Delavan men help in Haiti
For LeRoy Himebauch and Tom Reichert, flying into Haiti felt like entering a war zone.
“It was controlled chaos,” said Reichert, the school liaison officer with the Delavan Police Department.
“I think many of them were experiencing shock, still not knowing their life has been turned upside down,” Himebauch said of the victims. “The routines have disappeared. Children are out of school. Those who had jobs have no jobs. Those who had houses have no houses.”
The men returned to Delavan this week.
Himebauch, who retired from the FBI and is a Delavan municipal judge, went with Reichert to provide basic aid after Haiti was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that has reportedly left at least 150,000 people dead in the western hemisphere's poorest country.
The Delavan men arrived Jan. 19, seven days after the deadly quake.
“We went right to work that night, getting bandages, helping doctors get everything categorized so we could get a clinic right away in the morning,” Reichert said.
They were helping treat people with dehydration, malnutrition, trauma and crushing wounds.
“There was a woman that had been buried in the rubble for three days,” said Reichert, a former EMT. “They finally got her out, and there was no medical treatment for her. Somehow she found her way to our clinic, and the surgeon decided her fingers had to go because of gangrene.”
The men were based in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
Reichert is affiliated with Friends of the Children, a Delavan-based organization operating since 1998 that provides medical and dental assistance to poor communities in Haiti. He has been going to Haiti since 1998 with the organization.
Himebauch is affiliated with United Church of Christ, which partners with CONASPEH—the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches—an umbrella of 6,000 churches through Haiti. His first trip to Haiti was in 1995, and he has traveled to the country about nine times.
“They're hard-working industrialists, very patient, family-oriented,” Himebauch said. “But very, very poor.”
Work seems to have no end.
“On Saturday and Monday, we teamed with Missionaries of Charity, a group formed by Mother Theresa, and set up clinic in one of their courtyards behind an HIV/AIDS hospital,” Reichert said. “Right next to that was a soccer field.”
“I called it 'sheet city,'” Himebauch said, describing improvised sleep accommodations for the injured. “There must have been hundreds of people living there.”
There were mothers with babies, victims without homes and Haitians with little to look forward to.
“We cleaned them up, gave them antibiotics, gave them medicine,” Reichert said. “As the clinic slowed down, we would go into the soccer field, look for patients and help bring them.”
Himebauch and Reichert praised the efforts by the international community, which they said has been generous in aiding the Haitians. But it will take a while for things to get back to normal, and those on the ground will have to take it as a day-by-day affair.
“They need to survive today, and hopefully tomorrow will be better,” Himebauch said.
TO HELP
For information on how to help Haitian relief efforts, call LeRoy Himebauch at (262) 949-4571 or Tom Reichert at (262) 949-6530.
Feb 3, 2010 at 9:35 a.m.
Suggest removal
I like the discussion here and have had it many times before with others. What about the argument that people can have different interests, some like to help here and some like to help abroad? I really dont think that it is a question of being trendy. I think there are enough places around to help both locally and globally and there will always be people everywhere that need help.
Feb 3, 2010 at 7:39 a.m.
Suggest removal
Hank:There is help out there for Americans if they just seek it.Not like Haiti were they dont have it.So that is why Americans come to the aid of these countrys.
Feb 2, 2010 at 9:48 p.m.
Suggest removal
Hank, I do agree with you that there are many American's that need help. Although, if you read the entire story, these two gentlemen have been going to Haiti since the '90s. Why wouldn't they go now when they are needed the most?
Feb 2, 2010 at 12:55 p.m.
Suggest removal
We knew Tom when we lived in Delavan.........he is a good guy! So was the rest of his family that we knew. We do have people hurting in this part of the woods.....Tom has helped here as well. What Haiti is experiencing is hopefully something no one has to go through. How many of us have ever had to sleep on the street, go days without food, etc.
Feb 2, 2010 at 11:14 a.m.
Suggest removal
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Feb 2, 2010 at 8:46 a.m.
Suggest removal
Hank, you seem like you have a much distorted view of this story and only keyed in on a few words with in it. Knowing both of these people personally, I can tell you that they both know what war zones look like. That was a group of words used to describe what Haiti looked like. I have not been to a war zone, however when someone describes something as such I have a good idea, based on my education and news outlets, what one looks like. The point of the story is local people doing something good for others involved in a huge human tragedy!
Feb 2, 2010 at 7:36 a.m.
Suggest removal
Hank - Did you know 1 in 1 Haitians go hungry each day?????
Feb 1, 2010 at 11:32 p.m.
Suggest removal
Right on janesvillian!!! I've always hated the name "Hank"
Feb 1, 2010 at 6:47 p.m.
Suggest removal
Let's see -- dead bodies, destroyed buildings, dire medical needs, food and water shortages. What's the huge difference, Hank? Tell us.
.
Since Janesville already has building codes, it is unlikely we would suffer similar infrastructure damage. I'm not sure what your fatuous little pronouncements have to do with reality, but obviously they're important points for you to make.
.
Meanwhile here we have two individuals who are giving their all for people in a disaster of immense scale. Family members of mine were at a Kids Against Hunger food bagging event, but that's small potatoes compared to what these guys are doing. I can only hope someday I might have the chance to do half as much.
Jan 30, 2010 at 8:10 p.m.
Suggest removal
Kudos to Judge Himebauch and Officer Reichert.
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.