LIers deliver aid to remote Haiti village

Peter Engelmann's escape from winter to a sun-drenched island in the Caribbean last month had a goal other than rest and relaxation.

Engelmann, with several other Long Islanders from Rotary Clubs and a North Fork church, was on a mission to Haiti, which continues to struggle in the aftermath of the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.

The four-day humanitarian mission to Nan Sema, a remote mountain village of 20,000 on the island of La Gonave, consisted of 15 volunteers, including a doctor and two nurses from Queens, and delivered medical supplies and equipment to provide solar power for, among other needs, the community's water supply.

"We took a dozen giant hockey bags full of medicine," said Engelmann, 44, of Northport, noting that Huntington Hospital had donated bandages and blankets. The doctor and nurses saw more than 130 patients, including a boy who had injured his face on the coral rock when he fell off a donkey.

A day later, the boy returned for a checkup of his stitches. "He could almost smile," Engelmann said. "If we had not been there, he would have had a disfigured face."

Helping raise living standardsEngelmann, a member of the Rotary Club of Northport and president of Engelmann Energy, a Northport fuel oil company that has a solar division, had drawn up plans to help the village convert its main buildings to solar power. The volunteers installed solar panels on the clinic roof and a solar water pump for the well, and local residents were trained to maintain the system.

They also installed a satellite dish on the clinic's roof to provide Internet access for doctors conducting medical research and consulting via Skype.

Long Island Rotary Clubs raised $50,000 to fund the projects.

The visit was the latest under the auspices of the Rotary Clubs and the Mattituck Presbyterian Church, which has been delivering aid since the 1980s, according to George Solomon, 57, of Mattituck, an independent financial planner. Their efforts have aimed to help raise the standard of living by building a clinic and installing a generator and other modern conveniences.

Seeing 'so much need'Solomon's journeys began four years ago, before the earthquake devastated Haiti. Members of the church, assisted by the Greenport Rotary Club, had already begun to assist the community by drilling a 200-foot well and installing a pump to feed water to a cistern connected to fountains used by the villagers. Church members had planned to dedicate a new clinic the week of the earthquake, but the dedication was delayed until April, Solomon said.

Although Nan Sema suffered almost no quake damage - mainly because there are so few buildings, the visitors said - the village's generator was not working because the cost of diesel fuel to power it had become expensive after the quake, Engelmann said. The village also lacked clean water, refrigeration or lights for its clinic.

In the February trip, the group landed in the capital of Port-au-Prince, then took a three-hour sail aboard an 80-foot wooden fishing boat to La Gonave. A 2 1/2-hour drive by four-wheel drive vehicle took them to Nan Sema, a remote mountain village.

"The island is a beautiful place where they grow peanuts and mangoes, and goats roam around," said Engelmann. His group was welcomed with a feast of goat meat, rice and beans, and cayenne coleslaw, a local delicacy.

At the end of the visitors' four-day stay, villagers held a community meeting to offer their thanks.

Solomon, who has befriended the local Presbyterian minister, said he plans to return next February. "There's so much need there," he said. "I could spend the rest of my life there trying to get things accomplished."