Former HHMF Volunteer in Haiti

Dr. Sara Sigalat March 3, 2010

My volunteer work began 4 years ago, while I was sent for my first delegation to Uganda in a project named: “Helping Hands Medical Fellowship”, supported by Brit Olam and GYPA. Since then I have not stopped finding ways to promote health education and giving medical treatment to those in need and have difficulty reaching doctors.

Brit Olam, an Israeli organization and GYPA (Global Youth Partnership for Africa), an American and Ugandan based organization are both promoting humanitarian activities and accessibility to health care and health education to those living on the margins of society. I have travelled two times now to Uganda to work on the Helping Hands Medical Fellowship project.

Brit Olam is also supporting, among others, an organization called Natan – an Israeli Coalition for International Humanitarian Aid. After the Earthquake struck Haiti, they quickly mobilized supplies and professionals to provide relief on the ground. So, on Febuary 4th, I found myself on a plane heading to Haiti to help however I could.
I was sent in the third delegation of Natan to the Island, 3 weeks after the earthquake measuring seven on the Richter scale and described as "the most destructive" of the past 200 years hit the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Natan incorporates medical, social and humanitarian institutions so our delegation team included a medic, a psychologist, a social worker, a logistical specialist, and myself, the only physician.

In Haiti we settled in a refugee camp of 5000 people called St. Mary. We started to rehabilitate the people who were now all living in tents. We succeeded in opening a school and clinic, giving treatment as needed. People were suffering from much infectious diseases especially skin and wound infections. My experience working in Uganda in the past helped me a lot in giving quick treatment to the people in Haiti.

We had the chance to help a young boy, 5 years old, with a disease called mega colon. We arranged his operation for free, for which he waited for 2 years without enough money to do it.
I was working also in an orthopedic hospital, CTDI Hospital in Port au Prince. There I found many injured people with amputations, severe wounds and who were suffering also from post trauma problems.
It was very difficult for me to see the terrible injures among young children, teenagers girls and boys. Looking around, walking in the destructive streets, meeting in every piece of land people living in tents was a shocking experience for me, even though it was not my first time being and working in refugees camps.

I was glad to give help to those poor people, together with good people from other nations all over the world. It was a great honor for me to share my work with them and get to know that people are not alone in the world. We all have one another in such disasters, which we hope will never come again.