Children lining up to be seen at our new clinic!
Trip Highlights:
Sites visited:
- Orphanage/School/Clinic in Vignor
- Port Au Prince Clinic (new!)
- La Gonave Wesleyan Hospital
For a full report from Dr. Dree complete with her commentary, observations, real stories and many wonderful photos (thanks to Niki Krupp!) click this LINK!
We had a spectacular team this year with both Haiti-mission veterans (medical, nursing, photography) and a couple of pre-med students whose moms are Haiti veterans! We also had colleagues from two other NGO’s working in Haiti: Hope for Haiti and Hands of Friendship, who built and support the orphanage/school where our new clinic is located. Plus, Robert Allen (President, Luma Solar Roofs) traveled with us to help bring solar energy to the orphanage/school/clinic complex! For a full team list click the link above!
The most exciting accomplishment this trip was the official opening of our new village clinic sharing the site of the above orphanage /school. The clinic will serve the children as well as families in the surrounding area who would otherwise have nearly a full day round trip to Port Au Prince (PAP)! We hired a nurse, and our PAP medical colleagues are rotating as physicians, obstetricians and pediatricians to serve the clinic. They joined us on-site and we examined all the children plus a number of adults in the community. This clinic will be open full-time to serve the area, under our supervision. We envision it to be ultimately self-sustaining though we will continue to provide equipment and training.
In another new development, our dedicated colleagues in PAP are collaborating to develop their own OBGYN/Neonatal/Pediatric facility to serve a variety of needs independent of government meddling. (Sadly, corruption appears to again be on the rise in Haiti.) Basic equipment is still needed as they make do with what they have!
We also made the trip to La Gonave, which included a rather miraculous birth of a second twin baby to a delighted mother! (click the link below to the full trip report for photos and the full story)
Work continues even now we are back in the US as collaborative projects begun are continuing. One example is the development of technology to allow fingerprinting for medical identification and records management.
And we continue to learn from our Haitian colleagues about health solutions in the context of Haitian culture and realities of life on the ground, which may differ from solutions that are optimal in the US. (examples in the trip report)
For a full report from Dr. Dree complete with her commentary, observations, real stories and many wonderful photos (thanks to Niki Krupp!) click this LINK!!