Klinik Vizitasyon, Haiti

Tents Arising

2012-02-16T11:08:00.004-08:00

This week we have welcomed a visiting team from Knoxville, TN. This is probably the most diverse group of visitors we've had this year, for not only do we have medical professionals, but we've also got an agricultural and seed expert, two high school students, and a couple all around McGyvers. One task they tackled today was erecting a large surplus tent that we acquired as part of our disaster and emergency readiness plans. From the pictures, it appears that it takes a village to set up the thing, but now it is erected we hope to use it for family shelter for a pediatric surgery effort we are currently planning.

Farewell New Jersey

2012-02-13T20:26:00.002-08:00

Our team from NJ left as they began, "organized to a T" and with time scheduled for a group photo in front of the clinic. They wanted to spend a lot of time with our interns and we're told the interactions were well worth it. They also saw, first hand, how our clinic encounters cases that are more typical of hospital emergency rooms in the US. This past week was no exception as they dealt with cases ranging from extreme diabetis to trauma care. Also, we were delighted that they even followed up with a lengthy report of their visit. This included such a detailed survey that it noted that in a particular hallway, the paint was a mix of flat and gloss and perhaps should be redone. All we can say is that even though it took a countrywide search, we've finally found a group who cares as much as we do that everything be perfect. Hurry back New Jersey.

Haitians helping Haitians

2012-02-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

This week's medical team is notable in that two of its members were born and trained in Haiti, but also trained in the US and are now returning as volunteers. Dr. Andre-Jean is a pathologist who works in family practice in the US. Here he is shown caring for a mother and her baby at Visitation Clinic.

Below is Ms. Raymonde - a pharmacist and, we're told, an artist. She is helping to organize the clinic's pharmacy using some of the principles common in US pharmacies. Clear labeling and organizing meds by use can be an important way to make a pharmacy more efficient and safer.

New Jersey Medical Group

2012-02-06T11:21:00.000-08:00

This week Visitation Clinic welcomes our second group of new visitors. It is lead by Dr. Sue from New Jersey who is a pediatrician and also a specialist in adult asthma and infectious diseases. She emailed last evening: "We got to Visitation Hospital at 7 pm.had a good dinner. Giants won!!! I'm in heaven." We mention this, not to offend any of our Patriot supporters (bless them all), but to highlight the fact that our hospitality includes good food, fine rooms and, notably, satellite Internet that keeps everyone connected to the world's important events.

The group consists of two pediatricians, an internal medicine specialist, a pathologist and a pharmacist. Shown here are our pediatricians Dr. Sue and Dr. Harriet,

Happiness is ...

2012-01-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning Frantz T., age 7 came to the clinic with lots of smiles. Last week he had surgery to have an umbilical hernia repaired and returned to have his bandage removed and a check up. His mother told us ''I'm very happy that Visitation Clinic with the help of the Americans realized the surgery for my child, I did not like his big belly and I was not able to afford the surgery in Port-au-Prince. ''

Even minor surgeries like this can have a big impact on a child's well being and how they are treated by their friends and the community. Our visiting Mercy Medical Care team performed 15 procedures last week. They also identified another 60 children who need surgery, some of it major. We are working with them to schedule a return in April. We are also developing plans for a clinic expansion to accommodate more frequent surgical teams. There is an acute shortage of hospitals and clinics with surgical capacity in Haiti. Your support HERE can help us fix this.

Maryland Team - Last Day

2012-01-25T06:12:00.000-08:00

On the last day of the mobile clinic, the team hiked up the mountains to visit the town of Sillegue. This is one of Haiti's many isolated villages that have little access to medical care unless they walk several hours to a clinic such as ours.

Children attend the open air school (right) which became the clinic for the day. The mobile team saw about 150 children and babies. They treated more cases of scabies and identified three more children who require surgery.

The team back-packed their supplies, equipment and meds. But lunch was more readily available as shown here.

Maryland Team: Days 3 & 4.

2012-01-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

Hosting visiting medical teams is one of the many services that Visitation Clinic brings to rural Haiti. These teams can provide the resources to stage mobile clinics in schools and distant villages. These mobile teams can provide general heath screening for a good many people and identify those who need care at the main clinic. This week, the team from Maryland has done this exceedingly well. Here is what Dr. Karen emailed us today:

All is going well...
Thus far we have eval approx 1700 children in 6 schools ...today the team is going to a far away village...taking the bus part way and then hiking the rest...expected to be a 90 min walk ...they are excited!

Meanwhile, the surgical part of their team has completed 11 operations, with another five scheduled for today. This week they have had to perform these surgeries at an overcrowded and poorly equipped government hospital located in the nearest city. Because of these conditions, there are another fifty children who need surgery, but won't be helped. Next year, we are hoping, will be quite different. We hope to have made some modifications to our clinic that will allow for basic surgeries. You can support this effort by donating HERE

Maryland Team: Day 2

2012-01-17T21:16:00.000-08:00

Today our volunteer medical team visited two more schools and screened another 700 students. A common disease that they are finding and treating is a skin rash known as scabies that is spread by a small mite. About 10% of the children have this. More serious is that a few children in each school need surgical intervention for conditions ranging from hernias to heart problems. Fortunately, the visiting team has a pediatric surgeon with them and they are attempting to treat some of these children in a nearby hospital. This is difficult for many reasons ranging from the lack of space and resources to bureaucratic issues. Nonetheless, today they were able to treat two children today who needed minor surgery (photo below).

Maryland Medical Team

2012-01-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

This week the clinic is honored to host a large medical team who are associated with Johns Hopkins University and the Mercy Medical Mission. Lead by Dr./Sr. Karen Schneider, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins University Hospital and a Sister of Mercy, the group will be focusing on the children that live in the region served by Visitation Clinic. They arrived late Sunday afternoon and wasted no time getting to work. On Monday evening Dr. Karen sent us this email.

"Today we went to C.E.S.A and saw 740 primary school children. We found 20 who need surgery that we can do this week and the teachers are trying to get the message to the families. We found 2 with bad hearts and 1 who has knocked knees and needs orthopedic surgery. Dr JF told me about 5 other children with heart problems and I am working on getting them to USA for surgery."

Our administrator sent us these photos by separate email.

Earthquake - Two Year's Later

2012-01-13T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Port-au-Prince Cathedral

Two years ago Haiti was jarred by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. It's zone of destruction included the most heavily populated region of Haiti. Much of Haiti's infrastructure was destroyed including half of its hospitals, almost all it's government buildings and some of it's oldest and most cherished structures from the Presidential Palace to the Cathedral. The number of people killed will probably never be known, but in loss of life, it is being listed as one of history's ten worst natural disasters.

In general, developing countries suffer the most from natural disasters. Building construction is often inadequate with little oversight from the government. For instance, before 2011 a Haitian builder couldn't even find seismic data for designing properly. There were no building codes or city planning for guidance. Consequently, poor construction was common and not only did countless homes collapse in the earthquake, but so did schools, banks, hospitals, the UN headquarters and the prestigious Montana Hotel. Tragically, some of Haiti's most dedicated and promising leaders were lost, including all but one student of Haiti's State University nursing class.

Visitation Clinic is 43 miles west of the quake epicenter. At that distance, the surface ground movement had lessened and we sustained little damage from the quake. Some nearby houses did colapse, but no one nearby was killed. We were very fortunate.

Disasters can have beneficial consequences if we learn from them. We can dedicate ourselves to those who were lost and resolve that the disaster not be repeated. Both Haitian government and international groups are taking steps in this direction. Now, for the first time, the USGS has created seismic risk maps for Haiti. The Haitian government has stepped up and authorized interim building codes that use the USGS data. Engineering groups have completed an analysis of why certain building's failed in the earthquake. And we at VHF are in the middle of a major project of planning how we should expand our services while insuring that our buildings will survive the next earthquake. We now know that the ten-year likelihood of another major earthquake is 1 in 6, and that the fault-line is only 9 miles south of our clinic. We've recently engaged civil engineers to analyze our present buildings and recommend any retrofitting.

The 2010 earthquake was a horrific event. The loss of life was tragic and unnecessarily high. If there is one positive outcome, it is the new realization of the need for seismic building practices. There will be more earthquakes in Haiti. There need not be the loss of so many lives.

A Haitian Nwel

2011-12-23T14:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Haiti? When you are raised in north-America, most Christmas traditions don't seem quite compatible with a Caribbean island. You would be hard pressed to find many native Haitians who associate Christmas with Jack Frost, flying reindeer or evergreen trees in your house. Not to mention that extravagant gift giving isn't very common in an impoverished country. Perhaps this is what makes Christmas in Haiti all the more captivating. Nwel is one of the peoples favorite festivals. It is a time of large family dinners, parties and music. The church services will be long and lively affairs, with their own blend of music. Many Haitians see the season as an opportunity to repent and a chance for a new beginning. As the baby-king was born with a new year just around the corner, they are hopeful that things will get better for them and their family.

At Visitation Clinic last year, our staff wanted to do something for children who lived nearby. So they scheduled a "recreation" with gifts for the children and even a movie in the evening using the clinc's new video projector. It was a lively affair with the children's number, and excitement level, exceeding expectations, as well as gifts. The photo below shows the families gathering and listening to Dr. JF discuss the upcoming party. This weekend we will repeat the event, with more gifts, and probably more children.

News Article

2011-11-28T12:26:00.000-08:00

Visitation Hospital Foundation realizing success in Haiti

Jack Murphree, Tennessee Register

Despite Haiti’s ongoing problems – near-constant political upheaval, limping economic recovery from the 2010 earthquake, a barrage of hurricanes and waning international sympathy for its enduring troubles – one Nashville-based foundation is making real strides in Haitian healthcare and setting itself among the success stories in rural Haitian communities.

Visitation Hospital, located in Petite Riviere de Nippes, 70 miles west of Haiti’s capital Port au Prince, is a walk-in clinic that treats between 50-100 Haitians everyday, dispensing health and pharmacological care to every patient regardless of condition or financial capacity.

“We charge $1.20 per patient,” said Art Judy, executive director of the Visitation Hospital Foundation. “And if they can not afford that then we treat them anyway.”

Nearly 80 percent of the 55,000 patients Visitation Hospital has cared for since it opened in 2008 are women and children, and their goal is to provide them with competent and compassionate health care as well as resources to pursue their basic right to health and health education.

“The people want us there and they are energized by what we are doing – bringing first world practice and technology and impacting overall health and the spirit of the region,” said Judy.

“The local politicians support our efforts because we are uniting rural Haiti by eliminating serious widespread health problems,” he said.

“If you commit to long-term engagement in Haiti, the people will respond,” said Judy, a scientist, technologist and business manager who began his third world work as a volunteer in 1997.

Visitation Hospital is staffed by local medical practitioners and support staff and systematically sustains itself. “There is no power grid to plug into,” said Judy. “We have our own solar panels that generate electricity and our own tower and pressure pump that provide water to the facility.”

The 4,000 square foot clinic was designed by Nashville-based architect Alan Dooley, a principal architect at Dooley and Associates. “It looks much like the inside of a typical emergency ward,” said Dooley. “There are curtain tracks instead of walls and lots of open space to allow air flow since there is no air conditioning system,” he said.

One of the Visitation Hospital Foundation’s immediate goals is to transform the clinic into a fully support-staffed hospital offering round-the-clock, in-patient care, including emergency surgery.

“We want to crossover to a reference hospital where other facilities refer their patients for the next level of care,” said Judy.

Because the 2010 earthquake was so catastrophic to the region, engineers have started to evaluate the entire country’s seismic risks, according to Judy.

“Geological surveys that determine earthquake fault zones and mapping did not really exist before the 2010 quake. New research has shown that our clinic sits near a fault line and this has caused us to carefully evaluate our strategic plan,” said Judy.

“It’s just a matter of time before another earthquake occurs and we are grappling with how our clinic can not just sustain the stresses, but be in service to care for the Haitian people,” said Judy.

Solutions, while they may seem like aiming at a target with a blind-fold on, lie in either reinforcing walls or adopting a different set of structurally-engineered building construction specifications for future additions to the facility.

“We are advertising in national trade magazines hoping to find an engineer who will do this work and answer some key questions for us pro bono,” said Judy.

“The Clinic withstood a 6.0 Richter Scale reading with very little damage in 2010, which is considerable,” said Dooley.

“We need the facts on how the existing clinic will survive in different scenarios,” said Dooley. “It may be that the money to retro-fit might better be spent on the construction of a new building since our plan is to house non-ambulatory patients, like a hospital.”

“We can’t wait two years to find this out,” said Dooley.

One of the ongoing health care issues in Haiti is the cholera outbreak, which Haitians are contracting from contaminated water.

“There is a broken pipe feeding contaminated water into open waterways,” said Judy. “It has been broken for some time and the patients we are seeing are coming from this area.”

“It would cost almost nothing to repair and we don’t know why the government will not see that it gets fixed,” said Judy. “It’s very frustrating.”

Visitation Hospital has not been alone in its fight against disease control. According to Judy, a Belgium medical team erected a tent in January 2011 next to the Clinic and is operating a facility which cares for cholera-infected Haitians.

“They have just let us know their funding has run out and they will be leaving December 31st,” said Judy. “This will create new challenges for us.”

Remarkably, Visitation Hospital functions on an annual operating budget of $400,000, a fraction of what it would cost to run the same facility in the U.S., and it is completely subsidized by private donations.

“Ratcheting up future fundraising in a recessionary economy is challenging,” admitted Judy. A significant boost has come from Nashville philanthropist Jim Carell, who has pledged support in the form of a quarter million dollar matching grant, according to Judy. “He will match 2 to 1 what we are able to raise,” said Judy.

“People need to understand that they can still make a difference in Haiti,” he said. “We know this because nobody dies if they can just make it to our door.”

To learn more about or how to give to Visitation Hospital Foundation, go to www.visitationhospital.org. To see an aerial view of the facility via Google Earth, the clinic’s coordinates are “Visitation Clinic” lat=18.4757638889, lon=-73.22284444:

Radio Show

2011-10-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

In rural Haiti, community-based radio broadcasting is very popular. Not only do people listen to it for music, news and community service announcements, but at times special, live, talk-radio shows are scheduled. These shows usually provide for listeners to call in and make on-air comments, requests and so forth.

Last week, the nearby church-based station arranged for a two-evening segment on healthcare needs in the region. The special guests were Visitation Clinic's medical director (Dr. JF) and administrtor (Killy).

Many people called in to vocalize the need for expanded healthcare programs.

A little help from our friends

2011-10-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

Today's email gives a glimpse into what it takes to keep a clinic running in rural Haiti. The problem started last Thursday when the microscope broke. This put the lab out of business for performing some of the most frequent tests. A serious problem. Also a real worry because it's not uncommon in Haiti to not have parts for specialized equipment and it can take weeks to ship things in. Our administrator took the scope to Port-au-Prince knowing he could have trouble finding someone to fix it. But one reason he is so invaluable is his resourcefulness. Here is his email.

Last Friday afternoon, I got to the National Lab where they repair microscopes, it was too late to repair it,so they told me to wait until Tuesday as tomorrow is a hero's day(Dessalines) so it's a public day. As I could not wait until Tuesday, I beg the electronic man to do that this week-end. We took an appointment for today this Sunday as he has the key of his office and uses to work on Sunday here. I'm here with him at Delmas 33, I went to pick him up to come to his office, he's now repairing the microscope as you can see in the attached. I don't know how much they will charge us, but I hope to negotiate a convenient charge."

Happily, the most recent email reported a successful outcome, although it didn't mention the charges. Of course, we won't be offended if someone wants to cover them by clicking here

Pressure

2011-10-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

We were reminded by this week's clinic photo that not only do rural Haitians have to deal with chronic poverty, but many also suffer from chronic diseases. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is one of them. In Haiti, men and women are equally burdened by this, and it can be difficult to control. For instance, last year we were saddened when when one of our own employees, who was under treatment for hypertension, died from a stroke.

Researchers have even studied hypertension in Haiti because the people lack one of the known risk factors - obesity. You can read about it here: http://www.longwoods.com/content/18546 This paper ends with the sentance. "Although age and weight are useful in predicting BP, there are unmeasured factors that account for most of the variation, which require future research." Unfortunately, such research is unlikely to happen soon. There doesn't seem to be a great deal of funding for the study of diseases that primarily affect poor Haitians.

Debilitated by hypertension

Life by the sea

2011-09-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

When kids come to the clinic, their mothers have usually dressed them in their best clothes and scrubbed them within an inch of their lives. So if we take their picture, they look like kids out of central casting for a Disney film.

To get a glimpse of real life in rural, coastal Haiti, one needs to walk around and try to get candid photos like this. This girl is in her yard gathering some food to eat. She is barefoot of course and wearing an old but frilly dress. She is no doubt wondering who are the strangers walking down the road in front of her house by sea.

Finally, ...

2011-09-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

We know its overdue. Admittedly, even long overdue. But we do hope our friends and supporters will make some allowance for the enormity of the task. After all, how does one describe and distill the work of VHF into a single, bi-fold brochure. Of course, we could have used a very small font and and a great many words to try to convey the rich variety of stories and cases that the clinic encounters. But then we would need to furnish a magnifier with each brochure. Instead, we opted to use a few more pictures and many fewer words and try to capture something of the essence of Visitation Clinic. I know we failed to do so. However, not doing anything would have been a bigger defeat. So begging for forgiveness in advance, here it is.

Portico

2011-09-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

To me, the most striking feature of the clinic is the portico. I'm always impressed by the arches, the beams, the small hospital crosses that are also vents, and the overall proportions. It was built by skilled Haitian craftsman who are true artists in concrete. We don't have their names, but I hope they took satisfaction in doing a job well. Its designer is clinic architect, Alan Dooley, who spent untold hours as a volunteer creating the design and drawings of not just the clinic, but the campus and even future buildings.

Full moon rising through the arches

Every morning our patients wait in shade underneath this exquisite entryway. They seem to appreciate having a place out of the sun to sit while waiting. Some, who aren't feeling well, lie on the benches and look up at the beams and arches. We hope it brings some ease and comfort while they wait.

The Word Is Out

2011-09-20T23:11:00.000-07:00

In Haiti medical graduates spend their first year in "social service". This involves working, at very little pay, in needy clinics or hospitals. Since there is a perennial shortage of trained medical people, the clinics and hospitals do their best to attract good residents. But the interns themselves have a large say in the matter. In fact, those at the top of their class get first pick in choosing their assignments.

Now, one would expect that a new and relatively unknown place like Visitation Clinic would have some difficulty attracting good residents. After all, we are not a historic and renown institution that their family or professors would have known. And we are in a rural area that takes three hours to get to and where there is not much to do except work. Not to mention that our patients don't come from the Haiti's wealthy families.

Well, these logical and common sense expectations would be mistaken.. We've become a preferred choice by top graduates from medical and nursing schools. For instance this year our social-service resident, Dr. Delva, had many options but he chose to work at Visitation Clinic. The main reason: the strong recommendation of our previous resident, who was also a top graduate. It seems we're developing a reputation among medical students for being one of Haiti's best clinics. We will be doing our best not to disappoint.

Water worries

2011-09-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

In order to operate a clinic in rural Haiti, you have to provide all your infrastructure. This includes buildings, storage, food, residential quarters, water, electricity, security, communications, and so forth.

Of these, water can be one of the biggest challenges. Even though we are connected to the municipal system, we also have to collect rainwater from the roof, maintain a cistern for storage, and have pumps and a water tower to create adequate pressure. Then, if you want to make it drinkable, you need to install a filtering and purification system (a project we have underway).

Of course, water has a way of going where it shouldn't. So right now we are also dealing with a leak in a buried pipe and another in a roof. Probably both were caused by the earthquake.

Still there can be unanticipated benefits to having all this. One is that you can climb up the water tower and get a wonderful view. In the photo, we see the coastline, campus, clinic, and, expecially, the setting sun. Almost makes it all worthwhile.

Bahama Visitor

2011-09-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

One thing we strive to do at Visitation Clinic is to become a model for how rural healthcare should be provided, not just in Haiti but anywhere in the world. As such, we want the clinic to be the kind of place that is modern, impeccably clean, and the staff is highly competent and compassionate. But it is hard to know how good a job you really are doing. After all, most of our patients come from nearby and they don't have a great deal of mobility. So even when they express gratitude and appreciation, we are never quite sure how we would measure up on the world's stage. But on occasion we do get some feedback from a traveler who finds himself in the poor, but picturesque, town of Petite Riviere and requires some health care. Today's email brought such a story from our administrator:

A priest from the Bahamas, Fr. Alain Mary L., attended the clinic while visiting his relatives in Petite Riviere de Nippes. He said that he was very satisfied to the kind of service that he received at the clinic, and particularly to the welcoming and satisfying clinic atmosphere. ''I have never seen and attended a pleasant and clean clinic like this in Haiti'', he said. ''I hope to come back next year and bring some of the Bahamian community to see this marvelous development in PRDN"

The Downside of Roadwork

2011-09-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

This little fella was in the clinic Thursday for a double whammy. He is from the nearby town of Charlier where roadwork is underway on a river-crossing bridge. Well, the road crew cut the water pipe that supplied most of the houses. After several days of not being repaired, the people had little choice but to revert to taking water directly from the river, which has long been their water source. Unfortunately, in recent months there has been major change in the river waters of Haiti, - the cholera bacteria. So in the past two weeks we have seen a spike in patients coming from Charlier to the Cholera Treatment Unit.

Carrying Water after the Pipe Was Cut

Most cholera patients recover quickly and return home after a stay of a day or two. But this boy's mom noticed that even though his cholera symptoms had abated, he was running a fever. We moved him to the main clinic for tests and found that he also had malaria.

In this photo (taken late in the afternoon after all other patients had gone), our dedicated nurse Ms. Samdie, is explaining to the mother what medications to give our unhappy little patient.

This whole episode illustrates the big difference a modern clinic can make in people's lives. Not only were we a location that people knew they could rush to when cholera struck, but we have a staff that responds to unusual or emergency conditions that others would tend to ignore. Not to mention the fact that we had the lab tests and pharmaceuticals for diagnosing and treating the condition.

You can help kids like this by donating here
.

Power to the People

2011-09-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

How do you keep a clinic running in Haiti? Sometimes with old fashioned Haitian ingenuity. This morning is a case in point. It started badly, for instead of being greeted with a cup of hot coffee, there was only a message from our administrator - the generator wouldn't start. I knew instantly that this could be a serious problem. How so? First, if it was a simple problem, they would have already fixed it. Secondly, anything that delays morning coffee is serious.

Dr. Betsy's dental hose put to better use.

We walked out to the generator, hoping the problem was just the starter battery. But it was able to crank the engine into starting, where upon we we discovered the issue - fuel was dripping from a hose.. Calling a mechanic was an option of course, but it would be a week from Christmas before he got here.

We had to try to fix it. I hoped that maybe we could loosen the clamps and just re-secure the hose. Sure enough, when we started the engine again the fuel was no longer driping - now it was gushing. Panic. What to do? We scoured the clinic looking for a piece of hose.. Killy found some catheters - too small. Then I remembered the dental compressor. Surely Dr. Betsy wouldn't miss a 2 inch piece of hose coming from the compressor. Should I call her and ask permission? Of course not. With two snips the hose is harvested and it's back to the generator. Looks too small we all thought. But Micheal, our security guard, knew better. With a lot of pushing and shoving the hose was forced over the fuel line. Half-hour later, we're all smelling like diesel fuel, but we're done. The generator cranks, runs, leak is gone.

Of course, there are alsways side effects. Every bite of breakfast smells like diesel fuel and what will happen when Dr. Betsy finds out. But these concerns melt away with a cup of coffee.

The Road to Insulin

2011-09-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

The cost of providing healthcare in Haiti can be surprisingly high at times. So we do everything we can think of to reduce expenses. For instance, road trips are planned to serve as many purposes as possible. Yesterday was a good example. Our trip from Port-au-Prince included an airport stop, then a downtown meeting with another NGO, then a rendezvous with our accountant to drop off a tax-check, followed by a stop at a provisioner who had secured some food at a good price, then a quick sandwich which we ate while driving to Leogane to see if we could buy some insulin.

These days our normal wholesaler is out of insulin more often than not. So we first stopped at a large hospital to see if they had a good source. The answer was negative and they explained that they rely on visiting US medical teams to get insulin right now. After more searching and phone calls, we finally resorted to buying three vials from one pharmacy, and two from another. The retail price was $18 each. Not a bad price on the US market, but in Haiti it's more than three-day's pay. And when you run a clinic where diabetes is not uncommon, and you only charge $1.20 per patient, including exam, lab and meds - it's not hard to see why we work at reducing other expenses.

During the rest of the drive, I could only reflect on the fact that if you are poor and live in Haiti, it's best not to get diabetes. If you do, the margin can be very thin between a healthy life and one that is difficult and short. The margin might just be a 100ml vial, which is located two cities and three paydays away. Might as well be in Nashville.

How Does the Garden Grow?

2011-08-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Even with the help of a donated rototiller, gardening can be hard work. But our team at the clinic emailed this photo with a report that they are in the process of planting a kind of fruit named cassava root or manioc. They also plan on planting more bananas and sweet potatoes with the hope of reducing the cost of some market days."

Farming is a very labor intensive task in Haiti. It's mostly done by hand, without the aid of mechanical devices like this tiller.

Cholera Endures

2011-08-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

For the last several month we've had the help of a Belgian group in fighting the local cholera outbreak. Together we've established a Cholera Treatment Unit (UTC) in tents on our campus. The results have been remarkable and every patient who has made to the clinic has recovered. Furthermore, the overall number of new cases has declined dramatically.

Unfortunately, once introduced, cholera isn't easily eradicated. For instance, today's email brought this news and photos from our administrator: "yesterday the UTC at the clinic has received 5 cholera patients as you can see in the attached. There was a good break, but it seems that it's coming back. 4 come from Cholette and one not far from the clinic.

The Coordinator reported to us that the situation is worst in Miragoane somewhere named Berkin next to the lack where the people do not have clean water."

It is also unfortunate that our Belgian friends' involvement is quite temporary, and in two months they are planning on withdrawing from our area. So we have to decide whether we can afford to run the UTC by ourselves. Resources being limited, this will be a difficult decision to make.

Second visiting team

2011-07-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

This past week and this upcoming week we have a new team of medical volunteers working at the clinic. Lead by Dr. Thomas C. who is an MD with over twenty years of experience in internal medicine. He is accompanied by his son who is currently in medical school.

We are extremely fortunate to have our visitors these two weeks. Our clinic often sees over 80 patients a day and it would have been very difficult for our intern, Dr. Delva, to handle this while our Dr. JF is on vacation. But Dr. Tom has been able to jump in and treat over 40 patients on most days.

Indiana Group at Clinic

2011-07-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

This week we have the priviledge of welcoming a group of five medical professionals from Indiana. They have generously volunteered to work at the clinic while some of our staff are on vacation. So far this week they have treated over 80 patients on some days. Here are a couple photos showing their work this week.

More road news

2011-07-02T00:03:00.000-07:00

In contrast to the previous post, this past week has been bright and sunny and the news we've just received has been the same. Perhaps it can only be appreciated if we recount the series of events that lead up to it. The story began almost a year ago at a Nashville fund raiser. During the post-event clean up, a chance conversation began with one of our dedicated volunteers. The topic was the need for a better access road at our clinic. But, unlike previous conversations on this topic, this time it took a surprising turn. Our volunteer offered to contact a friend who was a manager at Caterpillar. The manager, in turn, enthusiastically offered to contact a Cat associate in the Caribbean. This man made it his mission to talk to the Cat dealer in Haiti, who by email offered to help us. We met with this gentleman earlier this year and he offered to contact a close friend who was building a road near our clinic. This past week, all of this calling and emailing payed off. As the photo shows, there is now a large crew and several machines working on our road. The local mayor has even assisted by contacting local property owners so that they know about the work.

At times people wonder how they can make a difference in Haiti. The marvelous lesson in this story is that sometimes all it takes is a simple phone call or email to a friend.

Rainy Weather

2011-07-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Visitation Clinic is located a quarter-mile up the mountain from the main road. Our only access is by a dirt road which gets soft and slick when it rains. During the rainy season (which just ended), our road gets quite muddy. And here we are using the term "muddy" in the Haitian context - meaning that off-road 4x4's get so bogged down that it litterally takes a dozen men and a boy to get it unstuck. (See photo)

This can be a serious problem for a busy clinic like ours. In fact, the reason that our driver attempted to drive the road on the day of the photo was for a patient diagnosed with acute apendicits. Fortunately, our volunteer road crew prevailed and were able to extract our SUV and get our patient to surgery. Still, this episode again demonstrated the importance of decent roads in Haiti.

Education is Essential

2011-06-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

One of the ways that we are improving overall health is through education programs for the community. Here is a photo of Dr. JF and some of the attendees of a recent seminar titled "Diabetiis and Your Feet". The presentation used our new vidoe projector and a powerpoint presentation in Creole. According to our administrator Killy, the presentations gave pointers on how to care for feet and toes, how walk with care, what kind of shoes to wear and so forth. Of the twenty attendees, fifteen were diabetic patients.

Visitation Clinic subject of recent news article.

2011-05-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Three-year-old rural clinic focuses on compassion in care

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

PETITE-RIVIERE-DE-NIPPES, Haiti (CNS) -- Beyond a few hospitals, quality health care facilities in Haiti are scarce. It's the clinics -- some big, some small -- that provide the bulk of health care Haitians receive.

One such clinic is located 70 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, in the rural community of Petite-Riviere-de-Nippes. The three-year-old Visitation Clinic -- a project of the Visitation Hospital Foundation in Nashville, Tenn. -- sees about 70 patients a day. Most have common illnesses -- gastro-intestinal ailments, urinary tract infections or a slight infection, all typically caused by ingesting contaminated water.

In a country where access to health care is limited, having a clinic nearby can mean the difference between a mild illness or something more serious.

Many patients are children whose parents are glad the clinic opened in their seafront town because it saves them from making the 45-minute, 10-mile trip over sometimes rocky unpaved roads to St. Therese Hospital in Miragoane.

Dr. Rony Jean-Francois has worked at the clinic since it opened in 2008. He left a hospital in Port-au-Prince to work among people who have few other alternatives for care.

"I'm proud of my work because I'm giving service. It's a gift to be part of it. I can bring my competence to a community that is by itself without help," the 43-year-old physician said.

Since January, the clinic has housed a cholera treatment unit on its grounds. At the peak of the epidemic in December and January, the unit's 30 beds were nearly full for days on end.

Jean-Francois and the clinic's administrator, Riphard "Killy" Serent, made the rounds to the 30,000 residents in town and the surrounding rural area for weeks, talking about cholera prevention techniques: proper hygiene, including regular hand washing, and drinking only safe water. Serent said the effort likely prevented the clinic from being overwhelmed with cholera cases.

Through April 19, more than 200 people had been treated at the clinic and in the special unit opened by Doctors of the World, a French medical aid agency, on the clinic grounds.

Haiti's health care system was severely tested with the cholera outbreak. Through April 12, Haiti's Ministry of Health and Population reported more than 283,000 cholera cases with more than 4,800 deaths.

Until October, Haiti had not seen a reported case of cholera for 50 years. The disease unexpectedly reappeared in rural Artibonite department in the center of the country, and the strain was traced to South Asia.

At Visitation Clinic, while cholera was not as serious a challenge as elsewhere, Jean-Francois and Serent still face daily challenges because of the deep poverty in which people live. Most patients arrive on foot, some leaving home before dawn so that they arrive for the clinic's early morning opening.

Numerous patients over two days said they found the staff helped them feel respected and comfortable.

That falls in line with the clinic's mission to provide "competent and compassionate health care."

Jean-Francois sees the clinic's work simply.

"The foundation of the clinic is love," he said. "Everybody is involved in it."

Klinik Vizitasyon Video - Petite Riviere de Nippes, Haiti

2011-05-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

Don't know how they did it

2011-05-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

Our first pediactric dental mission was an unqualified success. Somehow, nearly everyday Betsy and Stacy worked, they were able to see more patients than the previous day. In eight working days, they treated 154 patients - 29 children under 7 yrs, 117 children from 7 to 18 yrs, and even eight adults. To accomplish this they worked from the clinic's opening until well after dark. They even arranged for hourly announcements on the local radio station so that parents would know this service was available.

One would think they would be exhausted. But Betsy emailed this morning. She is trying to figure out how to add a second dental chair to speed things up. She's getting estimates to fully equip a dental clinic. She's even trying to figure out how to rewire the clinic so that the lights don't dim when the compressor comes on. She's hoping to return soon.

Our gratitude to Betsy, Stacy and Johnson is immense. And we all now realize the tremendous need for dental healthcare and education for the chilcren in rural Haiti.

Watchin'

2011-04-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

Our dental team has treated 121 patients as of yesterday, and somehow they are able to see more each day. Yesterday they saw 30 children, nine of whom were under six years old. As seen here, there is often an audience of very interested children at the window who seem riveted by watching our dental team at work. Dr. Betsy encourages this. She hopes the onlookers today will become the future dentists of Haiti. We also want to note that the newest member of the Unit is Mr. Johnson (left). He is an interpreter who lives in Petite Riviere when he is not in school. He has become our dental health advocate who explains to the children the technique and importance of taking care of their teeth.

Waitin'

2011-04-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the dentist

Waiting some more

Still waiting

Redemption songs

2011-04-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

Rural Haitians have little exposure to video media. Televisions are scarce, theatres are rare, and even the viewing of DVDs is limited. What takes their place are the churches. Even a small town like Petite Riviere can have a grand church that holds a large congregation, some of whom will walk considerable distances to attend. Non-Haitian visitors to rural churches are infrequent, but those few who are fortunate to attend will invariably experience an unforgettable celebration. Perhaps most striking is the music. Even on Sundays in ordinary time, the celebrations will seldom last less than two hours and the musical bounty that enfolds a visitor seems to endure and refresh for days. The entire congregation is the choir and all will sway and pray, both individually and communally in harmony to the music. The instrumental accompaniment is just as diverse and infectious. Drums, of course, are prominent and essential.

This past Sunday was Easter and the ceremony was undoubtedly the most spectacular of the year. But even the days preceding Easter have their own beauty. For instance, the music and lower photo here came from the more reflective celebration on Holy Thursday.

This past year, the world has noted the tremendous resilience and hope that Haitians retain, even in the most trying of times. One cannot help but wonder if it is Haiti's music and celebrations that nourish this most precious of virtues.

The Unit

2011-04-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

There is a television series called "The Unit" which is about a team of specially recruited, highly trained, disciplined and dedicated soldiers who work in difficult circumstances to accomplish their mission. I dream that the producers will travel to rural Haiti someday and see the real thing at work. We have a number of Units at Visitation Clinic. Our newest one is lead by Dr. Betsy Barcroft from Memphis who is an accomplished pediatric dentist and spends her free time treating disadvantaged children to places like Alaska, Hopi Indian reservations, rural Arkansas and now Haiti. She and her incredibly efficient assistant Stacy have volunteered for ten days to work at our clinic with the goal of seeing every child they possibly can. Each day, they start early, don't want to take lunch breaks and work until the last child is seen. They spent weeks preparing for the trip, acquiring all the equipment, supplies and instruments, which they squeezed into their checked baggage. Betsy even did her own fundraising for the project.

It is unfortunate that our Unit's members share a major flaw which will keep them from becoming television action heroes. They are just too darn nice to be believable and the children actually like them.

The worst of times, the best of times

2011-04-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

Imagine for a moment that you are a child in rural Haiti and your tooth hurts. Next thing you know your parents are taking you to a big white building where maybe you can hear some kid crying through one of the windows. Then after waiting for a long time, your mom takes you to a room filled with scary stuff, where these pale strangers put you into a weird chair that nearly turns you upside down, then they get out the biggest needle you've ever seen, even though they try to hide it, and then it feels like a couple stings and your mouth feels thick and funny. Next thing they are cramming weird gadgets that look like scissors into your mouth, then a loud machine makes this noise and there is a whining sound on that tooth that you don't want anyone touching. And you can't even holler to your mom who is sitting next you looking worried. Finally after a fistful of forevers they are taking the stuff out of your mouth and you can't stop shaking and you want to cry except it seems too late. But then the strangest thing happens. You get this little car like you've never seen before with wheels that actually turn and it's the most wonderful thing and you can't wait to get outside to play with it. And somehow you can't quite remember how the worst day of your life turned into one of the best.

Click here and you help change a child's day at Visitation Clinic in Haiti.

Dental screening

2011-04-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

This week we are bringing a new program to Petite Riviere - pediatric denistry. We have two dedicated volunteers with years of experience in chilren's denistry. Today they were screening children in a nearby school. The video shows how this was done. Unfortunately our team found that nearly all of the older children had untreated cavities and other dental problems. In fact, it looked like most of children had no prior dental care. Over the next ten days, our team will be treating these children and, we hope, many others too. Our team won't be pulling many teeth. They have come with all the equipment and materials to do high quality restorative dentistry.

If you are very observant, you can see on the blackboard a table showing the size of the class. For those of you who can't quite make it out, the sign shows that there are 83 children in this modest sized class room.

Market

2011-04-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

In rural Haiti there are no supermarkets, convenience stores, or Walmarts. Shopping and trading is done in an open market that lines the main street of Petite Riviere every Wednesday.

The daily diet of most rural Haitians consists of rice, beans, fruit and grain products. With no electricity, there are few refrigerators and ice is a rarity. So storing meats and fish is a challenge.

The lack of refrigerators also impacts the healthcare that Visitation Clinic provides. We can't dispense pharmauciticals that require temperature controls. And patients with trauma injuries can't apply ice to reduce swelling.

Education

2011-04-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

One of VHF's core missions is to provide health education to the general populace. We do this in a variety of ways, including radio talk shows, large public gatherings and, every morning, a meeting with the patients. These photos show typcial morning meetings. The patients have gathered in the clinic's shaded portico and are waiting for the clinic to open. Each day, one of our medical staff has been assigned the task of preparing a short talk on some public health issue. This can range from basic hygiene, to child nuitrition, to the need to take medicines in the proper manner. When Dr. JF is the presenter, there is often much humor in the presentation and much laughter and smiles in the audience. Programs like this can be one of the most effective ways to improve overall health, as well as to quickly get on top of outbreaks of diseases like cholera.

Artists

2011-03-28T23:43:00.000-07:00

One wonders at times if there is a more naturally artistic people than Haitians. From the infectious music, to the elaborate painting of the private buses or "tap-taps" one can hardly avoid encountering artisans. Even in rural areas like Petite Riviere, one can encounter art in surprising ways, including the elaborate embroidery of children's homemade dresses and the painting of fishing boats.

Still, we were surprised on our recent trip to find this elaborate mural on the walls of a new gathering-spot that is being built. The artist is a local resident who appears to have not just exceptional skill but a great deal of practice and training.

Homes of Petite Riviere

2011-03-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

People wonder about where our patients live and what a typical home looks like. Here are two that sit on the beach. Houses are made of either wood or cement block with a metal roof. They are about the size of the utility sheds that are sold at places like Home Depot or Lowes. If the family is very poor, the floor will be dirt and the roof might be banana fronds. More common will be a concrete floor. Cooking is done outside the house, usually on the ground and over charcoal. Indoor plumbing is very rare. There is no electricity, of course. Glass windows are only for the rich. As are window screens.

These homes sit right at the sea's edge and in good weather the view is very beautiful. But, as everyone knows too well, Haiti is prone to earthquakes, tropical storms and huricanes. Houses like these are not where you would want to be in any of these.

Smiles

2011-03-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

Kids in Petite Riviere don't get their pictures taken very often. When you attempt this, they are usually so puzzled that it's hard to get them to smile. You can say "souri" (Kreole for "smile") but this normally results in a look of Mona-Lisa bemusement. For example, check out the photo in the "Shared Bond" blog below.

But here is a trick that works every time. You show them their picture on your digital camera. Giggles of delight are always forthcoming. Of course that doesn't help you get a picture of them smiling, unless there happens to be a real photographer nearby who can capture the moment.

Such is the case here. Bob Roller of CNS was visiting our clinic when these girls saw, perhaps for the first time, their digital images. Everyone was delighted.

You can share in this wonder very easily. Just click here to donate.

Laundry

2011-03-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes photos of kids from Petite Rivierre can be misleading. Like this little girl, they usually are well dressed, clean and cared for. But close-up photos like this don't show the context of their lives and don't convey the reality of the poverty that many families live in. For example, very few rural Haitian families have homes with running water, electricity, kitchens or any of the features that many consider essential. Consequently, many ordinary chores require more work than most of us imagine. For example, the picture below shows how this mother washes clothers.

Our clients live in a poverty that one just doesn't see anymore in the US. This is why our clinic only charges a token amount for the healthcare we provide. We don't charge for lab tests. Prescriptions are also free. So we have to raise well over 90% of the cost of providing this care. We get help of course. Groups like Direct Relief International provide us with many of the common pharmauciticals that we dispense. This helps keep our cost below $20 per patient. But we treat over 1000 patients per month, so groups like ours are constantly in a fund-raising mode. Our biggest expense is just paying our Haitian staff's salaries. We have over 30 employees which makes us the biggest employer in the region. And even though Haitian medical profesionals make far less than their US peers, their combined cost is substantial.

You can help us sustain this by clicking here.

A shared bond

2011-03-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

Friends in need

These are two of three little girls whose mothers brought them some distance to be treated at the clinic. All three have cardiac problems and their mothers by-pass other healthcare facilities for the care and compassion of our staff. They probably need heart surgery, but this is not something that is obtainable in Haiti. So for now we are treating them with the drug Enalapril, which allows the heart to work more efficiently. Dr. JF is encouraged by their response to this medicine, and they are doing reasonably well.

Obtaining modern medicines like this is one of the challenges that the clinic continuously faces. At times our administrator spends hours going to various distributors to find the right meds for patients like this.

Typically, children are about one third of our patients. And typical of most of our children patients, these girls are wearing their very best clothes to come to the clinic.

Roads

2011-03-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Haiti yesterday. On drive from the airport we stopped at the Haytrac - Haiti's large Caterpillar dealership. There we met the owner, Mr. Reymond, who has offered to help us fix our washed-out 1/4 mile access road. He was most enthusiastic and he re-affirmed his generous offer to help get our road graded and compacted, with a drainage ditch on either side. It is this drainage that will be the major issue, for without it any improvements will be washed away quickly. Next we spoke by cellphone (which are transforming the ability to work in rural Haiti) to our Haitian civil engineer and clinic-builder who also offered his help. He too underscored the need for drainage control, but soberly estimated that it should be lined with cemented-rocks which could cost around $20,000! Still, we remain hopeful that through the help of these freinds the job will get done.

Work on main road.

The good news is this. The government work on the main coastal road is progressing nicely. It is only a mile or so to the point where our access road connects. When completed this road will improve the access to the clinic enormously.

Suffer not the children

2011-03-10T22:06:00.000-08:00

How does a group know if their efforts are making a difference in Haiti? Here is one example. Recently we had an inquiry about setting up a malnutrition program at our clinic. So we were challenged to estimate the degree of the problem. Fortunately (and unusually) this is the kind of question we can actually answer rather quickly. Our clinic has a computer based record system in which we can search patient records and look for diagnoses such as "MALNUTRITION". We saw that the number of cases had dropped wonderfully in 2010. Seven cases in the first quarter of the year, three the second quarter, none at all for the rest of the year. This was a most encouraging result to see, even while granting the seasonal nature of such afflictions. It challenges us to keep working. And to even dream of a Haiti where all the children grow up healthy and well.

Dine out for Haiti

2011-03-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago our clinic staff celebrated the third anniversary of our clinic's opening. It was a festive affair with an elaborate spread of Haitian country cooking.

Here is your chance to do something similar. On April 4, Nashville's Amerigo Restaurant is sponsoring a three-course Italian feast, complete with wine, all for the benefit of Visitation Hospital Association. For just $100 per person you can enjoy a evening of fine dining while knowing that half the proceeds will be going to support healthcare in Haiti,.

For Reservations, call:

Fran Rajotte

615-673-3501

or register online at

www.Visitationhospital.

Mundane work makes the difference

2011-03-07T17:02:00.000-08:00

Making a clinic run well and effectively requires a team of people who pay attention to details. One of the key components is knowing what you have and where it is. This can be a big challenge in Haiti where a wide variety of supplies are contributed by visitors and various other suppliers. If you don't organize it you won't be able to find it in an emergency. So in recent weekends our two key managers (Dr. JF and Killy) have organized an inventory effort to do just that. They've even enlisted the help of a pharmaucitial specialist (photo) to help sort things. It is only by this kind of mundane work that Visitation Clinic achieves it's success.

Clinic architect gives presentation

2011-03-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

One of the exceptional features of Visitation Clinic is it's innovative architecture. This week our architect, Alan Dooley, gave a presentation at Vanderbilt University titled "The Challenges of Medical Architectural Design in Low Resource Settings and Strategies Employed". This informative and entertaining presentation can be viewed here.

Alan is a LEEDS certified architect, a member of the VHF's Board and has donated a great deal of time and effort to the design and building of the clinic and it's infrastructure. It is only through the efforts of volunteers like him that the clinic has been built and sustained. You can be a supporter too by clicking.HERE

Overdose

2011-03-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Poverty impacts health in so many ways. We saw a new one this weekend when two patients came with unusual symptoms - weakness, dizziness, inability to stand, trembling, and shallow breathing. It turns out that both had been sold strong anti-depressants in the market place and had been told they were for infections. We soon learned of other cases in town.

Both our patients were detoxified and recovered. But there are two footnotes to this incident that illustrate how our staff are taking steps that are extraordinary. First, even though we don't see regular patients during the weekend, staff members are volunteering to stay at our guest house so that they can respond to emergencies. Secondly, our administrator and social service MD took the initiative to call the mayor about this issue. Then they arranged for a call-in to a local radio station to broadcast this new health risk.

This kind of pro-active health care is one the distinguishing marks of Visitation Clinic. You can help support it by clicking here

Couldn't believe the difference.

2011-02-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

Not a week goes by without a story about how important Visitation Clinic is to our people. Here is what happened last Friday. The day was busy and long. Our volunteers from Indiana were invaluable in getting 63 patients treated and everyone was packing to return to Port-au-Prince. Then, an emergency. A nearby traffic accident leaves a woman with a severally injured foot. It is beyond what we can treat, so our new vehicle becomes an ambulance and Dr. JF and our visitors drive her to the department's only hospital. Then the ordeal begins. They have no pain meds, so we provide them. The x-ray tech has left and doesn't want to come back in, until Dr. JF makes numerous phone calls. It is late that night before our patient is stabilized and a reluctant agreement is made to use the government ambulance to take her to Port-au-Prince. Our visitors couldn't believe the difference between the caring and compassion they had seen all week at Visitation Clinic, and what they saw at the hospital.

Our guests returned home yesterday with numerous stories about the teamwork and competence they had observed at our clinic. They saw first hand how badly it is needed and how important it is to support it. Each one had taken valuable leave from their work, bought their own plane tickets and even reimbursed us for our room, board and transportation costs. They told me that they can't wait to return.

Floors

2011-02-26T13:44:00.000-08:00

We received a perceptive comment from a volunteer who is planning her first trip to the clinic. She looked at the photos in our Vaccination blog, and noticed how neat the mothers were and how clean our floors were. The first observation is not unusual for visitors. They often marvel how a woman can walk several miles down a muddy road, in the rain, carrying a baby and even a basket on her head, and look like she stepped out of a limosine. We don't know they do it. All we know is that the clinic is important to them, and they don't want to come looking anything less than their best.

On the other hand, we do know how our floors stay clean. It is because our cleaning staff work hard to keep them that way. You may have noticed that our floors are white tile. "Why white?", you might ask, "Won't it show all the dirt?" Yes it does and that is why we want it. Dirt can't hide on a white floor. Is this the norm for all of Haiti? Well, here is photo of a nearby hospital floor.

You can help bring clean, competent and compassionate healthcare to poor people who appreciate it. Just click here.

Vaccination Day

2011-02-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the clinic provides free vaccinations for children. This week our volunteers from Indiana lent their hand.

Programs like this are making a considerable impact on the overall health in the region served by the clinic. It is only through the contributions of our many donors that efforts like this are sustained.

Medical Volunteers at Clinic

2011-02-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

One of the many ways that volunteers contribute is by bringing their talents and training directly to our patients. This week we have a doctor and three nurses who have travelled to Haiti for the first time and are assisting our Haitian staff in treating patients. By days end, 49 patients had been seen at the clinic.

We've got wheels!

2011-02-05T06:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Day: After series of events that would seem impossible anywhere but Haiti, we now have our new Ford Everest STW. It is in our possession, with an insurance sticker and some form of license plate (which may be cardboard - there are no metal plates left in Haiti).

Here is a photo of "le machine".

Incidentally, one of the impossible events preceding today was the handsome donation from a most generous donor that paid most of the costs. Our gratitude is immense. The gratitude of our staff in Haiti is even greater. They are the ones who have been riding "tap-taps" to Miragoane, and then climbing on the back of motorcycles to ride the last ten miles down the dirt (usually muddy) road.

2011-01-08T18:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a very big challenge for the Clinic to receive, keep and treat cholera patients. Today we have 11 patients being treated in the Clinic. As you can see , we just received a pregnant woman, we fit seven patients in one room, and it is crowded. We have enough cholera supplies now to treat patients for about 2 months or so thanks to some donations from Catholic Relief Services(CRS) and Direct Relief MSPP/PAH. Our two tireless nurses have been working very hard.