estimated 700,000 Haitians.
New Wheels: Meeting Need with Practical Support
On the team’s first four trips, patients seeking care had to trek many miles to a makeshift clinic set up in the courtyard of a hospital that was destroyed in the quake. But on the April 2012 trip, Team Mercy presented local doctors, Vladimyr and Merline Rouseau, with a four-wheel-drive vehicle, allowing them to travel directly to patients in remote areas. Dr. David Stern of Practice Velocity, a Mercy Urgent Care vendor/partner, also made a substantial donation for the purchase of the vehicle, dubbed the “Mercy Wagon.”
For the July 2013 medical mission trip, Asheville-based filmographer Dylan Trivette joined Team Mercy and captured the spirit of the volunteers and the gratitude of the people they serve in Haiti. Watch the award-winning video here.
Dr. Ellen T. Lawson, Director of International Medical Missions and Founder of Mercy for Haiti
(828) 778-5108
ellenl@mercyurgentcare.org
We are riding thru the rubble and have just driven over the quake crevices in the road on our bus – ‘the Mercy Wagon’. The mountains are rugged and lack vegetation and the ocean is beautiful in contrast to the squalor of tarps and crushed buildings/shacks. The people however will not be broken. Their faith is strong and the good God carries them when they cannot get up.”
— Dr. Ellen Lawson on February 8, 2010. Click here to read the full blog.
Mercy Urgent Care, through its fundraising arm, the MERCY Foundation, continues to raise funds for future trips. All gifts are tax-deductible; for more information or to donate, contact the Catherine McAuley MERCY Foundation at (828) 281-2598, or send donations marked “Haiti” to CMMF, P. O. Box 16367, Asheville, NC 28816. You can also donate online using the button below.
