Second visit to Haiti
Roger Wells and Raymond Pierre/ June 2010
Somebody says: “you make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give” for the world disasters are significant challenges, for the Christians disasters are great opportunities; to the lights of these statements and based on our faith, when the opportunity arises to serve it is a blessing to stand and to say: Lord here I am, send me, wherever you want I will go. This visit to Haiti is the second of Dr Raymond, the first one brought to life the organization: Community Mission for Hope for Haiti, which is committed to help Haiti with a dental and medical mobile clinic.

Haiti is a beautiful country its people are simply wonderful, they are so closed to us geographically but so far away by their culture and religion. Most of them are catholic but practice also voodoo. This country is mountainous and agriculture seems to be the engine of its economy. The weather is very good it is never warmer or colder than Florida. The unemployment is very high about 80% it is certainly not news to anyone living this century that Haiti is the poorest country of the northern hemisphere, and it is in the midst of the worst natural disaster ever known to its history and may be to the world. No country ever had so many lives lost due to one single natural disaster. About 300 000 to 400 000 people lost their life during the Haitian earthquake on January 12th 2010. This number does not include those indirectly affected by the disaster. While progress to recovery is on the way, even it seems very slow for now, Community Mission for Hope has sent a team to Haiti to evaluate how the need of a mobile clinic fit the basic need of people victims of the earthquake and what would be the impact of such improvement and innovation in the way health services are being delivered.

That quest took us on June 09 to some tent cities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. We visited and distributed some goods to some people of the tents. We visited the General Hospital which function at about 40 t0 50% of its capacity. We visited the Haitian State University, particularly the medical and nursing schools; and to better understand the way of life in Port-au-Prince we made some community visits as well.

The most common health issues that we were exposed to at the tents was the fact that almost all the kids living in those confinement suffer of some kind of skin and dental problem. At the hospital the nurse mentioned an increase almost tenfold of the number of patients they were used to seeing in dermatology prior to the earthquake. No public service is offered yet to address the dental problem. In our conversation with the people living in the tents, most of them stress the fact that they are still afraid to take their kids to the hospital because of the concrete building structure of these facilities and no repair has yet made to the damaged structures. When asked on why don’t they look for medical care for their kids or even for themselves they unanimously laugh at us answering that unless it is a real emergency (mean life threatened) it is too complicated to go to the hospital. Later we understand that those people have zero income, they would have to take a taxi for about 200 gourds (about $5 us) to the hospital and pay 25 gourds to be seen by the healthcare professional (Dr or nurse), pay ($?) for their medicine (drugs), they would have spend the entire day without a lunch just for that.
At the University hospital, one woman we talked to had to wait days before her infant baby can get a bed under a medical tent to be rehydrated; other temporary housing are still under construction to house the pediatric service until definitive construction of the hospital take place. The resident doctor we talked to seems to be overwhelmed. We also talked to the Haitian Public Health national director, to the responsible of the school of medicine and to the responsible of the school of nursing; they all stressed the shortage of healthcare professionals that the country is facing now and they forecast that it will be worst in the future since they won’t have any new recruit (freshmen) this year.
The communities we’ve visited, the healthcare professionals we talked to, others community leaders (religious and state) praised the idea of a mobile clinic that would provide health services to the community. They seem to like the fact there will be no concrete building to go to and the service will be local at almost no cost to them. One resident of a tent city said: jan de ed say o fe-m santi-m moun“ this kind of help make me feel a human being”.
Life in those tents all year long is nothing to compare to a comfortable weekend of camping, it is even worse when all you are, all you have, is under that tent with you said a grandma living with her granddaughter and her husband. But inside of that tent are an iron bed, three plastic plates, a book that look like a bible, a small shopping bag with some clothes and some cupboard on the floor. We sat on the bed while talking to her when with an embarrassing and shaken voice she said to us: you are welcome in my tent but keep your feet up so my daughter’ s bed don’t get dirty, we looked at each other and realized that the cupboard on the floor is a bed.
The people of Haiti are very resilient they are moving forward with what is left of their life. Since the earthquake progress in recovery is being made every day but the country still needs help. We hope that the international community will encourage and support the Haitian government to fight corruption to regain the trust of its people. The non-for profit organizations are a tremendous asset for the country during this difficult time but the impact of their action would be tenfold if they were able to work with a trustable Government. Their action would be in line with a positive impact on the nation strategic development plan. However, Community Mission for Hope (CMH) will work with the communities to improve the national healthcare system, the measurable impact of its action will reduce the long term effect of the earthquake on the population.

More than one million people live in tents in Haiti, they need your help. It is your time to do a direct impact by helping them the way you can.

http://communitymissionforhope.org/

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