In their visit to Port-au-Prince on Monday, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton met with International Medical Corps to discuss future plans for Haiti.
International Medical Corps, which received $500,000 from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to run mobile clinics, was among a handful of international non-governmental and local organizations to meet with the former presidents on their one-day visit to the devastated Haitian capital.
“The meeting with former presidents Bush and Clinton brought together NGO partners to discuss how we can support the long-term development of Haiti, including strategies to relocate the displaced into safer, longer term housing with the onset of rainy season,” said Agron Ferati, Director of Program Development and International Medical Corps’ representative at the meeting.
With funding from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and other donors, International Medical Corps has treated nearly 43,000 people at 14 mobile clinics in the two months following the January 12 earthquake. The clinics include sites throughout Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas, including nautical clinics that cover three isolated communities that never before had access to primary health services. True to its mission to foster self-reliance, International Medical Corps also provides on-the-job training for primary health care workers through its clinics, including how to manage mental health problems in disasters.
On the ground in Haiti just 22 hours after the earthquake, International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response draws on 25 years experience in emergency settings, including last September’s earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, the massive 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.