UPDATE: CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE IN HAITI
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Konbit Sante gathers supplies for shipping container while health workers educate communities
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| The ULS health clinic in Bande du Nord holds a community education forum on preventive and treatment measures for COVID-19. Note how the meeting is being held outside, and that participants are observing 1-meter social distancing. |
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Dear Friends,
Returning to the U.S. last week on one of the final flights from Haiti before they were halted for the indefinite future really brought home to me once again how supporting and protecting each other as a global family is in our “enlightened self-interest.” An epidemic of the type we are all facing can only be successfully eradicated collectively.
Members of our Maine staff are working from home, and meetings by our Board of Directors, advisers, and others are being held remotely, all in the interest of disrupting and slowing the transmission of COVID-19 in the states. In Haiti, our staff and partners are working tirelessly to inform and encourage people in their communities to slow transmission and to prepare for treating the cases that will require hospitalization. As difficult as those things are proving to be in the U.S., there are even greater challenges in Haiti, where the virus is just getting a foothold (as of today, there are 16 confirmed cases in Haiti, up from 2 confirmed cases reported on March 20). I am moved by the spirit of “konbit”—working together for a common purpose—by which our team and partners are approaching the tasks at hand.
Josaime Clotilde St Jean, RN, our community health program manager, has been training and equipping the community health workers (called agents de santé in Haiti) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to spread important information and advice about how to stay safe using local communication strategies. In Haiti, that means things such as hiring a “mobile”—a pickup truck with large speakers in the bed that moves slowly through neighborhoods projecting a taped message—or walking around neighborhoods with megaphones and handing out pamphlets in Creole. To extend our reach, Miss St Jean is also coordinating with our longtime partner health facilities (Haitian Baptist Convention Hospital, Fort St. Michel health center, ULS) as well as with the staff at C2C (Care to Communities), which supports several health centers in Northern Haiti.
Of course, it is a challenge for people to “shelter in place” when the only way many of them can feed their children is to go to the crowded market to sell their few wares every day, or to “wash their hands frequently” when water and soap are not readily accessible. "Social distancing" is difficult for someone who must live with 6 or more others in a single room. We can look for ways to promote social cohesion at the same time as promoting physical distancing. People can and do invent new ways to greet each other while avoiding shaking hands and kissing on the cheek (which is the customary greeting) and ventilate homes as best they can. We can distribute soap and disinfectant for cleaning hands and surfaces. People have already learned to drink treated water whenever possible. And they can learn the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 as well as when and how to seek care.
One of our biggest concerns is finding ways to support the workers who are tasked with providing care at our partner facilities. To that end, we are preparing an emergency shipping container to send what we can so that they have the most basic tools and protections to do their work. We are grateful to the Dalton Foundation, a Haitian-American surgeon from New York City, and others who are sending very important materials that are needed now by our partners and will be included in this container. We are also grateful to pilots from Archangel Airborne who have volunteered to fly materials into Haiti if needed.
As this unfolds, those of us based in the U.S. will continue to do our part to support our neighbors and communities in this time, and to support our global neighbors and communities that we have come to know so well in Haiti. We can—and will—do both.
Please be safe. Look out for each other. And please join us in helping others respond in their own communities as well.
Peace,
Nate Nickerson
Executive Director
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Solar installation complete at ULS
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| The solar panel array at the ULS health clinic |
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We are continuing to help the ULS health center in Bande du Nord make improvements that will help it become more self-sufficient. Installation of a solar panel array is now complete enough to provide most of the energy needs of the center, making it less reliant on a gas-powered generator. The clinic is not connected to the Cap-Haitien power grid, and a nationwide fuel shortage during the past year frequently increased the price of gasoline, so a more efficient, clean, and sustainable source of power was critical to the clinic’s ability to provide care.
The solar array was installed by the non-profit organization Justice and Mercy Energy Systems (JAMES) and funded by a matching funds campaign spearheaded by one of our supporters, Dr. Laalitha Surapaneni of the University of Minnesota Medical Center, who is continuing to solicit donations to complete the project. The health center’s director, Dr. Maudelin Mesadieu, reports that the clinic has not had to use the generator since the solar array became operational.
In other ULS news, progress is being made on a new retaining wall to replace one that was destroyed by a torrential thunderstorm in December. The clinic is located on the side of a mountain, and the wall is essential to prevent storm runoff from threatening people living below. The replacement wall will have deeper and wider footings to help ensure it will not fail again under extreme conditions. |
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FSM receives 3-wheeler for supply distribution
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We were recently able to help the Fort St. Michel health center purchase a 3-wheeled motorcycle with unexpected funds dedicated to support FSM.
The motorcycle can now be used to transport supplies and perform other errands that FSM was utilizing its ambulance to perform. This will free up the ambulance for more emergency-based use, which will be essential for COVID-19 response.
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