Verse of the Month

For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you,

‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother,

to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

Deuteronomy 15:11 

Getting appropriate, working medical equipment to health care facilities in developing countries is very challenging and harder to accomplish than many realize. According to Dr. Robert Malkin, a professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University, “There is no question that you can donate effectively,” However, he adds, it takes a lot of effort to make sure everything is done right. The supply of quality used medical equipment is plentiful from various partners and resellers. The need and demand are also strong in low-middle income countries. The challenge is how to make the match between the available equipment and the hospitals in need.

The Dalton Foundation has been intentionally seeking to solve this problem is some very creative ways so that all equipment shipped gets installed and utilized appropriately for years to come at that impact on patient care is being measured. 

Read the full article on Strategic Placement of Medical Equipment here.

Our team had the opportunity to share impact data from our work in Haiti this month as we presented at The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation AAMI eXchange conference in San Antonio June 4-6. Us Biomedical professional, David Kuhajda and Haitian biomed, Evenel Osias shared lessons learned from the August 2021 earthquake and solutions that The Haiti Health Network and Dalton Foundation are working on together. It was a great weekend of learning, collaboration, and we met some new partners along the way.

We were able to share updates from our Orthopedic Surgery Improvement Program that was launched in response to the challenges surgeons responding to the earthquake experienced sue to lack of appropriate medical equipment at local hospitals. The lack of c-arm capabilities drastically limited surgical capabilities and had a direct negative impact on the surgical outcomes of earthquake victims. We want to make sure this never happens again and are standardizing c-arm technology throughout the island. Since last August, we have been able to repair and/ or install 3 C-Arms and we will ship 3 more into Haiti before the end of 2022. We know this will help the hard-working orthopedic surgeons do the work they were trained to do and will improve surgical outcomes for the people of Haiti.

Disaster Preparedness Conference - Southern Haiti

Two members of the Haiti Health Network in-country team were able to travel to Les Cayes to attend a Disaster Preparedness 

conference hosted by Haiti Response Coalition and Haiti Development Institute. The three day conference was focused on lessons learned and improving disaster response preparedness, capacity, coordination and systems for the future. 220 participants were able to participate in this impactful conference. 

Haiti’s high risk of natural hazards combined with high vulnerability of its population make it crucial to improve the response to these disasters and improve capacity for preparedness and response systems for the future. The goal of this conference was to create an inclusive platform for conversations about how this can be done better, both now and in the future.

For Haiti, a country continuously hit with natural disasters, it's vitally important we take the time to listen to the Haitian people, learn from their experiences, ask questions and give opportunity for Haitians to provide insight for future planning. 

Addiction Recovery| Re-entry

Alarming Trends in the Opioid Epidemic

We have been in the grips of the opioid epidemic for a very long time. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives to addiction, so many more struggle, and countless numbers of families are damaged by this devastating disease. The State of Ohio has been very proactive in supporting and encouraging providers throughout the state to get as many individuals into effective treatment as possible. Many positive strides have been made and people are receiving help. However, there are some setbacks and alarming trends that are emerging. 



Relink.org has been collecting service data on Ohio organizations that provide services for substance use disorder since 2017. This data is extremely valuable to help understand the scope and location of services available and to identify gaps in services.

The two graphs show that in certain areas like Appalachia Ohio, there was a high rate of emergency room visits for suspected overdoses in 2021 yet there are fewer treatment options for individuals in this region. 

It’s data like this that can help leaders and decision makers best allocate resources to help as many Ohioans as possible recover and continue to lead happy and healthy lives.



To learn more about data available through relink.org, contact our Statewide data coordinator, Bill Picha wpicha@relink.org

Join us for our next relink.org webinar

Relink.org will be hosting our “Concerns on the Horizon in the Opiate Epidemic” on Thursday June 30 at 2 PM EST. We will be talking with Dr. Bryan Borland with Basecamp Recovery in Columbus about some of the alarming trends and increased overdose deaths we are seeing. 

Topics discussed will include:

• Mixing fentanyl into other drugs.
• Barriers to MAT Initiation
• Potent new analogs making an appearance
• New designer drugs entering the arena that we have little to no literature about.
• Is Naloxone effective against the new analogs and designer drugs?

Click here to learn more and register for the webinar.

In all of our years working in Haiti we have been blessed to meet some of the most incredible people serving and giving their all to care for “the least of these”. Sr. Matthias Choi is a nun and nurse practitioner from South Korea that has dedicated her life to serving the poorest of the poor in Haiti. Not only that, but her healthcare facility and home is located in the Croix de Bouquets region of Haiti that is ground zero for 400 Mawazo gang activity in Haiti. Despite the incredible challenges and danger, she remains in Haiti serving and caring for those that other hospitals turn away. Sr. Choi put out a request for a special wheelchair needed for a precious little girl named Coralie. 

Her needs are many and being able to add mobility is a gift for her and her caregivers. 

We recently received a follow up from Sr. Choi sharing with us that Coralie is doing well and growing into her new chair. We are grateful to our partner  FRIDLA (Friends of the Disabled Latin America) who helped make this donation possible and we continue to pray for front-line workers like Sr. Choi and the many she cares for every day in the most challenging of circumstances.