Ice-cold showers, concrete-hard mattresses, and a bout of malaria were the least of Kevin Streete’s worries when he recently spent a week in Haiti.
Leaving was the real problem.
Streete, a doctor and student in the university’s executive business program, traveled to Haiti the first week of March where he delivered medical supplies and helped treat more than 200 patients a day.
“The trip was one of mixed feelings,” Streete said. “It was really good to be there and helping the people, but it was so sad to leave and see the conditions people were still living in.”
Streete grew up in Jamaica and when he heard news of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that destroyed the island on Jan. 12, he was reminded of a similar childhood experience.
“It immediately took me back to Hurricane Gilbert that ripped apart Jamaica when I was a kid,” Streete said. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘I have to go and help. Even if it’s pulling people out of the rubble, I have to go.'”
He immediately contacted Horizon International Medical Mission, a nonprofit organization based in Georgia that he has traveled with in the past, and enlisted to be on a team planning a trip to Haiti. Streete, along with 20 other doctors, nurses, psychologists and cameramen, worked in a makeshift clinic to help treat the thousands of Haitians still struggling with injuries from the earthquake.
To pay his way to Haiti, Streete raised more than $2,000 in just a few days from friends, businesses and local doctors. He also collected medical supplies from local doctors to help with the treatment process.
Streete and his team met a variety of injuries and ailments, both from the earthquake and beforehand. He said they treated many cases of typhoid fever, malaria and staph infections.
And living conditions months after the earthquake, Streete said, were still unbelievable.
“People were bathing and drinking from the gutters in this water that was green,” he said. “It was just horrible. There was so much rubble from the collapsed buildings. If you shone a light in the rubble, you could see arms and legs sticking out.”
While Streete witnessed what he described as an overwhelming amount of devastation, he still saw hope for the country.
Streete visited an orphanage housing more than 40 kids with only enough funding for 14. He said while many of the children lost their parents during the quake, they were still happy and laughing.
“I met an 11-year-old named Joseph who was orphaned during the quake,” Streete said, “And he was just all smiles all the time. He is the future of Haiti. He said one day he wants to lead his people. We need to help kids like Joseph.”
Sometime during his week there, Streete contracted a form of malaria and was briefly hospitalized after returning to the United States. Though he is still recovering, Streete remains unfazed.
“All I could think about was, ‘now I know what these people go through,'” he said. “I don’t regret going at all. My mom was pretty upset about it and she said, ‘So, you’re going back?’ I said, ‘Yeah, of course.'”
Streete travels on at least two mission trips a year to places like West Africa and the Caribbean and he plans on visiting Haiti again after graduating from the business school in May.
Immediately following the quake, Streete also established the K.A. Streete Foundation for the Advancement of Healthcare. The organization will set up a permanent clinic and provide Haitians with health care.
Dr. Kennedy Okere, the director of Horizon International Medical Mission, said that having Streete on his team was critical.
“He has made a huge impact on the mission,” Okere said. “He was very involved in the treatment process. Apart from medically, his interaction with the local kids was wonderful. He played soccer with the Haitian kids and made the environment quite relaxed.”
Gary Strickland, a cameraman documenting the mission’s efforts, said at one point Streete saw a woman collapsed on the ground, unable to lift her head without support. Strickland said Streete immediately went over to help and continued to treat the woman in the following days.
“He just wouldn’t give up,” Strickland said. “We went back that night, and she was able to sit up. The next day we went again and she was walking around. She would have died if Kevin hadn’t helped her.”
Accounting professor Progyan Basu helped fund Streete’s trip to Haiti.
“I’ve known Kevin for some time and I have a lot of respect for him and what he wanted to do,” Basu said. “I wanted to help him make this happen. Donating was a combination of wanting to help both Kevin and Haiti.”
Seeing the level of poverty and the conditions post-earthquake in Haiti is an experience Streete said he will continue to carry with him.
“Haiti changed me in so many ways,” he said. “I’m done complaining about my life. I used to think, ‘Wow, I grew up really poor.’ I didn’t even know what poor was. Looking at the Haitian people, they’re resilient. They’re proud people and they want to rebuild their nation. I want to help.”
redding@umdbk.com
