PayPal issues

I'm not certain, but it seems like PayPal does not allow donations through them unless it is to a non-profit organization, or to someone authorized to collect money for a non-profit organization.  While I have some affiliation with a non-profit (the residency) and will be going with another non-profit (Angel Missions), I have not been fund-raising for the residency (at least, not in this blog).  I am fund-raising for my own trip, not to pay for things like the flight or housing for myself, but for the things I will be giving away while there: antibiotics, vitamins, and other medications and supplies.  If I raise a significant enough amount, I have no qualms about paying taxes if neccessary on what is raised, even though that money will go right out again to purchase supplies.  However, I may not be able to continue fund-raising through PayPal, so if you would like to donate, please do it the old-fashioned way with checks and snail-mail. 

Headed to Haiti

Hello readers!  For those who may not know me, I am a 3rd year family medicine resident at Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency.  I went to Haiti in October 2009 with several other residents and one of our attendings, to offer a week of free clinics, doing medical consults and minor surgical procedures.  We also saw the marked need of the country, where many of the poor lacked things we take for granted in the US... things like clean running water, toilets, or decent shelter.  We walked through entire neighborhoods of small cinder-block and rusting metal shacks, with entire homes the size of most people's bathrooms or closets.  On that trip, I realized just how much need there was in that country.  Then, in January 2010, the need there skyrocketed, as the country was hit by a massive earthquake.  Those small shacks I'd seen on my last trip were crumbled and unsafe to live in.  What water sources were available were often destroyed.  A people who had so little to begin with lost nearly everything.  I decided I had to go back.

As a part of my residency, I get a 4 week block of "no-call pool" in April where I am freed from the obligations of the office and call in the hospital, so that I can go do medicine wherever I can set it up.  I plan to spend 2-3 weeks in Haiti during that rotation, offering free clinics, working with other medical professionals, and hopefully doing a little good to help at least a few of the people of Haiti.  I plan to leave April 19th, after my husband and I present our last trip to Haiti (from his perspective as a computer geek) at Notacon, a technology and arts conference in Cleveland.

I plan to bring 2 full checked suitcases of medications and supplies with me, both to draw from as I do my free clinics, but also to help supplement the needs of those who I work with in Haiti who will remain working there long after I leave.

Of course, the biggest challenge to doing missions such as this is funding to pay for supplies.  That is where you readers come into play. Over the next 2 months, I plan to start purchasing everything I need for this trip, from bandages and gauze to antibiotics to topical steroids and antifungals to multivitamins.  I am not a non-profit organization, so I do not think that donations to me would be tax-exempt, but donations would be hugely helpful.  In exchange for donations, I will post exactly where the money is going, how much has been raised and how it is being spent.  I will also strive to update this blog as I am away in Haiti, with photographs and stories, assuming I can find Internet access.