InterVol still involved with Haiti

Four months have passed since an earthquake ravaged Haiti, yet Rochester non-profit organization InterVol is still active in relief efforts.
A 40-foot-long shipping container of food, tents, an X-ray machine and other medical supplies and equipment from InterVol arrived last week in Leogane, Haiti, and another will be on its way out over the next two weeks.

Additionally, a new medical team arrives each week, including personnel from InterVol, the University of Notre Dame and World Wide Village.

Organizing InterVol’s efforts is Executive Director Leah Gacioch, a Pittsford Mendon High School graduate. “She runs the show,” said Dr. Ralph Pennino, InterVol’s founder and president.

Gacioch became involved with the Rochester General Hospital partnership through trips to Belize during college. After graduating from Colgate University in 2008, she was hired by InterVol.

“We are a small, tight-knit organization, so you don’t get lost in a lot of the politics in larger organizations,” Gacioch said. “It’s completely focused on the problem at hand, the earthquake in Haiti, and what can we do to make it better.

“As a recent college graduate, it’s a lot more rewarding than sitting at a desk and doing basic clerical work or whatever it may be a lot of my peers are doing,” she added.

InterVol started with a focus on recycling unused medical supplies and equipment and getting volunteer medical professionals overseas to help where needed. In 2005, it added the Friends Across Borders program, which focuses on school support and supplies.

The organization has grown to collect supplies from Rochester, including Rochester General Hospital and Strong Memorial Hospital, as well as from Syracuse and Buffalo. InterVol collects between 8,000 and 10,000 pounds of supplies and equipment each week.

Because InterVol has only three paid staff members, its lifeblood is volunteers. Hundreds of doctors and nurses have gone to Belize, Brazil, Sarajevo and the Dominican Republic.

Prior to the earthquake in Haiti, InterVol had never functioned as a disaster-relief organization.

“The reason we did get down to Haiti is because we already had programs down there,” Gacioch said. “When the earthquake happened, it was just a natural response. We had a team down there, we had a base on the ground, so we could funnel resources and volunteers to that area.”

The problem was getting those resources and volunteers to Haiti, so Pennino called Rob Sands, the chief executive officer of Constellation Brands, Inc. in Victor, and arranged for the use of two private jets.

“Within two weeks of the earthquake we had sent down 8,000 pounds of materials, three teams of medical personnel, and that jump-started everything,” Gacioch said.

Despite the time that’s elapsed since the earthquake, medical services are still needed because Haiti has no systematic health care, according to Cindy Gordon, a Fairport resident and the program manager of InterVol’s Volunteer Medical Professional program.

“At the very beginning, there is obviously a lot of disaster-type relief, amputations, skin grafts; so we need follow-up care on that,” Gordon said. “They do have people down there that just need health care. A lot of them had hernias.”

Gordon said the experience of volunteering is powerful for area doctors and nurses.

“When people re-enter the profession, they bring that experience with them and they are reminded why they are really there,” she said. “You’re given the opportunity to sit back and say, ‘Wow, this is why I did this.’”