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via cousin Abe van Wingerden:

2/4/2010 Double Harvest Update

Friends of Double Harvest,
After spending the last 2 days listening the Dr. Art McCulloch and Nick VanWingerden talk about their experiences in Haiti, I am even more overwhelmed at the work that is being done at Double Harvest.

AT THE MISSION – thanks to J.L. Williams for getting a new generator delivered and procured (free from the U.S. Military) for Double Harvest. What awesome news and now we can better run much of the surgical and other needed equipment on site. This also allows the old generator to now serve as a backup as we are not sure when regular power will be restored. We also had a birth at Double Harvest a few days ago. See the pictures attached and the unique heating system they used for the newborn at the hospital.

MORE ON THE NEWS – Dr. Art McCulloch was featured on WBTV news in Charlotte two nights ago as the lead story. Some of the facts of the history of Double Harvest are a bit off, but it was good to see the media allow Art to tell the real story about Double Harvest and the real story of the Haitian people. Click on the link for this story.

HOW YOU CAN HELP – money is still the best option by far. As mentioned before, it costs $6,000 in shipping alone to get a container to Double Harvest. Additionally, it can take up to 3 months for a container to get into the country. We can buy locally on some of the items needed for everyday. For example:

Typical Costs of Items in Haiti
=====================
$0.50 for a lb of rice
$1.00 for a lb of beans
$0.10 for a starter Tilapia Fish (takes 3 months to grow to full size)

One Meal of Fish/Rice/Beans/etc for a person is $0.50

ELECTRICITY
$5.00 Gallon of Gas
*Takes 200 Gallons a Day to run the facility

SCHOOLING
$30 a Month to give a child one meal a day, books, and cover tuition at the school at Double Harvest

BOARD MEETING – As noted in the last update, the Double Harvest board will be meeting this week and weekend to begin the process of working a “re-building “ plan including additional plans for how you can help and for those whom want to visit Double Harvest on-site on a non-medical volunteer work basis for a weekend, week, etc. Much work in planning to be done, but the long-term need is great and our team is up to the challenge.

More to come on the promised drop locations and other great news going on at Double Harvest. We have more rotations of doctors coming in, and we have some of the original team (Uncle Arie, my parents,) and my brother and sister-in-law on their way back to Haiti this weekend for another “tour of duty”. Thanks to everyone for their continued support, concern, and prayers for Double Harvest.

And, thanks to the almost 2,700 member strong Facebook nation that is part of Double Harvest (Check it out at Facebook and key word Double Harvest) and at DoubleHarvest.org. Lastly, thanks to the continued contributions that are still coming in everyday.

via Frantz (administrator at DH)

via cousin Abe van Wingerden

Friends of Double Harvest,

The tough daily work continues for the team at Double Harvest in Haiti.  We are now on our third rotation of doctors already and our volunteer doctors are helping to train the on-staff folks at Double Harvest, but the need is greater today than it was 15 days ago as more and more Haitians in need find out about Double Harvest.

SCHOOL – Great news.  The school will re-open on Monday well ahead of schedule (it was thought that it would be closed the rest of the year).    One of the main reasons is that we NEED to feed the kids and this is an orderly way to do it.  Also, the curriculum will be a little different as there will be some counselors and we will have some interaction activities with them so the children begin to deal with reality.  The situations they are living in are still very stressful as the houses are still very fragile and many families are scared to sleep in their homes due to aftershocks and just general fear.

ON-SITE – One of the frustrations the doctors and other on-site staff has been the old generator that has been used to run power at the site. When we finally got enough fuel to run the generator, we found it was not prepared for the immense needs on site.    We now have a new generator being installed which will greatly increase our ability to generate enough power to do all of the surgeries and run the other needs of Double Harvest.

NEW WORK -  Prosthetics and wheelchairs will be a big need now and we are working with an organization that is helping us meet that need.

BOARD MEETING - the Double Harvest board will be meeting this week to begin the process of working a “re-building “ plan including additional plans for how you can help and for those whom want to visit Double Harvest on-site on a non-medical volunteer work basis for a weekend, week, etc.  Much work in planning to be done, but the long-term need is great and our team is up to the challenge.

MEDIA – We continue to receive great coverage including on-air mentions at local radio stations, more coverage on various local business and websites who are collecting money, and local business running raffles and other contest to make money for Double Harvest.   The outpouring of supports continues even after the base media coverage has slowed. We also had a film crew from Joe Gibbs Racing at Double Harvest last Thursday and Friday and we should have some good video to share soon.

HOW YOU CAN HELP – money is still the best option by far.  As mentioned before, it costs $6,000 in shipping alone to get a container to Double Harvest.  Additionally, it can take up to 3 months for a container to get into the country.

We can buy supplies and the mission’s needs much cheaper locally for now.    For those who are/will collect goods for shipment later, there are some big Dos and Don’ts.  For those familiar with Haiti, you know that the seasonal light rains begins in less than 10 days, with heavy rains beginning in earnest in May.

Needs (Complied list from the folks on-site)
=================================
SHELTER -  Tarps

SHELTER -  Enclosed Camping Tents – 2, 4, 6 or 8 man
SHELTER -  Sleeping Cots and Lightweight Sleeping Bags / Ground Pad (not air mattress)

SHELTER -  Sheets for Single Beds
FOOD - Cooking Oil, Bags of dry rice Bags of dry beans (no canned goods)
FOOD – Ziploc Bags (all sizes for storage) and Hard Plastic dishes for orphanages (no soft plastic)
MEDICAL -  Ace bandages, Sterile Pads, antibiotics, Neosporin, Tylenol and Ibuprofen

SCHOOL – Notebook Paper, Construction Paper, Pencils, Crayons, Toothbrush/Toothpaste sets

CLOTHING – New Clothing and Shoes If Possible, but all tags need to be removed, and no hangers please.

SIZING – Nothing larger than Large for Adults.    The need for XL and XXL is not great.

SHOES – Tennis Shoes, Crocks, Flip Flops, no shoes with heels.

SHORTS – The mesh gym shorts are very popular for kids, but no shorts for Adults please.

To drop off items at Metrolina Greenhouses (other sites will be mentioned soon), please pack everything in medium size boxes and mark what is in it, and bring to the old race shop.  Contact Todd or Vickie (tjohnson@metrolinagreenhouses.com or Vickie@metrolinagreenhouses.com) with specific questions on this.    Remember, money is still the biggest need, but if you cannot do money, these are the items above where the biggest need is right now.

More to come and I promise on the next email at the end of the week that we will have defined drop points in major US cities like Nashville, Charlotte, Cleveland, Chicago, Washington DC to help assure the needs of Double Harvest are met.

Lastly, we now have over 2,500 members on Facebook now on the Double Harvest page and we are still adding over 50-100 people a day. Please check there for additional videos and links.     Also check new pictures on Doubleharvest.org.

Thanks to everyone for their continued thoughts, prayers, and support.

via email from Frantz (administer at DH)
HI to all
Again another very busy day at Double Harvest.  The day started early as I had to go to the airport to pickup 5 pallets of medical supplies donated by ISOH/IMPACT.  This is one of the new organizations that has been a great help to us thanks to [...]

via cousin Abe van Wingerden
Friends of Double Harvest,
Our new rotation of fresh Board members is now in-house at Double Harvest and our new rotation of doctors is in as well.   The new teams are giving us a renewed stark reminder of the death, disease, and destruction as they are exposed to it for the first [...]

My parents were able to get in to Haiti today from the Dominican.  They arrived at Double Harvest Haiti this morning. Below is an update from my Uncle Nick (who is currently there also)
Today went well. Maryke and Willem (my parents) arrived with some
goodies for us. The docs were able to do surgery to [...]

*to see more photos from Double Harvest & Haiti after the earthquake go to
Double Harvest’s Facebook Page.*
via cousin Abe van Wingerden
As we begin the first wave of transition of both board members and medical teams at the site (Fresh people arrive on Saturday and Sunday), the positive momentum of Double Harvest and their work continues [...]

In the last 24 hours, a tremendous opportunity opened up for Double Harvest Haiti.
the Haitian government is placing 400,000 homeless near Double Harvest.
“PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti  —  Within days, the government will move 400,000 people made homeless by Haiti’s epic earthquake from their squalid improvised camps throughout the shattered capital to new resettlement [...]

*to see more photos from Double Harvest & Haiti after the earthquake go to
Double Harvest’s Facebook Page.*
(received via email from Double Harvest Administrator Frantz)

Hi family and friends;
The person who said “time flies when you are having fun” was so right because the past few days every hour seems like forever.  We rejoice however [...]

Another long day of work for our team in Haiti.
AFTERSHOCK – Haiti has had over 40 aftershocks so far since last Tuesday, but a large 6.0 magnitude aftershock hit early yesterday morning that was reported by many news organization. Due to the aftershock being very short and much deeper than the main earthquake, while the [...]