PULLMAN, Wash. – The sunlight was all but gone as Alice Ma and other volunteers stepped out of their cars into the hot, humid air of rural Haiti. They had just flown from the United States, driven for hours deep into the countryside and now faced a two-mile hike in the dark to reach the remote mountain village of Timo.

Ma, a dietician for Washington State University Dining Services, wondered what she had gotten herself into. But her reservations quickly evaporated when she remembered all the people she could help.

“As the only dietician in our group, my role was to educate villagers on how to better their diets by eating more of certain foods, avoiding others, so they can get the best nutrition possible with the foods they have available,” she said.

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the country of Haiti, killing more than 200,000 people and affecting as many as 3 million. Many survivors were left to deal with a lack of supplies, improper sanitation and inadequate medical care. Haiti is still recovering from the disaster, and several Moab residents are pitching in to help.

In early April, Moab Regional Hospital nurses Tammy Tucker and Rosanne Lewis and medical technologist Debra Paxman will spend almost two weeks in a remote Haitian village, bringing supplies for the residents along with much-needed medical care.

Read more:Moab Times-Independent – Moab volunteers to help Haitians still affected by 2010 earthquake

Imagine walking 30 miles to stand in line for hours to see a physician. Five years after a massive earthquake struck Haiti, residents of a remote Haitian village are still traveling long distances in search of medical care.

On April 8, four Moab residents will join a team of Haiti Health Initiative volunteers when they journey to rural Haiti, where they will spend a week providing much-needed medical care. After traveling four hours by bus up a steep, winding, partially paved road, the volunteers will hike another three miles to a remote village while carrying 40- to 50-pound backpacks.

Sixteen residents of Huntsville and Eden went to Haiti in October to provide humanitarian service to the community of Timo, as part of the Haiti Health Initiative (HHI), a nonprofit organization based out of Orem.

Their project was to finish a building in Timo to be used as a community center for doctors and dentists. The building will also be used for educational, cultural, and clinical purposes.

MOST WEEKS AT MY SOCIAL PRACTICE I have the privilege to talk on the phone with people at dental practices who are interested in marketing with social media. I speak with dentists, their spouses, their assistants, hygienists, practice managers, front desk teams, and marketing coordinators.

A couple of weeks ago I didn’t take or place a single phone call like that. This was because I was working with a dental team on a Humanitarian trip to a village called Timo in Haiti.