Haiti in our Hands

21/11/12: Medical Trip 2012 has been a great success!

The Haiti in our Hands team have returned safely from their 3rd Medical Mission to Chuaffard and have great news to report. The team consisting of Dr. Jerry, Dr. Tom, NP Debbie, NP Jennifer, RN Cynthia, OT Kathy, Medical Assistant Michelle, Pharmacist Thomas and Non-Medical assistants Emily, Rachael and Susan seen a huge number of patients at the clinic they set up. Our team saw 215 patients on the Friday 9th November, 252 patients on the Saturday 10th and 358 patients on the Monday 12th. That’s a total of 825 patients in 3 days! Such a wonderful service to the people of Chauffard and we are very proud of them.

The people of Chauffard are incredibly grateful. One family even awoke at 2am and walked 4 hours to make the clinic; it goes to show how appreciated the clinic was.

Thanks to Sister Anne-Marie for her organising, the translators Angie, Gaspard and Paul for bridging the gap and also to Alies for making everything run smoothly.

A special note of thanks to Kate McMahon who oversaw everything and kept us all up to date on the progress.

A more detailed report will follow along with testimonials from our some of great team members.

 

13/10/12: 2012 Medical Mission 2012 is all set to go!

The Haiti in our Hands team have been busy preparing for our 3rd Medical Mission to Chauffard.  The team as always will consist of Doctors, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Medical Assistants and lots of good people to help out with the running of the clinic. We will have 4 exam rooms and the clinic will run for 3 days. Nurse Anne-Marie of Chauffard has been busy organising things on her side and as always we are sure the clinic will run smoothly.

Our team will set off on Wednesday 7th of November and return Tuesday 13th. Thanks to the Catholic Medical Mission Board for the 21 boxes of Medicine last month; it is very much appreciated and is going to a very worthwhile cause.

On our trip we have Dr. Jerry, Dr. Tom, NP Debbie, NP Jennifer, RN Cynthia, OT Kathy, Medical Assistant Michelle and Non-Medical assistants Emily, Rachael and Susan.  We have a wonderful team and we are sure they will serve the people of Chauffard well. A massive thanks to Kate McMahon of Syracuse for organising everything; it wasn’t an easy task and she has done a great job. We wish our team well for the trip, we know you will do a great job and safe travels.

18/05/12: Update on trip to Chauffard: Friday 4th – Monday 7th May 2012

The Haiti in our Hands team have returned safely from their successful trip to Haiti. The team consisted of Greg Cross and Joseph McCullagh with their friend Sr. Kathleen Osbelt. They were kindly escorted by Alies Orisme for the duration of their trip.

They met with the new Priest of Chauffard Fr. Brissault in order to get to know him better but also welcome him to Chauffard. The team were warmly greeted with a wonderful meal at Chuaffard on Friday evening prepared by our friends. The meal provided a good opportunity to chat with Fr. Brissault. It quickly became apparent that Fr. Brissault is as committed to the people of Chauffard as his predecessor Fr. Estiverne was; we wish him well.

The following day the team got busy setting up the clinic. Dr. Alix Joseph and his colleague and friend got set up in their respective rooms and the donated medicine was placed in the pharmacy. They spent 5 days seeing as many patients as they could with help from Sr. Anne Marie.

After the clinic was up and running the team got busy sampling the local water. Our last Medical Mission revealed the water was making the locals ill so it is necessary to understand what contaminants are in the water. Alies kindly brought along the rights jars for the job, they were filled and sent of to a local laboratory for testing. Once the results come in, plans for a suitable water filter will be made and become a big task for Haiti in our Hands.

Swiftly later that day they met with Caritas Swiss; a large global charitable organisation aiming to alleviate poverty worldwide. They have an office based in Port-au-Prince and have been working in Haiti for 30 years. Our contact here is Thomas Friebel, a German civil engineer, with whom we had a meeting set up prior to our arrival. In short, Caritas Swiss have plans and funds to help rebuild the school of Chauffard. They presented their plans and were delighted to learn about our involvement in Chauffard. They are very keen to work together to build a school as big as possible so as many kids as possible get educated. They were very impressed with their plans and very excited to see their enthusiasm to help our friends of Chuaffard. Read the school plans or contact JosephMcCullagh@hotmail.co.uk to find out more.

The next day they visited Fr. Estiverne in his new parish. He is settling in OK and has big plans for the new parish. It is is a very different place compared to Chauffard called Arcahaie located on the outskirts of the capital city. The 4th and final day was spent was spent speaking with Pure Water for the World. They provided information on various filtering solutions and sent the crew away with lots of wonderful ideas.

This brought the trip to a close. Everyone made it back to New York in one piece! The next trip may be later in the year possibly in November time. Our focus now is to raise enough money for the school and providing safe drinking water. Please support us if you can.

Trip to Haiti – May

Haiti in our Hands will be making a trip to Chauffard in early May. The team will make their way to Chauffard on Saturday 5th of May with the aim yo investigate how we can clean the water supply, kick start the construction of the school and improve the local pharmacy.

Wish our team luck!

2nd Anniversary of the Earthquake

The 12th January 2012 is the 2 year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti.  We remember the hundreds of thousands who were killed, the countless thousands who were left homeless, maimed, injured, orphaned and the terrible scar this has left on the history of this country.

We also look forward with hope in the progress that has been made by ‘Haiti in our Hands’ and the many other organisations working to improve life there.

You can mark this important anniversary by committing a small effort to take part in the £1000/$1000 challenge – sign up!

Email josephmccullagh@hotmail.co.uk or martin@seatingmatters.com to find out more!