February 2005: Update

January 2005: Director's Report by Ralph Stowe

After the Clinic's building was finished in November 2002, the Saint Rock Haiti Foundation was incorporated. The Clinic opened with a staff of one full-time nurse's aide and a caretaker. In July of 2003 we added a part-time doctor, and in November a part-time dentist. From November 2002 through year end 2003, donations totaled $6,325, which paid for staff salaries and some medicines.

In 2004, income from a grant, two fundraisers, and donations totaled $19,522. This paid for increased staff (an average of $1150 per month, or $13,800), medicines, the dentist's chair, and some local transportation costs. Almost $4,000 was in the Foundation's account at the end of 2004. The increased staff is -- now -- a full-time nurse, full-time nurse's aide, the caretaker, part-time doctor (one day a week,) part-time dentist (one day a week,) and part-time administrative services of the Haitian Assistant Director. So far, all U.S. staff are self-funded volunteers. One hundred percent of Foundation income has gone into operating expenses in Haiti and into purchasing the dentist's chair. One medical mission team visited the Clinic in 2003 and two teams visited in 2004. In 2005 medical team visits are in planning. Each time American health care professionals visit, there is a huge surge in patient numbers for the duration of the visit.

Major goals for the Clinic in 2005 are:

1. to increase the staff time of both the doctor and the dentist to two days a week (a combined cost of $500/month);

2. to set up a room for the dentist with a small generator so that in addition to pulling teeth he can also drill to do fillings (one-time cost for the generator not yet determined);

3. to install a roof-top tank, a pump, and piping for running water to a sink, shower, and toilet (one-time cost of about $1000);

4. for stocking and operating a pharmacy in the Clinic's secure room on a more formal basis, to plan the appropriate prescription and non-prescription medicines, the amounts needed, and to evaluate alternative sources of supply and the availability and comparative costs from different sources.

While gifts of needed health care equipment and fundraising have been extremely helpful, the backbone of funding for operating expenses, predominantly salaries of the Haitian staff, is the Ten Dollar a Month Club. It is growing and needs to grow further in 2005 in order to accomplish these goals. There has also been an increase in both the volunteers who do support work of various kinds here in the U.S. and also volunteers, both medically-skilled and lay people, to go on team visits to the Clinic. I want to encourage both gifts of time/talents and gifts of money. Many hands make more services possible!

Please contact me or U.S. Assistant Director Stephen McCarthy if you are interested in going on one of the 2005 week-long trips to Haiti, would like to join the Ten Dollar a Month Club, or have an idea, skill or service to offer the Foundation.

January 2005: Highlights of the 11/04 Medical Mission Trip by Marcia Geyer

Director Ralph Stowe's sister-in-law, Jeannita Mercius (from Long Island but originally from Saint Rock Mountain) went two days early to prepare for all the meals and accommodations for the group at the Clinic On November 5 Ralph and six Boston-area volunteers flew from Boston to Miami to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This visit was bracketed by dodging dangerous roving bands of former paramilitaries in Port-au-Prince, both coming from the airport and going back to it on November 12. Up on the mountain, the peaceful atmosphere constrasted in everyone's minds with the tensions and danger below.

This was the first medical mission visit that included a doctor, Ruth Johnstone, in addition to nurses. Catherine Liberles, a nurse at Mass. General, returned for a second medical mission to Saint Rock Clinic and recruited nurse Maureen Dryja, her co-worker. Catherine's sister, Bernadette Hamilton, came to watch and to help. Adele Foy, a reporter for The Boston Globe, came to watch and write, and helped with intake. Jack Riley, a social worker, came to help and to get a first-hand understanding on behalf of his congregation, which is considering a sponsorship of the Clinic. The whole group, together with Tiban, the Haitian Assistant Director, saw 373 patients in 14-hour days: men and women, infants and children of all ages. They were the first group to bring in hundreds of bottles of multivitamins to pass out, addressing one of the most fundamental needs of mountain residents. A poor diet, simply not enough food, and an inadequate supply of clean drinking water directly cause many of the residents' diseases and undermine their resistance to other prevalent diseases.

Several members of the group explored the mountain in the early morning before the Clinic opened. They saw the primitive conditions there. There is no electrical grid. The Clinic has a small generator which supports lighting for a couple of hours after dark so that they can continue seeing patients, but homes lack electricity. There is no source of clean water except one spring, from which children carry big jars of drinking water for miles up to their homes, and to which the women carry clothes to wash. The Clinic and a smattering of houses have cisterns to catch and store rain water for other uses, such as bathing. There is no plumbing in homes. There is one unpaved, twisting access road, barely one car wide, up the mountain; other places are accessible only by foot paths. For residents, the transportation system on the mountain is -- you walk and you carry whatever needs to be moved (usually on top of your head, for balance.) It is about an hour's walk up or down to Carrefour, the poor western neighborhood of Port-au-Prince at the foot of the mountain.

The Clinic's interior looks, to North American eyes, rudimentary. But compared to the construction of most homes, it is a big step up. Of course, the Clinic is still at a very early stage. Much remains to be developed in the coming years as funding permits.

The other substantial buildings on Saint Rock Mountain are a Catholic Church, a Baptist Church, a new and impressive-looking Catholic school (grades K-8) and the government's public school (grades K-6). The Clinic's spacious porch became something like a community center during this visit. On two evenings local musicians gathered to play, and several dozen residents of all ages came to listen and dance. Ralph recalls that he was amazed the first evening of music and dance, and pleased because it showed that the people of the mountain had adopted the Clinic as their own place.