Click Here to see the Mavericks 2011 Impact Story

We are planning another trip for February 8-11, 2012.

Please contact Doug Doebler if interested in helping make an Impact in Haiti!

You can reach Doug by email: Doug@DougDoebler.com

Maverick Business Adventures Impact Tour To Haiti

CLICK HERE FOR MY PHOTO JOURNAL OF MY 5th TRIP TO HAITI

This is a new 60 second video piece produced, shot  and edited by a mutual friend, Johnathan Heffelfinger. Please watch and PLEASE share with others!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZBUl7UhGUE

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was in Haiti on Sunday, urging the U.S government and other Americans to do more to help the earthquake-ravaged country.

“Not to get political, but if some of the politicians would come here and see the conditions perhaps they would see the need for, say, a military airlift to bring the supplies that are so needed here,” she said.

Palin spoke at a brief press conference at a warehouse owned by the Samaritan’s Purse organization north of Port-au-Prince.

“(I) don’t want Americans to forget the need that is here,” she said. “More importantly, for Americans and people across the world to know what an individual can do to make a difference, to contribute, to kind of get out of your comfort zone and volunteer to help.”

Palin praised Samaritan’s Purse for “doing God’s work.” Samaritan’s Purse describes itself on its website as “a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world.”

Palin said she would not take questions from reporters. “The reason I won’t be answering questions is because we don’t need to be getting political here today,” Palin said.

The former Republican vice-presidential nominee thanked her husband and daughter Bristol for joining her on the trip and said she hopes Bristol could help raise awareness of Haiti’s needs among young people.

As she was whisked off the makeshift stage to her waiting car, Palin answered one question from CNN’s Gary Tuchman, who asked what was different from what she expected to find in Haiti.

“Much harsher than I had expected, the conditions are much rougher,” Palin replied.

Palin is widely thought to be considering a run for president in 2012.

Her visit comes as Haiti is fighting a massive cholera outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people and sickened nearly 100,000.

The country has been struggling to recover from January’s massive earthquake that left more than 220,000 dead.

A disputed presidential election has threatened to plunge the country into further chaos.

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — The cholera epidemic already blamed for more than 1,100 deaths in Haiti could worsen because of poor sanitation in the earthquake-ravaged country, U.S. medical researchers reported Thursday.

A lack of treated drinking water, coupled with poor hand hygiene and food-preparation practices, make the 1.3 million people still living in camps particularly vulnerable, according to a new study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The course of the cholera outbreak in Haiti is difficult to predict,” the report states. “The Haitian population has no pre-existing immunity to cholera, and environmental conditions in Haiti are favorable for its continued spread.”

Jordan Tappero, a CDC epidemiologist in Haiti, said Haitian authorities and aid agencies are working to limit the epidemic by emphasizing clean water and sanitation. But he added, “We expect we will be working very hard for many months to come.”

Haiti has not reported a cholera outbreak in more than a century. The current epidemic was first reported in October and has now spread to eight of the Caribbean nation’s 10 provinces, the CDC found.

U.N. officials have denied the Nepalese were to blame for the outbreak. The CDC has said the strain of the cholera bacteria responsible is “indistinguishable” from one found in other parts of the world, including south Asia, but researchers are unlikely to be able to pinpoint how it arrived in Haiti.

“The reality is that we have a serious problem here,” CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell said. The emphasis is on controlling the outbreak, “so that more people do not become ill and potentially die from cholera.”

The epidemic comes as Haiti — already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere — struggles to recover from the January earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people. Even before the quake, only 12 percent of the Haitian population of 9.8 million received treated tap water and only 17 percent had access to adequate sanitation, the CDC noted.

“The water safety and sanitation systems in Haiti were weak be before the earthquake and made weaker by the earthquake, so conditions are ripe for the further spread of cholera,” Tappero told CNN.

Some symptoms of cholera, an acute, bacterial illness caused by drinking tainted water, can be mild or even nonexistent. But the disease can cause profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting, leading to death by rapid dehydration.

The heart of the outbreak is the Haitian province of Artibonite, north of Port-au-Prince. Interviews with victims hospitalized in the first days of the outbreak found that two-thirds of them had been drinking untreated water from rivers or canals, the same percentage did not routinely use chlorine to sanitize drinking water and nearly four out of five defecated in the open.

And as the current outbreak spreads, infected people could spread the disease further by preparing food without proper hygiene, the CDC reported.

“The way to prevent acquiring cholera when sanitation is poor is to take your water from a clean water source or treat water yourself in the home, and use good sanitary practices with clean water when preparing and cooking food,” Tappero said.

Click link for complete article, information about cholera and a video

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/18/haiti.cholera.sanitation/index.html

At 4 a.m. ET, Hurricane Tomas was located about 175 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was moving northeast near 9 mph.  The storm was expected to cross over Haiti’s southwestern tip then swirl through the strait that divides Haiti from Cuba.

The storm drenched Haiti on Thursday, threatening fragile, crowded earthquake survivors’ camps in country that is also reeling from a deadly cholera epidemic.  Tomas was expected to bring surging waves, heavy rains and possible flash flooding and mudslides to mountainous Haiti, forecasters said. Torrential rains of up to 10 or 15 inches were expected in some areas.

Read more here:   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40022831/ns/weather/

Tomas intensified a little bit overnight. As of 5am EDT Thursday Tropical Storm Tomas was located about 315 miles to the southwest of Port Au Prince, Haiti with top winds now near 50 mph and was moving toward the north-northwest at 7 mph.

Tomas is forecast to intensify into a hurricane Friday morning as it passes just west of Haiti. It is forecast move through the southeastern Bahamas Friday night and Saturday morning.

Hurricane warnings are now in effect for Haiti, the southeastern Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands. Hurricane conditions could occur in western Haiti Friday and in the southeastern Bahamas Friday evening through early Saturday morning.

A tropical storm warning has been issued for Jamaica. Tropical storm conditions are expected there later today through early Friday morning.

A tropical storm watch remains in effect for the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago De Cuba and Holguin and the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from the Haiti border east to Barahona.

Even though Tomas has not intensified at all since late Wednesday afternoon it is forecast to begin strengthening later tonight.

Heavy rain from Tomas moves into Jamaica and Haiti later today. The heavy rain should end in Jamaica Friday, but linger into Friday night or Saturday morning in Haiti.

Rainfall of 1 to 3 inches is expected in Jamaica, but in Haiti and the Dominican Republic rainfall could total 5 to 10 inches with some amounts up to 15 inches possible in the mountains. Life-threatening flooding and mud slides are likely in and around the mountains.

Get Hurricane Tracking here from the Weather Channel

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/hurricanecentral/2010/tomas.html#articleJump