AURORA | At the tiny Hospital Belledere near Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic, patients often trek across the border to better facilities in the Dominican when they need care.
On a visit there last year, Melisa Esposti, director of global health grants at Project C.U.R.E., said that was especially true for pregnant women, who sought out better-equipped hospitals on the other side of the border.
And adding to the list of difficulties the hospital faces: They don’t have a single ambulance, Esposti said.
In the coming weeks, that is set to change.
Project C.U.R.E, along with Ambulance Gateway, an Aurora nonprofit that donates still-useful ambulances to hospitals in need, are donating a 20-year-old Ford ambulance to Belledere.
Ambulance Gateway members donated the hospital to Project C.U.R.E. this week and Esposti said the ambulance could be delivered to Haiti within a month.
Chip Hartney, who founded Ambulance Gateway along with several fellow members of the Aurora Gateway Rotary Club, said the ambulance is the third the group has donated since its founding in 2013. The previous two were sent to facilities in Mexico.
Before that, Hartney said the rotary club had donated several to hospitals in Mexico and Africa.
The ambulance they donated this week — a Ford E-350 with almost 176,299 miles -— is still in good shape, but many ambulance companies and hospitals in the United States likely wouldn’t use it.
“In the U.S., because of higher expectations, more regulations, rigs become more of a maintenance burden here earlier,” he said.
Grant Barrett, another of the group’s founders, said it’s rewarding to know that rather go to a junk yard, the vehicle will be helping people who really need the help.
“The alternative is that it gets scrapped, and this is a usable vehicle,” he said.
Project C.U.R.E. has donated several ambulances and other equipment in the past, but this is the first time they’ve partnered with Ambulance Gateway. Hartney said the hope is that the partnership becomes a lasting one and his group can work with Project C.U.R.E. to donate several more in the future.
For Project C.U.R.E. — which stands for Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment — the ambulance won’t be the only item heading to Haiti in the coming weeks.
Michael Fry, director of operations for the organization, said the same shipping container that carries the vehicle will be stuffed with medical supplies for the hospital. Project C.U.R.E. staff are finalizing that shipment now, he said.
Douglas Jackson, president and CEO of Project C.U.R.E., said the container will be a tight fit and they may need to deflate the tires on the ambulance to make it fit.