In remembrance of the 1-year anniversary of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Barr Foundation has announced the recipients of its Haiti Relief Fund Grants. The grants were established to provide prosthetic rehabilitation to the victims of the earthquake.
Through donations from the Baltimore City College Choir fundraiser; David Falk of Falk Prosthetics; Pennies for Prosthetics fundraiser; matching funds from the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem; and the Barr Foundation, four grants of $4,000 were established.
Eva Hughes, executive director of The Barr Foundation, told O&P Business News that the donations from the fundraisers were slotted specifically for outreach to Haiti.
“The funds are to go to direct need of providing prosthetic rehabilitation to the amputees of Haiti. Some of the funds were specified for children with amputations,” Hughes said. “If we continue to receive donations slated for Haiti, there is a possibility that the funding could continue.”
Along with some matching funds provided by the Barr Foundation, these organizations received the donations based on a set of criteria:
- Project Medishare for Haiti Inc. operates an Amputee Rehabilitation Program at Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port au Prince with a mission to treat every child amputee with the most skilled and compassionate care, along with the most appropriate and sustainable, yet advanced prosthetic system. From June until November 2010, the organization served a total of 120 amputees.
- Phoenix Rising for Haiti is a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team that provides complete care to both adults and children. The organization’s main focus is to restore functional mobility by providing comprehensive evaluation and treatment of orthopedic conditions, including prosthetics, orthotics, physical therapy, casting and wound care at the Prosthetic and Rehabilitation Center of St. Louis-du-Nord, which was formed in response to the Jan. 12 earthquake.
- Advantage Program/Open Hands currently provides prosthetic/orthotic services to children and adolescents. The rehabilitation clinic is located within the Centre de Sante Lumiere Hospital and offers on-site fabrication using sustainable technology since 2001.
- Prosthetika was established in 2005 to provide appropriate and sustainable assistance to disabled people in developing countries. In response to the earthquake in Haiti, an entire self-contained fully equipped prosthetic/orthotic workshop was created and shipped from California to Haiti with the intention that the workshop would be self sufficient and run entirely by Haitians. The workshop is located on the premises of Hospital Adventiste. The goals for 2011 are to continue clinical and training operations, staffing and to resupply the workshop with materials, supplies, and components for 500 prostheses and orthoses.
