Bringing a Nurse’s Training and Compassion to Communities in Need

We all know how important health care is to a local community, especially those in developing countries like Haiti. During her 9 weeks in Haiti late last year, Hope Bechard, R.N., a Canadian volunteer and HUFH board member, was able to observe firsthand how much of a difference having a nurse in a community can make.

With a shortage of trained health care professionals in Haiti, a skilled nurse can make a big difference.. A nurse can provide vital health education, help run our malnutrition programs, do assessments and prescribe some medications in areas without a physician available. Recognizing this need, HUFH is beginning a project called Sponsor a Nurse. Sponsoring a nurse is very similar to sponsoring a child. For $150.00 a month a nurse can empower her community and keep them healthy!

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, or TO MAKE A GENERAL DONATION, or one IN MEMORY OF or IN HONOR OF ANOTHER, please click SPONSOR A NURSE HERE.

By Celeste Theis, a social worker recently returned from the January 2015 mission to Haiti:

Our team of eleven, doctors, nurses, nutritionists, a social worker and an occupational therapist, and one volunteer from outside the health care world, came to Cap Haitien this past January on an HUFH pediatric mission. Some of us had been to Haiti with HUFH in 2014, when we met Maud Dugue, a Haitian businesswoman and the founder of Club Evangelize. Maud opened her home to the children in her neighborhood about 10 years ago; there she holds Saturday classes to teach the children basic academic skills. When we came in 2014, Maud graciously invited our team to her home to talk about her efforts to help the local kids. In addition to teaching academics, Maud sought out people who could teach the children marketable skills such as sewing, auto repair, and electronics. Dedicated to her children, Maud acquired funding to build a new school building just up the street from her home. Last year, the HUFH team walked to the new three story building; although still under construction, we knew it was going to be wonderful asset to the community.

That was our ah-hah moment: It was then that my friend and team member Alice and I hatched the idea to come back and conduct a sewing lesson for “Maud’s kids”. Alice and I both love to sew, and it seemed like a worthwhile skill to teach the kids. Our initial visit to Club Evangelize occurred on the last day of our visit to Haiti in 2014. But Alice and I were already pretty sure that we would return with HUFH the following year.

Once back at home, Alice and I put out the word to friends, co-workers, and anyone who would listen that we were seeking donations of sewing machines, fabric, thread, and various sewing supplies. We managed to collect 8 sewing machines and lots of fabric and supplies. These were shipped to Club Evangelize well in advance of our 2015 trip. I had been in email contact with Maud about the plan to visit her school for a morning to conduct a sewing lesson for the students. She was delighted, and informed me that there were many more students who were interested in learning to sew than we could reasonably teach in a few hours.

 

In the months prior to our January 2015 trip, much had to be arranged: We had communicated with Maude that we felt we could work with about 25 kids in the time that we had to be at the school. Well in advance of our visit, sewing machines and supplies had to be shipped from here and picked up by our HUFH team when they arrived in Haiti. Maud would be responsible for getting the supplies unpacked and readied for the day we would arrive.

Meanwhile, Alice and I brainstormed to come up with a simple sewing project for the kids. We would teach them how to operate the machines, measure and cut the fabric, do some simple decorative stitching, and add some embellishments to make headbands. It would be quick, easy, fun – AND, most importantly, the kids could continue to make the headbands (and perhaps other projects) on their own after we left. The sewing machines and supplies had been donated to Club Evangelize and would remain there. Great plan, right?

Well….it’s Haiti. A couple of weeks before our trip, Maud informed me that her school does not have electricity. That was a basic erroneous assumption on my part. Although, in my defense, having visited the school last year while it was still under construction, it appeared that it would be a fairly modern, 3 story structure. But I did not realize that in Haiti, even a “modern” building used for a school may not have regular electricity. No problem. HUFH would rent a generator for the sewing lesson. All would be well.

On the day of our visit to Club Evangelize, we arrived to find that none of the 13 boxes of supplies that we shipped had been unpacked (including the sewing machines). Our team of 11, along with our translators, got to work, unpacking the boxes, and arranging fabric and supplies on the tables. This was all happening while the kids were arriving. Our translators set up the generator to power the sewing machines. But when one of our translators, Sonnel, pulled the cord to start the generator, it broke off in his hand! Volunteer Dan Haskell, a master problem solver, set about to fix the generator with his bicycle cords. But would it work? Meanwhile new plan: make the headbands by hand.

The kids loved looking through the fabrics – all kinds of colors, prints, and textures. They selected their materials, and after a brief “how-to” demonstration, our HUFH team helped the kids to make the headbands. Many of the kids already knew how to thread hand needles and sew. But they were intrigued by those idle sewing machines sitting on the tables. Suddenly, we heard the generator start (thanks to the indomitable spirit and know-how of the HUFH team and translators): the sewing machines were functional! The kids loved trying out the machines (with lots of adult supervision).

The day was a true example of Murphy’s Law in action (or, maybe just another day in Haiti). But by the time we were done, about 40 kids had made headbands. They had a great time, and so did we. The kids enjoyed putting their own stamp of personal style on their headbands.

What we thought would be a simple and easy sewing lesson turned out to be an entire team effort involving all hands on deck, from getting things organized, to teaching the kids, to trouble-shooting the electrical problems. It’s an amazing thing to watch how a team of 11 people who have not previously worked together can gel as a team over the course of a couple of days and pull together to make things happen, whether it’s providing medical care, doing public education, or teaching kids to sew.

 

After the sewing lesson, Maud led the kids in singing a few songs for us, we had lunch, and every child received a certificate for participating in the sewing lesson.

Lessons learned: You can’t take anything for granted (especially in Haiti), the HUFH team rises to any challenge, and kids are kids – they love to learn and be creative. It was a high point of the trip to be able to give them that opportunity.

The sewing machines and supplies remain at Maud’s school. She plans to install electricity at some point, and hopefully the sewing machines will be a great vehicle for creativity and learning marketable skills.

Celeste Theis

On December 18, 2014 the Middle School Student Council at Wooster School in Danbury Connecticut ran a very successful Holiday Shopping Bazaar to support the work of Hands Up For Haiti. The volunteers who travel to Haiti with Hands Up for Haiti on our medical missions become our best ambassadors. Last October, Dr. Eliot Barsh, a pediatrician in the Mt. Kisco Medical Group went on his first mission with fellow pediatrician, Dr. Allison Platt.

It was a life changing trip for Dr. Barsh and he shared his amazing story with his whole family, and with Gaynor O’Neill, the Administrative Assistant to the Head of the Middle School, where his son, Jack is an eighth grader and his daughter Sue Ann is in the High School. Dr. Barsh’s wife, Pam Genet was key to helping the children, and teachers understand the extent of what her husband had done and seen in Haiti.

 

Wooster School is an independent day school that promotes the attributes of being “gentle, generous, truthful, kind, and brave”. To help reinforce these ideals for students the school seeks out charitable opportunities and ways to promote cross -cultural understanding. In her advisory role, Ms. O’Neill, shared with the Student Council her conversation with Dr.Barsh. As a result, the Student Council chose to donate the proceeds from the 2014 Wooster Holiday Bazaar to Hands Up For Haiti.

 

The Holiday Bazaar was set up in a hallway with six 8 foot tables displaying all of the donated merchandise plus a free wrapping station with moms in charge. More tables sold freshly made waffles with a choice of toppings, an industrial strength popcorn maker and a variety of flavors one could squeeze onto a freshly made snow-cone. Shoppers were the school’s student body, from kindergarten through 12^th grade. The merchandise, popcorn, whipped cream, wrapping material and much more was donated by parents. Some moms left the school to shop for items that could quickly restock the tables. Not suprising, Pam was on the scene, from start of the project to finish.

 

Dr. Barsh and Dr. Ratner did presentations for the students on what life in Haiti is like, and showed the students the work done by the doctors, nurses, and other volunteers who 10 times a year travel on one week medical missions. The children watched the images of the slide presentation as Dr. Ratner described the poverty in Haiti and what the donated money would buy. The students understood that their fun time at the bazaar and the funds raised help pay for life saving malnutrition supplements for children who were severely malnourished and allowed the organization to buy equipment to teach newborn resuscitation to traditional birth attendants.

 

The entire school community of The Wooster School came together to create this successful event which raised over $1700. On February 13^th the Student Council, with the entireMiddle School in attendance, presented a check to Dr. Jill Ratner, co-founder of Hands up for Haiti, for $1736.

For Drs. Barsh and Ratner it was an amazing and heartwarming example of the power of connections to help others and to highlight the mission of Hands Up for Haiti. The school has already begun to think about ways to brainstorm and partner with Hands Up for Haiti again next year. The children were really able to see that together they could really make a difference in the lives of children in Haiti. The experience of Haiti goes beyond the volunteer and the one week they spend on the ground. They carry it back to their families, and community.

By Mary Ann LoFrumento MD

It had finally stopped raining and the floodwaters were receding from the city and the countryside. As team leader, I breathed a sigh of relief. We had held one large pediatric outreach clinic the day before but the week was only half over and we needed to find more locations. We reached out through the Cap Haitien Health Network, an organization linking many of the health related groups working in Northern Haiti. Within a few hours, we had two locations identified in desperate need of medical care.

 

Both were small clinics, so we decided to divide the team and our medical supplies. Dr. Hemant Kairam and Dr. Ann Engelland led the team to Ft. Bourgeois, a struggling medical clinic on the road to the Royal Caribbean port of Labadee. The doctor in charge of the clinic, Dr. Renaud Gerve, was glad to see the team and immediately mobilized the community.

The team now knew how to set up a pediatric clinic in any location and immediately went to work. Within a few minutes, they had a triage team and registration, two to three stations with a doctor, nurse and translator, and  a pharmacy.

Respiratory illnesses are commonly seen, especially if a baby has underlying condition such as asthma. Often these sensitive lungs are irritated by smoke from poorly ventilated cooking areas in small homes. Our team educates the families after treating the children on how to avoid these attacks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the day, the team saw about 90 children and left medical supplies and medications for the clinic at Ft. Bourgeois. Dr. Gerve was so grateful and sent a message to the Cap Haitien Network, reporting that the Hands Up for Haiti team came after the flooding and helped reopened our clinic. “We are so grateful.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile all the way on the other side of the city, team number two visited a small clinic run by one amazing nurse in the Madeleine area of Cap Haitien. Converted from a home to a clinic with the pharmacy in the garage, she sees patients in this underserved neighborhood a few days a week. When not working here, Nurse Carole sees patients at another HUFH location at Jolitrou, a clinic in a rural area where we have one of our malnutrition programs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A highlight of this clinic was the lab technician who sets up a small lab complete with microscope to run some simple lab tests. Pediatric resident, Priya Soni, who plans to do a Pediatric Infectious Disease fellowship after she graduates in June, was thrilled to be able to do hands on lab work to identify pathogens. As a Global Health educator, it was so gratifying to see the excitement of my residents being able to do field work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This smaller team saw about 4o children that day, but an important connection was made. Nurse Carole who no longer needs the home decided to rent the space to Hands Up for Haiti as an office with enough space to store supplies.

The team was now ready for anything and feeling very good about their ability to set up and run a pediatric clinic anywhere. Tomorrow, our last day to see patients, would provide yet another challenge: Next part: Mission with the UN Peacekeepers.

by Mary Ann LoFrumento MD

It had been raining for days in Cap Haitien and the city and surrounding areas were suffering from serious flooding. The community of Shada, one of the worst slum areas of the city, was particularly hard hit. Many families who live in poorly built huts by the river lost all of their belongings; some lost their homes. Most tragically, three children were killed and their mother injured when flood waters crushed the wall of their home while they were sleeping. There were fears of a new cholera outbreak due to the contaminated water and lack of sanitation in the area. Things were so bad that it even prompted a visit from the President of Haiti, Michael Martelly, who arrived with government relief trucks of clean water and food.

Our pediatric team had been in Cap Haitien for most of this rain that never seemed to take a break. It had finally stopped raining and the floodwaters were receding from the city and the countryside. We were working on a plan for our team when I had a call from Miguel Ange, the administrator of our HUFH clinic in Shada. The clinic had been badly flooded by the river.

The HUFH clinic in Shada provides the only medical care for the people who live in the poorest slums of Cap Haitien. Hands Up for Haiti renovated the clinic building in 2011 and patients are seen two to three days a week by the clinic staff. It is also the location of our malnutrition program for both pregnant women and for children identified as severely malnourished who are treated with a peanut based supplement called Medika Mamba, supplied by our partner Medicine and Food for Kids. Every HUFH team that visits Cap Haitien holds a clinic there, seeing 60-80 children. This had been the plan for our team as well.

I needed to go and investigate the damage. But we had to wait a few days as it was not safe to go there until the waters receded and the government and UN peacekeepers had provided some emergency supplies. Nurse Judy McAvoy and I planned to go with our Haitian staff and report back, but the team voted to go with us. We ventured into a nightmare of muddy streets piled with the destroyed belongings of families who had lost everything in this devastation. Mattresses and clothing were hanging to dry everywhere, yet a few children still kicked a battered soccer ball around the boulevard.

I entered the back room in the Shada clinic with Administrator Miguel Ange. I looked at the walls, paint peeling off, and saw the marks where the water level had risen four feet into the building. The shelves in the pharmacy were empty except for the top two shelves. Medications and medical supplies were lost, as well as a supply of the Medika Mamba. Equipment was damaged. Some of the paper records were too wet to save.  Out of sight of my team, I felt tears come into my eyes as I surveyed all the damage.

Miguel Ange is a proud and resilient man. He has been running the Shada clinic for Hands Up for Haiti for three years now. He had just been working all day to clean out the water in the clinic that had surged over the banks of the “boulevard” after days of unrelenting rains pounded the city of Cap Haitien. When he saw I was upset, he put his hand on my shoulder and simply said, “Don’t worry, Dokte Mary Ann, we will fix everything.” The strength and resilience of the Haitien people cannot be overestimated. I nodded and said, “HUFH will help you.” Before heading out, I gave him some emergency funds for the immediate clean up, and told him HUFH would help to rebuild the clinic better and stronger.

The team was a bit shaken by what they had seen. The poverty of Shada can be overwhelming, although things had been improving with the USAID project a few years ago to build a boulevard to replace the fields of muddy sewage that had been there before. A swing set and park area had been created. Now that swing set was battered and broken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, working in Haiti can break your heart. It is a country filled with proud people who want to better their lives, despite forces that are often beyond their control. In Global Health work, we can make progress, but we also suffer setbacks. It is one of the lessons the team learned during this challenging week. For me personally, it was hard to see our little clinic in such bad shape, but I was heartened by Miguel Ange’s resolve to repair it. I knew our teams would return to Shada, but now the focus was on this team and where we could work during the rest of our week.

SHADA UPDATE: A few weeks later, the reports from the clinic are that the walls have been repainted and new shelves built. The tile floor and roof were in good shape. Some of the equipment could still be used. And Medicine and Food for Kids was working with HUFH to do the needed repairs. HUFH is looking into obtaining secure cases to hold supplies and protect them from water damage. Structural changes for the building might help secure the walls and doors from future floods. The doctors are back seeing patients and the malnutrition program is up and running again. If you wish to make a contribution for the “Make Shada Stronger” campaign    CLICK HERE     and select Shada

 

 

 

Almost every Hands Up for Haiti volunteer who has traveled to northern Haiti has been welcomed at Open Door in Bois de Lance. In fact, this clinic was the site of the very first medical mission in 2010 when the founding team went to Haiti after the devastating earthquake. They were welcomed at that time by Pastor Wiljean Compere and his wife Jannine, an amazing cook, known to all as MaPas. Over the past four years, the Open Door community and the Wiljean family, have hosted multiple Hands Up for Haiti teams as they worked in collaboration with the Haitian medical staff to support and expand the medical clinic, provide health care to the children at the Open Door Orphanage, hold health education workshops for the school age children and teens, and donate books and computers to the school library.

This August it was our turn to welcome Pastor Wiljean Compere and his family as they traveled to the United States for a visit. Pastor, MaPas and their two teenagers, Jennie and Jerry, came to New York after traveling to Orlando and visiting Disneyworld. Dr. Jill Ratner, President of Hands Up for Haiti, and her husband Joel Rosenberg hosted the Compere family at their home, where they were reunited with Samson Desamour, who was excited to see his Pastor and show him where he has been living while going to school here in the United States.

First stop was Mt Kisco Medical Group, to meet and thank all the staff, especially at the pediatric practice where Dr. Jill, Dr. Allison Platt, and nurse Judy McAvoy, who have helped Hands Up for Haiti support Open Door throughout the years. It was an opportunity for staff members who have heard so much about our Haitian friends to actually meet them. For others, such as RN Kathy Lee and Alicia Benton who will be traveling to Haiti in November with Hands Up for Haiti it was an exciting chance to make connections.

A special moment was meeting Dr. Kevin Riley, OB-GYN, who although he has never traveled to Haiti, has helped save lives by donating the ultrasound machine used at Open Door to help women have safer pregnancies. Dr. Steven Maruliese who hopes to travel to Haiti in 2015 was instrumental in the Compere’s medical care, as well Dr. Oren Kahn, who, like many of the physicians and staff at the Mount Kisco Medical Group has supported HUFH over the last four years. Dr. Warren Bromberg was reunited with the Compere’s in the office as well. Ms. Doreen Semel, patient coordinator, and Sonia Young, public relations for MKMG was able to meet the Comperes and coordinated the appointments.

That evening Dr. Ratner and her husband held a potluck dinner for the Hands Up for Haiti community to celebrate the Pastor and his family. They were overwhelmed by the joyous welcome they received from countless volunteers who came from New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey to see the Pastor and his family. Board member, Amy Parkin, observed to MaPas, “Almost every person here tonight has been a guest in your home.”

For some volunteers, like Judy McAvoy, it was a chance to introduce family members to the Pastor. When she introduced her husband Jim, MaPas hugged him like family. Joel Rosenberg, Dr. Jill’s husband and major supporter of Hands Up for Haiti, has heard about the Pastor for years, “It really was wonderful to be able to finally meet.” Others, like pediatrician and frequent trip leader, Dr. Allison Platt, brought their children who hung around the piano as Samson, Jerry and Jennie sang Gospel songs from their church.

Guests included Joel Seligman, CEO of Northern Westchester Hospital, and his wife Joyce. Mr. Seligman traveled to Haiti with Hands Up for Haiti last year and spent time at Open Door working side by side with the doctors and nurses caring for the hundreds of children who come for medical care. During his visit, he formed a special bond with the Pastor after learning of all the needs for the people in his community.

Joining in conversations over dessert, Ophthalmologist Dr. Beth Bromberg and her husband, Urologist Dr. Warren Bromberg, were both happy to catch up with the Pastor. Dr. Beth and her eye team, including Dr. Mitch Stein, have made arrangements for ongoing ophthalmology care for patients from the Bois de Lance community with the help of Pastor Wiljean.

It was a beautiful evening and a wonderful summer celebration for the volunteers of Hands Up for Haiti and a chance to welcome a very special family to the United States.

Dr. Ratner said, “ It is like a collision of two worlds, a world in Haiti and a world at home and how these two worlds meet is a beautiful thing. It makes the universe feel a little smaller. “

 

 

By Dr. Jill Ratner

It was our last day of clinic at Open Door in Bois de Lance, a rural farming community where Hands up for Haiti has supported a medical clinic for the past three years. I was called into the examining room where one of our pediatric nurse practioners, Lauren Blum, was seeing patients. She was seeing a grandmother with a very underweight one month old. The baby’s mother had died and the funeral had been the day before.  The mother had been hospitalized two weeks after giving birth with an infection. The infant had not been nursed in two weeks. The family was doing the best they could- giving the baby juice and tea.

Not to have a mother to nurse an infant in Haiti is an ominous thing- formula is sometimes available in the city, but it is very expensive for the typical Haitian family. Lauren and I looked at each other. We contemplated having the grandmother make a substitute formula using boiled water, sugar and salts. And then another thought occurred to us- perhaps there was another mother in the village willing to nurse the baby along with her own child.

We queried the grandmother, whose face lit up as she told us that the mother’s cousin was sitting outside with her six month old. The cousin came in and was so excited to nurse this small, undernourished child of her cousin. No one in the family thought that the milk she was making would also be good for a baby this young. We gave them lots of support that day for her to be the wet nurse for this poor infant.  We spent time reviewing that breastmilk was the best possible food for the baby and that no solid foods, tea or juice should be given. We made sure to give the cousin prenatal vitamins and we gave her advice about her own diet. I wrote down the baby’s weight and height that day, and handed it to the grandmother. We arranged for her to be followed by the nurse and doctor seeing children in our malnutrition program that normally begins at six months of age.  The baby was to be seen the following week.

We left feeling good that maybe that child had a chance of getting appropriate nutrition, and that maybe our intervention would make a difference.

I returned to the clinic nine months later. On my last day at the clinic, an old woman came in with an alert child, whowas small and somewhat thin, but healthy. I didn’t really recognize them at first. The day was busy and I saw many children that day.  In the woman’s hand was the note with the weight and height that I have given her nine months earlier. I looked at the woman. She looked at me. We both had a moment of recognition. It was the same grandmother. The baby had survived andwas doing well. We hugged and both became tearful. I knew her story and she was touched that I remembered. I grabbed Lauren who was on this trip as well. Wayne our team member and photographer also remembered her and the story. We were bonded by our shared experience on that sad day months before; the day this woman buried her own daughter and brought her grandchild to the clinic. We knew her pain and we acknowledged her triumph of keeping this child alive.

It can feel overwhelming at times to work in Haiti. We see so many people who need medical help and sometimes it is too late to help save a life. In this case, it was the simple knowledge we provided that breast milk could be given to the newborn by someone else that saved this baby’s life. It is these moments of small victories that reinforce what we are doing; moments when we return and see that life is better for those we were able to touch and help.