From his combat experiences as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jake Wood discovered that he and other vets have developed the perfect skills for service in crisis situations outside of war. Through Team Rubicon, Jake provides a role for our 1.8 million veterans to respond to natural disasters throughout the world, and thus engages a great untapped national resource.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

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Filed under: Burma, Chile, Haiti, In The Media, News, Pakistan, Video by William on December 31, 2010
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Q) I am an assistant professor at Utah State University who works in Africa, namely the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. I recently came across a flyer about your work with the Murle and the infertility issue in Pibor County South Sudan and I would love to hear more about the work your organization is doing there and how you came to this topic?

A) Thanks for your inquiry! I have been working in South Sudan for several years among Dinka of various clans–Dinka/Bor and Jonglei Dinka–and the Nuer of Upper Nile, each of whom have had some contentious encounters with the other cattle culture the Murle with whom you are also familiar. In the course of the attempt to pull together a “network” of the South Sudan mission stations we have established or enhanced in the past years, I have had a closer encounter with the cattle culture mores of the rivalries for scarce resources–not just land, (arable soils or grazing pasture) water, and–above all–the fertility of women and cattle.

It is not absurd to reduce these to the same thing, since they need cattle to purchase a bride, and the inflation rate has brought them to about a fifty to one equivalence. I have been a part of many prolonged negotiations in the bargaining and selection of the cattle they virtually worship for exchange for a nubile bride. And, increasingly often, and painfully evident in intensity marked by casualties on every visit, cattle raids and stealing of young girls as a one of the most significant hazards to health. In the adult patient population, violence is a leading cause of death–ten of twelve brought to me on my first day at Werkok alone this past January. (more…)

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Filed under: News, Sudan by William on December 28, 2010
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Our Sunday Visitor: Eight big stories that shaped 2010
December 26th, 2010
By Elizabeth Scalia

Haiti’s Year of Hell
…International organizations mobilized to begin delivering aid and medical assistance. When red tape, bad roads or dangerous opportunists slowed the process down, clever solutions were found. American Jesuits in Haiti, possessing a well-equipped mission center and control of a water well, joined with ex-Marines to form “Team Rubicon”; with the help of pilots and donations, medicos, aid and provender were flown into the Dominican Republic and then convoyed into Haiti bringing critically needed assistance to the stricken area while other organizations were still trying to get their people on the ground…

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Filed under: Haiti, In The Media, News by William on December 27, 2010
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Dec 19, 11:26 AM (ET)

By SETH BORENSTEIN and JULIE REED BELL

This was the year the Earth struck back.

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.

“It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves,” said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

“The term ’100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year.”

And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.

Even though many catastrophes have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and weird year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.

Poor construction and development practices conspire to make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river breaches, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die. (more…)

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Filed under: Uncategorized by William on December 19, 2010
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FOR 

IMMEDIATE

 RELEASE

 


D.C. 
REAL 
ESTATE 
FIRM
 MAKES 
SECOND 
DONATION
 IN
 SIX
 MONTHS

 TO
 TEAM
 RUBICON
­­
 — A 
VETERAN-­BASED
 DISASTER
 RELIEF 
NGO



WASHINGTON 
‐
 On
 December 
1, 
Public
 Properties,
 LLC,
 a 
Washington,
 DC
 commercial
 real
 estate 
firm, 
presented
 its
 second
 check 
for
 $12,500
 to 
Jake
 Wood,
 president 
of
 Team
 Rubicon
 Disaster 
Relief 
[www.teamrubiconusa.org],
 a
 veteran
 based
 non‐profit
 organization 
formed
 the 
day
 after
 the
 Haiti
 earthquake in 
January,
 2010.


 (more…)

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Filed under: News, Press Release by Sarah on December 18, 2010
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Gary Cagle, TR Board of Advisors, at SOMA Conference

Gary Cagle, a Team Rubicon-Haiti veteran and member of the TR Board of Advisors, attended the recent Special Operations Medical Association (SOMA) Conference in Tampa, FL from 12-16 December.

SOMA is a not for profit educational organization made up of military special operations medical personnel (US Army Special Forces, US Navy SEALS, USAF PJ’s, USMC MARSOF, etc), civilian tactical medical personnel (SWAT teams, etc), and members of allied special operations medical personnel from the international community. This year’s SOMA conference was attended by over 1600 folks, and featured a wide variety of speakers and demonstrations on special operations medical topics.

Gary, a Lifetime Member of SOMA, was asked to speak at SOMA about Team Rubicon, and how is brings a new dynamic to the disaster response world. Gary has already been asked to speak at next year’s SOMA conference to bring the SOMA members up to date on TR’s missions and growth.

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Filed under: Conferences by William on December 17, 2010
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Gifts from the Poor : What the World’s Patients Taught One Doctor about Healing, by Team Rubicon’s Dr. Glenn Geelhoed

To order click here.

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Filed under: Personal Reflections by Sarah on December 16, 2010
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Johns Hopkins University Arts & Sciences Magazine: First Responders in the Face of Disaster

By Christine Grillo

When William McNulty, MA ’07, first learned of the earthquake that devastated Haiti last January, he was hell-bent on helping. A former Marine with infantry training and experience in Iraq, he was determined to join the relief efforts. “It was all I could think about,” he says.

Through high school and family networks, McNulty Skyped with Jim Boynton, a Jesuit brother in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, who was in touch with priests in Port-au-Prince. Boynton’s message to McNulty was very plain: “Get down here now, because these people are dying.”

But as he and fellow former Marine Jake Wood prepared to fly, a government official told him to stay put—traveling to Haiti would only interfere. The Red Cross told him it was too dangerous, he says. Make a donation instead, they suggested. “But I had skills to offer, not money,” says McNulty.

So, at the speed of Facebook, Twitter, and PayPal, McNulty and Wood amassed an ad hoc group of skilled volunteers, medical supplies, and donations—and “Team Rubicon” was born. A few days after the earthquake, the team—which consisted of McNulty, Wood, and two firefighter friends from Milwaukee—flew to Santo Domingo to meet Boynton. Along the way, they picked up three more volunteers: a special forces medic they met on the shuttle in Reagan International Airport, and two doctors they met in the Dominican Republic. “They were doing what we were doing,” says McNulty. “They were self-deploying.” (more…)

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Filed under: Haiti, In The Media by Jake on December 16, 2010
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Filed under: After Action Report, Pakistan by Sarah on December 13, 2010
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Responding to Cholera in Post-Earthquake Haiti

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Filed under: Haiti by William on December 12, 2010
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