One of the largest challenges currently facing Healing Art Missions (HAM) projects in Haiti is one that we have all faced since the Pandemic arrived in 2020, supply chain shortages. Most of us felt the impact of shortages of commodities from hand sanitizers to protective face masks to toilet paper in the past year. Shortages of medical supplies internationally due to the Pandemic have dominated the media for well over a year now, so it should be no surprise that HAM’s primary care clinic in Dumay has acutely felt the impact.
This disruption of the international supply chain has significantly impacted Haiti’s already fragile healthcare system. Given supply and demand issues, local prices on medical supplies that are available have skyrocketed. However, there is another significant challenge affecting the HAM clinic’s ability to maintain an adequate inventory of medicines and medical supplies at the clinic, political and social instability. We have written extensively about the political situation in Haiti and you can read about that in prior Blog posts, but suffice it to say that competing gangs are currently ruling the streets of Port-au-Prince, as well as Croix-des-Bouquet, the closest city to Dumay. This makes regular travel into the commercial areas to purchase medical supplies highly susceptible to robbery, car-jacking and kidnapping.
Last September, in anticipation of limited medical supply availability in Haiti, we decided to try an alternative approach. The International Dispensary Association Foundation (IDA Foundation) is a European non-profit committed to providing essential medicines and medical goods to health care providers in developing countries, access to quality products at a fair price. HAM worked with IDA over ten years ago, when medical supplies were more limited in supply in Haiti, and as they were still able to ship supplies to Haiti we decided invest in purchasing a major shipment of medicines and supplies from IDA.
We are delighted to report that on April 28th, because of the dogged persistence of Dr. Jacques dealing with the Haitian Government and Customs, those medicines and supplies finally landed in Dumay! We are breathing a sigh of relief knowing the HAM Clinic in Dumay has the supplies to continue to provide the highest level of care possible to that community.