Dear Friends,
Thank you for taking the time to visit our site and read about our progress through our newsletters and our mid year letter. Many of you are on our mailing list and will receive a printed copy of this letter in the mail. If you are currently not on our mailing list and wish to be you can sign up HERE.
Everything we have taken for granted about health, life, and freedom to move about has been challenged by the first pandemic of our lifetimes. COVID-19 is testing the effectiveness of the U.S. medical system and many of us may be discovering for the first time that health care isn’t easy to access because of fear of exposure or overburdened medical facilities. The people of Haiti didn’t need a pandemic to experience such challenges; they are just part of daily life, now made much worse. Seeing the disruption COVID-19 is causing in the richest country in the world, it’s hard to imagine the devastating impact the virus will have on Haiti’s population, especially their everyday food insecurity, lack of health care, and want of clean water. Our staff, and the communities they serve, need us now more than ever.
Together we have built an effective community health care system in rural Haiti in the face of coups, hurricanes, kidnappings, earthquakes, zika and cholera, and together we will persevere. However, this may be our toughest challenge yet. Haitians suffer from a severe lack of PPE, oxygen, hospital beds, and materials for laboratory testing, as well as basic food and shelter. Combating COVID is further hampered by the spread of misinformation and denial the virus even exists, leading to hostilities toward COVID-19 treatment structures and stigmatization of affected people.
Clinic staff, training with Dr. Jacques, before setting up hand washing and education stations in the community.
Clinic staff setting up a hand washing station in the community.
Child using a hand washing station.
But there are reasons for hope, chief of which is our dedicated Haitian staff, led by HAM’s medical director, Dr. Jean Fritz Jacques. Since February, Dr. Jacques has been preparing the clinic and the community of Dumay for the coming virus. He has collected PPE, trained staff, and met with community leaders, providing those leaders with face masks, hand washing supplies, sanitizer, and printed information and prompting them to lead by example. New clinic protocols were set up in March, limiting those people entering the clinic property to the patient and one additional person only, and requiring everyone to wear a face mask. The staff has set up public hand washing stations in the surrounding neighborhoods and provide regular instruction and advocacy on washing hands, wearing masks and personal distancing. Dr. Jacques participates in weekly Zoom meetings with the Multisectoral Commission for the Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic that oversees the coordination of the COVID-19 health response in Haiti. This working group includes the Ministry of Health (MSPP), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and major international humanitarian groups. In Port-de-Paix, the founder of the Charles Salomon School funded by HAM, Jean Herrard Charles, works with the families of our students, educating them on proper sanitation and social distancing, and distributing needed supplies. He commissioned and distributed 670 face masks and is working on plans to improve food security by planting fallow fields and making available rice and oil to those with the greatest need. The amazing resiliency of the Haitian people generates great hope.
Dr. Jacques, in full PPE, seeing a patient
Dr. Jacques delivering supplies to a community leader.
At HAM, our success derives from connecting diverse communities to work together to address inequities that harm the most vulnerable. In his recent commencement address, President Obama offered this powerful advice to graduates: “…ground yourself in actual communities with real people – working at the grassroots level. The fight for equality and justice begins with awareness, empathy, passion, even righteous anger.” As a supporter of Healing Art Missions (HAM), you have demonstrated your commitment to actual communities with real people, showing empathy and compassion for the most vulnerable.
It is the most difficult times that test us all. We ask you to continue to stand with HAM and the Haitian people through your financial support and as advocates of the Haitian people. And we thank you for being part of HAM’s diverse community.
Most sincerely yours,
Dr. Tracee Laing
Charles teaching children the importance of hand washing and personal distancing to procect against the spread of COVID-19 as school shuts down. (His face mask project began after this.)
MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY
YOUR CONTRIBUTION DIRECTLY IMPACTS THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIVING IN HAITI. IT ALLOW US TO CONTINUE OUR WORK, AND SUPPORT INDIVIDUALS IN HAITI THROUGH MAINTAINING ACCESS TO BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS SERVICES SUCK AS HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION, CLEAN WATER AND EMPLOYMENT.
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