haitiministry

Mission Trip Report - 26 January - 3 February 2017

Overall Missions Goal: Serve God’s beloved poor.

Mission Focuses:
1. Witness Hurricane Matthew, post hurricane drought, and January 8th through 10th high winds which has stripped the already barren countryside to the bone.
2. Continue to build sister parish relationship and understand the current status of ongoing projects.
a. Meet newest University Program students and see how things are going for them as we work together during the medical mission.
b. Meet with our graduated University Program students who are now professors in the Gandou school as they do two years of service for us and discuss the details of how the school is functioning.
c. Work with Father on the grade school and high school details and potential construction projects.
d. Further investigate potential plans for a purified water system and water holding tank.
e. Discuss details of micro-loan project plans and create schedule for the start after hurricane setbacks.
f. Discuss details of the Church construction project and document the progress from the last trip.
g. Discuss the status of the home rebuilding projects for the extremely poor.
h. General repair and maintenance around the parish and especially with generator and the rectory electrical system.
i. Continue with bunk bed construction project for the rectory for use by our team.
3. Provide health care for the people of our sister parish in the following ways:
a. Run medical clinic/pharmacy and provide the best possible medical care to the greatest number possible.
b. Run dental clinic and provide cleanings, extractions, and restorations.
c. Run our first ever eye clinic.
d. Create ID cards for patients for best possible patient tracking.
e. Continue with our referral program and referral patient tracking which provides the support for the people in our sister parish to get health care in the cities of Jacmel or Port-au-Prince when we are not in Haiti.
f. Meet with our patients who recently had surgery for cleft palate, club foot and open heart surgery, use our rental trucks to transport the girls who had heart surgery back to Gandou from Port-au-Prince
g. Visit the 3 clinics in Jacmel that we have recently made a connection with and discuss our plans to send patients to them in the future.
h. Organize the 350 patients in our referral database and sort which patients can go to the upcoming clinics in Lavallee and Jacmel.
i. Transport emergency cases from Gandou to city using our truck.
j. Continue to build and improve our program for malnourished children.
k. Continue to support, train, and encourage breastfeeding.
4. Provide opportunity for our team to experience poverty, sacrifice, life in Haiti and especially our sister parish in order to grow in humility and a better understanding of the ways that God is asking for us to live in service to others.

Focus Area #1 - Sister Parish Relationship/Status of Ongoing Projects

Hurricane Matthew and a Second Storm that Passed 2 Weeks Before our Trip.

Hurricane

In October of this year a category 3 hurricane (Matthew) passed over the western side of Haiti where our sister parish is located.
The rains lasted almost 3 days straight. They dumped more than 12 inches of rain on the steep deforested hills carrying with it these poor people’s most valuable resource…their top soil. Without the top soil these people have no hope for the future.
Furthermore, the hurricane winds that reached 90 miles per hour created widespread destruction throughout its path.
The people of our sister parish tried to protect themselves from the storm but it was impossible given the weakly patched-together roofs on their homes and their walls, which so often have huge gaps between the boards. Many have simply tarps, plastic, or old rags serving as walls.
Without mercy the 90 mile per hour winds drove through the majority of the homes in Gandou.
Many people lost their roofs and some lost the whole structure they called home.
I am sure that most of the people huddled their families together in the driest corners of their tiny leaking homes for days trying to keep from getting any wetter.
I can’t even image the suffering involved in living through a violent storm like this in a structure not capable of protecting you. Never sure from one second to the next if the roof or wall was going to come off or come down on top of you. Never sure if the storm was going to send someone else’s metal roof sheets through your walls. Unable to stop worrying, unable to get dry or find a dry place to sleep for days.
It is one thing to go through a storm like we do here in the USA, where we are simply inconvenienced by it and we cannot get around as good. You never have to stop eating. It is quite another to go through a storm where your whole house, all your belongings, and even you and your children are wet for days. Unable to get to your outdoor cooking area because of the storm, and therefore unable to eat for days.
To finally come out of your home after all this only to find what little crops and animals (your only hope for the future) washed away, dead, and gone, with no insurance, no one to help, and nowhere to turn because the whole community is in nearly the same situation.
We were shocked to learn just how many of the people’s animals were lost in the storm, but we should not be surprised because there are no barns in Haiti for the animals. Whenever you see an animal in Haiti, you see them tied with a rope around their neck to a tree. Animals are like people, and they too need shelter from the storm. Since they had no shelter, many either strangulated themselves or broke free and ran in fear, eventually lost off the side of the mountain. Father also reported many other animals, after being drenched with rain for days, got sick after the storm and died.
Following the storm, we received several pictures from our sister parish nurse showing people with head, back and chest injuries from houses breaking down on them.
After the phones started working again, Father communicated with us several times describing the challenges he had in front of him.
It was during this time that we rallied and tried to send down funding to help Father Voltaire with his community of 10,000 people.
After the hurricane Father fed the people, some in exchange for manual labor with picks and shovels to dig out the dirt roads by hand. Father used the school lunch program reserves of rice and beans to immediately help the community. After Father and the community got the road opened back up, he was able to purchase some food and supplies for the people.
Father knew that the current crop of food was lost in the fields, but his goal was to simply bridge the people through until their next crop could be harvested. After some time, Father told us that things were starting to look up, the people were again planting and things were starting to grow again.

Wind Storm

On our first day during this trip, Father updated us on the current situation. He reported that shortly after the people planted, the sun came out intensely. During a critical period, there was an extreme dryness, which did much damage to the little seedlings.
On January 8, 9, and 10, just about two weeks before our trip, there was another storm that pushed across our sister parish with extremely high winds. This came at a vulnerable period for the fruit on the trees. It was the fruit from the trees that Father was hoping the people could live from until the next harvest. Father reported that the storm stripped the fruit from the trees and this dryness and the wind has left the people worse off than they were following the hurricane.
It was clear to many people on this trip that these two things were a heavy burden on Father and he did not have the energy and hope he had on previous trips. He said several times that priests cannot stay too long in places in Gandou or they will die.
In order to better understand this situation and the impact on the community, we sent two of our team members (Mike Loman and Gaylnn Flocchini) out in the community with one of our Haitian college students to act as a translator. They talked to the people about their situations after the hurricane, the dry period, and the second wind storm.
During their visit to the community they met with 14 different families.
Mike and Gaylynn found outcomes after the storms to be very consistent from one family to the next. The people described the huge losses they have suffered in their crops, fruit, and livestock. None of these people started with much from the perspective of someone from the USA. Losing the little they had was a huge loss and a terrible blow to their families.
Mike and Gaylnn kept notes on what they learned and took pictures of the people and their homes. After returning from the trip Mike wrote an report describing his findings from the community visit. This report is in our March newsletter. If you would like to have a copy of this please email us at livingamdg@yahoo.com or call us at 812-623-2654.
We talked with Father and asked him to tell us what he needed to prevent the people from starving to death. Father put together a plan and sent us a table of the supplies he would like to purchase and distribute to the people during the next three months. Father’s plan details a need for $18,769 dollars.
We had a surplus in our food program fund and a little extra in our undesignated fund, this totaled about half of what he is requesting. We told Father to go ahead with his plans, as we are confident the remainder will come in.

Earthquake Rebuilding/Construction projects

Church

Shortly after the last trip, in June, we sent money to have some steel door and windows fabricated for the Church. This work was completed and the new doors are very strong, functional, and beautiful. • There were 8 doors and 12 windows fabricated and installed on the Church.
• This secured the Church and solved the issue with the dogs coming in the Church and pooping on the floor.
The next step in the Church construction is to put the cement coating on the outside of the cement blocks on the Church. This is done to protect the blocks and all the mortar joints.
Father had asked for help with this after the last trip and we sent $20,000 down to start the work.
Father reported that his is a very big step in the construction of the Church and the amount we sent was too small to complete the project. He estimates he needs an additional $20-30k to complete the work. He can get a more detailed quote if we think it would be possible for us to raise this amount.
He said the most efficient approach would be to do it all at one time, but we told him we had no other donations to help with the Church construction and this is all we have for now.
We asked him to do the best with the amount of money we sent. Father understood and was going to move ahead with as much as he can complete.
Father reported that he likes to do this type work in September. Likely, this work will not start until then.
He will likely be using the money we sent partly on the outside coating and partly on the inside of the sanctuary portion of the Church.
He said he would get a more detailed estimate for this particular work and email it to us.
We ask everyone to pray that we find a way to continue to build God’s Church for the poor.

Home Building/Rebuilding Projects for the Extremely Poor

The majority of the people in our sister parish live in homes with leaking roofs, large gaps in the walls, and dirt floors. Helping them to repair or replace these structures with solid homes will both improve their health and give them more dignity as human persons.
After the hurricane, there is an even greater number of people needing help repairing their homes.
In the past, we have sent funds to help some of the poorest families build new homes. Currently, we have budgeted to send funds to repair one home and rebuild one home a year. Rebuilding a home costs around $8000 and repairing a home can be done for around $3000.
During our last trip, we visited a new two room house that was recently completed through this project.
So far, this project has successfully rebuilt five homes and repaired four homes. This is nowhere near meeting the need, but we will continue this project and trust that the money will come. Father has the next two house rebuild/repairs planned, they are pictured above. He said he can provide us with pictures of more families and their homes, along with information on their situations if we find more funding.

Sleeping Area for Our Team

During our trips, part of our team sleeps in make shift wooden rooms on the roof of the rectory. Over the years, these rooms have deteriorated and the recent hurricane and winds have done even more damage to them.
We need to either repair or replace these rooms in the near future. Fr. Voltaire would like to construct permanent cement rooms in their place. However, this would be more costly and the team does not feel spending money to make better sleeping areas for us to use two weeks out a year is justifiable given the many other needs in Gandou.
We would like to make necessary repairs, which will likely include replacing the leaking roof and making a better cement base to keep water out. During this trip there was very little rain, so it was not a big issue. During the June trips there is often more rain, so we need to consider the best solution before then. Hopefully with some repairs, these rooms will still be useable for a while longer

Internet at the Rectory

Many years ago, we set up satellite internet in the rectory for the sister parish priest. This was to allow us to better communicate with him. At that time, satellite internet was the only option for Gandou.
We have personally used the internet there during some of our trips to work on patient visas, arrange for patients to be referred to other clinics, and to download drivers for printers we have brought. It is a very slow connection and often does not work at all, especially during bad weather.
Recently, more cell phone towers have gone up in Haiti, and cell phones now work fairly well in Gandou. In the past, one of our team members gave Fr. Votlaire a smart phone, which he now uses regularly to e-mail us.
Due to the higher cost of the satellite internet, it’s unreliableness, and the ability to communicate via cell phones, we discussed with Father the possibility of cancelling the satellite internet. He said he still uses it when his cell phone signal is not good. His phone only receives signal on the rectory porch and it is not always convenient to work there, especially when it is raining.
During this trip we had some very computer tech savvy people with us, including Father Whittington and Harry McCullough. They investigated Father’s satellite internet and different options such as using a “Hot Spot” for internet access. They felt like a “Hot Spot” would be faster and cheaper.
After discussing this option with Father, we have decided to cancel the satellite internet and switch to a Hot Spot. Because Father just paid for the next six months of internet, it will be closer to the next trip before we make any changes.

Sea Container Shipments

In the past, we have paid to ship things on the Parish Twinning Program sea container.
We recently made a connection with Food for the Poor, who offered to ship items for us at no charge. Additionally, Hillenbrand Industries offered to transport the items from Batesville to the Food for the Poor warehouse in Florida for us, also at no charge.
In December we sent our first batch of items this way, it included shoes for the microloan project, soap/toothpaste/toothbrushes/peanut butter for our next medical clinic, and toothbrushes/toothpaste for the school children.
During this trip, Father said it would work better for him if Food for the Poor could transfer the items to Caritas Jacmel for him to pick up there. If he was able to pick up the items in Jacmel, instead of Port-au-Prince he did not see any problems with us send more items this way.
After the trip we contacted Food for the Poor and arranged for this transfer. The items have now arrived in Jacmel and Father will be picking them up soon.
We can’t praise God enough for this great opportunity that Food for the Poor and Susan Roell have created for us.
God does such great things!

Replacement for Father’s Truck

Due to the very poor road conditions from Jacmel to Gandou, Father’s truck has had a lot of wear and tear over the past several years. Needed repairs have began coming more frequently and the cost of these has begun to add up.
We have begun to consider the cost of replacing the current truck, rather continuing to repair it. The current truck was purchased with the help of a German organization, Adveniate, which contributed 75% of the cost of the truck. We have been in contact with this organization recently. They still help with purchasing vehicles. They work through the Bishops of the different diocese to determine which parishes in their area are most in need of a vehicle. For 2017, the vehicles they are providing to the Jacmel diocese have already been allocated to other parishes.
They suggested having Fr. Voltaire talk with his Bishop to be added to the list of parishes needing vehicles. Fr. Voltaire has already done this, but due to the many parishes in need, it may be awhile before he receives priority.
We will need to keep praying that something can be done here because it will not be long and this machine will not be able to go any longer.

Motor Cycle Training for the Heath Care Workers

In the past, our health care workers identified transportation as the main challenge they had with the referral program. They did not have a way to transport the patients to the city for further care. Public transportation does not reach our sister parish.
At that time we discussed different options. Fr. Nexcene, who was then pastor of our sister parish, and the health workers suggested we purchase a motorcycle for the program. Very ill patients would not be able to use it, but many patients just needing consultations would have no problems with it.
We were able to purchase a motorcycle, but getting the health care workers trained to drive it has been slow. Originally Wilbert was trained on it. Recently Wilbert moved out of the area is no longer one of the health workers. In January, Rigaud began learning to drive it.
During this trip, the health workers brought up the subject of transportation again. Although the motorcycle is being used to transport patients, it cannot be used to transport multiple patients at the same time. However, other options, like a truck are not feasible because of the high cost and constant maintenance required.
For now, we do not have an alternative and are planning to try and optimize the use of the motorcycle as much as possible. We are continuing to push to have as many of the health workers as possible trained on driving it.
While we were there our maintenance guys started the motorcycle, checked it out, and drained the fuel from the tank in order to keep it fresh.

Water Project

Water projects are always very complicated projects because the amount of water needed is so large and because they require constant maintenance.
We have been talking to Father Voltaire about different options for a water system for a number of trips now.
We have been trying to sort out some way we can have a water system that does not require people to carry huge amounts of water to the system and does not use electric pumps that require significant electric to be generated in order for people to have water delivered to them.
During this trip, we discussed a proposal that Fr. Voltaire had for a water system.
Father Voltaire would like to take the water off the left side of the Church roof and collect it in concrete tank, which would hold about 4,750 gallons of water.
Under the tank, a purification system would be placed.
The water tank would be built on top of a platform, so that the height of the tank is lower than the Church roof, but higher than any of the destination spots in the rectory, school, or clinic.
With the elevation of water platform being higher, the water could be piped to the rectory and the school without needing a pump.
Since this water source would be purified, the main use would be for drinking purposes.
The cost of this project would be about $12,000.

Extremely Poor Mothers/Families Fund

Many times during our clinics, our doctors identify very malnourished families. This program is to help these families by giving them a small amount of money to allow them to feed their children.
We currently have about 70 people in this program.
We are working to get as many of these people as possible transferred to the microloan and student sponsorship programs.
The needs of all these programs are great and we need someone to help us with these programs so we can work through the details of each of the poor families to find the correct approach for each.
The funding of this project is very small, so the amount of help we can give them is small. The needs of these people are still great. So often the people we put in this program have 8 or more kids that get one or less meals a day, typically a single parent with very little hope for the future.
It often feels like without some help the whole family is at risk of death.
If anyone reading this report can help any with this project we would love to hear from you. Please call us at 812-623-2654 or email at livingamdg@yahoo.com.

Education for our Sister Parish People

New School Building Proposal

Father spent a significant amount of time talking about adding 3 more classrooms, a library and a teacher workroom to the school. The main reason for this is that currently they are forced to do two school sessions per day. The reason for this is because they don’t have enough school rooms. The kindergarten thru 6th grade classes go from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm. Then 7th gr. thru 10th goes from 12:00 pm to 5:30 pm.
This means the little kids are walking to school in the morning in the dark and the bigger kids are walking home after school in the dark.
There are many kids that come to the school in Gandou that walk more than 1 hour to get to school. The problem with this is that they are walking on very steep, rough, rocky, and often muddy mountains to get to school. It would be very easy for someone to fall a very long distance or slide right off the side of the mountain. Father has told us where some of the kids come from to go to his school. We could not image sending little children out on this dangerous and difficult path malnourished, without breakfast, in the dark each day.
The second problem with having school start in the dark and finish in the dark is that there is not lighting in the school classrooms. We worked in the school classrooms late on this trip and we agree if it is dark outside, the school rooms are very dark. Very little school work could be done.
If we were able to combine all the school sessions into one session then it would not be necessary for school to start so early or end so late.
Father felt he could do this if we have 3 more classrooms.
This is a proposed project of building 6 new school rooms. The new rooms will provide 3 more classrooms, library, teacher workroom, and storage room (for the team's equipment). When the team goes to Gandou then the following rooms can be used as: 1) library - private examining room, 2) teacher workroom – general examining room, 3) storage room – pharmacy. The project cost is about $75,000.
See the picture above of this building proposal.
Shortly after the trip we discussed the short term plan with Father. He suggested we repair the old tin roof pavilion-like area, which is between the school buildings we have today. He said for the short term, if this is fixed, then we could use this area as school area and help with the situation.

New School Benches

On our last trip, Father asked for additional school benches. He needed these because of an increased number of children in the school in the lower grades and also because of the additional grade added to the school this year. They were able to add 10th grade because our graduated university students are back in Gandou doing their two years of service. They are teaching in the school.
We sent funds for this project and the benches are complete. During our clinic, they were in storage in one of the classrooms (pictured above). They were in storage because they had been moved out of the classrooms we used for the clinic during the week.

Education Program Funding Needs:

The people of Gandou see education as one big way of helping their young. Over the years, the Gandou ministry has been expanding their involvement in the education program. The ministry needs help with the future funding of the following:

Building 3 more classrooms, a library, a teacher workroom and a room for storage.
Providing needed chairs, desks and supplies for students.
Providing needed chairs & desks for teachers
Providing needed shelves & cabinets for the library
Sponsoring students
Supporting the college scholarships

Scholarship Program

How the College Scholarship Program works:

Once a student has been selected for a scholarship, he/she signs a contract agreeing to certain criteria to maintain while in college. Then after graduation the student returns to Gandou and works for 2 years.

We currently have:

3 teachers who have graduated college and are now teaching at Gandou
1 student in her 3rd year of nursing
2 students in their 2nd year of nursing
2 students in their 2nd year of education
2 students in their 1st year of education

Micro Loans

Goat Project

More than 1 year ago Father Voltaire started talking to us about a goat microloan project he was excited to get started.
Father had previously worked with what he called a very good goat project with Caritas. 5 families each received 5 female goats. The families each paid back 5 goats within 1 year.
With Father’s guidance and his suggestion we decided we would also do a project like this.
During the last trip in June we talked about the details with Father Voltaire and we took everything we heard and understood from him and pulled together a document that described the process he suggested we use and listed out expected timing, responsibilities, and the management details.
We had emailed this to Father Voltaire and asked for him to review it and help us correct any errors.
Father had the document, but he said he did not yet have time to fully review it.
Also after the Hurricane the whole situation has changed, but the need has only gotten greater.
Many of the goats were killed in the area by the hurricane and the following windstorm. The goat population was already declining due to disease. Due to this, the price of goats increased from $50 to $80. Father explained that he would like to start the goat project again in September when the price decreases since farmers will be selling goats to help with school for their children.
Father said the families that are selected to receive 5 goats would have to be able to provide care, shelter, and enough land to feed the goats. Some of the poorest people would not even be able to take the goats because of this. Also because the hurricane killed so many goats in the area, Father would have to purchase the goats in this project at the Dominican Republic border where Father can buy them at a fair price.
We discussed vaccinating and worming the goats annually so they would be healthy and survive. Father said it is very difficult in Haiti to get vaccinations and they would need assistance from the outside. We roughly calculated to vaccinate with CDT yearly: it would cost $4.00 for 5 goats and $2.25 to deworm.
Father is going to discuss the project with Daniel Noel (student we sent to the University and who graduated and returned to Gandou as a teacher), the manager of the Micro Loan Project, and then contact us at the beginning of March with a plan to begin in September.
We really want to get the goat microloan project going because everyone agrees that once we get a family going with a goat microloan project we can take them out of the poor families assistance program.
Our current funding for this project is very limited, but we have enough to start a small pilot project and ensure everything is working well, then we will start knocking on the door of our Lord for much greater funding for this project.

Shoe Project

Daniel Noel is leading us on the shoe project as well.
In this project, we send donated shoes on a sea container. They are given to women in the project to sell. The women receive 75% of the funds from the sale. The other 25% is used to pay Daniel for his assistance with the micro loan projects.
In March 2016 Daniel Noel had 80 pairs of shoes. A second distribution of 118 additional shoes were divided between 10 women for them to sell. As of the January 2017 trip, $260US had been collected for these shoes.
One lady dropped out of the program and was paid for the shoes she sold.
The other women had collectively decided to deposit this money in a fund that will be used for their children’s school expenses in the fall.
Daniel is very happy with this shoe project and would like to expand it more. He will take all the sturdy, gently used shoes that we can provide to him.
We need to talk to Father about finding a nice dry place for him to store the shoes.

Mission Focus Area #2 – Health Care for our Sister Parish

Clinic/Health Care Workers/Nurse

Malnourished Children Program

During our clinic most of the children from the malnourished program showed up.
Maureen spend time with Germain seeing these children and looking over their growth charts.
Germain seemed to understand the program well and she seemed to be doing a great job with the growth charts.
There seemed to be some inconsistent weights on the children, which may have been due to the scale or the babies moving during the weight check.
We worked with Germain to remove a couple of the children from the program because they were getting big enough and old enough to graduate from the program.
We continue to be very impressed with how this program is going and we think it is one of the best programs we have.
This program gets the most malnourished kids that we see during our trip to return to the clinic regularly to see the nurse and get a weight check and more food each month. It is definitely saving lives.
We praise God for the good work He is doing here.

Referral Patients

Our referral program is for patients that need consultation with a specialist or surgery that we are unable to provide in Gandou.
We have been working with a team from Louisiana that visits nearby (1 ½ truck ride) Lavallee three times a year. They provide general surgery, cataract surgery, ultrasounds, and OB/GYN consultations. Sending patient’s to their clinics has been going very well. It is the closest location, the easiest for Father and the health care workers to deal with, and costs very little.
We will continue to send as many patients to them as they are able to accept.
We praise God for the way he is able to take challenging situations and bring good from them. This past December, Fr. Voltaire became very sick and was hospitalized in Jacmel at a clinic called CCH. While he was there, he became friends with Dr. Nelson Frantzso. Father shared with Dr. Nelson about his parish and the medical missions we do there. Dr. Nelson offered to help us find care for our patients in Jacmel.
In the past we have been joined on our medical missions by a Haitian physician, Dr. Andre, who has become a good friend of many of the team members. Shortly before our January trip, he began a new job and was unable to join our team this time. This left a spot for a physician for our mission open, and Fr. Voltaire invited Dr. Nelson to join us and he accepted.
The week with Dr. Nelson went very well. He has many contacts in Jacmel and was very willing to guide us where to send different types of patients. He also works with a group called Centre Hospitalier Christian Martinez (CHCM). This organization has several clinics throughout the year with different medical specialists who can help us with our patients.
We look forward to working with Dr. Nelson in the future on our referral projects.
We have also recently made contact with a third organization that can help us with our referral patients. CCH brings specialist from the states to a clinic in Jacmel several times a year to do specialized surgeries. These surgeries are free and we hope to be able to send many patients there. Already, in the past few months we have had several patients receive surgery there. They are limited in how many of our patients they can accept, because they are serving the whole Jacmel area. However, it appears they will still be able to help many. Our biggest challenge here may not be their limits, but our ability to organize and transport our patients.
We spent our Sunday afternoon going through the 350 page referral binder with the health care workers.
They showed us which patients they completed, gave us the results of the work they had done on the patients, and provided us with receipts for all the work they had done on each patient.
The summary of what was completed is below:

• Oscal-31 referral patients accomplished. Most all of them were done in Lavallee.
• Ricgo-9 patients completed and 3 patients he helped the other health care workers complete.
• Xavier-3 referral patients completed, and additional 8 patients were shared.

12. Between the last trip and this trip our health care workers had many challenges to overcome in helping our patients receive treatment. First, the hurricane blocked off the roads for more than a month. Second, there was a strike at the hospital in Jacmel that prevented patients from being seen. Finally, Fr. Voltaire was very sick and in the hospital for a while. Given these challenges, we were very impressed with what the health care workers were able to accomplish.
13. We are very happy with our health care workers. It is clear they are doing all they can for us.
14. Each trip we go back we have these detailed meetings with them and it is clear they are doing everything they can to help us get lots of referral patients done.
15. We simply think the only challenge is having enough hours in the day.
16. Since we lost Wilbert as a health worker and the other guys are overworked, we asked Father to help us fine 2 more health care workers.
17. By the time I am writing this report Father had found and hired one additional health care worker.

Open Heart Surgery Completed in Haiti

Just 1 year ago we thought it was not possible for us to get our patients care in Haiti for cases that needed open heart surgery.
However, we sing of the Name of the Lord, who has recently connected us with a group from the USA called Haiti Cardiac. They work in Gressier, which is farther away than Jacmel but closer than Port-au-Prince.
Dr. Glaser has been in contact with them and we sent some of our heart patients from our referral database to them a few months ago.
Their help was outstanding and they gave us direction on several patients for future care. They picked one of our patients as a candidate for hearth surgery on their winter mission. We were able to get this patient down to their clinic where she received surgery
By the time of our trip the patient was released from St. Damian’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince and was ready to travel back to Gandou.
Since Father Whittington’s flight came in two days later than ours, we had to send a truck down the mountain to pick him up. The driver was able to pick up this patient as well.
We were overjoyed and thanked God so much for what we saw. This beautiful little girl has been given a new life. She has the heart surgery she needed and is doing wonderful. She is happy and healthy.
They charged us nothing for her surgery. All we had to do was to transport and feed her during her time in Port-au-Prince.
We praise God for completing something He started years ago when one of our doctors first diagnosed this little girl and we started looking for care for her.

Cleft Palate Surgery

The baby above was only a month old when she came to our clinic in June. She was severely malnourished. Due to her severe cleft palate, she was unable to latch on well while nursing. The team in June provided her mother with a breast pump and a bottle, which made it easier for the baby to eat. They also provided formula to mix with the breast milk to provide the baby with additional calories.
The mom was educated on the importance of continuing to breast feed the baby. In Gandou, clean water is not readily available, so switching the baby to formula (mixed with unclean water) would be dangerous. Also, if mom lost her supply of milk while the baby was on formula, she would be unable to feed her when the formula ran out.
The baby was added to our malnutrition program and returned regularly to follow up with our Haitian nurse. In a few months, she was changed into a healthy, well fed baby.
Shortly after this, Stephanie Gunselman connected with an organization called Leap Missions that was coming to Port-au-Prince to perform cleft palate surgeries. She sent them information on the baby above and another girl in our sister parish who has cleft palate. They accepted both patients, who had successful surgery in November.
A couple months after the surgery our Haitian nurse reported the baby had died due to diarrhea and vomiting. We asked for more details, but the nurse simply reported that the mother did not understand how serious the situation was with the baby and it was too late by the time the nurse could get involved.
We are very pained by this situation, but it speaks of the very fragile line between life and death in Haiti and just how quick a very closely monitored child can be become deathly sick. Even with the care of a nurse, the life-robbing grips of poverty take hold.