The Haitian Hospital Left Standing

Tracy Kidder dropped a staggering statistic about Haiti this week. In a small country the size of Maryland, even before the earthquake, at least 10,000 private organizations were already on humanitarian missions in Haiti. And yet Kidder, who chronicled Paul Farmer's efforts to help the country in the much-beloved book Mountains Beyond Mountains, makes the case that for many of those aid organizations, work seemed targeted more at the interests of administrators -- not impoverished Haitians.

Now, of course, isn't the time to point fingers about different groups' motivations for being on the ground. Too many aid workers, missionaries, doctors and students are missing, with families anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones, as families are across Haiti.

But now is certainly a moment to recognize -- and support -- the work of one long-established aid group in Haiti, Partners in Health.

As Kidder notes, hospitals across Haiti may have crumbled, but at least one is still standing: Zanmi Lasante Hospital, founded by Farmer's organization, Partners in Health, in 1987. Located two hours away from the capital, the injured have been streaming to the hospital for days, and PiH is working to set up field hospitals inside Port-au-Prince as well.

To give a sense of PiH’s on-the-ground presence, in just 2005 alone, in a country of 9.8 million, PiH recorded over 1.1 million patients encounters at their clinics, not to mention over one million home visits by their workers. What’s more, its staff of 4,000 consists almost entirely of Haitian medical workers, including 100 physicians and 600 nurses.

They've also just launched a new website to support Haiti, and are making pleas for donations here.

Photo Credit: Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak