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Bob and I just returned from Haiti last weekend.
The country was much calmer - we traveled freely
without armed guards. We stayed with Wanda and
Nathan at Wand's house in Canape Ver.
During the church services on Sunday morning, we
were given gifts. We were told that everyone
coming to the clinic will cooperate and that the
behavior we experienced in January will not be
tolerated. Everyone in Dumay signed a petition
requesting we return to Dumay with teams from
the USA. (Pastor Wilguere had a large stack of
papers signed for us.) For those of you who
weren't there, there was a bit of a scuffle at
the clinic in January involving police,
handcuffs, and threats of a gun fight.
We finally got the IDA order for medication
placed last October. It has been somewhere in
customs in PAP since December 1st. We have not
received the order for HIV meds, but I was able
to make arrangements with Partners in Health/Zanmi
Lasante, to receive a donation of HIV medication
from them while we were in Hinche. We now have
enough HIV medications for our 7 patients for a
couple more months.
We also started an HIV feeding program. Our HIV
patients are all malnourished, and too ill to
work. They must take their medication with food,
and they must improve their nutritional status
for the medications to help. They now receive
rice and beans for the month at a cost to HAM of
$7/person/month.
On Monday, we flew to Hinche in the northern
plateau. I wanted to see the Zanmi Lasante
hospital there, and we wanted to see the "MPP"
agricultural project and clinic. Mark Hare
(brother of Keith Hare of Granville, and Nancy
Dobblear of Newark) is working for MPP in Papaye,
near Hinche. The evening we arrived it rained 4
inches - it had not rained there since October,
so everyone thought we were good luck. We
thought our luck was rather bad when we got
stuck in a downpour, at the furthest point while
hiking to see some caves and a waterfall.
On Tuesday, we were shown the agriculture
projects underway on the MPP land. We also had
the opportunity to tour the MPP clinic started
by Dr. Agathe Jn Baptist, daughter of the
founder of MPP. She was trained in Cuba, and is
planning go to Seattle in the next year to study
for a masters in public health. That afternoon,
we met Dr. Pierre Paul who directs the Zanmi
Lasante facility in Hinche. They are building a
large hospital to treat multi-drug resistant TB.
They generously gave us a large supply of HIV
drugs to hold us over until our shipment arrives
from the Netherlands.
We made plans with Mark to send a team from
Dumay to Papaye to spend a week learning MPP's
new agriculture techniques. Mark plans to come
to Dumay, to observe our projects, and to follow
up with the farmers we send for training. One of
the things we hope to promote is the use of the
Moringa tree, a highly nutritious tree that
grows well in Haiti.
On Wednesday, we met with orthopedist, Dr.
Beauvoir, at his office in Petionville. He has
volunteered to operate on a Dumay patient with a
poorly healed fracture of the lower leg. We were
able to bring him needed supplies for the
surgery donated by Orthofix. Womenade funds will
help pay for the surgery (operating room,
anesthesia,...) After that, we started caring
for patients in the Dumay Clinic. Dr's Jn. Louis
and Romain worked with me. Bob worked in the
pharmacy with Mdm Enoch. The usual community
health workers, nurses, and lab tech's worked.
Charles saw eye pt's, screening for the next
clinic with Dr. Brigitte. I have some concerns
about whether or not Dr's Jn. Loius and Romain
are showing up for all their scheduled clinics
and whether they were staying the entire shift,
so we had a talk about schedules and
responsibilities.
On Thursday, I worked with a new general
practice physician, Dr. Juliette. She seems very
enthusiastic, and can speak a little English.
She is willing to work 2 days and week and to
communicate with me via e-mail on a regular
basis. we hired her. She returned again to work
with us on Friday.
we saw over 400 pt's in 3 days. Most of the
patients we requested to follow-up did come to
clinic. I was able to biopsy some lesions seen
in January. Dr. Dave Geiss agreed to arrange for
a pathologist to evaluate the biopsies. We have
a couple of patients in need of hearing aids, so
we need to find a source those.
I was able to meet with our 10 new community
health workers. We set up an algorithm
identifying everything that needs to be done for
the HIV pt's. This way, they will be counseled
and educated, and have all needed testing done
before I return to Haiti to get them started on
medication (if needed). we were able to set up a
program with Grace Children's Hospital in PAP
for testing we cannot do in Dumay. X-rays and TB
testing (sputum and ppd) will be done on our
pt's without charging them, if they come with a
specific script from Dumay. HAM will then
receive a monthly bill from Grace.
The Bethel School of Dumay will soon receive a
large donation of computers. They would like to
build an extension onto the current school to
begin computer training classes. The cost for
the building project is $15,000. I told Nathan
we would work on applying for a grant for the
project. It seems that this is the kind of thing
organizations like to support -one time projects
they can put their names on.
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New computers at the clinic.
Location where we hope to build a computer education wing onto the
school.
New OB/Gyn exam room at the clinic.
Visiting Dr. Agathe at her MPP clinic.
Visiting the MPP agricultural project.
Waterfall near Hinche.
Purchasing metalwork from Serge Jolimeau |
