Posts

Meet CMAT Volunteer Martin Metz, PCP and Search & Rescue!

April 6-12, 2014 is National Volunteer Week.

Meet some of the inspiring CMAT volunteers who help us fulfil our missions in communities around the world!

CMAT Volunteer Martin Metz climbs over hundreds of feet of debris in Ishinomaki, Japan - 2011.

CMAT Volunteer Martin Metz climbs over hundreds of feet of debris in Ishinomaki, Japan – 2011.

April 9, 2014 – Martin Metz, PCP and Search and Rescue

Martin felt a calling to assist in disaster relief when a work colleague travelled to Indonesia in 2005 to provide tsunami relief with CMAT.  His first deployment was to Haiti in January 2010 on CMAT’s team 1, and was surprised to see how a few dollars worth of medications and some relatively simple medical procedures saved so many lives after the earthquake.

Read more

Meet CMAT Volunteer Dr. Jeanne LeBlanc, PhD

April 6-12, 2014 is National Volunteer Week.

Meet some of the inspiring CMAT volunteers who help us fulfil our missions in communities around the world!

CMAT Volunteer Jeanne LeBlanc, in Haiti 2010.

CMAT Volunteer Jeanne LeBlanc, in Haiti 2010.

April 8, 2014 – Dr. Jeanne LeBlanc, PhD – Registered Psychologist

Born and raised in Florida, which provides annual opportunities for large scale disasters, and with a father who worked for the Department of Emergency Management for the State, Jeanne was predestined towards being drawn to disaster response.  Now living in Canada, Jeanne had been involved with disaster behavioral health and medically-focused international relief work for a number of years with many American-based organizations, and was completing her second deployment to Haiti, immediately post-earthquake.

Read more

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami – Six Months On….

,
Our fantastic Japanese in-country volunteers!!! — L-R Rear: Yasushi Sato, Motoaki Ishii, Sosha Smith, Valerie Rzepka, L-R Front: Umi-San, Kana Kobori, and Seiko Watanabe.

Our fantastic Japanese in-country volunteers!!! — L-R Rear: Yasushi Sato, Motoaki Ishii, Sosha Smith, Valerie Rzepka, L-R Front: Umi-San, Kana Kobori, and Seiko Watanabe.

Sunday, September 11, 2011 – Six months ago, on March 11, 2011 a massive earthquake struck off the coast of northern Japan. The earthquake and tsunami that followed caused the death of at least 24,000 people and set off a nuclear crisis which was as confusing as it was frightening. Four months later, CMAT Chair Valerie Rzepka, and CMAT Volunteer Seiko Watanabe returned to Japan to retrieve CMAT equipment which will no longer be needed, and to acknowledge and thank CMAT’s Japanese in-country volunteers. Here are their impressions:

Read more

Through generous donors, CMAT is helping to provide purified drinking water in Japan.

,
A curious little guy makes a close inspection of the new equipment.

A curious little guy makes a close inspection of the new equipment.

Friday, April 1, 2011 – Kitakamicho Aikawa, Japan: Together with local authorities in Japan, CMAT team members successfully installed a Nomad water purification unit in the small fishing village.

The purchase of this portable water purification system manufactured by Noah Water Systems was made possible through the generous support of our donors, especially the Lotus Light Charity Society from Vancouver. The unit is capable of producing 25 gallons / 95 litres per minute or 36,000 gallons / 136,800 liters per day. The Nomad will satisfy the need for large volumes of safe drinking water using any fresh water source: well, lake, river, stream, and pond and even polluted floodwaters.
Read more