Following the devastating earthquake on Aug. 14,  Zanmi Lasante, as Partners In Health is known locally, sent a medical team to affected areas in southern Haiti to strengthen the support for survivors. Meanwhile, at Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais—about 150 miles from the epicenter of the quake—clinicians simultaneously prepared to treat patients.

When Dr. Aaron Berkowitz read Mountains Beyond Mountains during medical school, he quickly became interested in Partners In Health (PIH). But he wasn’t quite sure how a neurologist could get involved in global public health. So he reached out to PIH leaders, including Drs. Kerling Israel and Michelle Morse.

Immediately after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, Dr. Dyemy Dumerjuste and his colleagues quickly assessed the situation from Port-au-Prince. And shortly after, he was on a helicopter, as part of the first team to evacuate survivors from the Nippes department, a devastated region in the South near the epicenter of the Aug. 14 earthquake. 

More than a week after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and the wounding of First Lady Martine Moïse, Zanmi Lasante facilities remain open, as they have through years of political and civil unrest, devastating hurricanes, and the current COVID-19 pandemic.