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- 2018 Cazale, Haiti Eyeglass Clinic
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- Visiting Haiti
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- July 2011
- More photos and video
- July 2011 photos
- June 2011
- Untitled
- Reflections on Haiti 2011
- The Six Sisters
- Untitled
- Untitled
(This was posted in 2011, however the need still exists....)
Patients at the Cholera House
The Cholera House
is part of Real Hope for Haiti's (http://www.realhopeforhaiti.org) outreach
and ministry in Cazale, Haiti. When the cholera outbreak occurred over 9
months ago, Real Hope opened the Cholera House. Currently, the number
of patients fluctuates from 30-something to over 100.
The house can accommodate 25 or so patients, so when there are over
100, you can imagine the stress that puts on the staff, the patients and the
budget. When I visited the Cholera House in June 2011 I was so
touched by what I saw. You can read about my thoughts at
http://wvmountainmomma.wordpress.com/ and click on "It's canning
season." God put it on my heart to do something to help the Cholera House
and Real Hope for Haiti. I have started a campaign at my house to
"CAN Cholera." We are recycling aluminum cans and I have asked my
friends and family to help me too. It's a simple idea, but something I can do
without asking people for money and this way I can involve many
people in helping people in Haiti.I am asking that people either take their
cans to their local recycling center and send the monies they receive to
Mountains to Mountains or to contact me to pick up their recyclables.
100% of the monies received from this project will go through Mountains to
Mountains and then on to Real Hope. Won't you help me help Haiti to CAN
Cholera? If so, contact me at [email protected] or
send check to Trinity United Methodist Church, 707 Pocahontas Avenue,
Ronceverte, WV 24970. Make your
check to Trinity UM Methodist and in the subject line mark Cholera House.
HELP ME help Haiti by recycling your aluminum cans.
It's a start. Today I took aluminum cans to the Recycling Center in Ronceverte, WV. The small number of cans I brought with me paled in comparison to the big truckload that were unloaded before me. I was sure I would be embarrassed. However, I was surprised to find that we had collected 17.2 pounds of aluminum which translates to twelve dollars and thirty-two cents. Not bad for a start. Not bad at all.
Another Story about Cholera's Devastation
Cholera still devastating for Haiti's far-flung villages
By THE DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
Friday, September 9, 2011 BOIS CARRE, Haiti (MCT)- The SUV slowly churns up the green mountainside, rocking from side-to-side as it struggles for traction on rocky terrain.
Any wrong turn and the packed vehicle could easily fall 300 feet. But to save lives in deeply remote rural areas, Fabienne Lorcerie and her team of cholera response experts must risk theirs.
"All the other medical missions I've been on, I could plan a little bit better," says Lorcerie, a nurse, whose voice barely hid her frustration. "Everything is so far away here, and that makes it hard to anticipate."
The cholera epidemic that has claimed thousands of lives in Haiti has fallen from its peak. But the disease, which has infected more than 400,000 Haitians since its initial outbreak a year ago, is continuing to have a major impact on far-flung villages surrounding communities like this one in the lower Artibonite Valley. Its main water supply, the 199-mile Artibonite River, was the initial source for spreading the epidemic.
"It's a big headache," Romain Gitenet, head of mission for the French humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders, who supervises the mobile cholera response team, which registered 10,000 new cholera cases in the valley over 10 weeks earlier this summer. "Cholera has no limits."
More than half of Haiti's 10 million citizens live in remote rural communities, many of them accessible only by foot and mules. And at least 40 percent have no access to a doctor or nurse, much less sanitation or potable water. With even cell service lacking, alerts aren't often heard until too late.
The trip to Bois Carre, a mountaintop village in the lower Artibonite Valley, was sparked by an alert from a frightened farmer. After showing up at the Doctors Without Borders office in Gonaives, he told an alarming story: some 25 people were dead from cholera and another 58 had the waterborne disease in the nearby town of Osse.
Panic ensued. The mobile reactive team had just returned from a cholera outbreak in the villages of Chenot and Perodin. In Chenot, the team took eight days to set up a 30-bed treatment unit and train medical staff after the community logged 15 cases a day. In Perodin, the mortality rate from the disease was at 11 percent.
With no way to confirm the farmer's information by telephone, the team took to the road. Bois Carre was the furthest point they could go by car before having to make the rest of the journey on foot.
"I am asking myself about the amount of time it will take to get there," Lorcerie said, standing in a dirt yard in Bois Carre, worried that the forming storm clouds could produce rain and make crossing the river at the foot of the mountain impossible. "The hardest part is knowing there is an emergency and not being able to do anything today, and you have to come back another day."
Bois Carre has had its own bout with cholera, say villagers. Located hundreds of feet in the mountain, the village is desolate and rugged. The nearest hospital and cholera treatment facility are five hours by foot.
"The situation is very difficult for us," said Fredo, 49, a villager. "There are times the river is impassable and you are carrying a victim to get help. You have to put the person down and wait for the river to go down. By the time you reach, the person has already died in your hands."
By THE DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
Friday, September 9, 2011 BOIS CARRE, Haiti (MCT)- The SUV slowly churns up the green mountainside, rocking from side-to-side as it struggles for traction on rocky terrain.
Any wrong turn and the packed vehicle could easily fall 300 feet. But to save lives in deeply remote rural areas, Fabienne Lorcerie and her team of cholera response experts must risk theirs.
"All the other medical missions I've been on, I could plan a little bit better," says Lorcerie, a nurse, whose voice barely hid her frustration. "Everything is so far away here, and that makes it hard to anticipate."
The cholera epidemic that has claimed thousands of lives in Haiti has fallen from its peak. But the disease, which has infected more than 400,000 Haitians since its initial outbreak a year ago, is continuing to have a major impact on far-flung villages surrounding communities like this one in the lower Artibonite Valley. Its main water supply, the 199-mile Artibonite River, was the initial source for spreading the epidemic.
"It's a big headache," Romain Gitenet, head of mission for the French humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders, who supervises the mobile cholera response team, which registered 10,000 new cholera cases in the valley over 10 weeks earlier this summer. "Cholera has no limits."
More than half of Haiti's 10 million citizens live in remote rural communities, many of them accessible only by foot and mules. And at least 40 percent have no access to a doctor or nurse, much less sanitation or potable water. With even cell service lacking, alerts aren't often heard until too late.
The trip to Bois Carre, a mountaintop village in the lower Artibonite Valley, was sparked by an alert from a frightened farmer. After showing up at the Doctors Without Borders office in Gonaives, he told an alarming story: some 25 people were dead from cholera and another 58 had the waterborne disease in the nearby town of Osse.
Panic ensued. The mobile reactive team had just returned from a cholera outbreak in the villages of Chenot and Perodin. In Chenot, the team took eight days to set up a 30-bed treatment unit and train medical staff after the community logged 15 cases a day. In Perodin, the mortality rate from the disease was at 11 percent.
With no way to confirm the farmer's information by telephone, the team took to the road. Bois Carre was the furthest point they could go by car before having to make the rest of the journey on foot.
"I am asking myself about the amount of time it will take to get there," Lorcerie said, standing in a dirt yard in Bois Carre, worried that the forming storm clouds could produce rain and make crossing the river at the foot of the mountain impossible. "The hardest part is knowing there is an emergency and not being able to do anything today, and you have to come back another day."
Bois Carre has had its own bout with cholera, say villagers. Located hundreds of feet in the mountain, the village is desolate and rugged. The nearest hospital and cholera treatment facility are five hours by foot.
"The situation is very difficult for us," said Fredo, 49, a villager. "There are times the river is impassable and you are carrying a victim to get help. You have to put the person down and wait for the river to go down. By the time you reach, the person has already died in your hands."
Haiti: Cholera Cases Increasing Again in Port-au-Prince October 7, 2011 Haiti 2011 © Yann Libessart/MSF
An MSF cholera treatment center in Port-au-Prince this past May.
Though the international community is paying far less attention now that it did last year, cholera is still rife in Haiti and far from under control. In June, it ravaged several outlying parts of the country. Now, the disease has returned to the Haitian capital with a vengeance. According to figures from the Ministry of Public Health and Population, cholera had infected more than 446,000 people and killed approximately 6,300 people through the end of August.
Since the first cases were confirmed in October 2010, MSF has treated almost 160,000 patients in nine out of the ten departments in Haiti. At present, MSF teams are fighting cholera in Port-au-Prince, as well as in the departments of Artibonite, Nord and Ouest.
In its four cholera treatment centers (CTCs) in Port-au-Prince, MSF has observed a significant increase in the number of patients admitted of late. “In the space of a month, we have gone from fewer than 300 admissions a week to more than 850, which unfortunately suggests that the situation will worsen in the weeks to come,” says Gaétan Drossart, Head of Mission in Haiti.
One MSF CTC is in Martissant, which is among the most deprived areas in the capital. Driving along the main road leading towards it, one sees piles of trash and other detritus. Water from the leaking sewers floods several streets. It’s the kind of environment in which infectious diseases can spread very easily. “The hygiene conditions in the area are atrocious,” explains Nicolas Charret, the on-site project coordinator. “It is extremely densely populated with very little in the way of functional sanitary infrastructure, which facilitates the spread of cholera, especially when people drink contaminated water and [eat contaminated] food.”
The center has 90 beds and at present is treating more than 250 patients a week (its maximum capacity). Mathias Kennes, a nurse at the CTC, explains that, with cholera cases, it is essential to quickly determine the degree of dehydration suffered by the people admitted, because this is the cause of most deaths. Treatment is then adapted according to the observed severity of the case. “If the person is severely dehydrated, they need to be treated straight away, either intravenously or through a nasogastric tube,” he says. “With the correct treatment and intensive monitoring, patients, even those [who are] severely ill, usually recover in three or four days.”
In the tent housing convalescent patients, 19-year-old Amonly Jaquette talks to MSF staff. He says that he initially felt bloating in his stomach, which was quickly followed by diarrhea: “I knew right away that I was ill because it was really intense. I’d heard on the radio that if this happened, you had to do something. I knew that MSF were in Martissant. So I turned up and they took care of me immediately.”
After three days of treatment, Amonly is hoping to go home soon. However, before he leaves, he explains, he is going to try and take more appropriate hygiene measures, including getting hold of chlorinated water. But he also says that it will not be easy to maintain these standards, given the area’s lack of sanitary facilities, which are shared by most of the residents.
In Haiti, almost a year after the cholera outbreak began, resources for adequately preventing the disease remain rudimentary and at the mercy of the uncertainties of life in the country.
An MSF cholera treatment center in Port-au-Prince this past May.
Though the international community is paying far less attention now that it did last year, cholera is still rife in Haiti and far from under control. In June, it ravaged several outlying parts of the country. Now, the disease has returned to the Haitian capital with a vengeance. According to figures from the Ministry of Public Health and Population, cholera had infected more than 446,000 people and killed approximately 6,300 people through the end of August.
Since the first cases were confirmed in October 2010, MSF has treated almost 160,000 patients in nine out of the ten departments in Haiti. At present, MSF teams are fighting cholera in Port-au-Prince, as well as in the departments of Artibonite, Nord and Ouest.
In its four cholera treatment centers (CTCs) in Port-au-Prince, MSF has observed a significant increase in the number of patients admitted of late. “In the space of a month, we have gone from fewer than 300 admissions a week to more than 850, which unfortunately suggests that the situation will worsen in the weeks to come,” says Gaétan Drossart, Head of Mission in Haiti.
One MSF CTC is in Martissant, which is among the most deprived areas in the capital. Driving along the main road leading towards it, one sees piles of trash and other detritus. Water from the leaking sewers floods several streets. It’s the kind of environment in which infectious diseases can spread very easily. “The hygiene conditions in the area are atrocious,” explains Nicolas Charret, the on-site project coordinator. “It is extremely densely populated with very little in the way of functional sanitary infrastructure, which facilitates the spread of cholera, especially when people drink contaminated water and [eat contaminated] food.”
The center has 90 beds and at present is treating more than 250 patients a week (its maximum capacity). Mathias Kennes, a nurse at the CTC, explains that, with cholera cases, it is essential to quickly determine the degree of dehydration suffered by the people admitted, because this is the cause of most deaths. Treatment is then adapted according to the observed severity of the case. “If the person is severely dehydrated, they need to be treated straight away, either intravenously or through a nasogastric tube,” he says. “With the correct treatment and intensive monitoring, patients, even those [who are] severely ill, usually recover in three or four days.”
In the tent housing convalescent patients, 19-year-old Amonly Jaquette talks to MSF staff. He says that he initially felt bloating in his stomach, which was quickly followed by diarrhea: “I knew right away that I was ill because it was really intense. I’d heard on the radio that if this happened, you had to do something. I knew that MSF were in Martissant. So I turned up and they took care of me immediately.”
After three days of treatment, Amonly is hoping to go home soon. However, before he leaves, he explains, he is going to try and take more appropriate hygiene measures, including getting hold of chlorinated water. But he also says that it will not be easy to maintain these standards, given the area’s lack of sanitary facilities, which are shared by most of the residents.
In Haiti, almost a year after the cholera outbreak began, resources for adequately preventing the disease remain rudimentary and at the mercy of the uncertainties of life in the country.