New First Aid Kits for CHWs

If the world seemed a little brighter on Tuesday, May 8th, it was being lit up by the huge smiles of our Community Health Workers. They had gathered at the clinic to begin a new training and to welcome 3 new community health workers. What they found waiting for them was new Under Armor backpacks completely stocked with supplies they will need to do their work and each one contained a Haitian Kreyol version of Where There Is No Doctor to use during this year of monthly trainings.

Through a generous donation it became possible to provide backpacks that were embroidered on the back pocket with Ajan Sante-Bill Rice Clinic. Each backpack had a name tag and a note of appreciation for the work they do to serve our communities on La Gonave.

After the presentation, amid smiles and claps, Dr. Dorcius came in and went through the entire kit to explain the use of each item. They were finally equipped with blood pressure cuffs which they had been trained to use, but had never had available to them for use in the field. Future training will prepare them to suture wounds, give injections and treat burns and lacerations.  They will go through the book as they train each month and receive instructions on how to identify and treat the illnesses they see most often such as malaria, gastric distress and hypertension. They will also cover such things as child birth, injury, prevention and safe transport of patients to the clinic.

It is impossible to express what this gift means to the CHWs at Bill Rice Clinic, so we are going to rely on the smiles you see in the picture. It was an important and generous gift that will touch the lives of so many on the island.

The initial set up of these backpacks and the training costs have been covered. Now, the job of each team going down will be to see if they can take replacement supplies to their worker to ensure that they are always equipped to do the work they will be trained to do.

The complete list of the contents of the backpacks are included in this post. The replacement items that need to be replenished are obvious. I will highlight them to make it more clear. They can be taken down in bulk, or if your church or group would like to participate in a project you could gather supplies for 20 workers and place them in 20 one gallon zip lock bags.

They should be taken to the clinic (or given to Pere Soner for transport there) and delivered to the Administrator, Museau Nixere, who will see that they are distributed to each worker as needed.

The Community Health Workers are the backbone of our mission to get care to the people in our communities. They need our support and partnership. Please be sure that you know and meet the worker from your community each time you visit. Pere Soner has promised to send me an updated list as soon as they finalize the training and I will post it at that time.

Contents of Community Healthcare Workers Backpacks:

1 copy “Where There Is No Doctor” in Haitian creole

First aid kits: (First Aid Only model FAO-440)
Assorted Band Aids
Tongue depressors
Clothes pins
Scissors
Tweezers
Non-aspirin
Aspirin
Ibuprofen
Antacids
Antibiotic ointment
Blistex
Alcohol wipes
Burn gel
Gauze rolls
Examine gloves
Cotton swabs (long handle)
Gauze trauma pads (assorted sizes)
Medical tape (assorted sizes)
Large bottle betadine 12-16 ounces
Gentian of Violet
Water purification tablets
Sting relief gel
Moleskin
Mercury thermometer
Small blue bulb syringe

Blood pressure cuff and stethoscope
Hand sanitizer
Waterproof matches
Solar flashlight
Small tape measure
Medium notebook
Ballpoint pen

Surgical kits:  in large zip lock
Washable blue surgical cloth
Disposable small drapes
Alcohol pads
Suture kits
Hemostats
Small tweezers
3 3ml 20 gauge syringes
3 sodium chloride flush syringes
Exam gloves
Disposable marks
Large and med. gauze pads
Butterfly strip closures

 

All items marked in blue will need to be replenished on a regular basis. Please keep this list for your church as they try to find ways to support our mission in Haiti. Contact me at any time if I can be of help with this.

For the Partnership:

Deb Griffin

Atlanta La Gonave Haiti Partnership – 20 years in Haiti

 

On a lovely spring evening, April 15, 2012, the Atlanta La Gonave Haiti Partnership gathered 200 of its closest friends to celebrate a friendship that began 20 years ago. The Atlanta Presbytery entered into a relationship with the people of La Gonave in 1992 and on this evening it was easy to see how rewarding it has been to both parties.

Pere Soner Alexander, the Episcopal Priest who leads the parish of La Gonave touched everyone when he summed up the importance of our connections.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honored this evening, and we are all joyful to celebrate the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the Partnership.  If I had to speak of all of the wonderful deeds and experiences that we have undertaken throughout the years, it would take me an entire evening!

But I come simply to speak of a partnership that has contributed to the transformation of the lives of an entire community throughout its history. For what neither governmental nor non-governmental agencies have been able bring about with their millions of dollars, our partnership has done with good will.

This evening, I do not want to be a celebrity; I would like to put you at the table of honor in order to pay a well-deserved tribute to you on behalf of my people whom you have always considered your brothers and sisters.  For all of your sacrifices given, your energy expended, and your love expressed, I extend  my most heart-felt gratitude.  Know that a good deed is never lost; it always returns in another way.

After these past twenty years, we can now say that the Partnership has helped to repair generations through education, health care, and the promotion of socio-economic programs.

I would like to draw your attention to the priority of the moment, which is to develop a true and sustainable strategic plan. To do so, we believe that education is the longest yet the most sure path. I do not want to die without seeing this Partnership found a professional school able to train thousands of our young people upon the completion of their traditional education.

Yet our ultimate preoccupation as a church is the individual man or woman in their humility as in their grandeur, their faith as in their unbelief, and their past as in their future. For we welcome them as in the arms of the Lord.

As we read in the Psalms,

He executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free; the Lord gives sight to the blind; He lifts up those who are bowed down.  (Psalm 146: 7,8)

Finally, I come to thank you on behalf of the thousands of adults, youth and children who are preserved in their body, mind and soul by your generosity. Our aim is to unite speech with love, to marry faith with reason. For, what we must seek in our actions is above all the blessing of God; honor and esteem are secondary. If each one of us alone can take a small step, imagine what we can do together!

Thank you.

It was a warm and touching address and falls short only in the way that it fails to address all the joy, growth and friendship that has been given to the people of the Atlanta Presbytery by the people of La Gonave. They are our brothers and sisters, and more importantly, they are our friends. As anyone knows who engages in this kind of relationship, one can never give enough to repay what is received. We are richer for being in relationship with La Gonave and look forward to 20 more years!

 

 

Late Trip Report: St. Paul’s

Sorry for not having this under trip reports, but it has been a busy winter and there is no way to post a trip report when it is filed after others have occurred.  Sounds like you had a wonderful and productive trip! DSG

 

TRIP REPORT NOVEMBER 2011

St. Jacques, Bois Brulee, LaGonave, Haiti

Medical and Construction Mission Trip

By St. Paul’s Summerville

Summerville, South Carolina

Sunday, November 6, 2011 to Saturday, November 12, 2011

 

This was our first time to try to make it from Charleston to Bois Brulee all in one day.  We had an early Saturday morning departure from Charleston Airport with non-stop to Miami, a reasonable layover and arrived 11:40 am in PaP.  We took the Navette van (13 of us crowded in to one van and our luggage in Pere Soner’s pick up) to the ferry crossing and took the ‘speed boat’ across in 2 to 3 foot seas which got us all wet—what a ride!  We arrived in Bois Brulee, inclusive of a broken down rental truck, around 8:30 pm—a long day.

 

We shipped seventeen bags 5 weeks ahead of our trip to Bois Brulee, which included 280 back packs for the school children, 3 boxes of school supplies and 2 full size basketball goals to be assembled!  We added our own 26 checked bags of medicines, gifts and tools plus the new generator and all of our carry-ons.

 

The Medical Team Report

 

The 2011 Haiti medical team consisted of 3 doctors, 2 nurses, and 1 pharmacy person. The dental team had 1 dentist, an assistant and the ENT doctor. We were assisted by a Bill Rice Clinic Haitian doctor (Dr. Boraz, who was exceptional, had medical and interpersonal skills as well as some English language ability) and a Haitian nurse with no English ability. There were 2 Creole translators for the medical team and 1 for the dental team.

 

We held a medical and dental clinic for 4 days, Monday through Thursday ending with Fluoride treatments on all the school children and teachers on Friday. The first day was the lightest (79) due to dental and ENT screenings and photos of 175 school age children but increased with each day to a total of 436 patients in addition to the screenings. The top chronic problems were hypertension, epigastric pain, and under nourishment with anemia, followed by GYN and dermatologic issues such as worms, scabies, rashes and fungal infections. Minimal lab tests, dip stick urines, pregnancy tests and glucometer readings were performed when needed.

 

The medical and dental supplies were procured in several ways: purchased from MAP International and Guerins Pharmacy, and donated by Trident Hospital and the medical/dental team providers.  All medicines and supplies were carried by the team and residuals were donated to Bill Rice. All patients were given multi-vitamins.

 

The Dental Report

On Monday, ENT and dental exams were completed on 166 children.  25 were asked to return for extractions.  18 returned on Wednesday morning.  28 teeth extracted.  On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday—primarily adults were seen for toothaches and extractions.  There were approximately 15 children who also came in who had not been examined on Monday.  88 was the number of patients seen in this time period.  88 was also the number of teeth extracted.  Friday morning fluoride treatment was administered by the entire mission team to all students in the school.  This was approximately 300 children.

 

During dental exams on Monday it was noted that the fluoride treatment 2 years ago made a significant difference in the number of cavities seen on exam on Monday.  There were very few cavities found in the older children who had fluoride.  The younger ones who had not had the fluoride had quite a lot of decay (deciduous teeth-primary-baby).  Hopefully they will have benefited by the just completed treatment.  We’ll see next year.  Fluoride dispensing with the entire 13 member team working together was a great way to join in a project together to end our time.

 

The Construction Team Report

We installed 600 feet of higher-quality electrical wiring (12/2) purchased for us in PaP by Pere Soner.  We installed lights in every room of the school, lights on the school and lights in the church building.  Also, we repaired two ceiling fans in the church building.  We brought a $300.00 solar powered ventilation fan with us to install in the church under the roof.  All works well.

 

Also, we repaired the broken cistern pump—the one installed two years ago.  We assembled two basketball goals much to the excitement and joy of all ages—we suspect it is the first and only ‘full-court’ basketball arena on La Gonave.  We had 6 basketballs and 4 soccer balls to leave with the school.  We added a few electrical outlets, handles on doors, fixed a door coming off its hinge and anything else we could think to do.

 

We took test water from both the school cistern, church cistern and our sealed drinking water for WMI to test water quality.

 

General Comments:

 

We enjoyed Holy Eucharist and a brief teaching each morning which set the tone for the entire day.  We enjoyed fabulous times laboring, eating and interacting with our Haitian friends…plenty of laughter.  No one got sick as we have on other trips—we took extra precautions by bringing more food along for ourselves and being somewhat selective of what we ate without, we hope, offending our dear cooks.  Also, out of concern for the value of goats to the Haitians, we asked in advance that we not be served goat.

 

Wahoo Bay was a great stop over—relaxed, ate, enjoyed island drinks—on the return trip.  We departed PaP on the 9:30 flight and arrived in Miami for a 7 ½ hour layover!  Ugh.  But a wonderful trip overall and glad to be there and glad to be safely home!

 

Thank you, Lord.

 

Trip Reporter:  Mike Lumpkin, Summerville, SC.

 

100% Pass Rate! On to level two

 

Hope you enjoy our March Newsletter. There is so much going on it was hard to decide how to write it all up.

Here is our most recent report on the Adult Literacy Project. Thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in this important project. It is serving as a tool for community building in the remote villages of La Gonave. Also, take a minute to read up on the latest Trip Reports. We have been busy this month and have exciting news to report from remote health clinics, a new water project and the Children’s Nutrition Program! Ed.

Since when is a meeting with the principal a glorious event?

When you learn that all 158 of the people enrolled in our adult literacy classes passed the final exam!!!

At the tailend of my recent trip to Haiti, I met with Laurence Camille, director of Fonkoze’s adult education division, and Robert Sterling, the man who monitored our teachers.  (We have contracted with Fonkoze to implement an adult literacy program).  Robert told us about the dedication of our teachers  who were trained by Fonkoze to be adult educators and the enthusiasm of the students.  Robert said that he was, initially, very worried because our students had absolutely no basics in reading and writing, but that our groups were successful beyond measure.  Our first group of students is eager to move ahead and there are people in every community who are asking for new classes.  Pere Soner told us that many people in these classes had been marginalized in their communities but were now “standing taller.”

Our teachers will complete their advanced training within a few weeks and we will launch the second level of adult literacy AND start a new level one class.  This was announced to the community at Trou Jacques at their church service last Sunday and the congregation applauded with great delight.

So, in 11 months we have moved from a simple request from one woman to learn how to read ….. to 10 new teaching jobs on LaGonave, 158 people graduating from level one of literacy, a second level of literacy education to begin in March and another level one group of classes.  Li bon!

Submitted by Lee Wilder of Covenant Pres in Atlanta

 

Back to Haiti

A group of 12 will return to Haiti this week taking much needed items purchased by the generous holiday response from our friends like you. We will be taking 3 treadle sewing machines, sewing supplies, shoes, hats, music stands and music and most importantly, boxes of medicine – including the medicine needed to expand our Medika Mamba program for malnourished children to new communities- and much needed medicine for the goat project.  The end of 2011 brought an outpouring of generosity from our friends and family. This week the people of La Gonave will receive some of those gifts.

And, for 2012, we have already received two new gifts that have humbled us as well. In January we had two friends of the Partnership go onto the website and set up a monthly “giving stream.”  Oh yeah, that thing. We knew we had that capacity when we set up the website last year, but nobody had ever done it and we had been so busy doing what we do that none of us had  thought about it.

The first one came in as a gift of $25 a month. Now, that doesn’t sound like a huge gift in the scheme of things, but I began to ponder what we could do with $25 a month.  Well, here is just the beginning of what it would do:

Treat one child with severe malnutrition for a month

De-worm 50 children to help prevent malnutrition for 6 months

Provide half a month’s salary for a Community Health Worker

Provide goat medicine for the goats in one village for 3 months

Provide an Adult Literacy educator for one village for 1 month

About the time we began to get our mind around what a huge gift this really was we got another one. This time for $50 a month, giving us three times the ability to provide the list above.

The fact is that $25 a month ends up being $300 at the end of the year. For an organization that prides itself in having no over-head costs that is an enormous gift.  So, at the close of this post, I intend to go online and begin my own giving stream gift. With a monthly gift of what many spend weekly stopping for coffee on the way to work I can make a real difference in the lives of the people on La Gonave.  That is a simple, generous gift. It makes me wish I had back all the monthly payments I have made for gym memberships that I never used.

Enough said.

https://secure.piryx.com/donate/gkMizOx2/LaGonave-Haiti-Partnership/

Deb Griffin

For the Partnership

We Made All A’s!!!

Here is our first “report card” from Fonkoze the Adult Literacy trainer in Port Au Prince who has been our collaborator on the new Adult Literacy project. We just began in September, a program that grew out of one young woman who spoke up in a community meeting at Nan Mango: “What we would really like is to learn to read like our children are learning.”

After we cleared our tears (during the thunderous applause she got from her neighbors) we vowed to help them learn to read. Thanks to a quick response from our friends (like you) we had the program up and running in less than 6 months. And now, our first report card. We feel like kids again!

I am very pleased with the prospect of meeting you next month, as you have requested.  Today we had a meeting of the Education Agents at the officce in Port au Prince.  I was enchanted with the reports that Robert, gave on the work going on in Lagonave.  He is very satisfied with the collaboration he receives from Pere Soner and others from his Congregation, and it turns out your program is the best in attendance and commitment from both participants and monitors.  Congratulations on a well motivated group of beneficiairies in your program.

And, a huge thanks from the people of La Gonave. They are finally learning to read.

Lee Wilder

For the Partnership

…And we’re off!

A very happy new year to all. We wrapped up 2011 feeling good about what had been accomplished and were eager to wade into 2012 to see what was going to be next. It has not taken long for us to be off and running again with new projects that have grown out of our work and relationship with the people of La Gonave.

Last summer at a partnership meeting in Charleston we began a conversation with Dr. Laurie Harrell from St. Phillips in Charleston.  She is a radiation oncologist by training but has a long history of medical mission work in Honduras.  She raised the subject of soil transmitted helminths (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16679166) and their effects on the health of the affected people.  She had used this treatment in Honduras and, after a trip to La Gonave, became interested in bringing this treatment to the people there.

After our discussion I returned to La Gonave in the fall to monitor our new Medika Mamba program. In the course of attending a number of MM clinics over the 3 weeks it became clear to me that many children did not need the full 8 week treatment cycle of the peanut butter medicine and that, in fact, once they were treated with Albendazole, the de-worming medication that is part of the protocol of Medika Mamba, the children were able to make use of the nutrition available to them and quickly gained back to their target  weight. Sometimes in as short as 4 weeks.

(This is where I extol the joys of collaboration)

How easy it would be to miss what was going on. After my initial shock at how quickly some of these very malnourished children were recovering I began to ponder why that would be. My conversation with Laurie came back to mind and I discussed the possibility with a nutritionist that was on the trip with us, Laurie Sauerwein, and we surmised, correctly, that many of these children just needed to be de-wormed.

We knew the amazing results from the Medika Mamba. That had been documented. It would have been easy to stop there and ramp up the MM program. But, as happens over and over on La Gonave, because we are always talking to the people there, as well as seeking out other who are attempting to do the work we are doing, we made another connection that has a huge impact on the folks there.

Because of this, and with the help of Dr. Harrell, in six weeks we will launch a program to enhance and parallel our newest Children’s Nutrition Program initiative, Medika Mamba.  We will begin by administering clinics to treat soil transmitted helminths at two of our partnership schools on La Gonave.  We will treat 500 children and try to pass out shoes for as many of those as we can as shoes are one way to limit exposure to worms and parasites.

This new addition, which is the next step in children’s health, will endeavor to reach all the schools in the partnership so that they can be de-wormed twice a year (with the Albendazole that means only one dose every 6 months) to ensure that they can get the nutrition from what their families can provide. It is our hope that we can eventually expand that program to treat child-bearing women.

Unfortunately, during our monitoring of the Medika Mamba program in October, some of the saddest cases we saw were of infants who had lost their mothers in the first few months of life.  And, while we are not sure that it was due to mal-nutrition or worm load issues, this is how we move to the next thing that seems to be part of what we are already doing.

Our motto has been “don’t start a project unless it touches something we are already doing.” This has served us well and it keeps up focused on the needs of the people and makes best use of our resources. This motto has led us to believe that the de-worming project is the next best thing to be doing and we see a need for more comprehensive maternal health on the horizon.

These are exciting times and we are every grateful that you are accompanying us on this journey. Thanks again for your year-end giving. Your generosity was over-whelming to us and we are ready for the challenges of a new year.

Deb Griffin

For the Partnerhship

Year End Report 2011

There is a certain satisfaction to be planning your 20th anniversary and to have so many new beginnings in the same year. It has made us all aware how vital and important this partnership truly is.  Haiti continues to struggle after the earthquake. Progress is never as fast as one would like and people grow weary of waiting.

What we have to offer is a friendship of 20 years that has proven over time that we will be with the people of La Gonave no matter what.  And not that we will just show up, but thanks to many of you, that we will show up with new programs to educate the adults as well as the children. That we will listen and show up with programs that address their need to have a way to earn money to educate and feed their children. That even when we can’t meet all their needs, we will never quit showing up.

Aid in times of disaster is important, but good development means the ability and will to accompany folks towards a fundamental change in areas of human justice: food, healthcare, education and economic development. It means sharing success as well as failure. Sharing meals, work, heartbreak and political upheaval.

This year has made us more aware of how important this commitment is to the people of La Gonave, Haiti. The success of our new Medika Mamba program that is now providing state of the art treatment for malnourished children has brought light to the eyes of mothers and their children. In six short weeks children are healthy and active once again. Mothers report it as if it were a miracle. What we have discovered is that the anti-parasite medication, part of the protocol for the program, is crucial in decreasing the worm burden in each child and allowing that child to fully use the nutrients from the food they eat. For this reason in the coming year we will begin an island wide program to get this treatment for all the women and children in our communities. This is the gift of long-term commitment to a community.

This year, acting on a request from a community of women high in the mountains, we have developed a program that provides sewing jobs to women who have precious few opportunities to earn money for their families. By connecting these women with Laura Martin of Ties That Matter they are developing products that are of interest to the Caribbean Craft Council and has the possibility of allowing the community autonomy in the marketing of their goods. This is the gift of long-term commitment to a community.

This year we heard the pleas of adults who work hard to educate their children, but cannot read and write themselves. Through the generosity of our friends we were very quickly able to respond to this plea and we now have 10 communities with Adult Literacy programs funded though the first year. Two to three times a week people flock to the churches and schools with their homework in hand to study, sing and rejoice in an opportunity that before this year had seemed almost impossible.  This is the gift of long-term commitment to a community.

This year we visited a village that was two hours from a city over very difficult and sometimes impassable roads. We were there for a goat clinic.  This was one of the first communities to benefit from our goat project and they have had an active program for over eight years. People came leading five, six, eight goats of all ages, telling exciting stories about how their goats support their families, stories about sharing their goat’s off-spring with neighbors  who had less.  More than a hundred villagers abuzz with joy and stories of successful goat farming. This is the gift of long-term commitment to a community.

So, for all of you who have supported the work of the La Gonave Haiti Partnership this year and will continue to support our work in the years to come, savor these stories of success for it is the results of your long-term commitment to our community. Without you none of this would have been possible. The people of La Gonave, Haiti work hard to be worthy of your commitment and they are full of appreciation.

Happiest of holidays and a new year of blessings for those less fortunate.

The Gift of a Goat

The Gift of a Goat

 

In early November, I had the privilege of traveling to Lotorre with Jean Thoney, the administrator of our partnership’s goat project.  He was conducting a veterinary clinic for the farmers of that community.  After a torturous and, seemingly endless, ride in the back of a pick-up trip, we arrived at Lotorre and set up shop in a shady area under the trees.  Within minutes, people began converging on the area with strings of two, three, four goats.  Several farmers had five or more goats.  The partnership starts each participating farmer out with one pregnant doe and training.  Some farmers never advance past that first goat but others are able to build a business of raising goats, and we were happy to see that Lotorre is a real success story.

Jean Thoney gathered the community under the trees and introduced us a representatives of the partnership.  He explained that the money they would pay for this clinic did not cover all expenses and the partnership provided long term financial support.  We received a touching and warm round of applause and thanks.

Over the course of the afternoon, Jean Thoney vaccinated and treated over 50 adult goats and examined countless kids.  We had the opportunity to talk to several families to find out what the goat project means to them.  We were routinely told that goats allowed families to feed their children needed meat, that goats could be sold at market in order to purchase other foods and that goats could be sold for medical expenses or for school tuition.

The most humbling moment of the day was when we followed a woman named Monique to her house.  She has four healthy children yet lives in a tiny, decrepit house.  Monique told us that raising goats was the primary source of income for her family and that one time she was able to give a goat to a poor friend.  Monique, who has virtually nothing, gave a goat to another needier person.  In tears, we were able to comprehend the true meaning of the goat project.  Having goats  IS economic security in Haiti.

Sew for your life

No matter the language, a room full of women sewing has a lovely hum. We like to create, talk about food and children and…more importantly…laugh at our mistakes. Such was the case the last week of October on the island of La Gonave, Haiti. Laura Martin, of Ties That Matter, and Sandy Chai, of Beatitudes, Inc, had gathered to work with women to learn and to work as a group to better the lives of themselves and their families.

With a huge duffle bag of donated ties, scissors, thread and imagination they created Haitian dolls in lovely silk dresses. Each with a personality of their own, sewers and dolls alike, the room was filled with joy and learning. Heads tied in iconic silk scarves the dolls lacked only a big basket of plantains or mangos to be real.

The women listened and learned. They know all too well that their options are limited and they have children to raise and educate. It is humbling to see what women will do to give their children the basic necessities of life, especially when one comes from a nation that takes much of that for granted. And, there was no doubt in this room that this day represented the possibility that hard work and cooperation could make a difference.

It is easy to stand at a distance and think that all people can have what you have if they work hard enough. It is harder to stand in a room full of women and realize that they would do anything to have a better life. But, it is an easy way to make friends for whom you would do anything just to help them realize their dreams.

See for youself!