Helping Haiti

Local businesses play big role in recovery

Lawrence resident Mini Kaur, left, assists a patient at a clinic in Haiti. Kaur was part of the team of medical volunteers who traveled to the northwest region of Haiti in March to establish medical clinics and conduct a needs survey for the community, after the devastation of the January earthquake.

A boy waits at the clinic.

Katy Brown is a pharmacist at Hy-Vee in Lawrence, but her know-how is now helping earthquake victims in Haiti.

Brown recently created what she called “a pharmacy in a notebook” to help a team of medical volunteers track and dispense medicines on the island that was devastated by a magnitude 7 earthquake on Jan. 12.

This included a set of inventory sheets, information about medications the team would be providing, and a health promotion section to help teach Haitians to be health conscious. Hy-Vee also donated more than $1,000 worth of multivitamins.

“It was a good opportunity to get involved, make a difference and continue to give,” Brown said.

Those contributions are among several from Lawrence businesses used by a team of volunteers to help quake victims. Other businesses that donated included a local UPS store, Bikram Yoga, Au Marché, Crandon and Crandon Optometrists, Neu Physical Therapy Center and Minuteman Press.

“Without the help of these businesses, we could not have done our job,” said Lawrence resident Mini Kaur, who was part of the team of medical volunteers who traveled to the northwest region of Haiti in March to establish medical clinics and conduct a needs survey for the community.

The team worked on behalf of the humanitarian organization Sonje Ayiti, whose name means “Remember Haiti” in Creole. Kaur, who practiced internal medicine in the Kansas City area before moving to Lawrence 10 years ago, volunteers as economic development director for the organization, while also working on health promotion.

Kaur said she’s been meeting with the Lawrence contributors to convey to them how their gifts make a difference.

Crowds line up behind a gate, trying to get help from the clinic.

Spreading information

One of those is the UPS store at 3514 Clinton Parkway, which printed more than 500 copies of documents at a discount for Kaur and her team to give to patients who visited their clinics. These documents included instructions, in Creole, for adequate hand-washing, making water drinkable and making rehydration fluid in case of diarrhea.

Operations manager Steve Figuieras said he was glad to provide the discount especially because the instructions will continue to benefit the Haitian people during this time of recovery.

“Those kinds of causes are very important,” Figuieras said.

More support for this cause came from Bikram Yoga, 711 W. 23rd St. In late January, Bikram Yoga conducted a special fundraising class that raised more than $500 in 90 minutes. With part of that money, the medical team was able to purchase medications.

Lawrence resident Mini Kaur, far left, teaches Haitian nursing students whose school was destroyed in the earthquake how to become yoga instructors.

Hygiene supplies

To help promote a hand-washing campaign, Lora Wiley, owner of Au Marché, 931 Mass., donated soap from the store’s stock of bath-and-beauty items. Kaur said many displaced people didn’t have soap and basic hygiene supplies.

“To give soap is such a small thing,” Wiley said.

Lacking soap after a disaster can lead to further deaths because of the increased likelihood of diarrheal diseases, Kaur said. Hand-washing is only a short-term solution, but Kaur said it can cut the amount of after-disaster fatalities in half.

For Wiley, the decision to donate also had a personal connection. One of Wiley’s employees, Alyssa Padilla-Esperance, has a sister-in-law whose family lives in Haiti. Padilla-Esperance’s family survived the earthquake, but the problems from the aftermath continue to affect the family.

“I know people are still living in the streets and scouring for food,” Padilla-Esperance said. She said Kaur’s initiative is valuable in many ways, including building morale.

Healthy eyes

For some displaced people in the region, their basic needs include proper eye care. The earthquake caused people to lose their glasses and, hence, their ability to read. The destruction and dust in the air created the need for lubricants and antibiotics for some people.

When Brent Crandon, an optometrist at Crandon and Crandon at 1019 Mass., heard that Kaur was planning the trip to Haiti, he gave Kaur a call, offering to help. Kaur is a patient of his wife, Elizabeth Crandon, also an optometrist.

Crandon is familiar with the work of medical clinics in other countries. He has been on seven trips to Central American countries with an organization called Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity (VOSH).

In addition to donating money, Crandon donated a large box of glasses, especially reading glasses, and eye medicines.

He said he hopes people continue to contribute. “Their needs are going to be ongoing,” Crandon said.

Physical therapy needs

The needs include physical therapy for people who were injured in the quake, particularly those who had to have limbs amputated.

To help with this need, Marc Hunley, a physical therapist at Neu Physical Therapy Center, 1305 Wakarusa Drive, created packets of information in Creole for health workers and amputees.

Kaur said these documents have become part of the Cape Haitian medical network. Hospitals there also use the materials to treat patients and as resources that patients can use themselves.

Putting people to work

Besides physical needs, many people throughout Haiti also need jobs. Kaur said she met a group of displaced nursing students who had nothing to do because the earthquake destroyed their nursing school. Kaur helped these young women by teaching them to become yoga instructors and paying them for their work.

Minuteman Press also supports a women’s cooperative in Haiti called Rafavaal by printing tags and inserts for a product that the women made. Kaur brought a prototype of what she wanted to Dee Bisel, owner of Minuteman Press, and Bisel agreed to do the printing at the best pricing she could offer.

“It was our pleasure to redesign it to make it cost effective,” Bisel said.

Bisel marvels at Kaur’s effort to create jobs and income for Haiti’s earthquake victims.

“It’s neat to see the two skills of physician and entrepreneur come together,” Bisel said.

But Kaur said it’s the businesses that made the important difference.

“If these businesses didn’t do what they did, I would have just been traveling,” Kaur said.