Thousands of Rural Haitians Get Medical Treatment - Thanks To You!
an article from the Grace! Winter 2009 newsletter.
The line of patients at the Jolitrou clinic stretched out the door of the neat green-and-white building; a line so long that not all of the patients could be shaded by the tarp loosely strung across the entrance to the clinic. Many more patients waited under an awning next to the building, and still more waited under the young banana trees on the other side of the clinic, snatching up shade and getting a little reprieve from the tropical heat. Inside, people were crammed into every available crevice, waiting for treatment from the North American doctors who were working feverishly in the small, dim exam rooms. The day before, as the visitors met with village leaders and ICC community health workers around the large table in the clinic's reception area, the building had seemed airy and spacious. The three exam rooms were tidied and ready for the next day, exam equipment covered with clean white sheets, the pharmacy shelves bare but clean. In the laboratory, tiled countertops waited for the portable equipment that would arrive with Haitian technicians for the bi-monthly open clinics held in the remote Jolitrou clinic. On this day, however, the building was cramped and ready to burst with the influx of people who lined up before dawn for examinations and treatment. The pharmacy shelves were stocked with donated medicine which was going fast.
Haitian staff assigned patients to the doctors in each exam room, but the result was a tangled line that rendered the inside hallway nearly impassible and spilled out the back door of the clinic. Crowded into each exam room, patients, assistants, translators and medical professionals were filling out charts, answering questions, and dispensing prescriptions and smiley-face stickers.
As the day wore on in Jolitrou, the lines outside the clinic grew, but people remained patient. Two health workers, sitting outside in the shade, offered confidential HIV testing to the constant line of patients.
Back on the unpaved road leading up to the medical clinic, masses of people meandered, waiting to line up for treatment or clutching small bags of medication and soap issued at the clinic's pharmacy. A few women were cooking over charcoal fires in the shade of a thorny hedge, selling cupfuls of stew. The Jolitrou clinic is the culmination of hard work and shrewd determination of women in that region who pooled profits from their micro enterprise businesses to purchase the land the building now stands on. Students from Valparaiso University in Indiana also raised money to help construct this much-needed facility.
More funding is urgently needed for this clinic to provide more medical equipment and additional Haitian staff so it can open more than two days per month. Funding shortages require ICC to shift Haitian health professionals from their regular jobs to meet the needs of the Jolitrou clinic, resulting in dangerous shortages elsewhere. With your ongoing support, we will be able to provide more funding to the region and more frequent clinic hours. Meanwhile, ICC has initiated a Medical Mission Education Encounter program so that North American doctors can help provide urgent health care to people living in remote communities in rural Haiti.
Dr. Jeannine Hatt, an ICC affiliate board member and pediatrician from Denison, Texas, led the medical team working at the Jolitrou clinic. The team and support staff was made up of people from Shawnee United Methodist Church in Lima, Ohio, as well as Dr. Hatt's colleagues from Texas. They spent the week traveling through the northern region of Haiti and providing care at a number of rural clinics. In addition to two days spent in Jolitrou, the team also toiled away in the villages of Bas Limbe, Port Margot, Petite Port Margot and Grand Riviere du Nord. All told, the group examined and treated around 1,400 patients. They passed out 15,000 chewable vitamins and various donated prescription drugs. The doctors diagnosed many routine problems such as gastrointestinal illness, skin diseases, respiratory infections and malnutrition in children. They identified several cases of malaria and at least one new case of pediatric HIV infection. The doctors also treated a great number of adults throughout each day. The adult maladies varied from general aches and pains, skin diseases, cataracts, hearing loss, to malignancies and trauma, as well as frequent cases of hypertension.
While ICC's Haitian medical staff is doing a tremendous work to improve health conditions in Haiti, the needs are more than they can cope with at the moment. With support from faithful people like you, ICC is planning to bring other medical personnel in the future to offer treatment and assistance and to improve the health conditions of Haitians.
an article from the Grace! Winter 2009 newsletter.
The line of patients at the Jolitrou clinic stretched out the door of the neat green-and-white building; a line so long that not all of the patients could be shaded by the tarp loosely strung across the entrance to the clinic. Many more patients waited under an awning next to the building, and still more waited under the young banana trees on the other side of the clinic, snatching up shade and getting a little reprieve from the tropical heat. Inside, people were crammed into every available crevice, waiting for treatment from the North American doctors who were working feverishly in the small, dim exam rooms. The day before, as the visitors met with village leaders and ICC community health workers around the large table in the clinic's reception area, the building had seemed airy and spacious. The three exam rooms were tidied and ready for the next day, exam equipment covered with clean white sheets, the pharmacy shelves bare but clean. In the laboratory, tiled countertops waited for the portable equipment that would arrive with Haitian technicians for the bi-monthly open clinics held in the remote Jolitrou clinic. On this day, however, the building was cramped and ready to burst with the influx of people who lined up before dawn for examinations and treatment. The pharmacy shelves were stocked with donated medicine which was going fast.
Haitian staff assigned patients to the doctors in each exam room, but the result was a tangled line that rendered the inside hallway nearly impassible and spilled out the back door of the clinic. Crowded into each exam room, patients, assistants, translators and medical professionals were filling out charts, answering questions, and dispensing prescriptions and smiley-face stickers.
As the day wore on in Jolitrou, the lines outside the clinic grew, but people remained patient. Two health workers, sitting outside in the shade, offered confidential HIV testing to the constant line of patients.
Back on the unpaved road leading up to the medical clinic, masses of people meandered, waiting to line up for treatment or clutching small bags of medication and soap issued at the clinic's pharmacy. A few women were cooking over charcoal fires in the shade of a thorny hedge, selling cupfuls of stew. The Jolitrou clinic is the culmination of hard work and shrewd determination of women in that region who pooled profits from their micro enterprise businesses to purchase the land the building now stands on. Students from Valparaiso University in Indiana also raised money to help construct this much-needed facility.
More funding is urgently needed for this clinic to provide more medical equipment and additional Haitian staff so it can open more than two days per month. Funding shortages require ICC to shift Haitian health professionals from their regular jobs to meet the needs of the Jolitrou clinic, resulting in dangerous shortages elsewhere. With your ongoing support, we will be able to provide more funding to the region and more frequent clinic hours. Meanwhile, ICC has initiated a Medical Mission Education Encounter program so that North American doctors can help provide urgent health care to people living in remote communities in rural Haiti.
Dr. Jeannine Hatt, an ICC affiliate board member and pediatrician from Denison, Texas, led the medical team working at the Jolitrou clinic. The team and support staff was made up of people from Shawnee United Methodist Church in Lima, Ohio, as well as Dr. Hatt's colleagues from Texas. They spent the week traveling through the northern region of Haiti and providing care at a number of rural clinics. In addition to two days spent in Jolitrou, the team also toiled away in the villages of Bas Limbe, Port Margot, Petite Port Margot and Grand Riviere du Nord. All told, the group examined and treated around 1,400 patients. They passed out 15,000 chewable vitamins and various donated prescription drugs. The doctors diagnosed many routine problems such as gastrointestinal illness, skin diseases, respiratory infections and malnutrition in children. They identified several cases of malaria and at least one new case of pediatric HIV infection. The doctors also treated a great number of adults throughout each day. The adult maladies varied from general aches and pains, skin diseases, cataracts, hearing loss, to malignancies and trauma, as well as frequent cases of hypertension.
While ICC's Haitian medical staff is doing a tremendous work to improve health conditions in Haiti, the needs are more than they can cope with at the moment. With support from faithful people like you, ICC is planning to bring other medical personnel in the future to offer treatment and assistance and to improve the health conditions of Haitians.
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