On the Third Anniversary of the Haiti Earthquake, CMMB Assesses the Well Being of Those Who Lost Limbs Due to the Devastating Quake
January 12th marks the three year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti. CMMB began to work immediately after the quake, providing relief valued at more than US$49 million. A special area of focus for the organization was those victims who lost limbs.
CMMB is sharing the preliminary results of amputee research, undertaken in the Spring of 2012. At that time, CMMB and the Harold and Kayrita Anderson Family Foundation (HKA Foundation) partnered on The Haiti Amputee Project, an in-depth quantitative and qualitative study of Haitian amputees. The Project, undertaken by the Haitian Amputee Coalition, of which CMMB is a founding member, sought to evaluate how well the Coalition and other NGO partners were able to address the needs of Haitian earthquake amputees. 272 Haitian amputees were interviewed.
The 2012 research demonstrated, among other findings, that:
Post-earthquake provided prosthetics supported critical mobility for amputees, allowing them to go places they couldn’t go before, like work, church and school.
Nearly 85% of clients report feeling more accepted by society and less ostracized as a result of post-earthquake services.
7 in 10 amputees believe that amputees are treated better in Haiti today than they were before the earthquake, indicating a major cultural shift in a country where amputees were often ostracized.
For further details, please download the preliminary report. The final report will be released in the Spring of 2013.
While 73% of those interviewed lost a limb due to the earthquake, 27% of the interviewees reported that they received services from the Coalition or other partners that were not earlier available.
The Haiti Amputee Coalition is a collaborative effort of CMMB and its partners (the Ivan K. Sabel Hanger Foundation, Harold and Kayrita Anderson Family Foundation, MEDI, Otto Bock, Physicians for Peace, Shepherd Spinal Center and Hospital Albert Schweitzer). The Coalition was created immediately following the earthquake in 2010 to provide urgent medical care and high-quality prostheses for amputees, to ensure a high quality of life and give hope for their futures.
The program provides far more than medical services alone – it provides food and shelter, physical therapy, ongoing prosthetic adjustment services, income generation support and psycho-social services to amputees.
The program has reached and supported more than 1,200 patients since 2010. CMMB continues to serve Haiti’s amputees, having fit 177 new patients with high-quality prosthetics in 2012.