Haiti Mission

On Monday, 18 January 2010, Gift of the Givers 2nd Search and Rescue team departed for Haiti on an Air France flight to Paris and onward to the Dominican Republic. The team comprises 6 specialists who are also advance life support paramedics. As with the first team they are carrying R2.5 million of heavy equipment. This team is accompanied by our first 4-member medical team which is carrying essential medical supplies. A media delegation has accompanied this 2nd team.

On Monday, 18 January 2010, the first team was assigned an area which no team had thus far reached. The first stop was a Catholic mission, totally destroyed; 5 bodies were recovered. At another site 9 more bodies were recovered.

On Tuesday, 19 January 2010, the team has been assigned their gruesome duty; move to a hospital site to remove 600 bodies to start preparing the hospital to be used as a hospital. Six of our team members will be deployed here and will be joined by a 7-member Mexican team. The other 4 members are going to a Cathedral to start suturing and treating the huge influx of patients arriving there.

On Wednesday, 20 January 2010, their brief is to move to another city where no team has reached. It is believed that many are in need of medical assistance here. Gift of the Givers team were told that they will be flown in on UN helicopters on this day and would be the first Search and Rescue Team to be taken in.

Gift of the Givers team is also on standby for Caritas if the organisation is made aware of the signs of human life in any structure. The 6-member additional Search and Rescue Team has been dispatched with the first 4-member medical team. On Wednesday, 20 January 2010, another 11 member medical team departs with large quantities of medical supplies. On Thursday, 21 January 2010, ten more medical specialists depart. Another 20 medical personnel are on standby in the days to come.