Press Releases
DATE: 4 March 2010
RELEASE NO:10-02
Two Grace Hill providers heading to Haiti
By Gerald Sonnenberg
For more information call (314) 814-8774
gsonnenberg@gracehill.org
ST. LOUIS, Mo. --When a devastating earthquake struck the tropical island nation of Haiti Jan. 12, nearly 250,000 people died and Haiti, an already troubled country, became an even more desperate place to live. The world responded.
Soon to be among the thousands of volunteers providing aid, medical care and comfort to the Haitian people will be Grace Hill Neighborhood Health Centers’ Rebekah Hassler, a Certified Nurse Midwife and Family Nurse Practitioner at Grace Hill South; and Judy Gallagher, a Family Practice Nurse Practitioner, at Grace Hill at St. Patrick’s Center.
With the support of their families, the two providers plan to travel to Haiti March 5-13 with other volunteers from the Haiti Medical Mission of Wisconsin.
Judy has accompanied the group before and applied her skills in different areas of the world, beginning six or seven years ago when the director of the organization (a college friend) invited her.
This will be Rebekah’s first time with the group. She planned to travel to Haiti before the earthquake to provide basic teaching information to lay midwives. That is still the plan for her if it is appropriate.
“Otherwise, we will take care of more urgent needs first,” she said.
Rebekah said she has observed quite a bit of suffering during previous trips to South America, The Middle East and Africa. “Still, I don’t know quite what to expect from this trip,” she added.
A part of St. Louis for more than 100 years, Grace Hill Neighborhood Health Centers, Inc. (GHNHC) is a federally qualified health center and provides low-cost, primary and preventive health care at six locations to primarily low-income and uninsured residents in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County. GHNHC is accredited through the Joint Commission.
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