New St. Boniface Haiti Foundation Blog

St. Boniface Haiti Foundation has a new website where this blog will now be hosted.



Please visit us at http://www.haitihealth.org/index.php/blog/

Fet Timoun - Children's Fun Day

On a recent Sunday afternoon, St. Boniface coordinated a public health fun day for children in Fond des Blancs. The day, sponsored by COSEDERF, the local children's rights group, followed a week of health promotion sponsored by Unicef and the Haitian Ministry of Health. Basic messages regarding sanitation and nutrition were given followed by each child receiving vitamin A supplementation. Over 100 children attended and participated in fun events such as sack races, tug-of-war, and singing and dancing contests.

How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours - Child Slavery in Haiti

Last night on ABC's Nightline, a story on child slavery in Haiti was aired. There's a great written article here with a link to the video.

The episode is no exageration. Fond des Blancs has not been untouched by this practice. The local citizen's organization, COSEDERF, has been working on this issue for some time. MSNBC did a series of articles and videos in August last year. The journalists visited Fond des Blancs and contacted COSEDERF. An excerpt from this article is below:

Rural poverty

It takes a bumpy four hours in a 4x4 to make the 60-mile trek from Port-au-Prince to the rural village of Fond des Blancs, where electricity and running water are scarce. The center of activity — a foreign foundation-funded hospital, a church and an outdoor meeting hall — sit in the middle of the valley.

Over the treeless mountains to the south lies the Caribbean Sea. Single-room, thatched-roof huts dot the landscape, many housing families with 10 children or more.Fond des Blancs has little communication with Port-au-Prince and the capital's political system has nearly no influence on the area. Lack of police has made it a favorite destination for Colombian planes to drop drugs for local Haitian runners to send onto the United States.

While some families farm or make charcoal, most have no regular means of support. In the most depressed areas, fortunate children are those that are fed once a day. Children in places like these, activists say, are most at risk of winding up in the restavek system.

A group of Fond des Blancs residents formed the Committee to Promote the Rights of Children of Fond des Blancs (COSEDERF) last year in an effort to keep children in the community. The committee circulated a petition which asks Haitian leaders to "fulfill Haiti's obligations to provide free and compulsory education," believing fewer parents would send their children away if they had access to schooling.

"More than 50 percent of the children in Fond des Blancs don't have the chance to go to school," said Briel Leveille, a community leader and member of COSEDERF. "It is said that education is the foundation of development. It is through education that Haitians will one day come out of this misery."

It is believed that access to education is one of the best ways to keep families together, as it is the inability to send their children to school that often prompts parents to send their children away. St. Boniface Haiti Foundation works with the community on several education projects,and needs continued support in their efforts.

Fet Sen Bonifas - Feast of St. Boniface

The Feast of St. Boniface was celebrated June 5 in Fond des Blancs with a mass for St. Boniface Hospital’s employees and the community. It was a well-attended service with beautiful music.

Later in the day, a football (soccer) match was held between St. Boniface Hospital and St. Francois Xavier school. Staff from both of these faced off in an exciting game that ended in a score of 2-1 for St. Francois Xavier.

As is tradition, a beach day for the staff was on the following Sunday. A caravan of vehicles transported over 60 staff members to the beach at Mouillage Fouquet for a day of sun, sand, good food and music.

ISI/Loyola Team Visit

St. Boniface recently hosted a team of medical students from Loyola University. While in Fond des Blancs the team, led by Dr. Aaron Michelfelder, held four remote medical clinics, two each in Villa and Belle Riviere.

The team provided consultations and medications to over 800 patients. They saw many different medical conditions, from common complaints such as colds and hypertension to advanced breast cancer, esophageal cancer, Vitamin B12 deficiency paralysis, Beri Beri and elephantiasis (lymphatic filiarsis). They were packing up their last clinic when a woman presented with a serious machete wound to her hand which they were able to clean and suture.

Thank you for your hard work, Loyola!

Neonatal Training

A second visiting team from St. Vincent's Medical Center in Jacksonville, FL provided training during their stay in Fond des Blancs. Above, Dr. Ron Carzoli and Lori Saffer, RN give instruction on Neonatal Resuscitation to St. Boniface clinical staff. A second training session covering Fluids, Electrolytes, and Nutrition Support was also given.

Jacksonville Surgical Team Visit

A surgical team from St. Vincent's Medical Center in Jacksonville, FL recently visited St. Boniface Hospital. During their stay, they performed 22 surgeries. These team visits are of great value to the people of Fond des Blancs, as many times this is the only opportunity for surgery they will have.