One5 Foundation Blog

A Quick Update from Malawi

May 18th, 2010

What an amazing week in Malawi! The One5 team set out to meet with Pothawira, our partners on the ground, to solidify our plans to build a hospital in the Salima Region. We were able to break ground on the new hospital and share this monumental occasion with the people of the Maganga Village, including the chief and elders of the village.

With Malawi sharing the highest Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in the world, we are continually made aware of the importance of this women and children’s hospital, which will include a birthing center. As thrilled as we are about building this hospital, we are reminded on every trip of the importance of our partners, Dr. Peter Maseko and Dr. Anne Alaniz, the heart and soul of Pothawira Foundation and this project. Great partnerships are at the very heart of what One5 is all about in our work around the globe. The life saving resources that this hospital will provide to the Salima Region is a strong testament to this!

Posted in Children, Giving, Health Care | No Comments »

Leopold Gallery to Exhibit One5 Volunteer’s Haiti Photographs

May 18th, 2010

First Fridays have expanded beyond the Crossroads. Now many of Kansas City’s fine art galleries that are not located in the Crossroads Arts District near downtown, also will be open for visitors on the first Friday of every month.

That includes the Leopold Gallery at 324 W. 63^rd St. in Kansas City’s Brookside neighborhood, which on Friday, June 4 from 6-9 p.m. will feature photographs that Luke Shelton took in Haiti following the earthquake while he was on a relief mission with the One5 Foundation.

Luke has an impressive ability to brilliantly capture the spirit and resilience of the Haitians, especially the children. Sales of Luke’s photographs will go to support the One5 Foundation’s ongoing effort to provide health care to Haiti’s people.

We wish to thank Leopold Gallery owner Paul Dorrell for this opportunity to keep the Haiti disaster in front of the public and allowing One5 to expand our support base in our community.

We hope to see you at the Leopold Gallery on the evening of June 4! Read more about it on Facebook.

Posted in Children, Giving, Haiti Efforts | No Comments »

One5 to Begin Clinic for Homeless at Hope Faith Ministries

April 16th, 2010

During the holiday season we had a chance to see the plight of Kansas City’s homeless population first-hand. There are people in our own community who, for a variety of reasons, have been reduced to a state of anonymity and permanent poverty.

We reported at the time that the experience was really eye-opening and that the implications would affect what we’re doing in the One5 Foundation. We’re going to live up to that promise by opening a small outreach health clinic for homeless people who are clients of the Hope Faith Ministries, which operates in downtown Kansas City.

The clinic will provide walk-in health services, management of acute and chronic illness, wellness exams including screening for diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, women’s health care, family planning, HIV screening, podiatry, immunizations, and referrals to additional medical, dental and other services. This project is under development and additional information will be posted as it becomes available.

The Hope Faith Ministries attempts to help these desperate people obtain an identity, set them up in apartments with a mailing address and give them clean clothes so they can ultimately start the process of qualifying for jobs.

These are people who deserve compassion; it is unfair to say that they are where they are because of their own choices. Obviously, many are struggling with addictions and alcoholism and the Hope Faith Ministries is also working to get them into programs that address those problems.

If they can get treatment for their immediate health problems, they will be in better shape to get started on the rest of their lives.

Posted in Health Care | No Comments »

A Clean, Quiet and Green Machine

March 23rd, 2010

Thanks to the generous donation of the prototype Feltenberger Pendulum Pump to the One5 Foundation, our volunteers in Haiti will be able to provide the people we serve with clean drinking water day-in and day-out.

Last week, Art Drentlau, senior vice president of Gravitational Energy Corp. of Akron, Ohio, the pump’s manufacturer, was in town to demonstrate how the pump works. He set up the pump at Leawood City Park and showed how the simple movement of a crank and piston could pull water from a pond and filter 1,000 gallons of safe drinking water every hour.

That’s very important because nearly one billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water. The United Nations established March 22 as World Water Day in order to focus attention on the world’s water crisis, as well as solutions to address it.

Now the One5 Foundation will be able to bring clean water to earthquake-ravaged Haiti with the help of the Feltenberger Pendulum Pump. The manually operated pump uses a weighted pendulum to help keep the pumping action going, thus minimizing operator fatigue. It is perfect for use in areas where fuel for motorized pumps is unavailable.

We are extremely grateful to Gravitational Energy for the donation because it also acknowledges the expertise that the One5 Foundation has exhibited during Haiti’s crisis. The pump will be shipped to Haiti by the end of this month. We intend to use the pump at a hospital in Port-au-Prince where we are continuing to provide medical relief.

We encourage other NGOs and charitable groups to sponsor more of these pumps in other areas of the developing world as well as Haiti. It is a clean, quiet and green machine.

Communities cannot pull themselves out of the mire of poverty unless their residents are healthy. Clean drinking water is basic to that.

Posted in Giving, Haiti Efforts, Health Care | No Comments »

One5 Will Help Demonstrate Innovative Pump To Purify Water in Remote Areas

March 15th, 2010

Many of the deadly diseases that afflict children in the developing world can be traced to unsafe water supplies. Millions of people around the world do not have access to clean water day in and day out. When a catastrophe on the scale of the recent earthquake in Haiti comes along, thousands more are suddenly thrust into an environment where the water sources can be deadly.

As you know, the One5 Foundation has been working with orphans in Haiti for some time and was able to make a real difference for thousands of people after the earthquake struck in January. Because of our experience in Haiti, the One5 Foundation has been selected to demonstrate an innovative water pump that could help provide communities around the world with safe sources of water.

The hand-operated Feltenberger Pendulum Pump is manufactured by Gravitational Energy Corp. of Akron, Ohio. Representatives of the company and One5 Foundation will make public demonstrations at 7:30 and 11:30 a.m., Thursday, March 18 at Leawood City Park, Shelter C, 10601 Lee Blvd.

The device uses gravity (via a pendulum) to help the operator work, making it much less tiring than traditional lever-arm pumps. It is designed for use in areas where there’s no access to fuel to operate motorized pumps.

Built into the machine is an Aquashield water filtration system that can produce more than 1,000 gallons per hour of clean drinking water, which meets or exceeds the World Health Organization standards. Virtually any type of contaminated water source can be filtered to these standards. It can also be set to produce 400-500 gallons per hour of hospital-grade pure water. Larger scale versions of the pump are under development.

This particular pump, the first one manufactured, is on its way to Haiti where it will be put into action by the end of this month, donated by Gravitational Energy.

The Feltenberger Pendulum Pump is the sort of invention that is desperately needed in Haiti and other developing countries. It allows people in specific communities the means to improve their lives dramatically, giving them a foundation of basic health. We hope that other charitable organizations will take notice and sponsor pumps in communities where there is a need.

Posted in 5 Killers, Children, Haiti Efforts, Health Care | No Comments »

One5 Foundation is Nimble and Delivers the Aid You Intend

February 18th, 2010

Everyone wants to help Haiti in its desperate time of need. But how do you know that the money you donate actually helps put food in someone’s mouth or provides medical care?

Many people naturally prefer to donate to large well-known relief agencies such as the Red Cross or UNICEF because they have a track record of responding to large crises, such as the Haiti earthquake. Yet, the very nature of the earthquake devastation in Port au Prince often can put the big players at a disadvantage.

Don’t be afraid to donate to a smaller non-government organization such as the One5 Foundation. We have a great deal of experience in Haiti already.

The big organizations such as the Red Cross and UNICEF rely on a massive infrastructure to get the supplies they need. They traditionally ship goods in big containers. However, the port facilities in Port au Prince were destroyed in the earthquake, so unloading supplies is a big problem. Similarly, they transport the goods in large trucks, which have been impeded by the destruction that has made many of the roads and streets impassible.

In contrast, the One5 Foundation uses a Toyota pickup truck to get around. We are able to drive to the Dominican Republic to obtain supplies and make a haul on the same day. We had food and water in the hands of people the day after the earthquake, when the big organizations couldn’t deliver it within a week.

We can promise you that your donation will have the effect that you intend.

When large quasi-political groups interact, the established bureaucracies run up against each other to the detriment of the people who desperately need aid. We’ve seen it over and over again in Haiti already. While, of course they mean well, the administrators on the ground are often young and inexperienced. They spend too much time “coordinating,” and that’s the problem. In the time they are talking you could get food and water to some people anyway. They need a “disaster czar” to tell everyone what they are expected to do.

Meanwhile, One5 Foundation volunteers will continue to drive that little pickup truck and get things done for as many people as we can. Your donation will indeed have an impact.

Posted in Giving, Haiti Efforts | No Comments »

One Five Foundation Has Real Impact in Haiti Crisis

February 16th, 2010

Over the last month since the massive earthquake, everyone associated with the One Five Foundation has been consumed with the logistics of getting aid to Haiti.

Because One Five already had a presence in Haiti prior to the earthquake there was never any question that we needed to rise to the occasion and provide assistance on the ground in any way we could.

In a leap of blind faith, Brad Gautney our Haiti team leader, jumped into action as soon as he learned of the catastrophe. Brad led a medical mission to Haiti and was in-country within a couple of days of the quake, traveling overland from the Dominican Republic. The team was able to get into Port au Prince and started to work in a hospital there. They encountered a chaotic situation and began impose organization. Because of their effectiveness, Team One-Five was asked to take over the management at that community hospital on an ongoing basis.

Brad and David Miller, chairman of the One Five Foundation, were on the scene with team members managing the hospital where volunteer medical teams from all over the world were working. They performed incredibly well in the face of the worst crisis anyone had ever experienced. They assisted a large number of patients every day, stabilizing people with broken limbs, dressing wounds and administering antibiotics. When they ran out of space in the building they set up large tents outside and continued their good work. On numerous times, our people were told that it was the best-run hospital in Port au Prince.

Our team could not have performed at the high level that they did without the support of the Nueterra employees and One Five volunteers who staffed the Haiti war room at the Nueterra offices. Mary Beth Jackson, our One Five Foundation administrator, and her volunteers did a phenomenal job of organizing the entire effort and obtained donations of medical supplies from our partners around the country. The One Five Foundation sent more than one million dollars worth of medical supplies to Haiti.

Other volunteer teams to Haiti had to turn around and come home because they didn’t have the logistical support at home. Our foundation has proved it can have a real impact and is nimble enough to find ways to help when others cannot.

The One Five Foundation is in Haiti now and will be in the future.

Posted in Haiti Efforts | No Comments »

Haiti ‘just so bad you can’t imagine,’ KC man says

January 15th, 2010

Below is an article posted on the Kansas City Star’s Web site today. The article features comments from our medical operations director, Brad Gautney. To view the story online, click here. The text has been provided below for your convenience.

By JIM SULLINGER

The Kansas City Star

When Brad Gautney of Kansas City arrived in Haiti on Thursday, the scene was almost unbelievable.

“It’s just so bad you can’t imagine,” said Gautney, the medical operations director of the One 5 Foundation, a medical relief organization with headquarters in Leawood.

He found 28 children from an orphanage on their own, and one child had been killed by a collapsed wall.

“We left two members of our team there to set up barbed wire so they could be secure, and we’re going right now to get them water,” he said in a cell phone call Friday to the foundation. “We’re trying our best right now to have an impact where we can.”

The barbed wire was to prevent looting of the orphanage’s food supply, he said.

Gautney said medical relief organizations were scouting locations Friday to set up clinics around Port-au-Prince, where there is a critical need for nurses and doctors, especially orthopedic surgeons.

“There are a lot of broken and crushed bones and so surgery and orthopedics will be desperately needed from the Kansas City area,” he said.

One5 is already assembling a local team that hopes to get into the country within the next week, but that won’t be easy.

“It’s extremely difficult if you’re not military or government personnel to get in,” he said.

Gautney and a team from another medical organization found a private pilot Thursday to fly into the Port-au-Prince airport. Only private planes have gotten in because all civil air traffic is closed and only military planes are coming in now.

Donations were critically needed so One5 and other groups can buy medical supplies, he said. The group is working with Missions of Hope to try and move medical personnel and supplies into the country in the coming days and weeks.

“The frustration is there is so much to do, and it’s so difficult with the lack of resources to do it,” he said.

Posted in Haiti Efforts, Press | No Comments »

Chairman David Miller quoted in the Kansas City Star

January 14th, 2010

Our Chairman, David Miller, was quoted in the Kansas City Star today.

A great deal of action is underway. We’ll keep you updated on further progress.

Posted in Press | No Comments »

David Miller just got done with an interview with Jessica Machetta of MissourNet regarding One5’s actions in Haiti

January 13th, 2010

Kansas City group mobilizes medical team to Haiti
by Jessica Machetta on January 13, 2010

As the details continue to unfold about the impoverished country of Haiti and the damage done by a massive earthquake there, one Kansas-City area group is on the way.

Brad Gautney, Medical Director for One5 Foundation, is headed to Haiti with a team to assess the situation there. Once there, they’ll provide medical and logistical support. Chairman David Miller says not much is known until the medical team gets inside the borders.

Gautney is flying into the Domenican Republic via commercial air today. Once inside the Haitian borders, he’ll communicate with One5 to let them know what’s needed in the way of help and medical supplies.

Miller says the group is looking for donations, medical supplies and volunteers who can travel to Haiti, especially those with medical training. He says they’ll be working with the medical community in Kansas City to collect medical supplies.

The Missourinet will be checking in with Gautney later this week to get his first-hand accounts from Haiti.

Jessica Machetta reports [1:10]

Jessica Machetta interviews David Miller, One5 chairman [2:33]

(http://www.missourinet.com/2010/01/13/kansas-city-group-mobilizes-medical-team-to-haiti/)

Posted in Haiti Efforts, Press | No Comments »