Haiti (Jérémie)
Medical Clinic
photo
Friends of Health Haiti(FHH)
EMI AL Project 7091
March 18 - 27, 2011
Contact
Daniel Puttcamp
Internet Office Phone: (719) 571-9503
This is a US phone number


Team Needs
Project Scope
Dr. Catherine Wolf, Founder and Executive Director of Friends for Health Haiti, Inc. FFH) was a missionary physician in Haiti from 1982-1987 and from 1990-1994.  The love for Jesus and the Haitian people has given both Catherine and her longtime friend Cherlie Severe, RN (born and raised in Jérémie, Haiti) a far-reaching vision:  to develop a medical facility that provides primary health care to people of all ages, maternity services including emergency obstetric care, and community education and preventive care.

The site of this medical facility is Gatineau, a mountain community outside the town of Jérémie, located at the far western end of the southern peninsula of Haiti. In the area surrounding the FHH clinic property the average walking distance to a health center is three to eight hours.  The majority of the roads in this area are accessible only by four-wheel drive, and many communities can only be reached by foot path.  The city of Jérémie has the only hospital in the department and during rainy season the rivers make access to the hospital impossible for many of the department’s residents.

This region also faces major challenges related to emergency obstetric care as illustrated by the following true story:

Around midnight the evening of December 4, 2006, a 23-year-old wife and mother of one, in her final month of pregnancy, awakened from sleep with her bed soaked in blood.  The next 14 hours were a blur to her husband, a 29-year-old professor in a local primary school.  Her pregnancy had been heretofore uncomplicated, and now he was faced with a major dilemma.  He and his wife lived in a small community in the mountains of Haiti, a significant distance from the nearest town and medical facility.  By the time he gathered neighbors to help him, strapped his bleeding wife to a chair, carried her on their shoulders to the nearest dispensary, waited for a vehicle to come from Jérémie to get her, drove her down the mountain and finally reached the hospital, she essentially lost all the blood in her body.  As the doctor leaned over to examine her, she took her last breath and died.  Her unborn baby never had a chance.

To address these critical needs, FHH is currently using small house for a clinic twice a week in the mountain community of Gatineau, but the facility is limited. To serve the 45,000-50,000 Haitian men, women, and children in the immediate catchment area (over 140,000 in the secondary area) to the glory of God, FHH needs an advanced community-based primary and preventative clinic and maternity care center.

The Primary and Preventative Clinic will include outpatient examination rooms, laboratory/ radiology/ pharmacy and storage. Future projects include a maternity center and living quarters for short- and long-term staff. This EMI team will focus on the facility master plan and the design and construction documents for the Primary and Preventive Care Clinic. The site has no electricity and will be powered by a generator/battery/inverter system and possible solar or wind generation. The water for the project will be served by a local spring.

The goal for this team is the completion of the construction documents while in country, which may require a preliminary clinic design to be completed remotely with Dr. Wolf.

Will you prayerfully consider joining this team for the benefit of Haitians in Gatineau?
Costs
$US 1,600 - 2,200 (depends on airfare)
More information on project costs

Other Project Information
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