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Project HHH - Hearts and Hands for Haiti, is headed by Robyn Couper, who is back in New Zealand after working as a missionary in Haiti for 33 years.
She is the only known New Zealander to have been a long-term Haitian resident.
The project, aimed at giving long-term assistance, will target Cap Haitien, where she was mostly based and the city to where refugees from the devastated Port-au-Prince will head.
Miss Couper, who returned to Oamaru at the end of August last year, is well-known to community leaders in Cap Haitien.
They will support an invitation for her to return, bringing additional personnel for a short-term relief effort continuing as long as needed.
In a statement, Miss Couper and North Otago resident Bruce Albiston, who is also involved with the project, said Project HHH teams might include medical, surgical, orthopaedic, general practitioners-physicians and nurses recruited locally or further afield.
Teams would serve for no less than eight weeks and would work in partnership with local health professionals.
It was estimated up to $120,000 would be needed annually.
The second largest city in Haiti, Cap Haitien is the size of a provincial town such as Oamaru, but has up to one million residents within its catchment.
It is being designated as the main container port for emergency supplies and general shipping that will add huge additional traffic to a grossly under-resourced port region and poverty-stricken population, the pair said.
An administration support base, comprising civic, church, professional and business leaders, is being set up in Oamaru.
Friends of Project HHH will be be needed for fundraising and support.
A public meeting will be held in the RSA hall in Itchen St on Sunday at 2.30pm.
Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton has agreed to be patron.
Donations will be received at the meeting and can also be sent to Project HHH Oamaru Baptist, PO Box 420, Oamaru, 9444.
Links:
[1] http://www.odt.co.nz/files/story/2010/01/robyn_couper_1381554948.JPG