Officials offer gratitude for support
Last year's January 12 earthquake toppled a classroom column, crushing Iney Laguerre's left leg. The teacher was rejected by five hospitals before being brought to Haiti Adventist Hospital, where he underwent surgery to amputate his leg and two fingers.
A year later, Laguerre is back to teaching full time.
"The Lord has been good to me and I've learned that He gives us the strength and capabilities to move forward," Laguerre, one of several earthquake survivors addressing a crowd of hundreds of worshipers and church officials gathered outside the hospital, said yesterday.
Participants sang and prayed at 4:53 p.m., one year to the minute after the worst natural disaster in the nation's history, which eventually took the lives of some 300,000 people.
As Seventh-day Adventists joined their fellow countrymen in commemorative church services nationwide yesterday, this gathering outside the denomination's hospital here marked what for many has been a highlight amid struggling rescue efforts.
Built in 1978, the structure only suffered minor damage in the last year's earthquake. Operations were moved outside and 200,000 patients were treated by hospital staff and volunteers in the eight months following, hospital officials said. More than 4,000 of those were surgeries.
Church and hospital administrators yesterday recognized the dozens of organizations and medical teams who treated patients following the disaster.
Dr. Elie Honore, president of the Adventist Health International Services for Inter-America, thanked volunteers who flew in to work at the hospital. "We are so grateful to AHIS and Loma Linda University for their presence and their continued support, before and especially after the earthquake. We also remember all the non-government organizations who came to our aid," Dr. Honore said.
Ensuing support from additional partners has allowed hospital administrators to expand facilities, said Emilie Clotaire, an administrator. Two small facilities have already been built to serve as prosthetic rehabilitation centers and an in-house prosthetic lab is in construction. Two new operating rooms are also being constructed, Clotaire said.
The hospital has two operating rooms, 70 beds and offers ophthalmology, orthopedic and gynecological services, said hospital medical director Dr. Yolande Simeon.
Church officials also thanked the world church for support. "We are a people of hope, and we continue to celebrate life and how God continues to preserve our lives," said Theart Saint Pierre, president of the church in Haiti, addressing the crowd.
Saint Pierre praised the work of hospital staff for helping save lives and treating the scores of wounded people who flooded the hospital after the quake.
Yesterday was the fifth day of such church-led ceremonies, which began on January 8 in the central and south regions of Port-au-Prince, where nearly 600 church members lost their lives and more than 100 churches were destroyed or damaged.
Earlier this week, a commemorative service was also held at Haitian Adventist University, where some 400 families still take shelter on campus and classes are still held in temporary buildings.
"Today the entire world remembers the earthquake in Haiti," said Elie Henry, executive secretary of the church in Inter-America and a Haitian native. "The world showed solidarity for Haiti, the world cried with Haiti and demonstrated this in 2010 with their outpouring of gifts and we acknowledge that.
"We thank the Adventist World Church for their funds, the solidarity and gifts," Henry said.
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has provided more than USD$4 million in aid, personnel and assets to assist Haitian survivors in the months since the earthquake. ADRA has focused on managing displaced persons camps, water purification, food, sanitation and hygiene, psychosocial support, education and semi-permanent shelters.