Fontamara visit!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted! Kids Health for Haiti is coming along! Lots of paperwork to do, but the volunteers are lining up for trips in the coming year!!!

Just going to share a few experiences from my last trip...

I spent 2 afternoons with Jordan, the Haiti coordinator and Principal of the school for the Power of Education Foundation. The school is in Fontamara, a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, about 15 minutes from the center of the city. I learned the school site was a functioning public school just 2 years ago. Like many public schools in Haiti though, it didn't have enough funding to pay the teachers, and was forced to close. The children from that school have been without a school to call their own for 2 years. And, oh are they excited for what is to come!

The first afternoon with Jordan was just spent visiting the school. The view is beautiful! The building is very large and clearly well built! There will be room for all the classrooms (initially) on the first floor, leaving the entire second floor for visiting teams to stay. There is a gorgeous balcony on the back of the house, overlooking the mango and avacado trees in the backyard...and with a great view out to the ocean and over downtown PAP. And then there is the roof - a wide open space with views in every direction! I have to admit that afternoon Haitian sun may limit time up there though! And then of course, I am super excited that the entire basement (walk-out style) is for the clinic! We will have plenty of space for a very functional clinic! Jordan was a great host, and it was a pleasant visit.

I never could have imagined how great my second afternoon was going to be. Jordan picked me up, and with a few friends of his we walked through the neighborhoods around Fontamara. We visited with another missionary NGO group nearby and started networking with our "neighbors." I had asked Jordan if he could introduce me to a few of the children that will be in the school. He told me he had a few kids waiting, so we continued to walk through the area. We reached a small community of tents and shanty-type homes and walked between a few...I was completely caught by surprise by the group of more than 50 children and their parents!!! Apparently "a few" is more in Haiti than in the US!

They sang and chanted when I arrived, a greeting I was overwhelmed by. Jordan had arranged this, just for the children to meet me and vice versa! Everyone was anxious to hear about the Power of Education and what the school will be like. The kids were curious with their questions and the parents were very thoughtful. You can tell how much they care about their community and their children by the focus of their questions being what our committment level to their community is. They wants reassurance that this will be more than a 2 year deal. I reassured them as best as I could, and you could see them relax and smile just a bit bigger. With so many children packed into a tiny area, you can imagine the fidgeting of the children...and just like you would see here, a few mothers took on the roles of "class mothers", keeping the kids in line, choosing ones to ask questions, and organizing games. The children chanted and sang more songs, did some dances, and played some games to finish our visit.

Just when I though it couldn't get better, we were given permission by the community for me to visit their homes. They graciously opened their doors made of sheets and metal, allowing me to see their vulnerability inside their homes. I was able to take picture of the community...where they sleep, eat, and cook...and where they wash their clothes and fetch their water. And when we were getting down-poured on by the rain, a woman came out of her tent home to donate a piece of her plastic to me to protect my camera. How special it is to receive such a simple gift from someone who seems to have so little to call her own.

Jordan gave me an abundance of memories in just two afternoons and I am now more excited than ever about what the Power of Education and Kids Health for Haiti together can accomplish. I am excited to build relationships with these families and children, watching them grow and empowering them to become leaders in their community.

More to come later!

Kids Health for Haiti!!!

Only 4 days till we are on the way to Haiti again! It comes up so fast! Lots to organize this time, planning for 2 weeks away from home. We have 10 of 12 bags packed and ready to go. The last of the packing will happen over the next few days as donated medicine, formula, and other supplies that we need are trickling in. We have 3 tents packed - to use while we are there and donate to needy families on our way home. Diapers, formula, clothes, medicine, bandages, gauze, tape, splinting supplies, IV fluids, and other medical supplies fill out the remainder of the 12 bags!


On a very exciting note, we have decided on a name for a new foundation. Kids Health for Haiti has been established! We are still waiting on help with paperwork for officially making this a tax-exempt organization, which will likely happen after this trip is over. Nevertheless, we are excited about progress! We are pursuing possibilities of establishing clinics in a city, Gressier, about 20 minutes outside of Port-au-Prince. We will try to make connections for this while we are in Haiti next week. So much to think about!






And to get excited for this trip even more...there is a little girl, Georgesline. She had an amputation of her leg during the earthquake. She was one of our first major surgical cases that came through Mision Rescate while we were there in January. Dr. Dayle Maples, our trusted friend and orthopedic surgeon performed several surgeries for wound revision during that week we were there. I have recently found that "Jasmine," as we all knew her, has been continuing to come back to the clinic for her care. MR has become something that Haitians trust and depend on. (Thanks to Jonathan for the pic below that I stole off his facebook! We met Big Jon in January at MR, and he just returned from another week there!)


4 more days! We leave Saturday morning!!!

2 weeks!

Only 2 weeks to our travels!

As I think ahead to our upcoming trip to Haiti, I think of all that I have seen and witnessed there so far.

In January, just 11 days after the earthquake, we set out to a site unknown. I had made contact with someone in downtown Port-au-Prince, and the 6 of us felt comfortable that this sounded like as safe a location as any. At MR (Mision Rescate), we saw anywhere from 450-600 patients a day, nearly half of those were children. Wound care, amputation revisions, tendon repairs, fracture management, colds, congestion, diarrhea, dehydration, pneumonia, asthma attacks, and scabies were the common conditions. Throw in a few cases of respiratory failure, a young girl with tetanus, and fresh gun-shot wounds to keep you on your toes.

No xrays, CT scans, lab tests, or resources. Not even an otoscope. We were left to use our physical exam skills, our history taking (with the aid of interpreters who sometimes spoke very good english), and our gut instincts to decide how to treat and manage patients. Fortunately, we had an abundant supply of bandages and gauze, as well as a fairly large choice of medications. With no refridgeration or electricity though, kids were taught to either swallow pills or their parents were given capsules to open into their food. Albuterol spacers were created using plastic dixie cups and spinal needles could be used for IO's in an emergency. Creativity was key. Thinking on the go was a priority, not an option.

I've heard about MR since I left. Just recently they saw 650 patients in one day. Babies are being delivered frequently...even if that means waking up a doctor at 2am to help. Supplies are still readily available; enough so, that they loaded a truck and brought a delivery of supplies to a local hospital that was sparce. MR has been blessed. Tents and water filtration systems are being given to families regularly. Food and water are distributed regularly. Lives are being helped for the good every day.

There will be 5 of us travelling to Haiti in just 2 weeks. Aimee and myself will be there for 2 weeks. The other 3 will return after one week and another pediatrician will join us for the 2nd week there. We know that the first week we will be working at MR. The second week is still up in the air. The environment continues to be fluid and ever changing, making planning to far ahead a challenge. With how well our spontaneity worked for us in January, I'm not too worried about the small details. Besides, our contacts that we have built so far in Haiti have proven to be trustworthy and extremely helpful. It will all work out, we just have to be patient!

On an exciting note, we are having more discussions about our future mission in Haiti. Jeri and I have a vision to create an ongoing project of a primary care pediatric clinic in Haiti. We hope to create an environment of a medical home, for children who have no access to medical care. We are working on finding contacts in several cities a few hours from Port-au-Prince that may have connections to schools where this might be a reasonable project to pursue. When this project is organized, we hope to take pediatric residents down twice a year to take care of the kids and run the clinic. It's a forever project, but one we are very passionate about!

2 weeks and counting!

Welcome!

Hi friends!
By the encouragement of those who have asked to hear stories and see pictures from Haiti, I decided to start a blog to record our adventures in Haiti.


My first trip to Haiti was in October, 2009. The level of poverty was beyond that I'd ever come across in my travels. With Jeri and Katie, we worked this week at a school in a poor community on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. We also met Kelencia on this trip, a special girl who we identified to have a VSD (whole in her heart). When we met, she was only 11-12 pounds at 22months old!






















Returning for a week after the earthquake in January, 2010, was a wonderful experience, and simply strengthened my long-term committment to Haiti. Despite the loss of everything, Haitians remain as grateful and kind people. They don't always smile often, but when they do, you know it is genuine.




Our awesome team in January - Steffen, Dayle, Jen, Sarah, Matt, and Johnny! With Omy and Abner - the masterminds of Mision Rescate!




I'll be in Haiti again, for 2 weeks this time, in just a few weeks. I'm travelling with a group of pediatricians and pediatric residents. We will have 5 of us there for the first week, and 3 for the second week. We'll be working at the National Police Station in downtown Port-au-Prince, at a make-shift medical site now known as Mision Rescate (Rescue Mission). I worked at this site in January and I'm excited to go back.

Here's a few pics of the "ER" under a tarp on the street, the waiting line at 8am, and a rooftop view of our supply area and the parking lot we slept in.



We're also investigating options for a long-term program, where we can develop a primary care pediatric clinic at a school in Haiti. Being a pediatrician, it's easy to understand how I truly believe in the long-term benefits of primary care. It's a large project to undertake, but we are excited to get started!

More to come as we approach our trip!