Our day started with a song. Ten matrones, many quite elderly, had traveled a distance to join us at the Sante Pou Yo Clinic in Bas Limbe, for a training seminar called Helping Babies Breathe. The song they sang was joyous, a chorus celebrating life. For these women have collectively delivered life to generations of […]

By: Dr. Jill Ratner, President, Hands Up for Haiti I opened my New York Times recently and my eye immediately went to a front page story entitled “Fighting a Cancer with Vinegar and Ingenuity”. I smiled, knowing what I was about to read.  I had just returned from a medical mission in Haiti doing just […]

Author: Jayant “Jay” Kairam While core medical skills, triaging and differential diagnosis are very translatable to my professional environment, where we must prioritize in service delivery and amongst finite resources. What needs to be addressed now? What can wait? What can subsist with basic service? Assess the problem and identify solutions. The right recommendations must […]

Author: Jayant “Jay” Kairam “I found the daily visage of the cruise ship a too perfect analogy for the historic barriers the country continues to face. How can a place so close to so much wealth be so far away?” As the sole non-health professional on the team, I had to sort of explain my […]

This was our first educational mission for students and residents and I believe it was a success. The members of our team worked very well with the staff at HVH and our translators. Even Jay, who was non medical volunteer served an important role in helping with logistics and registration, as well as helping to […]

Author: Dr. Mary Ann Lofrumento SHADA, Cap Haitien SHADA: An extremely poor area in Cap-Haitien. The garbage-filled landscape there is peppered with crude shacks, unclothed children dirty from the mud, and mothers whose eyes have been robbed of any hope. Shada literally means misery in Creole, which is an unfortunate description of the slum. Hands […]

After returning to Cap Haitian, Tiffany Keenan, Judy and I were able to visit Haiti Hospital Appeal and Nate Nickerson from Konbit Sante. Carwyn and Reninca, a  young couple from the UK have established a mini hospital that is amazing. Powered by solar panels, they have a spinal cord injury unit and are building a […]

Tiffany Keenan: Dr. Keenan worked with us to ensure that everything went smoothly.  Problems were addressed as a group and solutions proposed. Tiffany very much wants to continue working with Hands Up for Haiti on collaborative efforts to improve medical care in Cap Haitien and the surrounding communities. They will welcome future teams who wish […]

Students & Residents Each one of our students had to prepare in advance a topic to discuss with the group and after the debriefing, they took turns presenting to the group. This included the Haitian staff and Dr. Brinvert. The topics covered were Malaria/Dengue; HIV- AIDS, Malnutrition, Parasites and Parasitic diseases, and Diarrheal Disease including […]

Drive to Work Because of the flooded condition of the roadways, we took a truck to the village of Monbin. The people of nearby Noman also came to this clinic.   Volume The set up was the same but here we had a larger church that had better natural light.   The pastor was very helpful […]