The final month of 2019 brought a sharp reduction of sociopolitical chaos in Haiti, thankfully. Reports from coworkers and friends on the ground say there’s a level of calm not seen for several months and the Haitian people doing their best to resume some sense of “normalcy”, spending time with family and friends for the holidays. Our in-country project manager, Charles, was finally able to take the bus from his home in Port-de-Paix on the north coast of Haiti, 100 miles south to the Dumay clinic. Busses have not been running for months keeping Charles from visiting the clinic to check on operations and perform his other job with HAM as the eye technician who runs our eye clinic.
Head Nurse Guerdy with Patients
Despite Charles inability to travel cross country, the Dumay clinic has remained open, providing the community ongoing access to health care. As the majority of clinic staff live locally they have been able to continue operations even when it has been too dangerous for our medical director, Dr. Jacques, to travel the seven miles (as the crow flies) from his home in Port-au-Prince. Head nurse Guerdy has been instrumental in attending to patient care whenever Dr. Jacques has been stuck at home. The Lab, Pharmacy, Midwives and clean water programs have all continued. Our driver, Reginald, who also lives in Port-au-Prince, has been able to run supplies to the clinic whenever possible and because the clinic is entirely powered by solar our ability to maintain patient care has been minimally impacted. Additionally, schools reopened in early December so the Charles Solomon School in Port-de-Paix has welcomed students to freshly plastered, painted and lighting powered by their new solar array all completed over the summer. To read more about the recent school facility upgrades, click HERE and scroll down to the October 1st blog post.
While no one knows what the new year holds for Haiti, Dr. Tracee plans to return there the third week of January for the first time since April 2019. The importance of this upcoming trip cannot be understated as we have medical equipment parts and medicines to transport that are not available in Haiti. Additionally, this is the longest period of time Dr. Tracee has been away from Dumay since her first trip in 1997 and it is important that the community knows we will not abandon them during these difficult times. Dr. Leslie and Susan Palleschi plan to join Dr. Tracee on this upcoming January trip.