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Four Members of the Rotary Club of Everett Port Gardner participated in Haiti Emergency Preparedness Project in May 2014

 

The Haiti Emergency Preparednesss Project (HEPP) recently returned from 8 days in Merger, Haiti.  The HEPP project was coordinated by Healing the Children with leadership & financial support from HTC, Rotary District 5050, Rotary Club of Everett Port Gardner, Rotary Club of South Everett Mukilteo, City of Everett Fire (in-kind) and Emergency Management (in-kind); and many generous donors.

What orginally began as a 4 member team evolved to a dynamite team of eight members representing:  7 Community Emergency Response Team (DERT) Trainers; 4 Rotarians; 1 City of Everett Fire Captain; 1 City of Everett Emergency Management Director; 3 Green Cross Academy of Traumatology Volunteers; 2 teenage CERT trainers; 1 United Way of Snohomish County Volunteer Manager; and 1 Healing the Children Executive Director.

The goal of the project was to bring access to health care to the community of Merger, Haiti as determined by a needs assessment conducted in June 2013 which identified the need for 24/7 first aid and emergency response resources and activities for teens.

The HEPP  project was designed to train 50 teenagers in CERT who would then train other community members and to identify and establish three emergency response centers.  We are pleased to report that 75 teens were trained and the 3 The students deomonstrated such an eagerness to learn and by the end of the week were providing first aid to community members and planning their future training goups.

While there are alwasys adjustments to be made along the way, the trip exceeded our expectations and we formed a very good bond as a team.

We will be sharing our trip report at the June 25, 2014 RCEPG morning meeting so please join us to learn more.