Socio-political violence continues to challenge the life of anyone currently living in Haiti, making it difficult to even ship important medical supplies into Haiti and putting the Haitian people at greater risk daily. With fewer outside Non-Governmental Organizations that have worked in Haiti for decades and continue their commitment to remain working in-country, depend more than ever before on collaborating and working together and share what limited resources are available.
Healing Art Missions’ (HAM) would like to thank Father Rick Frechette, who runs two hospitals in the Port-au-Prince area, St. Damien’s Hospital pediatric hospital, and Saint Luc Family Hospital, for supporting HAM by offering needed equipment and professional assistance during this difficult time. Dr. Tracee Laing, HAM’s Founder, first met Fr. Rick, following the 2004 coup overthrowing then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It had become too dangerous for Dr. Tracee to bring teams with her on her four annual visits to Haiti, so she had time to join Fr. Rick’s team, serving in Cité Soleil (one of the most notorious slums in Haiti), and volunteering at Sisters of Charity hospitals in the PaP area.
Fr. Rick Frechette, D.O. and Dr. Paul Farmer, are the two leaders in Haiti who most influenced Dr. Tracee as Healing Art Missions was being established and finding its way over 20 years ago.
Father Rick was born in the U.S. in 1953 and graduated from Assumption College in Massachusetts with degrees in math and philosophy. He continued his studies at St. John’s University in New York studying theology as a seminarian and was ordained a priest in 1979. Following a few years as a parish priest in Baltimore, Fr. Rick became a Passionist priest in 1979 with his goal to minister to the spiritual health of humanity. In 1983 he began working in Mexico, joining Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH), Spanish for Our Little Brothers and Sisters, an organization committed to creating life changing opportunities to disadvantaged, vulnerable, and disabled children and youth living in extreme conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean. While working with NPH in Mexico and Honduras, Fr. Rick realized that in order to actually make a difference, “to minister to the children’s physical needs,” he would need a medical degree, which he received in 1998 from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.
For over 30 years now, Fr. Rick has overseen NPH Haiti’s St. Damien 240-bed pediatric hospital, which provides long-term care to critically ill children and outpatient services to children and adults each year. Additionally, he has managed the operations of the NPH residential homes, schools and various community service programs
Fr. Rick has stepped up to help HAM over the years, including accompanying Dr. Tracee in 2007 to HAM’s Dumay clinic after the kidnapping, in Dumay, of Pastor Nathan Dieudonne, who at the time managed the clinic. The kidnappers were still in the area and threatened to kidnap leaders associated with the clinic. NPH played a key role in the response to the devastating 2010 earthquake in PaP. Dr. Tracee and Dr. Leslie Mihalov, E.R. pediatrician, long-term HAM medical volunteer and member of HAM’s Board of Directors, volunteered at St. Damien’s Hospital, and worked with teams, coordinated by NPH, serving tent camps housing survivors of the earthquake.
In April, Dr. Jacques, HAM’s Haitian CEO and Medical Director, happened upon Fr. Rick at a collective meeting regarding humanitarian efforts underway in Haiti. Fr. Rick inquired about how Tracee and the HAM Clinic were doing. Jacques told Father Rick about the two regions where Ham is focusing medical services, currently the area’s most adversely impacted by the gang situation in Haiti: the Centre de Sante de Dumay in the Croix-des-Bouquets region, and the Surgery Outreach in the Nippes region.
Following their initial meeting, Fr. Rick visited HAM’s Dumay clinic and continued his dialogue with DR. Jacques. The result of that visit netted HAM’s Dumay clinic a temporary anaesthesia machine, while the St. Damien Hospitals technicians try to find replacement parts for HAM’s broken machine, a portable X-ray machine that will help with the multitude of gunshot victims Dr. Jacques treats weekly, and eight hospital beds. Additionally, Fr. Rick will work with Dr. Jacques to advocate with the Haitian police and the gangs, to provide a humanitarian corridor so medical staff, medical suppliers, and patients can safely access both the Dumay clinic and the hospitals in Nippes.