Haiti: Emergency Diabetes Supplies Needed

What if you survived a major natural disaster, but lost your home, your family? What if the city in which you lived - which happens to be one of the poorest in the world - was one scrambled mess of dead or dying under a rubble of crushed concrete and metal? It is a terrifying scenario. No food, no electricity or fresh water. Street riots, looting and utter chaos everywhere. And emergency healthcare at a time like this? One can only presume there is very little medicine available, including diabetes supplies.

There are more than 300,000 people in Haiti with diabetes (IDF) and it isn't hard to imagine that each and everyone of those affected by the tremendous earthquake, which hit Port-au-Prince on 12 January, need assistance. The quake was the worst the region has felt in more than 200 years, and more than 200,000 people are feared dead.

It's the living that concern humanitarian efforts today and in the weeks ahead. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, where government instability, corruption and public unrest has tortured its people for years. And now this. Ban Ki-Moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, is already calling it a humanitarian disaster.

But what is being done to help the living, and more specifically the living who suffer with diabetes?

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and Australia-based non-governmental organization Insulin for Life have launched a relief effort for people with diabetes in quake-stricken Haiti.

These two organizations have sent a shipment of insulin, meters, test strips and other supplies to the Haitian Foundation for Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases, the only dedicated diabetes clinic in Haiti.

Communicating by email, the foundation's vice-president Philippe Larco said, "We have survived the earthquake which affected almost 3 million Haitians with hundreds of thousands dead." "We are ready to receive diabetes supplies and distribute it in the best possible way to people with diabetes through our network," Mr Larco added.

An additional parcel of diabetes supplies was delivered to the Haiti Diabetes Foundation by project coordinator, Dr. Nancy Larco, who practices as a diabetologist and an internist. She is also a professor of diabetology at the University of Notre Dame.

The International Diabetes Federation is also setting up a Haiti Diabetes Trust Fund where its more than 200 member associations can contribute to building services for people with diabetes in the nation.

For more information or to donate:

Insulin for Life (scroll down to see donate window on left)
IDF Information on Haiti Diabetes Foundation
FHADIMAC
American Red Cross —donate by calling 1-800-REDCROSS, texting “Haiti” to 90999, or donate online.