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By: Maria Suarez Toro
The Global Fund for Women
On the grounds next to an epidemiological hospital destroyed by the earthquake, Dr. Jean Pape has set up two laboratories and an emergency medical center for wounded victims. This Haitian doctor received worldwide fame for inventing a method of halting the advancement of HIV/AIDS to help those without the ability to buy expensive medicines continue to live with the infection.
The epidemiological hospital, 
GHESKIO (Haitian Group for the Study of Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections), housed laboratories working to address numerous infectious diseases. After the earthquake, what could be salvaged from the disaster to treat patients was left out in the open. Having learned that the Puerto Rican delegation had brought camping tents and canopies, Dr. Pape called our camp to see if we could provide any materials to help protect the laboratory and that could give privacy to those patients with HIV/AIDS. We sent two large camping tents and a large canopy so that he could create his improvised “moving” clinic. Dr. Pape called us the following day to thank us and to let us know that when word spread that he was seeing patients, 5,000 people needing medical attention came to live near the tent clinic in the center of the city.
On our second trip to Haiti, we brought more camping tents to Dr. Pape. This time there were more health personnel and they had rehabilitated a part of the building that had not suffered major damage. There Dr. Pape sees patients during the day and by night many of the ill patients stay the night in the makeshift hospital rooms made by camping tents.
Our tents may be few, but they were among the first. Cornell University, Oxfam, the Clinton Global Initiative and other large agencies have since offered much more support. Thank you Puerto Rico, thank you Haiti, thank you Latin America and the Caribbean, for your prompt and abundant generosity.
Maria Suarez Toro is a producer of FIRE, Feminist International Radio Endeavor at Radio for Peace Internacional. FIRE set up a communications center at the Internacional Feminist Camp located between Haiti and the Dominican Republic and through radio has helped to give voice to Haitian women about the conditions in their lives. Based in San Jos઼, Costa Rica, Maria has covered the actions and activities of the international women's movement at every major UN conference of the past two decades.
The Global Fund for Women is the largest grantmaking foundation in the world funding women's health and human rights. Since 1987, they have funded over $75 million to 3,800 women-led organizations in more than 160 countries.
BlogHer is helping "Write Women Back Into History" by participating in Women's History Month 2010. We are showcasing the stories of women in Haiti in the wake of the January earthquake. You can read more from BlogHer's Women of Haiti series throughout the month.
