WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 9, 2010 -- Ruth Harrison and Carol Stein-Payne, who work in the Thompson Health Center at Williams College, recently returned from Haiti where they provided medical care to survivors of the January earthquake.

Part of a local medical and construction contingent, Harrison, director of health services at Williams, and Stein-Payne worked primarily in the villages of Desab and Breley, about 45 miles north of Port Au Prince. Both women are registered nurses.

On the first commercial flight into Haiti since the earthquake, they traveled Feb. 17-27 with the Haiti Plunge, a program of the Church Outreach To Youth Project, Inc. (COTY) in North Adams, founded by Sister Eunice Tassone.

Through this initiative, multiple teams have traveled before to Haiti to encourage sustainable development through an agricultural cooperative consisting of nine villages in the mountains of the central plateau.

Harrison and Stein-Payne were part of a team that included local pediatrician Dr. Michael Sussman, ob/gyn Dr. John Buoni, and psychologist Dr. Craig Clemow, which conducted clinics in the villages. The majority of their patients were mothers and their children who were treated for maladies such as gastro-intestinal problems and dehydration.

"There were some acute issues, but most of them were issues that we weren't going to be able to fix that day," Harrison said. "Many were related to not having clean water and not having food."

Many of the Haitian women care for numerous children. Stein-Payne said one young woman was pregnant and caring for four children, including a boy whose mother had not been seen since the earthquake.

"She had all the responsibilities of pregnancy, plus this one little boy. She was alone, with no support other than what she could grow herself and barter for in the market. It was a terrible scenario," Stein-Payne said. "It's a heartbreaking place to visit yet, when I looked into her eyes, I saw a lot of determination. She loved these children. The Haitian people are inspiring and beautiful. There's a lot we can learn from them."

"It's not an easy life," said Harrison. "The basic things that we take for granted are not there."

The biggest problem for the Haitian people, particularly for those who live outside of Port Au Prince, is malnutrition. The villagers are waiting for the rainy season to begin so they can plant crops. However, Haitian soil conditions are difficult.

"You just don't go out and dig a garden," Harrison said. "They use a pick axe because the ground is so hard and so dry. There's no irrigation up in the mountains, so they have to depend on what comes out of the sky, and that's not falling yet. And, when it does fall, it could bring floods instead of what they need."

While they were there, members of the team's construction crew worked with the leaders of the village and some of the younger Haitian men to repair the village bakery. "By the time we left, the floor was down. They were ready to put up walls. The bakery will be done," Harrison said.

In addition to bringing medical supplies and tools, the team brought their own food, such as pasta and granola bars, so as not to take food out of the local economy.

"There's only so much you can check in on a commercial airline," said Stein-Payne. "We did bring in formula and supplies to make a special rehydration drink that people can mix with a liter of water, and to stave off diarrhea and other gastro-intestinal problems when the water is contaminated. But they need a lot more than this."

"Although most of Port Au Prince is reduced to rubble, the city is active. People are everywhere, selling food on the streets as they try to make a living. All about them, others are busy with shovels and wheelbarrows, trying to clean up the devastation. However, it's hard to imagine how people with hand tools are ever going to be able to deal with the magnitude of this crisis," Stein-Payne said.

Both she and Harrison want to return.

"It was a remarkable experience and the people of Haiti are remarkable," Harrison said. "There's hunger and it's worse now with the earthquake, but I think that they are a people that will recover."

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