While Dr. Jacques was in Les Cayes last week, he had heard from locals there that many people had been visiting a Vodou Priest, Dok La, in the community of Arnaud in the Nippes region. While the radio and social media in Haiti are reporting that a Senator from that area had helped hospitalize about 15 patients, including an 18 months old child, most of whom had fractures requiring surgery and orthopedics, in reality many of these same people were visiting and confiding in Dok La of their own accord. Dr. Jacques decided it was time to pay a visit to Dok La.
Dok La and Dr. Jacques in Arnaud
Dok La is 76 years old with more than 35 years’ experience in the profession. He is considered as a legacy for his family, an icon for the area with people coming from various regions of Haiti, including big cities like Cap Haitien, Jeremie, and Les Cayes, and even from the diaspora living outside of Haiti. All different levels of social classes come to regular clinic in his home. His fees are relatively high running 7500 Gourdes, the equivalent to roughly $77.32 USD per consultation, while the HAM clinic in Dumay charges 100 Gourds per visit, the equivalent of just under a dollar USD. Dok La treats his clients for, among many things, fractures, abscesses, hematomas, and mastitis in breastfeeding women.
Vodou has a long and important role in Haiti’s history. According to Wikipedia, “Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and the Roman Catholic form of Christianity. There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners. Vodou has faced much criticism through its history, having repeatedly been described as one of the world's most misunderstood religions.”
Assessing Dok La’s patients
Having lived his entire life in Haiti, and growing up in the Nippes region, Dr. Jacques understands the power of a Vodou priest in Haitian communities. His recent visit with Dok La confirmed the outsized leadership role such priests can play in the medical response to earthquakes within communities where such beliefs can cause alienation from medical doctors. Understanding this culture, Dr. Jacques carefully negotiated with Dok La to authorize HAM’s team to approach the patients he is treating for severe injuries from the earthquake to return to the hospital for treatment if the patients choose to go as he does not hold anyone by force. If the patients want hospital treatment, and Doc La respects his agreement, he will be able to accompany the team to come to see the treatments that are being performed at the Sainte Therese Hospital.
This process of working with local communities in the way Dr. Jacques is working with Dok La in Arnaud may seem frustrating, as it was in this case. However, this process is extremely important, as stated HAM’s vision, to collaborate with rural Haiti to help them lift their communities out of the cycle of poverty. This vision, coupled with the HAM’s values of our commitment to fostering the dignity of the individual and respecting the ways of the community, is what sets this organization apart from the majority of our peers.
Dr. Jacques evaluation Dok La’s patient