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Robert Brenner, MD: Family Physician, Summit Medical Group, New Jersey
Haiti: April 2011 I first went to Haiti in April of 2009 with The COTY Project, a non-profit organization based in North Adams, MA, that runs a program called "The Haiti Plunge." Over the past several decades, this program has created a nine-village cooperative in a remote mountain area of Haiti, approximately 60 miles northwest of Port Au Prince. Under the direction of an incredible woman, Sister Eunice Tassone, they have created schools, agricultural cooperatives, a rudimentary clinic, water filtration, and a host of other improvements for this area. I went back to Haiti on April 15 through 24 2011 with several specific goals in mind. Our first goal was to augment and strengthen the current clinic that is serving this area. I am grateful to the many people who have contributed to this goal! Because of such generosity, we were able to bring a computerized charting system with new chart notes, equipment for a small lab, and a host of medications and supplies. As our team presence in this area is intermittent, ensuring the sustainability of what we implemented is one of my biggest concerns. We hired and trained a local gentleman as the clinic administrator to maintain the clinic and ensure the proper functioning in our absence. We also developed a budget for the clinic operations and to have a local physician and nurse attend the clinic on a regular basis. Our second goal was to provide interim medical care to people in the nine-village cooperative, as well as the surrounding Internally Displaced Persons Camp (IDP). The IDP, named "Obama II," continues to grow in size with people who have left the untenable Port-Au-Prince area. They are living in tents with little self-generated sustenance, and from a public health perspective, are in a very precarious situation although there was definitely less desperation this year and evidence of progress. We saw over 160 patients during our stay. A third goal was for a few of us to hike up to remote villages and attempt to bring these villages into the fold of the cooperative and the new clinic. We did engage the mountain villages and met with their leader who, as it turns out, was their equivalent of a midwife. We offered him obstetrical supplies and to meet our team's midwife, which was of great interest to him. He in fact hiked down the mountain two days later and picked up supplies, toured the clinic, and appeared to be interested in the new endeavor. It was an overall intense experience with many goals reached and some additional challenges. I want to thank the Ben Josephson Foundation for its support! Thank you! Back to FIELD REPORTS page | ||||||
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