Qatar Katrina Fund

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The City of Pass Christian, Mississippi has received generous support from across the state - and across the globe - in the development of two new public facilities. Marsha Barbour, wife of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, has been influential in the construction of the Marsha Barbour Community Center. And, the Pass Christian Boys and Girls Club recently received a $5 million gift from the Middle Eastern country of Qatar.

The international support helped the Boys and Girls Club open its doors this summer. Earlier this year Qatar's Ambassador to the United States H. E. Nasser Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa presented the $5 million gift to Pass Christian to help fund the project. "I want to help these young people because within this group there are future lawyers and doctors and we need to help them with their future," Al-Khalifa said.

Club leaders and city officials expressed their deepest gratitude to the country of Qatar for their donations to help build the 28,000 square foot facility. "We are now connected to the people of Qatar with one heart beat," said Pass Christian Mayor Chipper McDermott. "We will thank you. This will go on forever." He also presented the ambassador with a key to the city.

"We hope the children of Pass Christian, Mississippi will always remember that they have a friend in Qatar," said Hamad Al-Dosari, a Qatar Diplomat.

"This project also served some of the "multiplier" goals of the Qatar Fund - the project would provide construction jobs in the community; it would serve children whose families we hoped would be encouraged to stay in the community long-term; and it was co-located with a new school so that resources could be combined and leveraged for maximum effect," Dean M. Dilley, representing the legal counsel of the Qatar Katrina Fund, stated.

The Boys and Girls Club shares a campus with Pass Christian Elementary and Middle School. The newly constructed project encompasses a K-8 school, parks, conference and meeting rooms, childhood development programs, and additional space for the club.

"This gift is truly life-altering because this new building project will serve the entire community, everyone will be able to use the property," said Sam Burke, director of club development.

The Marsha Barbour Community Center, a tribute to Mississippi's First Lady for her immediate Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in the area, is also serving the community by providing the residents with vocational training, literacy training, after school programs and a YMCA Junior Olympic size pool for swimming lessons.

The center represents the fulfillment of the vision of another strong Mississippi woman, Reverend Rosemary Williams, a retired schoolteacher and pastor of the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in DeLisle, Mississippi. Reverend Williams shared her vision with two Hurricane Katrina volunteers, celebrity syndicated talk radio host Ellen Ratner and former U-2 pilot Cholene Espinoza. Together, they have created hope and new opportunity for the community.

Other activities offered at the facility will include child development classes, childcare, life counseling, GED completion, workforce development, health assessment and wellness classes, exercise classes, sports and sport therapy, mental health counseling, music instruction, senior activities, performing arts and art therapy, after school programming and summer camps. It will also include a library and computer center/classroom.

By Fran Simon
Fran Simon is the Classes editor for Tulanian.
The Tulanian Magazine

When George McClain woke up one morning in March, he didn't feel that anything was particularly out of the ordinary. In fact, he felt fine. As it happened, he had an appointment for a routine medical checkup, so he dressed himself and ambled the two blocks to the parking lot of the Winn Dixie, where a few weeks earlier he had noticed a large, green bus. It was a medical clinic on wheels, and when he inquired about it, a staff person told him that he could make an appointment to see the doctor at no charge.

That sounded good to McClain, 55, who was without employment and healthcare insurance. He liked the convenience of a clinic he could walk to. Besides, he had some concerns about hypertension. The last time he received medical attention–and this was before Hurricane Katrina–he had been diagnosed with high blood pressure, and it had been years since he'd taken medication to lower it.

As McClain clambered up the three steps to board the mobile medical unit, he was greeted by clinic staffer Shone Webb, who began asking him routine questions about how he was feeling.

McClain wanted to respond that he was feeling fine but somehow he couldn't. His words were jumbled, and Webb couldn't understand what he was saying. When Dr. Michele Simoneaux walked over to see what was going on, she instantly recognized that McClain was having a stroke.

An ambulance rushed McClain to Tulane Medical Center, where he was assessed by the stroke team and admitted for four days. Upon discharge from the hospital, McClain made an appointment for follow-up care at the mobile medical unit back in his neighborhood.

"It was the luck of the draw. Just when he started addressing his high blood pressure, he had the stroke," Simoneaux says.

McClain, who lives alone, is lucky to be alive. But what would have happened to him if routine medical care had not been made so available?

The custom-built mobile medical

unit and the methodology of distributing health care at street-level are very much products of The Storm. In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Karen DeSalvo, now vice dean for the Office of Community Affairs and Health Policy at the Tulane School of Medicine, worked with a team of trainees and faculty from the medical school to provide urgent primary care to those who had remained in the city as well as the first responders working to help them. Operating out of makeshift clinics with no running water, the team provided first aid and vaccinations, as well as addressed other basic healthcare needs. Conditions improved when mobile medical units arrived from out of state to help in the effort. DeSalvo, a general internist and chief of general internal medicine and geriatrics at Tulane, knew that bringing health care to where people live made sense not only in disasters but as a standard working procedure.

Meanwhile, 8,000 miles away, the Amir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani joined a worldwide audience in watching televised accounts of the storm's devastating impact along the Gulf Coast.

A month after the storm made landfall, the Amir pledged $100 million for housing, scholarships and healthcare assistance in the hardest-hit areas. A year later, Tulane's Community Health Center received a $5 million gift from what became known as the Qatar Katrina Fund, a portion of which went toward purchasing and operating the mobile medical unit.

DeSalvo estimates that monthly more than 1,200 people in the New Orleans area who would otherwise be without access to health care receive services on the mobile medical unit as well as two neighborhood clinics.

"Our mission is to ensure that everyone in New Orleans has access to a high-quality, neighborhood-based primary health care medical home," says DeSalvo. "'Everyone' is the significant word, meaning especially low-income and other vulnerable populations."

DeSalvo sees the mobile medical unit as a

stopgap measure until there are sufficient permanent neighborhood clinics throughout New Orleans. The two neighborhood clinics currently functioning in the city include the one that opened just after the storm at Covenant House in downtown New Orleans and another that opened in August 2008 in New Orleans East. Whether they are on wheels or not, these clinics represent what DeSalvo calls a "medical home" model of health care that is based on the ongoing, collaborative relationship between physician and patient.

Aptly named Tulane Community Health On the Road, the mobile unit travels four days a week to the parking lots of not only grocery stores, but churches and apartment complexes as well. Equipped with a nurse's station and an examination room, the vehicle allows the fourperson onboard team to offer physical examinations and pelvic exams, monitor and treat chronic illnesses, and provide urgent care. The unit also offers social work services such as counseling and assistance with Medicare or Medicaid. The focus is largely on managing obesity, diabetes and hypertension–chronic conditions that can lead to serious illness or even death if not controlled.

The unit serves as a medical home, and for some it is the only kind of home they have.

Stanley Matthews, 54, has not had a permanent residence since Hurricane Katrina. Formerly an aide at the Veterans Administration Medical Center, he currently is unemployed and is staying in a house that is being renovated in downtown New Orleans. He says he misses his books and tapes that were lost in the floodwaters.

Upon seeing the mobile medical unit parked at the Israelite Baptist Church in Central City, he considered whether he should take advantage of its services. "Sure, why not?" he decided.

As with many of the people Simoneaux sees, Matthews had dangerously high blood pressure. Simoneaux encouraged Matthews to quit smoking and take better care of himself. It's a message that is reinforced by the clinic's other team members: onboard nurse Cronwell "Connie" Lewis, social worker Ashley Wright and Steve Robinson, the unit's other driver. Wright, who earned her master of social work degree from Tulane in 2008, has helped Matthews navigate the social services system to receive food stamps and subsidized medication.

"They're open-minded, caring and understanding," Matthews says. "A good doctor shows concern. They called me to make sure I was coming in. It's my first experience with a doctor like that."

Matthews appreciates that the team compliments him when he dresses nicely. He says he's trying to get his life back in order and it feels good when people notice.

At least 80 percent of the patients who arrive at the mobile medical unit have a mental health component to their illnesses, estimates Simoneaux, who is one of three physicians rotating on the unit. All three are trained as internists and pediatricians.

Lewis, the nurse, screens each new patient for depression and those who seem likely candidates are given a questionnaire that will help the doctors identify mental health issues.

Both drivers serve as outreach workers and have experience working with patients. Webb is a former HIV/AIDS case manager with a master's degree in education and Robinson is a mental health crisis technician with the New Orleans Police Department. He is studying homeland security with an emphasis on mental health in the Tulane School of Continuing Studies.

"I think it's an effect of post-Katrina," Simoneaux says of the mental health issues her patients contend with, "and I think we're also starting to see some increase in issues related to the economy and job loss. A lot of them right now are teetering on the edge."

Many can't find work. Some are close to losing their housing. One week a patient may drive himself to the clinic and by the next week he has lost his vehicle. Issues such as these can be barriers to wellness. For Simoneaux, who graduated from Newcomb College in 1997 and received her medical degree from Tulane in 2001, working in community health care is a passion. A native of the small town of Franklin, La., she saw members of her own community lacking access to health care because of insufficient financial resources as well as lack of proximity to facilities. The closest hospital with full medical services was at least 40 minutes away by car.

After her first year of medical school, Simoneaux joined five friends in borrowing an 18-seat van from Tulane and setting off for a 30-day road trip to explore healthcare delivery in various communities. They visited Indian Health Service units in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona.

In Denver, the group came across a mobile medical unit that served a population of mostly migrant workers and immigrants who were typically resistant to visiting traditional health centers. Simoneaux was impressed by how the unit attracted those who would otherwise avoid seeking care.

"Maybe they were legal, maybe they weren't. The people were scared of recognized clinics, but they'd come onto a mobile medical unit."

One thing that has surprised Simoneaux about practicing medicine on the mobile medical unit is how much she enjoys working health fairs. She frequently volunteers her time on Saturdays to staff the unit at neighborhood- or church-sponsored events, where folks can get free blood pressure readings or screenings for diabetes.

Patients receive immediate results and the doctor can counsel them on things they can do to improve their health.

The physician also is available to provide urgent care if needed.

"There have been a couple of instances where we have somebody come through the fair whose sugar is really high ... and if we can't do something soon, chances are they'll wind up in the emergency room," Simoneaux says. "We'll see them that day for a full patient visit on the unit, get them started on medicine, and get them set up with everything. Then we follow up."

Through the use electronic medical records, the staff is able to make an appointment for the patient at either the mobile medical unit or at one of Tulane's community health clinics.

"The people we see at health fairs ... easily 95 percent of them don't have care," Simoneaux says.

By Fran Simon
Fran Simon is the Classes editor for Tulanian.
The Tulanian Magazine

The senior diplomat for Qatar’s embassy in Washington, D.C., Hamad Al-Dosari, visited Loyola University New Orleans Wednesday to meet with students who received scholarships from the $100 million Qatar Katrina Fund.

Al-Dosari is a representative of the Qatar Katrina Fund, established in 2005 to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina. Gifts were committed to healthcare, education and housing. Loyola University received a $1.4 million gift intended for scholarships for students affected by the storm.

“I am very pleased to know that Qatar’s gift has helped many deserving Loyola students continue their education. At the embassy, we have received many letters of thanks from these Qatar scholars who have offered their reflections on Katrina,” said Al-Dosari. “We are humbled by the personal stories these students have shared and profoundly impressed by the courage and determination of all of you who have returned to rebuild your community after this storm. The people of Qatar are proud to be your partners in this important project and we hope that all Loyola students will know that they have friends in Qatar.”

The university community attended a ceremony in Monroe Library that will pay tribute to the people of Qatar for their gift. Al-Dosari accepted a medal from President Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Ph.D., marking induction to the University Founders of the Society of St. Ignatius, a giving society reserved for donors who contribute $1 million or more to Loyola University. Rachel Funel, a mass communication major and a scholarship recipient, will also speak on behalf of students who have received assistance.

Wildes noted, “We are very grateful to the people of Qatar and the Emir for their concern, support and generosity. Through their support, a number of our students whose lives were devastated by Katrina, were able to continue their education. We are profoundly grateful to them.”

Since Loyola started receiving these scholarship funds in 2007, 169 Loyola students impacted by Hurricane Katrina have been awarded scholarships. Of that figure, 71 are current students. The university will award the final installment of scholarships from the fund to students this summer.

The Qatar Katrina Fund also made scholarship gifts to Louisiana State University, Tulane University and Xavier University.

For more information, contact Meredith Hartley, director of Loyola’s Office of Public Affairs, at mhartley@loyno.edu or 504-861-5883.