By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic
Photographer: COURTESY| TOM TRACY
Sister Bertha Lopez Chavez, a nurse with Caritas Mexico, works in a makeshift hosptial near the Haitian cathedral in the days following the devestating earthquake.
The group was founded in 2001 under the direction of Dr. Orlando Silva of the Sylvester Cancer Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami and conducts outreach projects in Guatemala, Peru and Ecuador.
“Our group decided that although we were planning our next trip to Ecuador, the need was greater in our own backyard and all the energies turned to addressing the needs of the earthquake,” said Elicia Egozcue, a nurse volunteer with Emmaus Medical Missions and a member of St. Agatha Parish in Miami. “So far we have a rooster of 200 doctors and nurses; normally we have 80 to 100 traveling together with 30 medical staffers, but in this case only we have medical, firefighters and paramedics going.”
Volunteer medical and emergency staff have been signing up from Florida, the Carolinas, Texas and in Latin America. All the medical staff are being pulled from a list of those who have already traveled with Emmaus over the last 10 years. It includes various medical specialists including internal medicine, pediatricians, oncologists, gastroenterologists and nurses.
Emmaus teams may travel to Haiti every five to six weeks. They are accepting new medical volunteers and paramedic-firefighters as well.
The group is still in the process of ironing out the logistics, Egozcue said. “Safety is a primary concern. This will be on a continual basis to Haiti because we understand the work will not be done in one trip and in order for the people to have all their medical needs attended to.”
Fernando Becerra, who is coordinating logistics for the Emmaus teams, said the normal lead time before a mission trip is several months — a luxury the group doesn't have right now.
“To facilitate our work we have priest contacts in other countries who serve as liaisons with the parishes to assure the patients receive the treatments needed; in Haiti, this is another reason for us to go periodically — to ensure continuity of care so they are not left with medications and just to their own,” Becerra said. “Our groups will want to go to the city outskirts, because in the city there is a lot of chaos, so we think our best work will be done elsewhere.”
The group is also hoping to bring a Haitian-American priest from south Florida on their next trip, to provide sacramental care to the people in need, according to Becerra.
For more information, contact Becerra at [email protected] or call 786-202-0491.
WHY EMMAUS?
The name, Emmaus Medical Missions, comes from a retreat based on a passage in the Bible known as the “walk to Emmaus”, found in Luke 24:13-33.
Emmaus “provides a personal encounter with Christ,” explained Elicia Egozcue, a nurse volunteer from St. Agatha Parish in Miami. “The personal encounter is meant to be shared through a life of service. … And so we seek to serve others while sharing the love of Christ. The goal is to be his hands and feet.”
