On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic earthquake devastated Haiti and its capital, Port-au-Prince, affecting some 3 million people. The Haitian government reported that an estimated 230 000 people had died, 300 000 had been injured, and 1 million made homeless. Communication systems, air, land, and sea transport facilities, hospitals, and electrical networks all were damaged by the earthquake.Figure 1.

FIGURE 1

Many countries responded to appeals for humanitarian aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers, and support personnel. San Raffaele Hospital Scientific Foundation supported the humanitarian delivery of medical aid, providing medical and health services to assist the local Italian Hospital of Saint Damien jointly with the Italian nonprofit foundations AISPO, the Italian Association for Solidarity Among People (created by the Italian Research and Scientific Hospital San Raffaele) and Francesca Rava-N.P.H. Italia Onlus-Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos. The Hospital of Saint Damien in Port-au-Prince—the largest pediatric hospital in the Caribbean, supported by the Italian nonprofit Foundation Francesca Rava for aid to children—was designated by the Italian Civil Protection as the Italian Operational Medical Center of Response after the earthquake.

The San Raffaele Foundation worked together with other Italian hospitals to manage this hospital, and in particular to open the new Department of Maternity and Neonatal. That ward has 12 beds, 1 delivery room, 1 neonatal area, and 8 incubators. In the first 3 weeks, the hospital treated more than 10 000 victims, both children and adults.

The devastating situation following the earthquake is ongoing, but this international cooperation with the local communities was a great life experience that allowed all participants in emergency response the unique opportunity to share knowledge, preparedness, humanitarian cooperation, and moral values that reach beyond race, age, gender, and politics.