The Harvard Humanitarian is a monthly e-newsletter compiled by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) to publicize news, publications, and events in the Harvard community related to advancing responses to humanitarian crises of war and disaster. Please help us make this a robust resource by contributing your Harvard community news items via email.
HHI Responds to the Earthquake in Haiti
Since the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has played a lead role in supporting the coordination of the Harvard-wide response including that of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals within Partners Health Care System. By leveraging HHI's unique position as an academic and research center with long-standing ties to leading medical and public health personnel, HHI has been able to facilitate the deployment of more than 70 surgeons, emergency physicians, anesthesiologists and nurses to Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. HHI personnel are staffing the Fond Parisien Rehabilitation Center, and an HHI Fellow led the development of HaitiVOICES to facilitate better coordination on the ground.
Situation Reports Document Harvard-wide Haiti Response
On January 15, HHI's Director, Michael VanRooyen began issuing daily Situation Reports, updating the Harvard community on the response of Harvard affiliates to the Haiti disaster. As the response effort became less urgent, these reports were issued bi-weekly. The updates include tracking and reporting on all current activities of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children's Hospital , and others as they continue to support Partners in Health and the humanitarian relief effort on the ground in Haiti.
HHI Director of Education Initiatives, Hilarie Cranmer is busy directing the operations of a large displacement center and medical compound in Fond Parisien on the Haiti side of the border with Dominican Republic. The camp was set up on land owned by the U.S. foundation Love A Child, Inc., and currently holds around 225 injured people, all of them accompanied by a relative. Approximately ten percent of the wounded are children, with many patients necessitating amputations or suffering from extremely painful lacerations.
The camp provides a high level of medical and rehabilitative support, while offering a unique opportunity for many Harvard affiliated physicians, public health workers, and supervised students in health, policy and business to play a role in the ongoing humanitarian effort. HHI faculty and affiliates will use this site to apply evidence based public health principles, technology and outcomes management to improve the lives of Haitians who have been injured and displaced by the earthquake.
Before heading to the border camp, Dr. Cranmer treated patients in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. In SMS communication with HHI, Dr. Cranmer explained the situation on the ground: "Most of the injuries were orthopedic with infected open fractures and nearly every patient needed some sort of operative procedure. Words can't describe the degree to which these people are suffering, and it's hard to find a place in the city that has been unaffected. In all of the disasters I've worked in, I have never seen anything like this."
To take a tour of the Fond Parisien Rehabilitation Project with Hilarie Cranmer, view the video from CNN iReport titled "Harvard Humanitarian Initiative-Haiti."
HaitiVOICES is a voluntary project administered by public health practitioners, physicians and humanitarian responders to facilitate the collection and dissemination of information pertinent to humanitarian response and logistics in Haiti from January 18th onwards.
All response agencies in Haiti, whether local or international, have been encouraged to post their current activities and anticipated project needs on the site.
Fellow Patrick Meier leads Crisis Mapping Initiative for Haiti
Two hours after the earthquake struck Haiti, Patrick Meier heard about it on CNN. Within an hour, he was mobilizing forces for the first ever live crisis mapping response to a major disaster.
As part of his role as the Director of Crisis Mapping and Strategic Partnerships for the Kenyan NGO Ushahidi, Meier oversaw the establishment of Ushahidi's Haiti Crisis Mapping webpage, created through the manpower of over 300 volunteers globally located and dedicated to the mission of advancing humanitarian response through technology.
The Crisis Mapping project in Haiti is receiving over 1,000 text messages a day with reports from Haitians about immediate needs like collapsed buildings, fires, medical emergencies, and contaminated water supplies. The open-source project has informed the response efforts of many NGOs and governmental aid agencies, including the American Red Cross, the International Medical Corps, and the U.S. Marine Corps.
For more information about the evolution of this project, check out Patrick Meier's blog, iRevolution. To read more about his role as the Co-Director of the Crisis Mapping Program at HHI, visit our Crisis Mapping & Early Warning page.
Harvard for Haiti Fundraising Efforts
January 22, President Faust announced the creation of a Harvard fund created to assist employees who have been directly affected by the tragedy unfolding in Haiti. "We have learned that at least 75 people who work at our University have direct ties to Haiti, and many of them are coping with the loss of loved ones or struggling to assist friends and relatives who have been left homeless," Faust said. "The establishment of this fund helps us to come together as a community at a time of great need and assist some of the men and women whose work supports Harvard's mission every day." The fund can be accessed by clicking here.
An additional fund has been established to encourage undergraduates in the college to give as part of a united effort between the Harvard College Undergraduate Council, Office of the President, Harvard College Dean's Office, Office for the Arts, House Committees, and Student Alliance for Global Health. This fund may be accessed here.
On February 12, 2010, a benefit concert will be held in Sanders Theater with all proceeds going directly to Partners in Health. Please see below in the "Upcoming Events" section of the newsletter for more information, or visit the Events Page of HHI's website.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Event times, dates, and locations listed here are subject to change without notice. Please contact the event host for more information.
"Humanitarian Response to Haiti" Global Chat
Wednesday, February 10th, 12:30 - 1:30pm
FXB G-11
Harvard School of Public Health
Join the HSPH Student Government for a talk with HHI Faculty Member Dr. Stephanie Rosborough. Dr. Rosborough is the Director of International Emergency Medicine Fellowship, Brigham and Women's Hospital and a Harvard Medical School Associate Faculty.
Global Chat is an interactive health forum wherein experts from around the world share experiences and expertise in an informal and informative setting.
A light lunch is provided.
A UNHCR Perspective on the International Response to Haiti: Challenges of Coordination and Outlooks on Future Cooperation
Wednesday, February 10, 4-6PM
Carr Center Conference Room Rubenstein Building, 2nd Floor, Room 219 Harvard Kennedy School
Introductory Remarks by Dr. Gregg Greenough, Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative;
Chaired by Prof. Jacqueline Bhaba Dir., University Committee on Human Rights Studies;
Keynote by Jana Mason , UNHCR Senior Advisor, UNHCR Regional Office for the USA and the Caribbean.
Jana Mason is Senior Advisor for Government Relations and External Affairs at the Washington, D.C. office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In that capacity, she acts as a liaison for UNHCR and represents the agency's interests with the U.S. government-particularly the State Department and Congress-and with nongovernmental organizations and other entities. Prior to joining UNHCR in 2008, Jana was Director of Government Relations and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she advocated for humane international and U.S. policies toward refugees and other forced migrants. Prior to her work at IRC, Jana was with the U.S. Committee for Refugees for 11 years, where she served as policy analyst for the Asia/Pacific region and advocated for refugee protection and assistance. Jana has worked in the refugee arena since 1983, which included a position as assistant director of refugee programs for the State of Virginia.
Crisis in the Congo: Different Perspectives
Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 10:30am-8pm
St. Michael's College
A day-long series of speakers and workshops addressing one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time.
Speakers include:
Herbert Weiss, Pierre Mujomba, Jocelyn Kelly, John Prendergast, Tatiana Carayannis, Maurice Carney, and Stephen Louis.
Sponsored by: Vermont Global Health Coalition, SMC Peace and Justice Club, Edmundite Center for Peace and Justice, Student Global AIDS Campaign For more information and updates contact: Laurie Gagne, lgagne@smcvt.edu; 802.654.2205
Securitizing Sex: Towards a New Theory of the Utility of Wartime Rape
February 11, 2010
11:40-1pm
Room 401, Taubman building, 4th floor
Lunch provided
Megan MacKenzie, lecturer of International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and WAPPP Affiliate
This talk will explore dominant approaches to wartime rape and offer a new framework from which to consider why rape is used as a tool of war and why it has been a part of militant strategies through history. In particular, this talk will focus on the use of rape during the civil conflict in Sierra Leone and the relationship between the strategy of wartime rape and domestic law, including marriage and paternity laws. Furthermore, the "collateral damages" of rape, or the broader social and security implications of wartime rape are explored as a significant consideration for international politics and security studies.
Megan MacKenzie is a lecturer of International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Belfer Center for International Security and the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Working through security studies, development studies, and international relations, her research interests include securitization discourses, gender and war, critical development studies, and transitional justice. Recent publications include "Securitization and Desecuritization: Female Soldiers and the Reconstruction of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone," in Security Studies; "Empowerment Boom or Bust? Assessing Women's Post-Conflict Empowerment Initiatives," in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs; and "De-Securitizing Sex: War Rape and the Radicalization of Development in Sierra Leone," International Feminist Journal of Politics Forthcoming 2010.
Harvard for Haiti Benefit Concert
Friday, February 12, 2010, 7PM
Sanders Theatre Memorial Hall, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Tickets: Regular: $25.00; Students: $10.00
In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Haitian people face unthinkable hardship, devastation, and destruction. The Harvard for Haiti Benefit Concert brings members of Harvard's rich and talented arts community together to raise funds for the relief of our neighbors in Haiti. The concert will feature over a dozen performances, including many of Harvard's vibrant dance companies and choral ensembles, including Kuumba, the Harvard Modern Dance Company, the Holden Choirs, and much more. The list of performers also includes award winning instrumentalists such as internationally acclaimed violinist Ryu Goto '10, Charlie Albright '11, winner of the National Young Concert Artists Piano Competition, and jazz favorite Malcolm Campbell '10. All proceeds of the concert and related events go to Partners in Health, a Harvard affiliated organization which has worked in Haiti since 1987.
3rd Annual Meeting of the Burden of Surgical Disease Working Group
March 10th-12th, 2010 Nashville, TN
Hosted by Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. Invitation, registration and agenda to follow. The event is being planned by HHI Fellow K A Kelly McQueen, MD, MPH. More information is available at: http://site.burdenofsurgicaldisease.com
About The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative HHI fosters interdisciplinary collaboration at Harvard University in order to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian strategies for relief, protection, and prevention; instill human rights principles and practices in these strategies; and educate and train the next generation of humanitarian leaders. In 2005, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative was established as a University-wide interfaculty academic and research center, supported by the Office of the Provost and the Harvard School of Public Health with the participation of faculty from Harvard schools and affiliated hospitals. For more information, visit www.hhi.harvard.edu.
Since the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has played a lead role in supporting the coordination of the Harvard-wide response including that of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals within Partners Health Care System. By leveraging HHI's unique position as an academic and research center with long-standing ties to leading medical and public health personnel, HHI has been able to facilitate the deployment of more than 70 surgeons, emergency physicians, anesthesiologists and nurses to Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. HHI personnel are staffing the Fond Parisien Rehabilitation Center, and an HHI Fellow led the development of HaitiVOICES to facilitate better coordination on the ground. 
Two hours after the earthquake struck Haiti, Patrick Meier heard about it on CNN. Within an hour, he was mobilizing forces for the first ever live crisis mapping response to a major disaster. 
A day-long series of speakers and workshops addressing one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time.
