Food for FDB's Most Needy Returns

After the heavy rains of October all but destroyed large stretches of Fond des Blancs' roads, the hospital struggled to secure food for its infant and elderly nutrition programs. Recently, the road has become passable once again - at least enough so to receive this load of food stuffs from Catholic Relief Services.

Creating Space

Trenches dug for cement foundations surround the statue of Mother Mary in front of the hospital where St. Boniface intends to build a new open-air waiting room for patients. The statue will avoid the hot sun this summer as the plans also call for moving it inside the hospital's front entrance.

New Truck Put to Work

Above, St. Boniface Hospital staff members load "tol," or large sheets of metal roofing, onto the hospital's new truck. The foundation recently purchased the part-flatbed/part-dump truck with a gift from an anonymous donor. Below, community members of Dorial help our staff unload the materials outside the community's Catholic Church, which had lost a large section of its roof during the heavy rains of October. Dorial has had no means of transporting such supplies to their elevated mountaintop locality to repair the damage until this past Tuesday.

A Home for "Ki-Ki"

Sr. Ellen poses with Nicolas Pierre Clivens, known to the hospital staff as "Ki-Ki," the day before accompanying him to the United States Foundation for the Children of Haiti's Hope Insitute for Disabled Children. Sadly, a mother had abandoned the physically disabled child at our hospital three weeks earlier. He will certainly be missed around the nurses station, where the staff had placed him temporarily, but all are happy to know that Ki-Ki has found a home at a place that can care for his specific needs.

Using Space

Construction commenced this week on either a counseling office for the hospital's ART program or an examination room for one of the hospital's five doctors - soon to be decided. To conserve space, the office portions off a corner of the existing entrance gallery.

Grand Openning of New Library

Samuel Jean Louis moves the crowd at the inauguration of Fond des Blancs' new "Petite Bibliotheque" by speaking about his dream of fostering a center for intellect in the community. The library committee and a number of hired and volunteer help worked tremendously hard to finish the move from a smaller structure down the road in time for the festive ceremony.

Hospital Sees 300

Our hardworking hospital staff managed to care for three hundred patients on both Thursday and Friday of last week. The record increase came after the clinic had closed for a two-day holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday. Word of St. Boniface's quality of care prompted patients to come from neighboring locality, Cotes de Fer, and as far away as Port-au-Prince.