wfn.org | Baha'i news: Amid wreckage in Haiti, new birth brings hope

[Sally Weeks <sweeks@bwc.org>]

>Baha'i World News Service
>http://news.bahai.org
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>Amid wreckage in Haiti, new birth brings hope

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 5 February (BWNS) - Little Tina Rose Wome came into  the world on 28 January in a makeshift clinic, fashioned from a classroom a t the Anis Zunuzi Baha'i School on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

An entire team of visiting doctors and nurses was on hand for her arrival -  the first birth at the school in the 30 years since its founding.

The delivery was poignant in another way, too - Magdalah Wome had been preg nant three times previously but none of her other babies survived childbirt h. Tina Rose is the first she has taken home - a home which now is no more  than a tent pitched in front of the rubble that at one time was a house.

International relief agencies have reported that dealing with the aftermath  of the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince on 12 January is one of t he biggest challenges they have ever faced. As many as 170,000 people are b elieved dead, and the number of homeless may top one million.

"Whatever you see on television, it is 10 times worse," said Dr. Munirih Ta hzib, a pediatrician from New Jersey who helped organize the medical team.  "We would meet people whose entire family had been killed and their house d estroyed. Yet they would just pick up and carry on. That is what kept us go ing."

Indeed, the inspiration provided by the Haitian population is a common refr ain in reports from the scene. "The Haitians are not just sitting back with  their hands out. They're doing a lot of the heavy lifting - so humble in i ts nature, it seems invisible," Time magazine said. "They dig survivors out  of the wreckage by hand, not with big yellow machines."

The 18 members of the particular medical team that welcomed Tina Rose into  the world were from the United States and Canada. They had come to Haiti to  deliver medical supplies and treat as many patients as possible during the  week that they were able to stay. Additional goals were to teach people ho w to recognize and treat infection, and assess needs for sustainability.

The 18 visitors, many of whom were Baha'is, had made arrangements to set up  their tents in the yard at the Anis Zunuzi school and create a temporary c linic in the classrooms that were still standing.

The directors of the school, Yves and Susanna Puzo, lost their home in the  earthquake but helped arrange for food and logistical support for the medic al team, which included two pediatricians, two orthopedic surgeons, four ob stetricians/gynecologists, an intensive care specialist, a hospital doctor,  a nurse, a respiratory therapist, and a fourth-year medical student.

Back home, members of the group have already had follow-up consultations ab out how they can provide ongoing assistance to efforts by Haitians - includ ing the local Baha'is - to rebuild their country.

"We all learned the power of grassroots action," said Dr. Tahzib.

Note: A collection of 30 photographs accompanies this article and may be vi ewed at http://news.bahai.org/story/755.