Utahns pulling out of Haiti

The Utah Hospital Task Force, a 120-person "rescue and relief" mission to Haiti is winding down, about a week earlier than anticipated. And plans to dispatch another, smaller group of volunteer translators, medical personnel and builders are on hold.

"Conditions in Haiti are evolving, with the country settling into a new [and difficult] normal," said the group's founder, Stephen Studdert, who spoke to The Salt Lake Tribune Monday by cell phone.

With trauma care needs mostly met, large aid groups like UNICEF and the World Food Program are now focused on securing a long-term supply of food and suitable shelter for the scores of Haitian refugees living in tent cities.

"And that has never been part of our mission," said Studdert, who could return to Salt Lake City with his team as soon as Thursday.

News that the U.S. military will soon relinquish control of the Port-au-Prince airport to the Haitian government factored into the suspension of future missions.

"Our confidence in the Haiti government's control of the severely damaged airport is not great enough to risk inserting the second team," wrote Utah Hospital Task Force administrator Tom Murdock in an e-mail to a waiting list of volunteers.

In addition, the task force's campsite will be transitioned back to the military for what Murdock describes as "its larger and longer term role in Haiti." And the 82nd Airborne will no longer be available to transport volunteer

Though disappointed, a "weary but enlivened" Studdert is pleased by the work his team accomplished and the "immeasurable good will" they generated for America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Though not a church-sanctioned mission, Studdert's team is peopled primarily with return Mormon missionaries fluent in French Creole, and medical and construction professionals with Utah ties. The LDS Church outfitted volunteers with supplies.

And Studdert's construction workers partnered with local priesthood brethren to assess damage to LDS members' homes and do small repairs.

More than 50 doctors and nurses delivered medical care at makeshift clinics, including one operated by the Utah-based charity, Healing Hands for Haiti.

They aided the evacuation of orphans matched for adoption by American families and built a shelter for other displaced Haitian children.

They even made inroads with a criminal investigation into the kidnapping of a 3-year-old boy, the son of a counselor in the LDS Church's Haitian LDS Mission presidency.

Guesno Mardy's son Gardy, the youngest of his six children, was kidnapped in December outside an LDS Church meetinghouse. Mardy and his wife Marjorie run the Foyer de Sion orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Contrary to a New York Times story that ran Sunday, LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said the LDS Church "does not finance this or any other orphanages."

Mardy, who has dual citizenship, contacted the FBI in Miami. Three agents were investigating the case but the kidnapping became a low priority after the Jan. 12 earthquake. Studdert' said his team got the case moving again.

"We're worked it pretty hard with Haitian police and are pretty confident we've identified where he lives," Studdert said.