Financial Crisis in Haiti

This year in Haiti, between the end of August and the end of September, there was an abrupt loss of value on the US dollar. The dollars we send to Haiti for operating expenses such as medications and staff salaries can only cover 60% of what they did just the month before.

What Healing Art Missions (HAM) spent on operating costs for the month of August, $19,797 USD, would cost $27,677 USD just one month later.

This abrupt change was apparently the result of a political decision of the Haitian Central Bank to inject $180 million US dollars into the Haitian market all at once. However, there has been no adjustment in the cost of services or products leading to a significant devaluation of the US dollar. The result is that people from overseas who support relatives or friends in Haiti, and humanitarian organizations like Healing Art Missions (HAM), have to significantly increase the amount of money spent for the same products and services.

This financial crisis is simply the latest disaster to afflict Haiti. Regardless, this increase will have a dramatic effect on HAM’s ability to effectively support our connected communities in Haiti. We are keeping a close eye on this current crisis and will keep our supporters informed. But suffice it to say your financial support of HAM is more important than ever. As always, we thank you for your past support and your advocacy for the people of Haiti.

Hope for Sight in Haiti

World Sight Day 2020 is October 8th, with this year’s theme being Hope in Sight. The purpose of World Sight Day is to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment, we wanted to highlight the work that Healing Art Missions (HAM) is doing in Haiti to connect rural communities to eye health. 

Haitian ophthalmologist, Dr. Marcelus performing follow-up eye exam

Access to eye care has been part of the patient services at HAM’s primary care clinic in Dumay since the early days. Optometrist and past HAM board member Dr. Jeanine Flood, was instrumental in training one of HAM’s early translators as an eye technician, Jean Herard Charles, and helped us open an eye clinic within the primary care facility in 2012. Today, Charles runs HAM’s eye clinic as well as being HAM’s Haitian Operations Manager and founder of the Charles Salomon Primary School in Port-de-Paix. Charles lives with his family in Port-de-Paix, which is on the north coast, so he must take a bus from his home to Port-de-Prince, then to Dumay to open the eye clinic one week per month. Charles performs eye exams, monitors glaucoma and cataract conditions, treats eye infections and distributes eye glasses. At the conclusion of the week, Charles is joined at the Dumay Clinic by Dr. Sadrac Marcelus, a Haitian ophthalmologist employed by HAM to follow-up with patients who exhibit more serious eye related issues previously screened by Charles. In 2019 the eye clinic performed 1,106 eye exams, 104 eye surgeries, and distributed 238 pairs of glasses throughout the community.

Charles and Dr. Marcelus seeing patients

In 2016 HAM received the donation of an operating microscope through a partner organization, the SEVA Foundation, which was transported to Haiti via another partner, Direct Relief International. Beginning in January of 2017, a third non-profit organization, Go Crazy, Do Good joined us in our partnership with the community of Dumay to perform cataract surgeries at the Dumay Clinic with HAM’s new operating microscope. Led by eye surgeon Dr. Brian Stahl of Dayton, Ohio, Go Crazy, Do Good has led eye surgery teams to perform cataract surgeries in Africa, Central America, and Jamaica, performing more than 20 medical missions before coming to Haiti the first time. Since then Dr. Stahl and his team have returned to Dumay each January through 2019 and performed 243 cataract surgeries since 2017. Because the socio-political turmoil and violence in Haiti ramped up midway through 2019 and into 2020, we put cataract surgeries on hold for this year, but Dr. Stahl has committed to return to Dumay with his team in the future and continue their annual cataract surgeries for the community.  

Dr. Marcelus working with patient

As Charles wears many hats at HAM, we have been able to utilize his services as an eye technician well beyond HAM’s Dumay Clinic. At the Charles Salomon Primary School, Charles performs annual eye exams on the more than 300 children attending, referring potential glaucoma and cataract cases to see an ophthalmologist, and writing prescription for glasses when needed. In 2018, Charles and HAM volunteer Susan Palleschi journeyed to the remote, mountainside village of Demier, to provide eye exams and identifying several community members with glaucoma and cataracts, and distributing reading glasses when necessary. We have been partners with the Demier community since the mid-2000’s, funding clean water and latrine projects, and paying the salaries of water technicians and a community health worker. The Demier patients with cataracts were then scheduled for surgery with Dr. Stahl’s team during their 2019 January mission. HAM arranged and paid for their transportation to Dumay and housed them at the clinic during their treatment.   

Charles beginning eye exams at the Charles Salomon Primary School

Charles talking with Patient in Demier

In recognition of World Sight Day, if you would like to help support HAM’s eye clinic or any of HAM’s projects in Haiti.

Connecting Communities

Since our founding in 1998, Healing Art Missions (HAM) has been based in the small village of Granville in Central Ohio. It’s not often that here in Granville we simultaneously share a common disaster with the communities we partner with in Haiti. The Novel Corona Virus Pandemic has become the exception. 

This past March, when the pandemic began shutting down the U.S., HAM’s U.S. leadership went into isolation in Granville. We cancelled all travel plans in and out of the U.S., and turned our attention to helping our Haitian leadership, and the communities we serve, prepare for the inevitable coming disaster. First, with staff in Haiti, we studied the evolving realities of COVID-19, so we could strategize on the best ways to educate the community on prevention. Equally important was building a stock of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), something we all learned was a major problem right here in the U.S. 

Our home community of Granville responded in their own way to the shortage of PPE for local health care workers.  Friend and neighbor, Cara Harasaki, a doctor at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, began working with another neighbor, Sarah Marks, a senior director of women’s wear at Abercrombie & Fitch, to address the problem. Together they formed a grass-roots group, to design and make PPE for healthcare workers across the state, calling the project Ohio Save a Hero. With materials and other resources donated by Columbus Industries, Kaiser Aluminum, Dublin City Schools, Past Foundation, Metrobots, volunteers under the leadership of from Granville community member, Susan King, and the local Owens Corning campus got to work.  Cara, Sarah, and Susan rounded up hundreds of volunteers and together they created 2,118 face shields, 1,500 3-D printed reusable masks with changeable filters, and 2,500 protective gowns. 

The project distributed PPE in 20 Ohio Counties, to local EMTs and hospitals, as well as EMS first responders in rural areas and some skilled nursing facilities. And, as is often the case when communities come together in times of crisis, they reached out to other communities needing help. In this case it was to Healing Art Missions to supply our programs in Haiti. Once the bulk of the PPE had been distributed in Ohio, there were a few face shields and face masks remaining, which Ohio Save a Hero offered to HAM, if we could get the equipment to Haiti. 

HAM has been actively working on that logistical bit of the process, shipping PPE to Haiti, since March.  It has been an expensive and inconsistently successful endeavor. Without going into the frustrating details, we are happy to report all the facemasks and face shields have arrived safely and are being used daily by the Dumay clinic staff.  We received enough reusable face masks to be able to share the bounty, by sending 77 masks to St. Damien’s pediatric hospital in Tabarre, Haiti. 

It has always been our philosophy at HAM that we can accomplish so much more when we partner with like-minded individuals and communities. As it says in HAM’s Mission Statement, “We are committed to fostering the dignity of the individual, respecting the ways of the community…” It is especially gratifying to directly connect the communities where we work with the community where we live, 1600 miles apart. 

Hurricane Laura in Haiti

Before Hurricane Laura slammed into the Gulf Coast States, it caused major flooding and mudslides as it tore through Haiti on August 23rd. Accurate statistics are hard to come by, but according to a Haitian 24-hour news radio station, Hurricane Laura left Haiti with 31 dead, 8 missing, 6200 houses were flooded, and more than 2300 houses damaged and another 243 destroyed. 

While Healing Art Missions’ (HAM) Dumay clinic suffered no direct damage, rushing water and flooding of the nearby River Grise prevented HAM doctors and any other staff coming from Port-au-Prince from reaching the clinic the Monday following Laura’s landfall. Fortunately, head nurse Guerdy and some other local staff were able to reach the clinic to attend to the few patients who arrived looking for help. For the remainder of last week, road conditions were so poor that the HAM Truck had difficulty reaching the clinic, suffering some damage to bushings and tie-rod.  Haitian roads are always very hard on vehicles, and crossing the riverbed to get to the clinic takes a heavy toll on our truck, especially after hard rains.

In the North coast town of Port-de-Paix, where the HAM funded Charles Salomon Primary School is located, there was flooding and mud everywhere with many roads washed out. While the school was not harmed, a few houses in the community lost their roofs and many trees were downed. The principal damage in the area was to agriculture. Farmers lost much of the mango, avocado and banana crops as well as livestock. This will add greatly to food insecurity in the coming months, which has been a significant issue in Haiti given the ongoing political and economic situation, exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

All of us at HAM send our heartfelt condolences to everyone who were directly impacted by Hurricane Laura, be it in the Caribbean or the U.S.  

HAM’s newest Government Doctor

In Haiti, medical school graduates are required to complete one year of community service at an approved medical facility within the country, basically a medical residency.  As an official non-governmental medical organization, Healing Art Missions, has been assigned doctors to work at our Dumay clinic over the past several years with much success.

Dr. Milfort Saskya, a recent graduate of Quisqueya Medical School and the most recent government doctor assigned to work at HAM’s Dumay clinic, began her service with HAM in June. Dr. Saskya, will work under the supervision of Dr. Jacques, HAM’s Haitian Medical Director, working at the clinic a few days a week supplementing the clinic’s medical staff. While the government agreement is that these doctors are to volunteer their time for the year, HAM chooses to pay our government doctors a stipend to help supplement their living costs while working at the clinic. 

We are happy to welcome Dr. Saskya to our team at the Dumay clinic and look forward to working with her over the next year.    

Dr. Milfort with Dr. Jacques

Baudin-Gros Sable Feeding Program

On the north coast of Haiti, in the eastern edge of the city of Port-de-Paix, lies the neighborhood of Baudin-Gros Sable where Healing Art Missions (HAM) provides funding for teacher and staff salaries at the Charles Salomon Primary School. The school was founded in the mid-2000’s by Jean Herard Charles, who serves as HAM’s Haitian Operations Manager.  Charles began working for HAM as an interpreter in the early 2000’s and was later trained by Granville Optometrist Dr. Janine Flood as an eye technician.  Before COVID-19, he traveled to Dumay one week a month to run HAM’s the eye clinic.  Charles has lived with his family in Baudin-Gros Sable for decades and realized that there were many families in the neighborhood with school age children who could not afford to send their children to school. His concern turned to action when he started the Charles Salomon Primary School. Over the years the school has expanded to include Pre-K through 9th Grade with over 326 student’s and employing over 25 teachers and support staff. The school also offers adult education classes as many of the parents of the school children are illiterate. 

If you follow HAM’s monthly Newsletter you know that schools in Haiti have not been operating regularly since the beginning of the 2019-20 school year due first to political upheaval followed by the novel-corona virus Pandemic. The school’s teaching staff has continued to work with individual students both at the school as well as socially distanced outside their homes. In May, Charles started a mask making project for the students and their families, which you can read about on the NEWS page of the HAM website.  The deepening economic downturn caused by the Haitian political crisis, the COVID pandemic, and worsening devaluation of the Haitian currency has dramatically increased food insecurity. Charles saw that many of the children from the school did not have access to adequate food supplies and proposed HAM fund a short-term feeding program for the school children and their families. 

In July, HAM funded the purchase of 50 bags of beans, 50 bags of rice, and many gallons of cooking oil, which Charles and his family and friends divided and packaged for each of the 326 students at the school. The children were called back to the school, where Charles had set up hand washing stations, to pick up their bag of food. We are delighted that even though schools throughout Haiti remain shuttered, Charles and the school staff have been able to keep the school facilities available as a safe space for the neighborhood children, as well as extending our outreach to provide face masks and basic food staples for students and their families. 

Prepping Food Bags for distribution in the community

Child Washing Hands before waiting in line to collect bags of food during Covid-19 disaster response

Kid Lineup in Charles Salomon Primary School, waiting for bags of food. Part of a HAM funded program to distribute food to children and their families who are enrolled in the primary school

A group of children leaving the primary school after receiving their food from the HAM program

Jean Herard Charles with two students after receiving food from the HAM food distribution program

Covid-19 in Haiti: Update

Photo by Jessica Phelps

As of June 26th, there were 5,543 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Haiti, an increase of 105 from the previous day, and 96 confirmed deaths, a daily increase of 3, according to Wikipedia. But that doesn’t represent the real numbers. In Port-au-Prince, 90 percent of those tested are COVID-19-positive. The virus has been identified in all 10 departments, and major international Health Organizations such as the World Health Organization, Partners in Health, and Doctors Without Borders have been sounding the alarm about how unprepared the country is with few COVID-19 ready hospitals available. Haiti's health system today is a jumble of several large nonprofits like the GHESKIO Centers and Partners in Health, smaller accessible clinics like Healing Art Missions (HAM), private clinics, and poorly funded and staffed public facilities.

Testing for COVID-19is extremely limited, and coupled with the Haitian public’s fear of testing means that thousands go untested and deaths are most likely greatly undercounted. The reasons for these issues have as much to do with politics and economics as with the weak public health system. The Haitian government put together a government commission who developed a COVID-19 attack plan which said $176 million was needed to create 30 COVID-19 ready centers with a total of 300,000 " COVID-19 beds" equipped with an oxygen supply. To date the Government has spent $20 million on this effort, with the private sector kicking in $3.5 million, and the World Bank has pledged $20 million but has not delivered as yet. Most other past donors have not stepped up and the funding effort is falling well short of the need.

Another problem is the Haitian population’s mistrust of both their own government and the international humanitarian community. As of this date, the Haitian government has delivered very little of the COVID-19commissions plan for centers and beds; and, why should Haitian’s have trust in the international humanitarian community after years of repeated unkept promises following the 2010 earthquake to "built back better," and the UN’s years of refusal to take responsibility for the Cholera outbreak the UN brought to Haiti soon after the 2010 Earthquake. There is also a huge problem of rumor and misinformation in Haiti causing great fear of stigmatization and being forced into quarantine, so a great many people avoid medical assistance. Some communities who have reported people who are sick or thought to have COVID, have been attacked. Furthermore, religious leaders, especially Evangelical preachers, have said the disease does not exist and that "if we rely on Jesus Christ, we have nothing to worry about," according to Jean William (Bill) Pape, M.D., executive director of the GHESKIO and head of the Haitian governments COVID-19 commission.

Through all this, HAM continues to address the needs of the communities we serve (see article “Mask Making in Baudin-Gros Sable”). Our clinic in Dumay remains open and staffed to see patients, as well as providing ongoing community education regarding how to protect themselves and others from COVID-19. We are currently working on finding ways to get much needed PPE’s to the clinic. Thanks to everyone who continues to support our work supporting the people of Haiti.

Mask Making in Baudin-Gros Sable

School children in Haiti had a rough school year. Due to the socio-political turmoil in Haiti last year, schools did not open in September as usual. There were a few attempts to begin the academic year, but the political fighting and violence continued and schools quickly closed again. It wasn’t until late January that the Charles Salomon Primary School was able to effectively open the school to students. And then came COVID-19. On March 20th all school in Haiti closed again, for the remainder of the school year. The vast majority of student’s in Haiti have no access to the internet, or computers for that matter, technology-based distance learning was not a choice for students at the Charles Salomon Primary School. But Charles and the teachers asked the children, and their parents, to continue their bookwork at home.

Healing Art Missions (HAM) is the major funder for the Charles Salomon Primary School, and the school’s founder, Jean Herard Charles (who goes by Charles), has worked for HAM since the early 2000’s and has become an integral part of HAM’s leadership in Haiti. Charles started this school in his home neighborhood of Baudin-Gros Sable in the city of Port-de-Paix on the north coast of Haiti, because he worried about all the poor children who couldn’t afford school and could easily be caught up into gangs. Over the years the school has expanded to include Pre-K through 9th Grade with over 350 student’s and employing over 25 teachers and support staff. The school also offers adult education classes as many of the parents of the school children are illiterate.

Following the Haitian government’s closing of all schools because of the pandemic, we talked with Charles about what we could do to help the school children and their families in Baudin-Gros Sable who were impacted by the school’s closing and the health and economic repercussions of the pandemic. The starting point was community education about COVID-19 and how children and adults can protect themselves and others from the virus. Given the difficulty of social-distancing in Haiti, where it’s typical for large families to live with 8 to 10 people in a one room home, we decided it could be helpful if the school children and their families had cloth, reusable face masks. At this time, HAM’s Founding Director, Dr. Tracee Laing, had set up a group of local individuals at home in Ohio to make cloth face masks to give to local first responders, front-line workers, and retirement homes. She took the mask patterns and sewing instructions created for her local Ohio project and sent them to Charles, asking him to purchase the fabric materials and find someone there to sew the face masks for pay. Charles had 670 fabric masks made, funded by HAM, enough for all the children and staff at his school, and their families. Charles has set up a system where small teams of teachers from the school will visit the homes of each student to distribute the masks, teach them the proper usage and cleaning of the masks, as well as checking on how each student is doing with their academics.

Knowing the pandemic will continue well into 2021, we continue to work with Charles at the school, and Dr. Jacques at the Dumay clinic, to provide whatever possible resources we can in support of the communities we serve.

Midyear Letter from HAM Founder, Dr. Tracee Laing

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.)

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Covid-19 in Haiti

On May 1st Healing Art Missions’ Medical Director in Haiti, Dr. Jacques, sent an update on the current situation of Covid-19 in Haiti. We are sharing Dr. Jacques’ report with our supporters as direct insight into what the Haitian population is facing and how the HAM clinic in Dumay is responding. As for the Haitian government, according to Haitian Prime Minister, Joseph Jouthe, Haiti was in a fragile state disturbed by political turmoil and socio-economic problems even before the arrival of Covid-19. The Government of Haiti has announced the extension of the state of health emergency until 20 May 2020, though subcontracting factories have reopened on 20 April with adopted measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Dr. Jacques has been participating in the working meetings of the Multisectoral Commission for the Management of the Covid-19 Pandemic that oversees the coordination of the Covid-19 health response in Haiti. The Multisectoral Commission is a collaboration between Haiti’s various government agencies, including Ministry of Health (MSPP), and the various international humanitarian groups working in Haiti, in conjunction with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The data, as of May 1st and presented at the Multisectoral Commission meeting that same day, is as follows: total cases: 81 with the first cases diagnosed on March 20, 2020; total deaths: 8; total recovered: 8; total tests: 827 which means there have been 72 test per 1 million people, while in the Dominican Republic there have been 2339 tested per million people, and in the U.S. 19,957 tested per million people.

According to Multisectoral Commission co-president, Dr. William Pape, to date there are only 3 facilities for treating Covid-19 patients in Haiti with total bed capacity of 300 for 12 million people, an average of one coronavirus bed per 4000 people to treat infected patients. Dr. Pape, citing a study from Oxford University, reports that 86% of the Haitian population can be infected with Covid-19, hence the importance of barrier measures. To effectively respond to the coronavirus pandemic, the Multisectoral Commission has proposed a budget of $ 176 million USD to fight Covid-19, though they are trying to identify where the funds may come from as to date they have no money.

From what Dr. Jacques reports and from reading the OCHA reports we receive, some of the key concerns Haiti is facing in this crisis are as follows:

• Procurement of key protective and medical items continues to be a major challenge.

• The situation of vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities and children’s homes, especially as child protection and preventive activities in the nutrition sector have been suspended.

• A significant increase in border crossings from the Dominican Republic, where 5,044 Covid-19 cases had been confirmed as of 22 April, to Haiti, with 17,430 crossing just between the 12th and 19th of April.

• Continuing increase in food insecurity, already a significant problem due to the socio-political problems of the past year.

Dr. Jacques and the HAM clinic staff are responding to needs of our community by taking the following steps:

• Healing Art Missions Clinic is remaining open five days a week.

• Since the announcement of the coronavirus pandemic, every Thursday, Dr. Jacques has actively participated in online humanitarian meetings organized by OCHA on information on Haitian government activities on the Covid-19 plan and especially on advice and recommendations that humanitarian actors can provide to the Haitian government in the fight against Covid-19.

• On Friday, May 1, 2020, Dr. Jacques gave an online training session to the Haiti Development Institute (HDI) members to help them better understand the coronavirus outbreak.

• HAM has worked closely with community leaders through awareness messaging and distribution of Covid-19 kits containing: 6 bars of hand soap, 6 bottles soap, 2 gal. chlorine, 1 bottle of alcohol, 12 pairs of clean gloves, 4 fabric masks, a 5 gallon bucket with a tap for hand-washing water.  Also included is an awareness message from Dr. Jacques on how to avoid transmission of the corona virus, including washing your hands with soap, avoiding crowds of people, and if you have an important reason to go out, to wear a mask on your face.  The kits were given to community leaders by Dr. Jacques with a personal plea to publicly wash their hands and wear a mask to set an example for the community members to follow.

• Hand washing stations, like the one in the photo, have been set up in the local communities of Galette Mango Jérémie , Pont Dumay in front of the public market, Campech, Galette Roche Blanche, and Cannaan.

We have complete faith that Dr. Jacques and the staff of the HAM clinic are doing all they can to prepare, as best they can, for when this Novel Corona Virus reaches their community. Here in the U.S., we pledge to continue to support their work by paying salaries and providing the funds for medicine and supplies, whatever resources we can provide to support the community we serve.