JIMANÍ, Dominican Republic — I spent three nights at the border in Jimaní at a hospital/orphanage with about seven hours of sleep, helping different-sized medical groups transition to attempt medical relief. During the days we could function, but during the nights 95 percent of the doctors would be forced by their administrators to leave, and all that was left were a few doctors, a few nurses, two support staff, and hundreds of suffering patients who have lost everything. The days were full of hope, but the nights were a struggle for survival.

I watched as desperate men and women waited days for their child to receive attention. I watched patients with spinal fractures die, because there was no place that could treat them. One of my staff watched a small orphan boy with an amputated arm disappear into the chaos of patients. I changed dressings of infected legs that would later be amputated. I watched groups of experienced doctors completely overwhelmed by the immense suffering searching for someone, anyone, to tell them what to do. I would lay awake at night listening to the screams of patients as they were moved in and out of surgery. I feared the night.

I watched as medical volunteers from Spain, Chile, United States, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Poland, and Canada came together across seemingly impossible language barriers to bring badly needed relief to these suffering people. I watched missionaries from many different denominations coming together to care for these people by passing out food, singing, and holding them. I watched people translate between four different languages to help one person. I watched as family helped patients go to the bathroom in the open with as much dignity, love and care as could be given. I watched violent situations be calmed by listening.

Not only medical help is needed, but education and empowerment on rebuilding a nation, partners who recognize that these are people who given the opportunity and resources can pull themselves out of this mess. There are hundreds of thousands of orphans, widows, and widowers who need help. Anything from a donation to coming down with a parent organization to help rebuild the lives of a people who are suffering are needed, not only now but in the next six months, and the next five years.

A week after the fact people in Port-au-Prince were receiving little aid from the United States and the United Nations. Two weeks after the fact aid has started its slow distribution. So many people say that this is such a tragedy. So many people died senseless deaths that could have been prevented. This is true, has been true, and will continue to be true all over the developing world. It is when disasters like this one happen that we are reminded of the continuing tragedy of poverty. It is disasters like these that remind us in our comfortable homes, that for the majority of the world, death is a constant companion. It is disasters like these that shame us into action.

Orondo native and 2005 Eastmont High School graduate Luke Davies, 22, wrote this first-hand report from Jimaní a week after the Haitian earthquake. He is assistant director of operations in the Dominican Republic and Haiti for the Foundation for Peace, a nonprofit based in Ironia, N.J. For information on the Foundation for Peace and volunteer opportunities in Haiti, see foundationforpeace.org.