Pro EMS Center for MEDICS Director Chris Kerley to Lead Team of Paramedic Students on Humanitarian Mission to Haiti, Distributing Toys and Food to More Than 1,400 Orphans and Providing Medical Care in Port au Prince and its Rural Communities

Embarking on Christmas Eve, the seven-day mission is being conducted in collaboration with a Boston-based non-profit group called Sante Fanm Ak Lafanmi.

Cambridge, MA, December 2011 – On Christmas morning, Pro EMS Center for MEDICS Director Chris Kerley will be dressed as Santa Claus and leading a team of paramedic students to refugee camps and an orphanage in Haiti, where he will bring toys and breakfast to at least 1,400 children, many of whom lost their parents during the region's devastating earthquake in 2010.

The Center for MEDICS is collecting toys for the children, ages 3 to 8, and has also collected donations towards the children's breakfast. Kerley himself will oversee the purchase of the food, and its distribution to the children, who have spent the past two years living outside in makeshift shelters within the refugee camps – often with little food to eat.

"These refugee camps are not permanent settlements, yet they continue to be all that is available for these children," Kerley said. "We are going to buy food for them locally and prepare breakfast and other meals so that they can enjoy a Christmas celebration."

The Center for MEDICS is conducting this humanitarian mission in collaboration with the Boston-based non-profit group Sante Fanm Ak Lafanmi, an organization started by Sherline Chery-Morisset, a Haitian immigrant who works as a nurse practitioner at Boston Medical Center, and whose husband studied under Kerley to become a paramedic. More information about the group can be found at www.santfanmaklafanmi.org.

The four Center for MEDICS paramedic students accompanying Kerley – Kristen Dutile, Jonathan Zielinski, Rohan Kulkarni, and Andrew Gordon – all raised money among their peers to pay for the flight to Haiti.

Last December, the Center for MEDICS sponsored a similar trip to two Haitian orphanages and provided medical care to surrounding areas afterwards. Earlier this year, Kerley and two other paramedics from his team joined a surgical team in the Dominican Republic to treat Haitian refugees who were victims of the region's earthquake.

Following the Christmas celebration, the Center for MEDICS group will operate a mobile clinic in Port au Prince that would otherwise be shut down for the week between Christmas and New Year's. The paramedic team will then travel to rural clinics near Port au Prince to provide antibiotics and treatment for numerous illnesses and infections as well as basic medical care, often to families and children who have walked for up to 15 miles to receive these services. The Center for MEDICS team expects to treat several hundred people during the holiday week.

Kerley and his team depart for the mission on Christmas Eve and will return New Year's Eve. Until then, the Center for MEDICS is accepting financial donations to help the children.

More information about the Center for MEDICS can be found on its website, www.centerformedics.com.

About Pro EMS Center for MEDICS

Pro EMS Center for MEDICS operates one of the premiere paramedic education programs and simulation training labs for emergency medical services in the Northeast. As the first, and only, nationally accredited paramedic program in the state of Massachusetts, the Center for MEDICS offers one of the most rigorous paramedic programs in the U.S., as well as a variety of specialty courses that are designed to allow EMS service providers to achieve the highest standards in the industry.

The Center works with all members of the EMS community - from EMTs and Paramedics to Firefighters, Police Officers, Military Personnel, Physicians, and Nurses. It is the only EMS educational facility in Massachusetts to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) upon the recommendation of the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions (CoAEMSP). The Center is also accredited by Massachusetts Department of Public Health as a Training Institution. More information about Pro EMS Center for MEDICS can be found at www.centerformedics.com or by calling (617) 682-1811.

Media contact:
Joan DeCoste
Savoir Media
617.484.1660 x103
jdecoste@savoirmedia.com