Blackburn goes on to quote Marilyn Waterman, one of three administrators for Missouri-based Mission of Hope Haiti, “Neither Cheryl nor Laurens (her husband) has laid their head down on a pillow since (the quake).”

About Dr. Cheryl van der Mark and her family

Cheryl hails from Carlisle, Ontario. She first became involved in Haiti after a holiday in the Dominican Republic. Dr. van der Mark spent time volunteering at Haiti’s Hospital of Hope, a part-time clinic offering medical services to one of Haiti’s poorest regions and then moved there for a two-year term.

Since September 2008, van der Mark and her family have been in Haiti, helping out full-time to build the Mission hospital into a full hospital that offers chiropractic, medical treatment and eventually dentistry.  Dr. van der Mark is the medical director and her husband is overseeing construction work.  

Dr. van der Mark is the director of North Ridge Family Chiropractic in Oakville. She has been working in Haiti for the last 18 months with Mission of Hope Haiti and is currently there with Laurens, an officer with the OPP and their three children. 

Haitian twins, Loudemina and Loudiana – approximately six years old – are also living with the family and are in the process of being adopted by the van der Marks.

The van der Marks are due to come home in September 2010.

 On Monday, December 21, Cheryl and Laurens wrote the following in their blog:

“There are two ways you can look at life. One with despair and death: One with hope and a future. Today, I choose the latter of the two ways to look at life. I can let it beat me down, or I can learn and grow from it. I choose to learn and grow.”

On that day, Blackburn reports, they were handed the dead body of a two-year-old child, bloated from severe anemia and malnutrition. The child had been brought into the clinic too late by her mother.

The Mission of Hope, Haiti

Blackburn reports, “The Mission’s buildings are located on its 70-acre compound about 30 kilometres outside of Port-au-Prince where the quake’s epicenter was located.  While it takes a couple of hours to get from Port-au-Prince to the Mission, it would only take 20 minutes if roads were good.”

Dr. Julie Maduri, who is working at van der Mark’s clinic in Oakville in her absence, has been told that the Mission’s buildings, mostly constructed of cinderblock, were damaged, but not destroyed. There are cracks and damage and it’s uncertain if they are safe to move back into, so everyone is sleeping outside.

Maduri said that the van der Mark family, and those with them, have reported through emails and Facebook that nights are cold in Haiti and aftershocks leave the orphans and others in terror.

“It’s estimated that more than 30 aftershock tremors, some nearing five on the Richter Scale, have continued,” Dr. Maduri told the Oakville Beaver.

The van der Marks do not sleep much, as the Mission’s clinic is operational and is being used to treat many arriving in search of aid.

 “At one point last Wednesday we had to shut it (the clinic) down because we ran out of supplies,” said Waterman.

A medical team that included Laurens and Grant – an Ontario paramedic - ventured into Port-au-Prince Wednesday with an injured person too serious for the Mission hospital to help. They later reported in an e-mail to Waterman that they were turned away at three hospitals before they received assistance.

The team also reported that, by its estimate, only 10 per cent of what was Port-au-Prince is left — all government buildings, banks and homes are gone.

The Mission, which employs approximately 150 Haitian staff, is still awaiting news about the vast majority of its local staffers, said Waterman.

How can you help?

The Oakville Beaver reports that: “While North Ridge Family Chiropractic has raised funds for Haiti in the past — for two surgeries for children and the hospital itself — it is now simply directing those who may want to help, to the Mission of Hope Haiti website at www.missionofhope.org . Dr. Maduri suggests donating in the ‘Where most needed’ category.”

Source, The Oakville Beaver, Jan. 15, 2010