Mercy Urgent Care’s Mercy for Haiti project began in 2010 following the deadly 7.0 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 316,000 people, and injured more than 300,000, on the island nation. Team Mercy made it their mission to provide healthcare to the people of Haiti, sending medical supplies and teams of volunteers to treat those affected by the earthquake.
The project initially provided medical care to those critically injured in the earthquake, but Team Mercy continued to work with the same physicians from 2010 to 2019, going back with teams each year — often multiple times — to provide treatment for prevalent illnesses, many of which are caused by malnutrition and poor living conditions. Since the earthquake, an estimated 600,000 Haitians were living in tents, with abject living conditions contributing to rampant medical maladies.
During a typical visit, while working alongside their Haitian colleagues, Team Mercy treated approximately 1,000 patients over each five-day period. These volunteers treated patients for a host of ailments including fungal infections, worms, and hunger — most children in Haiti eat just once, every other day. The volunteers also treated many for cholera, which affected an estimated 700,000 Haitians.
These medical service trips were part of Mercy Urgent Care’s “Have a Heart for Haiti” efforts, which raised more than $20,000 annually to send medical teams and supplies. Mercy’s efforts in Haiti were supported by donations to the Catherine McAuley MERCY Foundation.
“When the devastating earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, we felt the call to serve as emergency disaster relief because we could be the hearts, hands and feet of mercy on the ground in Haiti,” said the former Director and Founder of the international mission effort for Mercy Urgent Care, Ellen Lawson, M.D.
In 2016, Mercy Urgent Care was honored with the Urgent Care Association of America Humanitarian Award for its mission work. At the time of the award, Dr. Lawson said: “Pope Francis has declared this year as the Jubilee Year of Mercy, so the timing of this award has special meaning for us. The Sisters of Mercy’s commitment to service has continued, uninterrupted, for 116 years. As we serve people, whether it be locally or internationally, we strive to not only deliver good healthcare but to do so in a spirit of mercy.”
From 2010 to 2021, Mercy Urgent Care sent volunteers on 29 missions to Haiti and one mission to the Philippines — providing medical care, supplies, and food for those in need.
New Wheels: Meeting Need with Practical Support
On the team’s first four trips, patients seeking care had to trek many miles to a makeshift clinic set up in the courtyard of a hospital that was destroyed in the quake. But on the April 2012 trip, Team Mercy presented local doctors, Vladimyr and Merline Rouseau, with a four-wheel-drive vehicle, allowing them to travel directly to patients in remote areas. Dr. David Stern of Practice Velocity, a Mercy Urgent Care vendor/partner, also made a substantial donation for the purchase of the vehicle, dubbed the “Mercy Wagon.”
For the July 2013 medical mission trip, Asheville-based filmographer Dylan Trivette joined Team Mercy and captured the spirit of the volunteers and the gratitude of the people they serve in Haiti. Watch the award-winning video here.
We are riding thru the rubble and have just driven over the quake crevices in the road on our bus — ‘the Mercy Wagon’. The mountains are rugged and lack vegetation and the ocean is beautiful in contrast to the squalor of tarps and crushed buildings/shacks. The people however will not be broken. Their faith is strong and the good God carries them when they cannot get up.”
— Dr. Ellen Lawson on February 8, 2010. Click here to read the full blog.
