Beverly is running Save The Children's cholera clinic in Jacmel

I'm posting an e-mail from Beverly, she just arrived back in Haiti again.
-Mike.


Dear family and friends,

Greetings from Jacmel, Haiti! I am so excited - Save the Children has hired me to supervise their cholera Treatment Units in the Southeast Department of Haiti for 3 months. It’s been a whirlwind the last few weeks – interviewing 13 Dec., invited to the position 18 Dec., flurry of employment paperwork and background check and departure on 5 Jan, arriving in Port au Prince (PaP) 6 Jan., oriented to Save in PaP same day, including grocery store (how much coffee and oatmeal do I need for 3 months?), visit a Cholera n over at 3:30 pm – met at least 35 of the 150 staff here. Found out that that my new supervisor was not informed that I don’t speak French!! Oh, boy. But most of the doctors here speak Spanish, so we will somehow make do. I THINK I might have an interpreter for my first week…never any guarantees.

A really cool thing happened in Miami. A guy who was in line where I was also getting coffee had a darling 14 month old son with him. We looked at each other and he said “I know you!” He is a flute player in the Haiti Philharmonic and I had played with them last July in PaP! What total fun that was! Then, in my one day in PaP, I did get to have lunch with my friends at the St. Trinity Music School – Bernadette, Pere David, Guerlyn, Thara – wonderful. ALSO, the composer, Dicksons, was there. I had the great joy of playing his piece “After the Earthquake” with the phil last summer. And there he was, in person! He told me he had a vision about the quake and had written the piece months before it happened. Quite moving. Keep in mind that the anniversary of the quake is approaching (12th Jan) and people are quite anxious. Also keep in mind that Sunday, the official results of the presidential election will be announced. If they do not keep all 3 top candidates in the run-off election (17 Jan), everyone expects riots even worse than in December.

Back to Jacmel…There are 3 Cholera Treatment Units (CUs) in the Southeast – Beinet, Belle Anse and Thiotte (now being constructed). Until I arrived, the Jacmel Save director has been overseeing all of the cholera efforts on top of everything else that Save does. I am the first of 4 supervisors to arrive. I will visit all 3 sites, do an initial assessment and “just in time” teaching where appropriate and then we will further strategize. Until the other supervisors arrive, I may also try to visit each of the CTUs on a regular basis to reinforce proper protocols and help with problem solving. My personal goal is to make sure that we have a strong allocation to education and outreach so that cholera does not get a strong foothold in this department. So far, their numbers have been quite small, but are starting to rise. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to go to the mountainous communities to help with the education because most are only accessible by foot, burrow or motorcycle. But I will work with the Public Health Promoters to make sure they get psyched about their importance and try to assure that they are getting out to the most remote communities. We shall see, eh?

We just heard that World Food Program delivered medicines and supplies to our Belle Anse unit. It seems that the organizations that have the infrastructure to mount the Cholera Treatment Units (Save the Children, MSF) do receive support from those that are here and active, but can’t do the massive intervention required for a CTU. We have at least 25 employees at each CTU and I’m guessing I’ll be pushing to hire more PHPs – public health promoters.

For now, I will be in Jacmel for 1 more night, to Beinet on Monday/Tuesday and back to Jacmel Tuesday. Then I hope to go to the eastern CTUs – Belle Anse (3 ½ hrs from Jacmel) and Thiotte (another couple of hours from BA) for several days. I’ve been staying at the director’s house – 2 other full time employees are here and there are several extra rooms for transients such as myself. Too bad that the swimming pool is undergoing cleaning. Guess there are great beaches, but I don’t think I’ll get there very soon.

Theoretically I will have a modem that will give me internet connection, but that remains to be seen! In the mean time, know that I am happy, people here are so great and they are grateful to have me arrive, even without French or Creole. My Creole keeps improving piti, piti (little bits) and I hope to be fluent in the next couple of hours! Why not ask for the miracle, eh?

Much love,
Beverly

Cholera is spreading in Haiti

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/world/americas/15cholera.html

The hospital where Beverly is right now is Ground Zero for the cholera outbreak. Their blog is here:
http://www.hashaiti.org/blog

Petit Trou right now

Petit Trou is about under the "H" in the word "HAITI" on this map:

Beverly is back in Haiti

Beverly is the nurse from our team; she's back in Haiti right now, working at the Artibonite Valley Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, where the center of the cholera outbreak is.

That hospital's blog is here:
http://hashaiti.blogspot.com
...they seem to update it about every other day, so it's a good place to keep track of the Cholera outbreak.

And Bev's personal blog is here:
http://lyneglobalhealth.blogspot.com
She told me she'll do her best to update it, but of course internet access in Haiti can be iffy.

-Mike.

ps:
Tropical storm Tomas is expected to hit Haiti on Friday. Meanwhile, $500 million in US aid- your tax dollars- are being held up by a single Republicans senator from Oklahoma. He's been blocking that money since May.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90835

Bothered by that fact? Call your own senator 202-224-3121

A psychologist's perspective on Port-au-Prince

This is an interview with Sandrine, a woman we met in Pétionville, which is the neighborhood in Port-au-Prince where Mercy Corps is located (incidentally, also where Sean Penn's camp is).
http://www.mercycorps.org/lisahoashi/blog/22060?source=9840

Click here for a previous blog post with a picture of Sandrine, and the "bus school" she took us to!

Lauri is going to Zimbabwe

Lauri Benblatt was part of our June 2010 Mental Health Mission. She is a gifted psychotherapist in Boulder who specializes in art therapy. She is also an alum of Harvard's Program For Refugee Trauma.

Lauri is now raising funds for an upcoming trauma education trip to Zimbabwe, a land racked by the destructive earthquake known as the dictator Robert Mugabe. She's going with a group called Tariro:
http://www.tariro.org

If you'd like to help Lauri, please write LAURI BENBLATT in the memo line of your tax-deductable check, made out to:
Tariro
P.O. box 50273
Eugene, Oregon 97405

-Mike.

Art from Colorado kids to Haiti kids

During the June Trauma and Medical mission, we brought a big stack of art made by kids in Colorado to give to the kids of St. Paul's school in Petit Trou. Some of the Colorado kids even wrote some phrases in French on their masterpieces. We snuck out at night to tape the imported children's art up all over the school walls, so the school would be decorated upon everyone's arrival.

After Lauri's art therapy session with the first grade class, we handed the rest of them out individually. The Haitian kids were thrilled to get art from other faraway kids and compared and traded with one another.

Here's some pictures.

-Mike.