Mission Trip - July 9 - 17, 2013
Focus Area #1 - Sister Parish Relationship/Status of Ongoing Projects
• Earthquake Rebuilding/Construction projects
o Church
Construction of the new church is in progress.
It is located in the same place as the previous church.
During the last trip, they had completed the demolition and were working on the foundation. The foundation is now complete. They are currently
working on the outer walls. The church is larger than the previous one (it was too small, before the earthquake they already had dreams of building a
larger church that could fit everyone). It includes a raised sanctuary and a separate sacristy room, which the previous church lacked. There is also a
small room walk-out basement under the church that is currently being used for daily mass. Sunday mass is still being held under the temporary
pavilion like courtyard of the school.
The quote we had on this last summer was $231,000. Fr. Nexcene began with $20,000 he had prior to the earthquake in a grant to improve the
church. We sent $33,200 last November and just gave another $29,000. We still have about $15,000 to give that has been designated to this. That
totals less than half of what is needed.
The part of the construction that has been done so far (demolition, foundation, partial walls) was done with only $55,200. This is just under ¼ of
the quoted funds, it appears they have been able to complete a little more than ¼ of the work. This is likely due to the help of the community. They
have hired skilled workers to do the actual construction, but the community is pitching by bringing sand, stones, and water. They have also donated
the use of their mules to transport materials up the mountain when trucks weren’t available.
We had a donation to build a latrine for the community. It will be located near the new church.
o Earthquake Damaged Home Rebuilding Project – This is the third home we are building.
Construction has still not yet started.
Fr. Nexcene is working with this family to figure out how to start this. He is requiring the family to provide the sand and rocks for the project. This
will not cost the family - they just need to provide the labor. The father of the family has been unwilling to do this.
The donor for this project is anxious to get the construction started, with or without the father’s help. The concern is for the rest of the family who
are living in unsuitable conditions.
Fr. Nexcene said he is willing to continue without the father’s help, but the money we sent is not enough to pay someone to do the labor he is
requesting the family provide. He is supposed to get us an estimate on the additional cost when he returns from Brazil.
Fr. Nexcene said that if he had the remainder of the needed funds, he could have the construction completed before our January trip.
There is still a need to build more homes for families living in unsuitable conditions. Estimate to build a very simple 2-room home is between
$3,500 and $4,000.
o New Clinic Construction
We still need to work on fundraising for this. No construction has begun yet.
Before we begin this project, we are waiting to see what happens with another clinic that has recently been built nearby. We are receiving
conflicting reports, but it appears the clinic was built by a German organization and is being turned over to the Haitian Minister of Health. If it
opens, it appears it would be run as a government clinic out of Bainet.
The Haitian government reportedly sent a physician to evaluate the clinic recently. One report said it is set to open in December. Another report
said the doctor did not approve the clinic and nothing will happen.
Fr. Nexcene does not believe anything will come from this clinic, he would like us to continue fundraising to begin building a clinic of our own.
Several people saw the new clinic, located a few minute walk past the market. It is completed, with 2 bathrooms, several exam rooms, a waiting
area and a pharmacy. There is a generator and a rain water cistern to supply running water there as well. It appears physically ready to open.
We are watching this closely to see if it changes anything for us.
o Roof on School in Gandou
Three of the older classrooms were damaged during the earthquake. They were determined to be unsafe for occupation. Despite this, they were still
being used for the kindergarten classes.
A while back, an organization in Canada sent $10,000 to repair the roofs on two of these classrooms. The plan was to take off the cement roof and
replace it with a tin roof. We later sent $5000 to complete the third classroom.
The two rooms financed by the Canadian group have been completed and are now safe to use. They repair cost more than the estimate, so they
used part of the $5000 we had sent to complete them. Fr. Nexcene now does not have enough to repair the third classroom. He is getting us a quote
on how much he still needs when he returns from Brazil.
The craftsmanship of the work is very impressive. It appears they cut off the old roof then extended the walls up a little higher adding rebar that
extended up to attach the wooden rafter to. This positively locks the rafters to the cement walls to hold the roof during a hurricane. It appeared they
also sawed a 12 inch wide slot all the way down one wall that divided the two rooms. They then ran rebar through this slot and filled back in with
cement. This appears to have allowed them to run a rebar to the very top of the center of the roof to lock on the top of the roof to the cement walls
and hold it down in storms. All the school roof repairs were done very well.
We were expecting him to repair the classroom that the kindergarten was using and the middle classroom first. However, he repaired the middle
classroom and the room on the opposite end. The kindergarten classroom still needs repaired. He said because the damage is different there, they
will not replace the roof, they will use pillars to support the current cement roof.
o Old Rectory Construction and Earthquake Damage Repair
Father has been asking for help to repair the old rectory for some time.
We have sent about 2/3 of the money he needs to finish this. He is getting us a quote to finish this when he returns from Brazil.
When this is complete, he will move his bedroom and office to this portion of the rectory. This will make his current bedroom/bathroom available
for our group during visits. This will increase the number we can house in actual beds under roof from 11 to 16.
• General School Situation in Gandou
• High School/LaVallee House (House we are renting in a nearby city that has a high school so the 14 kids from
Gandou can go to high school.)
o We had previously asked that each student being sponsored write a letter to their sponsor. These were not ready. Fr. Nexcene is now supposed to
bring them when he visits in September.
• University Kids Project (Sending Kids done with High School to University)
o Once again all three university kids took time away from their University work and came with us to Gandou to run the medical clinic.
o We spent significant time with them and we continue to be impressed by them. The university students ran the ID card part of our clinic
independently for us this trip.
o We brought two additional (donated) laptops for the students. We had previously given them one to share. This was difficult for them because of time
constraints and the distance they lived from each other.
o The university students each gave us a letter for their sponsors.
o There is a fourth student who will join the program this fall. She will study nursing in Jacmel. We left a questionnaire/application for her to fill out.
• Clinic/Health Care Workers/Nurse
o After mass on Sunday we took some time to sit down with the health care workers to talk through the blood pressure program and the referral
program.
o We went through every patient in the referral program. We were able to remove 23 patients. 8 of these received surgery or treatment with the help of
the health workers. 5 received surgery or treatment on their own. 1 refused treatment, 3 died, 3 weren’t located, 2 resolved on their own, and 1
consulted a specialist who determined nothing could be done.
o An encouraging referral result was a patient we had referred to the government clinic in Bainet after he tested positive in our clinic for HIV. He has
been going to the clinic monthly to receive free medicine and is currently doing well. It is great to see the government program is working for this
patient and know that this is a place to refer future HIV patients.
o A discouraging referral result is a patient we also referred to the government clinic in Bainet for suspected tuberculosis. She did test positive, but said
she has not been receiving treatment for two reasons, first it is too difficult for her to get to the clinic (3 hour walk). The second reason is they told her
she needed to take the medicine with food – and she often can only afford salt water for her meals.
o For the referral patients who were completed, the health workers gave us an expense report with receipts. Most of the patients were treated
(transportation, food, consultation, surgery, follow-up) for between $100-200. This is very good. A few patients received their surgeries from a
surgery mission in LaValle that another group was doing.
o We asked the nurse to begin including updates on referrals when she send us her monthly reports. She said she will try, but that she isn’t very good
with computers. It sounded like Fr. Nexcene helps her type and send her reports.
o We have been sending $3000 every six months for this project. Fr. Nexcene said he did not run out of money this time. Based on how many referrals
were completed, and the receipts provided, we suspect he still has at least half this money. We will confirm this when he visits in September and
likely decrease the funding for this until he lets us know he is out of money for this.
o The health workers said their biggest challenge in completing more referrals is transportation. They often must walk to Blokhaus, then take a tap-tap
to Jacmel. This takes several hours. By the time they reach there, the appointments for the day have all been given out. At the clinics where they go,
you do not set up initial appointments in advance. You show up early in the morning and receive a number. If they get to your number that day, you
get seen.
o The health workers would like us to purchase a motorcycle for them to use to transport the healthier patients and allow them to complete more
referrals.
o When Fr. Nexcene visits in September, we want to discuss the idea of a bonus, about $20, that we could give to the health workers for each referral
they complete. This would be to see if this incentive resulted in more completed referrals. We add about 50 referrals each trip and only remove 20-30.
• Arts & Crafts to sell
o Cindy McCullough spent a large part of her week working with some school aged children. She had several art projects designed to both teach the
children some basic art skills and to create cards and other items we can sell to benefit the school.
o The children made greeting cards and painted magnets and Christmas ornaments. They also painted different pictures.
o Cindy worked with younger students in the mornings and older students in the afternoons. On the last day, two teachers were there. She taught them
how to do the projects and left materials behind for them to continue to teach the children.
o The results were mixed. They were able to get many sellable cards and the children who participated really enjoyed the time. There was a definite
lack of skill. Many of the children had never learned things we take for granted, like using scissors and cutting on the lines. Painting was also new to
them.
o In a separate project, two local women had made many small baskets/purses/place mats for us to sell for them. They had also taught a group of
students to make the same items. We brought some of these back to try to sell. Unlike the art project we did, Fr. Nexcene asked that the sales of any of
these items would go directly back to the women or students who made them. We did not purchase any up front, and made no guarantees. But they are
nice items, reasonably priced, and we hope to be able to sell some of them.
o Both the art project/cards and the purses will be available at our silent auction in the fall and many of our other fundraisers.
