heal, grow, celebrate

HTRIP Highlights!

2012-01-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Supporters,

The end of the year was a little quieter for HTRIP’s Deschapelles activities. Tool distribution was completed, seed collection has begun, and community nursery work is well underway. As we prepare for the next phase of preparing for tree seedlings, the staff and our communities alike are able to take a moment to celebrate the end of year holidays. A hospital wide party for all HAS employees was a joyful occasion for the members of our staff.

Pruning to allow light into the new nursery

HTRIP could not have asked for a better gift than the near completion of our new central nursery. The 40-foot shipping container arrived this month that will serve as our new and secure tool and storage depot. The recently completed barbed wire fence reinforced with spiked plants help prevent the goats and chickens from nibbling on our tree seedlings that are ready to get going. A 250 gallon water drum hooked up to the main water line will make watering trees much easier than our previous location. And the covered meeting space is just waiting for the final protective paint job.

Head nursery gardener Gérard Petit Alberez-Noël
watering large compost piles.

We continued our monthly educational program which focused on plant health in preparation for the nursery tree seedlings which will get going in late January and February.

The arrival of a GPS unit for each technician meant that we could begin filial plot control to collect data on the past year’s tree plantings. We have already begun with many days of hiking around our newest communities counting trees and collecting site data.

A new meeting place with a pile of dirt for filling plants
making compost.

When looking back at the challenges of previous years around this time, I am thankful for how smoothly things have been running here in Deschapelles. We can only hope that the New Year continues down this path as we face the normal struggles of trying to bring trees to the Artibonite Valley.

The HTRIP Staff,

including Starry Sprenkle and Ross Bernet.

Staff training

A 250-gallon tank in the new nursery

A barbed-wire fence with spikey plants!

New storage depot

October HTRIP Highlights!

2011-11-01T07:42:00.001-07:00

Dear Supporters,

This month was an exciting one as we continued our education program, distributed tools to community nurseries, broke ground on our new central nursery project, hosted many guests and visitors, and welcomed back a former intern to Deschapelles. This month’s lesson covered tree nurseries, and HTRIP technicians taught community participants about seed germination and care for tree seedlings. They also covered general nursery management principles, like laying out even rows of seedlings for better accounting, and new communities selected a suitable location for their tree nurseries—as near as possible to a water source (for watering seedlings during the dry season), on a slight slope (so that water drains and seedlings do not drown in the rainy season), and with a mixture of sun and shade (so that trees can be acclimated and avoid sunburn). November’s lesson covers tree seed collection and storage.

HTRIP welcomed many guests and visitors in October. Here, intrepid members of the Canadian Friends of HAS disembark in the remote, misty community of Barbe after the grueling 2 1/2 hour drive from Deschapelles.

The education program always corresponds with our community activities, and we spent much of this month purchasing and distributing tools for community nurseries. Each community that participates in the HTRIP program receives basic support for its own nursery, each of which produces between 4,000 and 7,000 trees each year. HTRIP supports community nurseries by subsidizing the material cost of production of the seedlings (the community members do all the work themselves) and by providing simple equipment like picks, shovels, germinating pans, and water drums.

Above: At Mòn Marassa, the steep road to Barbe becomes treacherous and frequently impassable when wet. With the help of HTRIP and other organizations, the local political leader has organized the building of cement bands (below), which will allow HTRIP to reach this remote sixth-section community even in the rainy season.

These are views of the progress on the entire nursery space, including the foundations for the "gazebo" meeting-place structure.

In October, we purchased all of the equipment for the 2011-2012 community nurseries, and we will finish distribution by the second week of November. It is essential to begin community nurseries early in order that trees be ready to plant as soon as the rains begin (the later they are planted, the less they benefit from the rains, and therefore the higher the mortality).

Construction progress on HTRIP nursery water tower foundations.

With this in mind, we also began work on our central HTRIP nursery in Deschapelles this month—and this year, it meant starting construction in a new-to-us space on the Hospital campus which was unused and overgrown until recently (see photo at right). The $13K project will include a small water tower, a “depot” equipment storage space, a wide gate and access road, and a small gazebo like building in which to hold staff meetings. We expect this new nursery space to meet all of HTRIP’s needs for the foreseeable future, and immediately it will allow us to increase our nursery production to more than 80,000 trees this year at the same time that it allows us the space for a larger central composting operation and a grasses program. This month, we finished most of the foundations (see photos). We expect to finish the major construction work by the end of November and have everything else in place and fully operational by the end of the year.

Among the many guests and visitors we welcomed to Deschapelles this month was Ross Bernet, a recent graduate of UCLA in environmental science who completed an internship with HTRIP in the summer of 2010 researching the effects of geospatial human and ecological factors on tree growth in HTRIP filial plots. This year, he will be contributing more to project logistics and long-term management strategy while he continues his research.

Construction progress on the HTRIP nursery. Above, foundations are being built for the forty-foot shipping container that will serve as a "depot" storage space.

Although we suffered from a shortened rainy season this summer, we’ve been benefitting from an unusually wet “second rainy season”, so we hope that tree mortality this year will not be as high as we originally thought. HTRIP staff will soon begin the long process of surveying the over eight hundred new “filial” tree plots this year, and we will know for sure in the early months of 2012.

We look forward to an exciting and productive November and thank you all for your continuing support,

The HTRIP Staff,
including Starry Sprenkle, Dan
Langfitt and Ross Bernet.

New Photos from the Philip Craig Arts Program!

2011-10-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

This program is graciously sponsored by a grant from Grapes for HumanityClick on the lower right hand corner for full-screen mode, and then "Show info" for image captions.

2011 H'Art & Soul of Haiti Slideshow!

2011-10-11T12:53:00.001-07:00

HTRIP September Highlights!

2011-10-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Supporters,

This month was a quieter one for HTRIP’s Deschapelles activities. We continued our monthly educational program, collected broken tools and assembled community nursery inventories, and visited a mangrove restoration project the northern part of Haiti.

Paul Tompkins, a specialist in marine restoration ecology, left a grateful HTRIP staff in the middle of the month, but not before leading a trip to Bas Limbé, a small town on Haiti’s northern coast where USAID-DEED sponsored a mangrove restoration project that restored several kilometres of coastline before its funding ended this year. Before the trip, Paul gave a presentation for HTRIP staff about the importance of mangroves, which are not only an important habitat for fish but also an essential part of the overall ecological health of any coastal area. Just as trees prevent erosion from hillsides, mangroves act as a sediment trap that prevents topsoil from washing into the ocean—this type of erosion not only reduces fertility on land, but can suffocate coral reefs and disrupt marine ecosystems. Although the people in Bas Limbé work in a very different context than we do (on the beach instead of in the mountains), many of the concepts—like soil conservation—are the same for both of us, and the HTRIP staff benefited from seeing these same concepts applied in a different place. Other practices in Bas Limbé—like the “community watch” partnership with local authorities to prevent people from cutting down the new mangrove trees—may hold promise for the area that HTRIP serves.

This month's education topic was compost. The infertility of the soil in HTRIP communities means that composting is essential for planting trees—and just about anything else—in rocky, inhospitable conditions. HTRIP has always taught composting, but this year we have undertaken an initiative to encourage and enable all of our community nurseries to build and maintain a large, central compost pile. October’s education topic is nursery construction and management, in preparation for the beginning of our central and community tree nurseries in November.

While technicians were teaching and demonstrating composting techniques, they were also collecting broken tools and taking inventories of community nurseries. Just as we hope to begin construction on our new central nursery this month, we will purchase and distribute the nursery materials we provide each year to our community nurseries.

We look forward to a busy month ahead. It was a pleasure to see so many of you at the Friends of HAS Gala in early September, and we thank you all for your continuing support,

The HTRIP Staff,
including Starry Sprenkle and Dan Langfitt

HTRIP: A Year in Review

2011-10-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Supporters,

August saw the completion of tree distribution and planting, a preliminary tool inventory to prepare for an earlier start of this year’s tree nurseries, a final graduation ceremony for HTRIP’s literacy program, a continuation of our monthly education program, and our annual staff retreat to the beach where we focused on developing a long-term strategic plan for the project.

Learning to read
HTRIP hopes to eventually turn impoverished mountain villagers into tree farmers who market timber products to generate enormous increases in household income and standard of living. One barrier to success is the fact that most of our program participants are illiterate and therefore extremely vulnerable in the marketplace (in a business transaction, it is easy to take advantage of someone who can neither read nor add numbers).

Teaching adult literacy to help make our participants better businessmen, then, was the logic behind the separately-funded and relatively independent program begun in 2007 under the leadership of Agathe Généus, a dynamic an innovative teacher and community mobiliser. Since then, Agathe has been bringing her unique curriculum far into HTRIP’s mountain communities.

On the 11^th of August, we celebrated the achievements of those members of HTRIP communities who completed the two-year literacy program. At a graduation ceremony not far from the location at Drouin where we held one of the HTRIP agro-forestry graduation ceremonies last May, each community prepared a song, dance, or skit about the importance of literacy—and all of them featured new graduates reading aloud in front of the entire group. Unfortunately, funding is no longer available to continue this program, but the learning is not over. HTRIP’s philosophy stresses community empowerment, and Agathe’s work involved training local instructors to go back to their respective communities to teach literacy to their comrades. We are confident that even though the formal program has concluded, its impact will not end now. We hope that it will continue for years to come and prepare our participants for the marketplace.
Everyone on the HTRIP team is enormously grateful to Agathe for her important contribution to our mission, and we will keep her onboard as an informal consultant until another lucky program lures her away from ours.

HTRIP gets greener

Since clean drinking water is difficult to get around Deschappelles, most Haitians (at least when they are out and about at the market or at work) hydrate with purified water sold in small quarter-litre plastic bags on the streets for a few gourdes. Predictably, the used and discarded water bags (sache dlo in Creole) litter the streets. This month, HTRIP began reimbursing locals for collecting these sache dlo for eventual use in HTRIP central and community nurseries as growing containers for our tree seedlings. We pay 25 gourdes (about $0.50) per 100 sache dlo, compared to 120 gourdes (on average) for the more expensive black seed bags we used to buy in Port au Prince. Although the difference (about $2 saved per 100 bags) seems small, when you consider that we plan to acquire nearly 350,000 tree seedling bags this year, it amounts to considerable savings… and the only side effect is and pocket money for the entrepreneurial Artibonite children collecting the sache dlo, not to mention less littered streets.

Passing the half-million mark (with ninety-thousand to spare)

While the literacy program concluded, the regular HTRIP tree-planting work continued to roll forward. HTRIP staff personally moved 31,085 trees in July and August, mostly from our central nursery in Deschappelles, but also to some extent among communities in the mountains. Much more significant is the number of trees that communities produced and planted for themselves: all told, we produced and planted 221,139 trees this year, by far our most productive year to date, bringing our grand total to 591,888 trees since 2006. At this rate (we intend to produce and plant more than 300,000 this coming year alone), we will be well passed the one-million mark by the end of 2013.

Planning for HTRIP’s future

Speaking of planning for the future, HTRIP is proud to announce the progress it has made in its long-term strategic planning. On the 17^th of August, HTRIP staff gathered with its consultants for a day-long brainstorming session at a beach resort near Saint Marc to set concrete goals and policies for 2011-2012 and design a long-term HTRIP strategy. The Year 6 strategic plan evaluates program performance since 2005, articulates specific targets for this fiscal year, and outlines a long-term strategy for HTRIP over the next fifteen years. The final document will be available in mid-September, but here are some of the highlights:

2005-2011 accomplishments:

Educated 2,818 men and women about agro-forestry and helped them plant more than half a million trees and construct more than 100 kilometres of soil conservation;
Built a tightly-knit team of consultants, drivers, and agro-forestry technician/extension agents;
Developed a solid model for agro-forestry education, tree plantation, and soil conservation flexible enough to sustain in the long term; and
Dramatically improved operational efficiency (in 2006-2007, we required nearly five dollars in our annual budget for every tree planted under the HTRIP aegis; in 2010-2011, that figure dropped to nearly one dollar).

2011-2012 project goals:

Continue our successful tree-planting programme with 44 active communities, graduating more than 1,000 participants and planting as many as 350,000 trees, including work in the remote and inaccessible 6^th section of Verrettes (localities like Barbe, La Bonne, Terre Nette, Gabriel, etc.), where we will need to adapt our programme to the area’s geographical and logistical limitations;
Convert 85% of the seedling containers that HTRIP uses to the cheaper and more eco-friendly sache dlo “water bags” and reduce the targeted cost per tree produced by 25% compared to 2010-2011;
Build a larger and better nursery (see right) that will give HTRIP more efficiency for materials management and distribution, and—more importantly—afford it the space to develop a grasses initiative and experiment with several new tree species;
Expand last year’s shade-crop trial to 6-12 more communities to continue our initiative to make HTRIP tree plots more productive until they are ready for harvest;
Offer regular staff development opportunities so that HTRIP staff is prepared to better contribute to the new programmes we are developing; and
Engage in another year of successful collaboration with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies on long-term HTRIP goals (see below).

Thank you all for your continuing support,
The HTRIP Staff,
including Starry Sprenkle, Dan Langfitt, and Paul Tompkins

HTRIP Highlights!

2011-08-19T14:19:00.001-07:00

Dear Supporters,

We kicked off our 2011-2012 cycle of HTRIP activities on the 1^st of July with a gathering of all fifty-five HTRIP community leaders. We will be working closely with forty-three communities that may graduate as many as 1,300 people this year, and we are already projecting to produce and plant as many as 380,000 trees. At the same time that we began education sessions and planned for the coming year with community leaders, we finished other summer activities to close out our 2010-2011 cycle—our final demonstration tree-planting in Barbe (on the 11^th), routine experimental plot data collection (completed last Tuesday), continued sponsorship of strategic road repairs, and collection of nursery production data and tree distribution (still in progress).

HTRIP team itself does not plant very many trees—our philosophy is based on the premise that communities should be able to plant and maintain tree plots on their own—and when we finished our tenth and final demonstration plot of this year in Barbe (a remote and particularly impoverished village in Verrette’s 6^th section), we reached our total of 1,863 trees for the year.

But the other shoe is coming. The trees that HTRIP technicians were involved in planting personally represent less than one hundredth of the total we expect our most recent group of program graduates to plant on their own land this summer. Thanks to the leverage that our model affords us, we can expect as many as 250,000 trees to be planted under HTRIP’s aegis this year alone. It will take months to compute the nursery production totals and survey over eight hundred new filial plots, but when the final numbers come in, we expect 2010-2011 to have been our most productive year so far. And we will do even better in 2011-2012.

While participating communities were busily planting trees this month and last, the HTRIP staff accomplished a remarkably efficient round of data collection in a spatial tree-planting experiment that was installed by Starry Sprenkle and several interns in the summer of 2009. After only two years, we already remark at the unexpectedly strong performance of the mahogany trees we planted (they continue to grow during the dry season, unlike the cedar and flame trees, and the “slow-growing” mahogany actually grew more than the other two “faster-growing” species during the first year—though in the second year they were outstripped by the flame trees). Preliminary data suggest that trees have higher growth rates and more photosynthetic activity when mixed evenly with other species, rather than planted in monocultural clumps. It is great news that preliminary conclusions like this can be available so quickly to help HTRIP better advise its participants about planting strategies, but those of us measuring the sometimes gargantuan two-year-old trees (see picture), it does not come as much of a surprise.

This month began the 2010-2011 education cycle, and the first lesson is always devoted to enpòtans pyebwa yo—the importance of trees—and an orientation to the HTRIP program. Community members learn about the causes and consequences of deforestation (for instance, charcoal use leading to soil degradation), the utility of trees (for everything from building furniture to moderating temperature), threats to tree survival (like free pasturing of livestock), and how to protect trees from those threats (tie up your goats). The lesson for August covers general care of trees.

While the tried and true HTRIP cycle of education, nurseries, terrain improvement, plantation, and follow-up is in full swing in forty-three communities this year, nine older communities that started working with us in 2006 and 2007 are piloting a more independent phase of their relationship with HTRIP. In communities like Salasse and Cayhuit, HTRIP has already been able to offer its education program to most people who are interested in planting trees (123 people in Cayhuit between 2007 and 2011!), and some community members are already planting third and fourth tree plots on their own initiative.

HTRIP is committed to developing its program in response to community needs, and as we no longer need to hold the hands of older communities as they install micro-terracing and tree plots (at which they have become quite proficient), we can focus on finding ways to make their young agro-forestry parcels more productive. Last month we installed a small pilot experiment in Source du Pont to test the viability of several shade-tolerant crops that could be ideal for planting in other young tree plots where canopy cover is significant enough to rule out traditional corn and sorghum. Paul Tompkins joined us this month from California, where he recently received his Master’s degree in Marine Science. Paul specialises in restoration ecology, and during his two-month internship he will help HTRIP plan an expansion of these shade-crop trials to ten or fifteen communities next summer.

Furthermore, we recently launched a comprehensive programme evaluation to generate a detailed plan for HTRIP over the next four, five, ten and fifteen years, through crop diversification to timber harvesting. Since 2006, we have developed a successful model for introducing basic reforestation and agro-forestry in the mountains around HAS, but as we continue to sustain that model—taking on new communities each year and progressively “graduating” old ones—it is time to look to the emerging needs of our communities, needs like shade-tolerant crops and (eventually) timber harvesting and marketing methods. This level of programme planning requires much discussion, reflection and (yes) sifting through data, but we hope to have a full report ready during the month of September. In the meantime, we welcome your questions and suggestions.

Thank you for your continuing support,

The HTRIP Staff, including Starry Sprenkle, Dan Langfitt, and Paul Tompkins.

Honoree Profile: Ralph Greco, MD

2011-08-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

Each year, the Friends of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti salutes a member of its community of friends who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to our cause.

This year, we are thrilled to honor Dr. Ralph Greco for his constant support and philanthropy, and thank him for his many years of friendship and service on behalf of HAS.

For almost four decades, Dr. Ralph Greco has been providing volunteer medical care and material support to the underserved Haitian community of the Artibonite at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. Dr. Greco first encountered HAS Haiti in 1970 as a third-year surgical resident at Yale. He admits, "It was initially a bit intimidating, but surgical residents in that era never admitted such things. I did fall in love with the children and liked Haitian art." To his surprise, Yale again sent him back to HAS in 1971, where this time, "it was an exhilarating experience." He operated on "great cases" and felt "a tremendous sense of accomplishment." From then on, he was "hooked -- infected with the 'Haiti virus.'"

After completing his training at Yale, he continued to visit Haiti and HAS. In the 1990's, as Director of the Surgical Residency Program at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, he began a rotation at HAS for his own surgical residents. In 2000, he left for Stanford and again implemented a residency program for medical residents there. In each environment he was thrilled by the results, as was HAS. He says, "To my great satisfaction, they loved it for the same reasons I had many years before ... For young surgeons, being able to make a diagnosis with just your eyes and hands, and cure someone with an operation, without which, the patient would likely die, is the greatest possible accomplishment."

In 2000, Dr. Greco was recruited to the Stanford University School of Medicine as the Johnson and Johnson Distinguished Professor, Chief of the Division of General Surgery and Director of the Stanford General Surgery Residency Program.

Several years ago, Dr. Greco helped to organize the Haiti week at Stanford, which attracted a number of luminaries from the worlds of medicine and liberal arts for a week-long seminar in Haitian Culture, art, and medical practice, and included a Friends' art auction in his home. More recently, the Palo Alto Art Center displayed his personal Haitian art collection, which once again drew attention to Haiti and HAS.

After the January 2010 earthquake, Dr. Greco was instrumental in raising over $350,000 from the Stanford University community for Hôpital Albert Schweitzer for medical care and disaster relief. Since then, he continues to be involved with HAS in his role as advisor to medical students and residents on opportunities and goals in international healthcare. Greco writes of this time, "Being able to mobilize the Stanford community to help HAS in the aftermath of the earthquake was my way of giving back for the so many things HAS has given me."

A leader in many disciplines, including the arts as well as medicine, Ralph has inspired several generations of surgeons to pursue excellence in clinical care and to consider the needs of the less fortunate of this world. "Haiti," he says, "is a part of my life and always will be." Indeed, Haiti, and Hôpital Albert Schweitzer is by far richer in spirit because of Dr. Ralph Greco’s dedication and service.

Dr. Greco and his wife, Dr. Irene Wapnir, live on the Stanford campus with their daughter Ilana, 17 and are frequently visited by their sons, Eric, 19 and Justin, 22, both college students. Irene is a Breast Cancer Surgeon and visited Hôpital Albert Schweitzer with Ralph in 1996. A native of Argentina, Irene loves hiking and tango. Ralph continues to sculpt in stone and wood and has recently taken up ceramics.

New Sounds from Haiti

2011-08-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

Sound engineer Aaron Hachen setting up equipment for the Prestige album recording in Deschapelles, Haiti

Part of our mission at the Friends of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti is not only to raise awareness for the great need in Haiti, but also bring the more beautiful parts of Haiti into the spotlight. We bring Haitian artwork to the US, and showcase the visionary creativity of the Haitian people. We also send photographers to Haiti, so that they might capture another aspect of this beautiful country. So preoccupied with the staggering visual beauty of Haiti, we sometimes forget the vibrant creative culture in other realms -- music, for instance, and dance. Music is so a part of Haitian everyday life, especially in the more rural areas which we serve in the Artibonite Valley.

We are thrilled to be able to share with you some new recordings from two up-and-coming musical groups in our very own Deschapelles, Haiti: Prestige Band and AMBASSADEUR. Nicolas Atkins, the director of our newest project, the Philip Craig Arts Program, together with sound engineer Aaron Hachen co-produced two albums, and the results are nothing short of fabulous. Learn more about the recording process on PCAP Haiti's Blog.

You can listen to the recordings from AMBASSADEUR here. Prestige's full debut album, titled Ansam N'ap Avanse, can also be heard here.

The 20-part vocal harmonic group, AMBASSADEUR practices before their recording session.

HTRIP Highlights!

2011-07-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Supporters,

It is perhaps appropriate that after a month of earnestly wishing for any rain at all, our plans at the beginning of this month were scuttled because we received too much. Heavy rainfall makes many of the roads going to HTRIP communities dangerous or even impassable, but after a shaky start we held thirteen konbit, planted experimental crops in an old HTRIP demonstration parcel, organized several kilometers of road improvements, and made the final preparations to begin our 2011-2012 education cycle on the 1^st of July.

In older HTRIP plots, the tree canopies have begun to close enough to create substantial shade. This is great for the soil and wildlife (including people!), but for those farmers who want to continue to practice agro-forestry, it poses a challenge for growing the traditional regime of corn and millet. That is why HTRIP, with guidance from the Yale School of Forestry, installed a small-scale trial of several shade-tolerant crops in its demonstration plot at Sous Dipon (planted 2006) at the beginning of the month. If the yams, taro, beans, and cacao trees are successful, we will incorporate them into a wider-ranging set of experimental plots next year throughout all our older communities to introduce HTRIP farmers to healthier and higher-value crops.

Our traditional May and June activity is tree planting (see pictures at end). Compared to the back-breaking terrain improvements we build at the end of the dry season, digging holes, planting trees and installing fencing is relatively tame work, and these tree plantation konbit are one of our favorite parts of the year, and a great way to begin a relationship with our newest communities. This year we also reinvigorated a few older communities by giving them a fresh start with a new demonstration parcel. All told, the HTRIP team itself planted some 1,600 trees this month. More important than the trees HTRIP planted directly this month, participating communities began planting tens of thousands of trees in their own filial plots—how many we can’t know for sure until we finish surveying all the parcels, but current estimates put us and our communities on track to have produced and planted over 250,000 trees by the end of the summer. The only new demonstration parcel we have left to plant is in our most remote community of Barbe, where road conditions have made it impossible for our cars to reach so far—we have several dates scheduled for the beginning of next month.

Anyone who has been here will testify that Haitian roads are abominable. That’s why we invest in large, heavy, durable (and expensive) vehicles. Even our redoubtable Land Cruisers, however, cannot climb some of the hills that HTRIP has to contend with, at least not during the wet season when rain washes out whole sections of road at a time. We are still committed to reaching the communities we serve and they are just as interested in having our cars get to them, so we leverage our leftover food resources to make it a little bit easier for communities to rally the workforce to repair the roads on their own. Recent work we organized near Damier might give you an idea of how far each marmite (~5.5 lbs., for rice) of HTRIP food goes with invested HTRIP communities: four teams of twenty people each are working for five eight-hour days apiece to re-grade almost a kilometer of impassable switchbacks and build water bars and drainage canals to slow down further erosion—hard physical labor with picks and sledgehammers (HTRIP is also loaning them the tools). In exchange, each worker gets a meal of beans and rice for each day he or she works. At current food prices, that’s 3,200 man-hours for $230, folks. You do the math.

We have had a steep learning curve since we got started in 2006, and nothing better illustrates how well we’ve learned to leverage our funding than the food-for-konbit model we developed to organize large work forces to install contour canals or rebuild roads. However, this month marks the end of our 2010-2011 fiscal year, and we need your continuing support to make our exciting new initiatives (like shade-tolerant crops) in 2011-2012 a success.

With your support, we will kick off the beginning of a new cycle of HTRIP activities tomorrow with a meeting of fifty-five HTRIP community leaders to plan our education program for the coming months. We could graduate as many as 1,300 people from our program next year, and we are already projecting to produce and plant 380,000 trees with your help.

Thank you,

The HTRIP Staff, including Starry Sprenkle and Dan Langfitt

All photos courtesy of Dan Langfitt

Above: the several trees already present in this demonstration plot at Cagile will help the trees these community members and HTRIP staff are planting (below) to grow faster in a well-documented consequence of nearby trees on new growth called, logically enough, a "nurse tree" effect. While others were rescheduled due to impassable roads, Cagile turned out to be our first planting konbit of the season on 8 June.

Left: A boy carries tree seedlings to an HTRIP technicians at a konbit at the new HTRIP demonstration plot at Drice (held at 15 June). We prepared the terrain with contour canals and rock walls back in March, and now that the rains have come al that is left is to plant.

Right: A woman at Drice plants a frenn (paradise tree) in the demonstration plot near the fence the community is building to keep foraging animals out. We usually plant hardier, faster-growing timber species like frenn or sèd (Spanish Cedar) near the outside of the plot and more fragile fruit trees like citrus species (and this year, coconut trees) closer to the center.

Below: Our last konbit of the month was held this morning on what is undoubtedly our steepest demonstration parcel for 2011, in the community of Dauphiné, a few kilometers above the HAS mountain dispensary at Tiennes. The only planting konbit still on our schedule is for the even more remote community of Barbe, where heavy rains forced us to repeatedly reschedule planting. We are hoping to finish in the beginning of next month.

"Thoughts on Haiti"

2011-06-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

The following are images of paintings created by artist and PCAP Haiti program sponsor Philip Craig after his trip to Haiti. Stay tuned, there are more to come!

Attention! Looking at Cholera in Haiti with photojournalist Martha Rial

2011-06-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

We are seeing an upsurge in cholera patients at HAS Haiti. Today there were fifty new cases, which is back to the peak levels of the November 2010 outbreak.

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ATTENTION! Looking at Cholera in Haiti from Friends of HAS Haiti on Vimeo.

The following is a guest entry by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Martha Rial, who journeyed to Haiti earlier this year to document the effects of the cholera outbreak on HAS and the people of the Artibonite Valley region. Her audio slideshow brings both her words, and the problem of cholera in Haiti to life.

I was not sure what I was going to find when I arrived at the cholera unit at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS) in January. It was Sunday morning in Deschapelles and I could hear voices singing praise in the distance. My assignment was to tell the story of cholera’s impact. Within seconds a young man arrived carrying an elderly man in his arms. As the nurse struggled to find a vein on his bony arm, my 16-year-old translator, Stephanie, murmured “Kolera. He may not make it.” His eyes were vacant. It was as if he was already gone.

This was a typical morning at the HAS cholera unit. Although dry season had settled in the valley, patients with diarrhea continued to arrive from all over including the nearby mountains. Paul, the elderly man who had just arrived, was lucky. He lived in the nearby village of Bellanger and had the means to get to the hospital quickly. Cholera victims can die within hours of contracting the disease because they lose body fluids so quickly. HAS staffers are especially concerned about villagers living in the mountains. They have the least access to clean water and sanitation and the journey to the hospital can take hours.

Several hours later, I walked over to Paul’s cot debating whether or not to take more photographs of him. Although I have been a photojournalist for many years, I still worry at times if my presence is intrusive. My concern quickly dissolved when he opened his eyes and smiled. Amazing. His recovery had begun. When I told Stephanie about my surprise, her eyes sparkled with pride and she replied, “That’s what we do here.”

The children’s cholera unit was also a busy place. There was one little boy that had Stephanie especially worried. He was alone and not getting any better. Where was his mother? Family members play a big role in a patient’s recovery at HAS. They are responsible for feeding, bathing and doing the patient’s laundry. Later we found out that his mother had cholera too. This scenario has become too common in the Artibonite Valley.

On my last day in Deschapelles, Stephanie and I traveled to Bellanger to visit Paul. After five days, he had recovered enough to be released. After we were dropped off along the main highway, we followed a dusty road past bean fields into his village. Stephanie knew the area well because she had spent time there as a child. We found Paul sitting in front of his home taking a break from sweeping the yard with a broom made from palm fronds. His daughter Idele fussed over him and children seemed to suddenly appear from everywhere to watch the blanc (white) photographer in action. One of my favorite things about collaborating with HAS is visiting former patients at home. I believe the best way to understand the hospital’s role in the region is to explore the countryside and talk to people. In Haiti, the art of conversation is very much alive.

People always ask me why I keep returning to Haiti to photograph. Why not go someplace new? It is a fair question, but not easy to answer quickly. There are so many reasons I am drawn to this spiritual and complicated land. It is the Haitian people who have made my visits so memorable. People like Paul continue to inspire me with their perseverance and joie de vivre despite the many hardships they face on a daily basis. I can’t wait to go back!

HTRIP Highlights!

2011-05-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Supporters,

The month of April allowed us all to catch our breaths after an exhausting March, as we finished the 2010-2011 cycle of education sessions, prepared for two large graduation ceremonies, and began to set our summer priorities with recommendations from the Yale School of Forestry.

At the same time that we were completing the final agro-forestry lessons in our 41 participating communities, we also distributed approximately 4,000 more kilograms of food to the families organizing the konbit work days to do essential soil improvement work. We leverage seasonal labour markets to our advantage (labor is cheaper when there is not planting work to be done) and try to ensure that this work is finished before the beginning of the rainy season.

Just as HTRIP participants were finishing up their academic year in April, so were the students at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with whom HTRIP has been collaborating. Students taking a course offered jointly by the Schools of Forestry and of Public Health visited us in Deschapelles in early March and have since been writing a set of recommendations to help us expand and enrich HTRIP's program. At a preliminary presentation of their ideas on April 13th in New Haven, these students recommended developing a more complex agro-forestry model that would in turn cater to a more diverse set of farmers' needs (complete with alternative planting arrangements, contingency plans for transitioning current plots, and new tree species to be used for animal fodder). HTRIP is eagerly awaiting the final proposal, but in the meantime it has already implemented some of the recommendations: for instance, the class recommended that HTRIP place greater emphasis on high-nutrient trees like gliricidia (an excellent supplement for livestock) and moringa (a good addition to human diets). We already have 3,000 moringa seedlings sprouting in our nursery and hope to have the same quantity of gliricidia by the middle of next month. Members of this group will also help HTRIP to run an experiment this summer with shade-tolerant crops in its oldest tree parcels.

Most of our energy this month, however, was spent in the enormous logistical task of organizing two graduation ceremonies for 1,200 people total in a country where logistical resources are very limited. HTRIP's staff performed admirably, arranging the necessary food, transportation, tickets, gifts (coconut trees! see picture) and lists of graduates to ensure two smooth, orderly, and enjoyable graduation ceremonies. The first was held on May 1st, south of Verettes at a night club that HTRIP rented for the day, and the second one was on the 8th of May at the HAS dispensary at Bastien in the mountains. We look forward to sharing pictures and stories with you soon!

Thank you, as ever, for all of your support,

The HTRIP Staff, Including Dan Langfitt and Starry Sprenkle

About the Photo: Coconut trees sprout in HTRIP’s central nursery. We continue to search for fruit trees that will grow successfully in our communities’ arid conditions. This year, we are trying coconut trees; each of this year’s 846 graduates will receive a high-value coconut tree to plant on his or her land (photo (c) Dan Langfitt, 2011).

This Weekend with the Friends!

2011-05-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Come join us tomorrow night at Brigadoon Gallery for the opening of a special exhibition of new silk screen prints from Haiti! The event is from 7-11 PM on Saturday at 1033 S. Braddock Avenue in Regent Square / Edgewood. Silkscreen prints will be available on display and for sale, and light refreshments will be served. Hope to see you there!

AND...

Also, if you're in Pittsburgh, come this Sunday to cheer on our 2011 Marathon Team! Or, support our runners by contributing to their First Giving pages, by clicking HERE.

When the Teacher is Also the Student

2011-05-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

This is a guest entry written by Denise English, the director of the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program (RTTP), one of the programs in HAS's Rehabilitation Services Integration Initiative (RSII).

We come to HAS eager to teach; eager to share what we know with the students of the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program (RTTP). We think and discuss and come up with ideas of how best to get the material across. We talk about how to organize labs and schedule observations of patients in the clinic. We make games, organize diagrams, practice review questions and create discussion questions. We plan and prepare and want to do the very best we can to share with these precious students as much information as we're able during the short time we spend with them. We want them to succeed, to learn the material and grow more confident in putting knowledge into practice in real time.

And then we enter the classroom -- and discover how much we have to learn. Over the month that we spend with these students, they will teach us more than we ever could have imagined. We will give them our knowledge and skills, and they will teach us about the culture here and how better to teach and treat patients in the culture that they know best. They bring us their unique insights into the struggles and the joys of living in Haiti. They lighten us with their humor, and see the bright side of a life that often has few spots of joy, but many moments of peace. They invite us into their lives, and inquire after our own, back wherever we came from. They patiently teach and practice Krèyol with us -- delighting at our successful attempts, dissolving into infectious laughter at the more ridiculous efforts to the same end. They ask the hard questions about who will survive, and for how long. Who will take care of them? What will become of them? They teach us about the strength and beauty of their people, their cultures, beliefs and traditions and encourage our curiosity to learn more.

Our time together always moves too quickly, and before we either know it or are ready, the days draw to a close. We realize at this moment that the tables have in fact been turned, that we have learned as much, if not more, than what we have taught. We leave behind bits of knowledge and tools for providing compassionate, family-centered physical rehabilitation. Yet, it seems that we take so much with us as well. We leave with a renewed appreciation for life and its simple joys, even in times of struggle. We are inspired by the stories, which we have been fortunate to be a part of. And when we return, we do so vowing to be more patient, more compassionate, stronger, more humble.

The grace of Haiti leaves a mark on each of us -- taught by those who know it best: its students.

About the Images in this post:

Top Left: The 2011 RTTP class

Bottom Right: Ronel, graduate of the 2010 RTTP class, doing a wonderful job of providing rehabilitation services to the community from the rural dispensary at Bastien.

Ink, Squeegees, and Hope! Silkscreening in Haiti Comes to Pittsburgh in an Exhibition!

2011-04-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Heal, Grow, Celebrate featured a post about a couple of local high-school students who journeyed all the way to Haiti to teach silkscreen printing as part of the Friends' newest program, PCAP. Well, we're thrilled to announce that their trip was a huge success, and now these fantastic young people are planning to mount an exhibition of the fruits of their labor in Pittsburgh, PA! The exhibition, called PRINT HAITI will feature new silkscreen prints created by recovering patients of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, as well as acrylic paintings by artists from the Artibonite Valley of Haiti.

If you plan to be in the Pittsburgh area, please stop by to see their beautiful work!

What? Print Haiti: A Screenprinting Project of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti

Where? Brigadoon Art Salon, 1033 South Braddock Ave., Edgewood

When? May 14, 2100, from 7-11 pm

Project Description:

This project was created by two tenth graders from Pittsburgh, PA. Me, Erin West, and Miller Schulman. Our connections to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles, Haiti, led us to a trip down there this spring. The time we spent there was so inspiring that we wanted to come back again, but with something to offer to the people there. We are both art students and Miller has a big interest in screen printing.

My uncle runs "PCAP," an arts program at the hospital where hospital patients, specifically amputees, can create and learn about all different kinds of art. We decided we wanted to bring supplies for screen printing and print with the patients in the program. For one week, we set up our supplies behind the rehabilitation clinic where many patients, often victims of the 2010 earthquake, came to explore and have fun with the process of creating prints.

The experience was incredible and our wish now is to share the products of our time there with everyone in our hometown, Pittsburgh! Prints that were created by some of the patients along with acrylic paintings made by local artists will be on display and for sale.

All sales profits will benefit Friends of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. The show will run through May 16th.

For questions, please call Friends of HAS Haiti at 412.361.4884 or email us at info@friendsofhas.org.

HTRIP Highlights!

2011-04-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

This month, HTRIP travelled to remote mountain

communities hit hardest by cholera, such as Barbe and La Bonne.

Dear Supporters,

This month was a busy and sometimes even overwhelming one for HTRIP. Our staff worked overtime and on weekends to assure that we'd be ready for the new challenges that await us this upcoming month as we prepare for our biggest graduation ceremony yet.

HTRIP kicked off the month with double soil-conservation konbit in two new communities. Each year, HTRIP accepts ten communities and holds konbit work days in March and April before the rainy season begins to install earthen and rock micro-catchments on the hillsides to prevent erosion and increase groundwater penetration. This year, we selected many of these new communities (such as Drice, Barbe and Dauphiné) on the basis of HAS Haiti's cholera and malnutrition data, targeting those areas most in need of ecological restoration and poverty relief.

Never much for half-measures, we began with the two furthest (and highest) communities we have ever worked with: Barbe (seen in the image to the left), on the top of the ridge that runs between the Artibonite Valley and Saint Marc and the ocean, and La Bonne, a community just below the ridge. Thes communities are located in the most severely deforested zones of the Hospital's service area, and despite the distance (it takes us about two hours to reach Barbe by car), we are pleased to be bringing our project to the places that need us most.

Shortly after HTRIP began work in its new communities, we had the pleasure of welcoming a group of masters-level students (seen in the images to the right) from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies who are taking a course offered jointly by the Forestry and Public Health schools in collaboration with Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. They visited us during two weeks in the beginning of March, and the forestry team will use the insights they gained during their time here to help our project research and implement new techniques, in addition to expanding the capacity of our program. In particular, they are developing shade-tolerant crop field testing for

us to implement together during the summer, some of our oldest tree plots already provide so much shade that it is impossible to grow traditional crops there anymore, and HTRIP wants to introduce shade-grown crops with high nutrient or market value to bridge the economic gap until the trees are mature enough to be harvested themselves. Yale hopes to continue this course over five years, and HTRIP is excited about the possibilities of this promising collaboration!

We began distributing food before the Yale group was even out the door. Since the World Food Program cancelled its food contracts following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, HTRIP has been on its own to provide the food allotments it gives programme participants every year to help them mobilize community members for the labor-intensive soil conservation konbit work that is so important to the long-term success of our program. This month we purchased, transported, stocked, and distributed (in individually-wrapped packages, no less -- and guess who did the wrapping!) 7,000 kilograms of rice, 2,800 kilograms of beans, and 336 gallons of vegetable oil to 668 participants. This month, we plan to distribute even more to as many as 900 farmers who hope to finish this soil conservation work before the rains come.

Despite the considerable logistical resources that all of these activities consumed, we still managed to continue the usual cycle of education sessions, prepare the seed bags for 35,000 trees in HTRIP's central nursery (our target is 80,000 seedlings this year), complete a long-term ground-truthing project that was begun in October to construct several new databases that will help HTRIP evaluate its methods and make its reporting more accurate, hire a second driver, and even liberate one Friday for a staff development trip to visit the World Vision agricultural projects in nearby Mirebelais.

We finished the month much as we began it, with konbit work days; we finished our ninth (at Dauphiné, left), and our tenth is planned for next week. We are all looking forward to a somewhat less frenetic April as we welcome two new technicians and prepare for the 2011 graduation ceremonies. Viewing the number of people (about 1,200) we will be accomodating, HTRIP will be holding two graduation ceremonies this year; if you are going to be in Haiti the first week of May, consider yourself cordially invited!

Thank you,

The HTRIP Staff, including Starry Sprenkle and Dan Langfitt

Top Image: The community of La Bonne lies below Barbe in a cleft in the mountain ridge that divides the Artibonite Valley from the sea, and the only trees to be found are immediately around the houses of the people who live there.

Bottom Image: La Bonne takes its first steps with HTRIP in a konbit to install soil conservation techniques in a new demonstration plot.

All photos courtesy of Dan Langfitt.

Taking his Painting on the Road...literally!

2011-03-18T14:41:00.001-07:00

Check out Joseph Augustin's impressive new car treatment!

Joseph Augustin is an Artibonite painter, who meticulously painted one of the hospital vehicles. This mobile mural was in part a reaction to the many different international aid vehicles that have been circulating Haiti since last January's earthquake disaster. These vehicles are labeled with the organization's name -- but none, the artist said, seemed to really represent Haiti and the Haitian people.

The van that Mr. Augustin has painted for HAS Haiti has many different aspects of Haitian everyday life. On the back, Augustin even painted amputees going to the hospital, and emerging with new prosthetic limbs, and walking.

Silkscreen Printing!

2011-03-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

As springtime weather starts to emerge here in Pittsburgh, we are greatly inspired by the art that is fully abloom in Haiti.

We've been keeping you regularly updated as to the progress of our newest project, the Philip Craig Arts program. This past week, two local high-schoolers, Erin and Miller, journeyed to Haiti to teach silkscreen printing through PCAP.

And what were their self-professed goals?
1) Set up screens and ink and other supplies
2) Get kids and people in the art program and around the hospital to share with us their dreams for Haiti through printing
4) Have fun!
3) Save the world. (well...maybe)

Erin writes of their first day teaching amputees and disabled Haitians to make prints: "This morning was awesome. About twenty people came to learn to screen print behind the prosthetic legs clinic where we set up. We made Haitian flags in red and blue which were super popular. One guy thought it was so cool he took off his shirt and printed the flag right on it. Smiles and eager learners were welcome sights after months of planning.

"The prints were far from perfect, but that is what makes them so interesting. What's cool about the printing process is that the slight imperfections of each print make them unique and personal to each individual."

Click to view more pictures and stories from Miller & Emily's trip.

HTRIP Highlights

2011-03-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Supporters,

February was devoted primarily to finishing HTRIP's work from the first half of the dry season, and to preparing for the busier months of March and April. We began tree nurseries in our current communities, reached out to the new communities that will begin to work with us in the 2011-2012 year, and prepared for a visit from a group of agro-forestry experts.

Although HTRIP believes strongly in the importance of participating communities sustaining small, self-sufficient tree nurseries, we still do a great deal to both nurture these community efforts, and foster long-term sustainability from the very start. This year, we built hundreds of germinating trays, and bought and distributed 567 shovels, picks, hoes, digging bars, wheelbarrows, and other essential tools to our 41 participating communities. These tools were used for nursery and soil conservation work. We bought nearly 295,000 small seedling bags ourselves, and we hope that the additional bags that community members recycle will bring our total tree production this year to close to our goal of 400,000 trees. HTRIP's nursery specialist Gérard Alvarez was particularly busy in January and February; not only did he work overtime in HTRIP's central nursery in Deschapelles, but he also managed to visit more than half of our communities' local nurseries to lend a hand in places that have struggled in the past, teaching them more efficient cultivation techniques.

This month, HTRIP also began to reach out to new communities. Each year we select ten new communities (communities also select us!) on a rolling basis. In our final decision-making process, we consider the extent of deforestation, the community's interest in agro-forestry techniques, and cohesion and leadership within that community, but we also take socio-economic issues into account. This year we are making a special effort to focus on communities where reports compiled by Hôpital Albert Schweitzer show that cholera and malnutrition rates are highest. Diseases like cholera and tuberculosis are diseases of tropical poverty, and the central tenet of HTRIP's mission is to use environmental restoration to fight poverty in the mountains that HAS servers, so this is a natural step. We look forward to taking on more challenging communities this year.

As we begin the new month, we not only look forward to beginning a new year of konbit (or "community tilling/gardening") days to prepare the terrain for tree planting, but we are also eager for a special visit from masters students taking a course offered jointly by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and its School of Public Health. The course focuses on sustainable development in the post-disaster context of Haiti, and is spotlighting HAS's work (view course description here). There is a specialized agro-forestry group within the class that will be advising HTRIP on exciting new possibilities like shade-grown crops and the introduction of new tree species.

Thank you for supporting these endeavors!

Yours,

The HTRIP Staff, including Starry Sprenkle and Dan Langfitt

About the Images:

TOP LEFT: HTRIP's Gérard Alvarez visited 26 communities in January and February.

BOTTOM RIGHT: HTRIP reaches to mountain communities where poverty is perhaps felt the most.

Arielle's Story

2011-03-08T11:22:00.001-08:00

There are no coincidences in Haiti

By Lauren Lyons, MSPT

I had the privilege of spending two weeks at HAS working with the staff of the Hanger Clinic and HAS's Rehabilitation Services Integration Initiative (which includes the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program). My time at HAS was preceded by a week teaching rehabilitation to nurses at the Justinian Hospital in Cap Haitian.

During our time in Cap, we met two journalists from an organization called Food for the Poor, who were staying at the same hotel. Upon hearing that we were therapists, they immediately brought out their cameras to show us a child they wanted us to meet.

Six-year-old Arielle both sustained an injury to her right hand and lost her left leg below the knee in the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. After the quake, her family was relocated to Cap Haitian for medical care and since their formal discharge had been living in a makeshift shack in a swamp. Her mother had been severely injured in a car accident eight years prior, and had also sustained a partial foot amputation.

Our new acquaintances wanted to know what we could do, if anything, to help. However, our time in Cap Haitian was limited, and so we did not have the chance to go meet Arielle. Even so, we took her name and contact information, as we were aware that there was no one in that area doing prosthetics.

In a short time, we left Cap Haïtien for Deschapelles and HAS Haiti, without having seen the little girl, and not sure whether we ever would. However, after the first two hours that I spent in the Hanger Clinic my first day at HAS, I knew it was the right place to bring her. Food for the Poor helped us contact her, and even arranged transportation to HAS. She arrived two days later. Our incredible prosthetists, Chris Blades and Eric Ramcharran, cast artificial limbs for both her and her mother, turning them around in less than twenty-four hours. Arielle and her mother lived in the LaScale housing community so that she could receive physical therapy and training with her new leg. She quickly made progress, building strength, and soon she was able to walk. Within a very short period of time she even started running and climbing the steps.

Although Arielle was experiencing having an artificial limb for the first time, this was not the case for her mother. This woman came in with an ancient prosthesis, which had been almost completely destroyed and was hardly usable. She was also fit with new bracing, and as a result she was able to get rid of her crutch and walk with an almost normal gait pattern.

And, what is more: Food for the Poor is in the process of building them new housing so that this small family has a home to return to. The amazing work being done by the Hanger staff, in partnership with HAS and this collaboration with Food for the Poor is truly putting people back on their feet again. It was my blessing to be a part of the amazing work being done there.

Tout moun gen you bwa dèyè bannan yo ~ Everyone has someone to support him.

About the Images:

Top Left: Arielle and her sister upon arrival

Middle Right: Arielle being fitted for a cast by Chris, Mom being cast by Eric.

Middle Left: Arielle's cast ready for socket fabrication.

Bottom Right: First steps with Lauren and Chris.

HTRIP: January Highlights

2011-02-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Supporters,

HTRIP started the new year with both feet forward as it conducted another month of its revised agroforestry curriculum, completed data collection about promising tree-planting equipment, and finished purchasing and constructing equipment for its newest community nurseries.

The political disruptions in December set HTRIP's schedule behind, but with the hard work of our technicians and communities, we were able to get back on our feet in January, doubling up education session topics to make up for sessions that were missed. December's primary topic was seed collection and storage (communities collect the seeds for the trees they plant in their own nurseries, and HTRIP supplements these with seeds of rarer species). January's class sessions discussed soil conservation techniques, and we augmented the depth of the material in both.

Communities began putting this educational material to use this month, as they built their nurseries for the 2011 planting season, collecting soil, filling planting bags, gathering seeds, and cultivating seedlings in large germinating trays. HTRIP sponsors several large, central nurseries (in Deschapelles and Bastien, for instance), but the trees it produces there are only meant to supplement the production of each individual community's tree nursery; we consider it important that each community be able to function independently during each phase of the operation, from gathering seeds to pruning adult trees. We will finish distributing supplies to these community nurseries by the end of the week.

HTRIP director Starry Sprenkly planted seven replications of eleven thirty-six-tree plots in the summer of 2009. In the beginning of January, HTRIP staff visited each replication under Starry's guidance to measure tree growth, and collect soil samples and spatial data. The preliminary results from this experiment are excellent (some of the trees ghave grown more than three metres in sixteen months!), and may already provide us with tentative conclusions about the interaction of different tree species in Haiti's mountainous regions, a question that has never been adequately researched--but one that is very obviously tied to HTRIP's mission and goals.

We are looking forward to the next two months as we reach out to select the ten new communities we hope to take on for the 2011-2012 year and begin soil conservation work to lay the groundwork for the summer planting season. Thank you for your continuing support of these endeavors.

The HTRIP Staff
Including Starry Sprenkly and Dan Langfitt

About the images:

Top Right Deschapelles' central nursery: constructing equipment to distribute to communities for sifting soil.

Bottom Left The HTRIP staff atop the hydroelectric dam at Péligre, during a staff retreat last week.

See the RTTP Class in Action!

2011-02-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

"I recently completed my first trip to Haiti as a Health Volunteer Overseas instructor in the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program. I found comfortable accommodations in Kay 7 on the HAS campus, and wonderful food cooked by Edith. I was privileged to begin the third class of RTTP students at HAS, and recognize that a lot of work preceded the first class session in selecting these students. The students expressed a desire to help others and recognized the need for rehabilitation services in Haiti. I found the students inquisitive and open to learning, so it was fun to work with them. I admire their spirit in traveling distances to get to class and learning new information through an interpreter. The needs of the people of Haiti are great, and I believe that the RTTP program meets some of these needs and improves the quality of life for many."

--Toni Sanders, Instructor
Rehabilitation Technician Training Program
HAS Haiti Rehabilitation Services Integration Initiative

HTRIP: A Year in Review

2011-01-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Supporters,

December was a challenging month for HTRIP: the holidays at the end of the month have always put pressure on our monthly schedule of education sessions, and combined with disruptions following the elections a month ago, HTRIP was hard-pressed to accomplish the many things on its agenda.

Despite these challenges, we are pleased to say that we were able to make up many of the education sessions missed at the beginning of the month. We collected data on on of HTRIP Director Starry Sprenkle's ongoing experiments with tree growth, and began the daunting task of distributing hundreds of tools to communities for their 2011 nurseries (an important part of HTRIP's mission is to enable communities to practice agro-forestry on their own). We plan to conduct an inventory this month and finish purchasing and distributing nursery materials so that our communities can begin their nurseries earlier this year. We hope to improve on 2010's nurseries, which were delayed by last January's earthquake.

The year 2010 was full of many, many challenges, both for Haiti and for HTRIP. It started with the devastating earthquake of January 12, whose repercussions throughout Haiti were particularly felt in the Artionite Valley, where many people lost relatives and friends in the destruction of Port-au-Prince. The Artibonite received the highest numbers of refugees from the disaster, increasing the pressure on the land for agriculture as well as increasing the need for housing and the number of mouths to feed.

HTRIP and HAS were part of a large cash-for-work program that started after the earthquake, infusing cash into the local economy while improving infrastructure and the environment with public works projects. HTRIP was able to bring this prgram to all of its participating communities, and we supported improvement of mountain roads, the production of hundreds of thousands of trees, the construction of five water catchments, and the building of many kilometers of check dams to slow erosion in ravines.

We managed to function above average this year, in spite of flooding, hurricanes, a decastating cholera epidemic, and political unrest at the end of the year. HTRIP and HAS are still stoically soldiering on, drawing inspiration from the silent strength of the Haitian people. Thank you as always as we leave behind such a difficult year for Haiti, and we hope to continue our efforts with your support this year.

The HTRIP Staff, including Starry Sprenkle and Dan Langfitt

One Year Later: Remembering those lost, celebrating the resilience of the living

2011-01-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

This Wednesday, January 12, 2011, marked the anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti just one year ago. HAS and the Friends of HAS commemorated the event in a number of ways, which we'd like to share with you now.

In Haiti, at the Hanger Clinic at HAS, a special remembrance ceremony was held. Photographer Martha Rial uploaded a small album of photographs directly from Haiti that day. To view the photographs, click on the image above! More pictures from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website can be seen here. For more media links relating to the earthquake anniversary, visit HAS's "In the News" page by clicking here.

In Pittsburgh on January 12th, an exhibition of artwork from the collection of the Friends of HAS Haiti went on display at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The show, titled UPSIDE DOWN: Haitian Art in the Aftermath of Chaos, included works from both before and after the earthquake. If you are in the Pittsburgh area and have the opportunity, this exhibition will be open to the public through the end of January. For visitor info at the Warhol, click here.

(Special thanks to Bill Bollendorf for lending some pieces from his own collection to the show, as well as to Miller Frames, and Caliban Bookshop!)

Work For Haiti: An Audio Slide Show by Martha Rial

2010-12-13T10:38:00.001-08:00

Click above image to view audio slide show!

Friends Finds a New Friend: Intern Jillian Myers joins the Friends of HAS Haiti!

2010-12-10T10:31:00.000-08:00

First, a little background on the program I am working on at Chatham University:

A Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) major at any accreditd university is required to master generalist practice. The Council on Social Work Education is Chatham's accrediting body, and insists that students who graduate from the university be able to demonstrate an ability to work in the field, act to professional standards, and really know what it means to be a social worker. Part of this process is completing some field work, including a 12-credit, 500 hour field placement that is completed over the course of a BSW's fourth year in college. This field placement allows students to complete the program at an accelerated rate, chiseling off as much as a year's worth of university study, while expanding that student's range of experience.

My long-term goal is to work in direct practice, that is, working directly with individuals, rather than in a more community-oriented setting. I am interested in gender equality, and would love someday to act as a therapist.

Why the Friends?

Like many Americans, the need in Haiti was brought dramatically to my attention with the earthquake of this past January. However, working with the Friends has been my more formal introduction to Haiti and Haitian issues, and I am learning a lot. I have long held great interest in helping others, especially those in great need. Haiti needs help, and I am so happy to be on board!
My work so far...

I feel like I have already done so much in my two weeks here! My time thus far has been spent researching possible energy sources that might be used at HAS, including solar ovens. I'm also researching water filtration systems and humanure, or the compost that is created from human waste matter. In addition, I'm helping find new members for the Friends' charity team for the Pittsburgh Marathon, and brainstorming new ideas for possible projects in collaboration with organizations like Chatham.

Oh! And, this Saturday, I will be selling Haitian crafts and metal pieces at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theatre, from 11 am to 5 pm, and will be doing the same on Tuesday the 14th at Chatham's library lobby from 10 am to 3 pm. Please come out and join us!

Update: HTRIP & Hurricanes

2010-11-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

For HAS' service area in the upper communes of the Artibonite Valley, hurricanes most often mean a lot of rain, and this was indeed the case with Tomas, which hit Haiti last weekend. Although Dechapelles did not face the same high winds and destructive storm surge as did the South, our region sustained heavy rainfall, which threatens infrastructure, the environment, and public health. In brief, this kind of heavy rain can cause flash flooding that washes out roads and overburdens dams; it washes barren hillsides down to bedrock, and there have been speculations (as of this entry unsubstantiated, fortunately), that the overflowing of public water sources could prompt a worsening of the recent cholera outbreak.

The mountainous areas where HTRIP is working are particularly susceptible to the immediate and long-term effects of heavy rainfall. With Haiti's current environmental situation at crisis point (98% deforested), there is little forest cover to encourage seepage into steep, denuded hillsides, and valuable topsoil is washed into ravines on its way to the Artibonite River and, eventually, the Caribbean. Our organization’s mission is to plant trees to improve agricultural practices and livelihoods in the mountain communities in HAS' catchment area while fighting environmental degradation. Tree roots are deeper and more extensive than those of annual crops like maize and sorghum, so they are an excellent vehicle for soil retention and rainwater absorption—although HTRIP has previously collaborated on larger anti-erosion projects like the water catchment basins and "ravine correction" walls constructed last summer, planting trees is one of the most basic watershed management strategies available to fight the effects of the heavy rain that comes with a hurricane... and we and our partner communities do a lot of it. A storm like Tomas, simply put, reaffirms the importance of the work we do.

HTRIP's Approach to Reforestation in Haiti

2010-11-09T13:36:00.001-08:00

By Dan Langfitt & Ruth Portnoff

Nowhere is the connection between environmental degradation and chronic poverty more clear than in Haiti: centuries of exploitation and political and economic instability transformed the sixteenth-century's "Pearl of the Antilles" into the crumpled landscape of barren mountainsides where families struggle to eke out a living today. Just as overwhelming deforestation led to the soil deterioration that keeps so many Haitians in extreme poverty, impoverished Haitians often have no choice but to cut down trees for wood to cook their food, fueling a cycle of poverty and environmental degradation that is very difficult to break.

Reforestation belongs in any integrated development approach for Haiti. Simply repopulating forests that once existed (or survive only as remnants) would be an enormous boon to Haiti's primarily agricultural economy, restoring soil, increasing water infiltration, and reducing the damage of heavy rains to crop fields. The problem is developing a reforestation approach that can work in Haiti's particular socioeconomic situation. Even a balanced reforestation effort that plans a diversity of native tree species coupled with proper erosion control and watershed management techniques risks failure when desperate locals pasture theirgoats on fields of tree seedlings or cut down young trees for charcoal. Moreover, reforestation can be controversial: if planting trees on potential farmland in a country that suffers such acute malnutrition gives policy-makers qualms, it certainly proves a difficult case to make to the starving people themselves. For all of these reasons, HTRIP has chosen to embrace agroforestry, a land use system that mixes trees with crops for increased productivity and biodiversity.

Specifically, trees have extensive root systems that protect crops from Haiti's tempestuous rainy season. As a mountain farmer's tree plot matures, it becomes unable to sustain certain kinds of crops (like corn and millet), but HTRIP hopes to introduce higher-value shade crops (like yams and even coffee) as this happens. Meanwhile, fast-growing trees can be harvested for timber products that can dramatically increase family income (a single tree may be worth more than US $125, no small figure for a household living on $1/day). If farmers understand that trees are valuable from the beginning (routine pruning can yield substantial cooking fuel starting in the third year), they will keep the trees and "reforestation" will be successfulthanks to the benefits the farmer derives from practicing agroforestry. In HTRIPs model, agroforestry and reforestation are complementary goals.

Since HTRIP has only been working in the mountains of the Artibonite Valley since 2006(currently with forty-two communities and over two thousand farmers, each of whom boasts a tree plot of fifty to one hundred trees), the parcels planted with its program are not yet mature. When they are, HTRIP will be there to see that the trees are harvested and replanted sustainably, and then help market the timber products these parcels yield to ensure that the farmer gets the greatest possible value for his or her lumber.

We have found that some of the most enthusiastic community members working with HTRIP are often the youngest--these boys understand that the economic benefits this mahogany tree will eventually bring will have an impact on their generation.

Development organizations have planted hundreds of millions of trees in Haiti during the past fifty years, and yet over all tree cover still continues to decline (from about 10% in 1960 to less than 1% today). So far, reforestation efforts in Haiti have not overcome the obstacles that the country's society, environment, and history present. HTRIP approaches these challenges by using an agroforestry model designed to reduce poverty and malnutrition, and educate both literate and non-reading Haitians about the economic and environmental value of planting and protecting their trees.* The fact that they can help reforest Haiti in the process is the icing on the cake!

*P.S. HTRIP is unites agricultural education with literacy training--hitting two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Cholera in Haiti: A Message from Ian Rawson

2010-10-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

"Last evening, the Center for Disease Control confirmed that the cases of diarrheal illness that HAS Haiti and other hospitals in the Artibonite region have been receiving have been identified as Cholera.

"HAS has instituted the World Health Organization Cholera treatment protocol, and redesigned the hospital's patient flow to keep the cholera patients in a separate area.

"All HAS staff have been provided with training on cholera and its effects, and its treatment.

"HAS remains in close contact with the CDC, whose efforts are now focused on localizing the source of the disease. A CDC team was at the hospital last night to study maps of the region and to review our patient data, especially the localities where the patients have been living during the previous week.

"Most patients appear to have contracted the disease from one or several sites at some distance from the hospital. We have received very few patients from the immediate area.

"Under the able direction of our newly-arived Medical Director, Dr. Silvia Ernst (who was formerly at the Schweitzer hospital in Lambarene), HAS has been able to manage the patient flow without undue stress. All of the staff have served long hours with great professionalism.
To a great extent, cholera is a nursing disease, requiring the establishment and maintenance of IV lines, education to the patients' families to remain hydrated, and the administration of antibiotics as appropriate. Most patients so far have been able to recuperate and return home within several days."

Ian Grant Rawson

Top Image: Dieu Nalio Chery/AP: "Cholera victims in Haiti receive treatment at the St. Nicholas hospital in Saint Marc, Haiti." Source: NPR.ORG
Bottom Image: Source: Doctorswithoutborders.org

Media Links:
ABC
BBC
CNN
Medcins Sans Frontiers
MSNBC
NPR
Salon.com

Courage for the Disabled at HAS Haiti: An audio slide show by Martha Rial

2010-10-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Click the image above to view the audio slideshow!
(FYI::Captions for the images are available by clicking on the word "captions"
in the lower right hand corner of the view box!)

Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist, Martha Rial, journeyed to Haiti in the summer of 2010 to photograph our work at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. This is the first of two audio slide shows that she compiled about two very exciting collaborations that are taking place at the hospital, one with the United Nations, and another with Hanger Orthopedic Group.

This particular video shows images of Haitians who have suffered the loss of a limb, whether as a result of the January 2010 earthquake, motor vehicle accident or illness. Hanger Orthopedic Group is working in collaboration with HAS's revolutionary rehabilitation program to fulfill two major needs in Haiti that were greatly escalated since the earthquake: jobs for unemployed or internally displaced Haitians, and new artificial limbs for amputees.

The young man whose voice is heard in the background of this video is singing a rap song that he wrote called "Kouraj pou handicape," or "Courage for the disabled."

Even before January's devastating earthquake, living with disability in Haiti was often synonymous with a loss of livelihood. Haitians with disabilities often live isolated existences, shut away from much of the outside world, and heavily reliant on friends and family to provide for them. For years now, HAS Haiti and the "Friends" have been trying to change this situation, by integrating rehabilitation services into their vision for improved health care in Haiti.

This new effort in collaboration with Hanger Group, however, brings wholly new meaning to the phrase, "Courage for the disabled." A picture, of course, is worth a thousand words.

Click here or on the photo above to view the audio slideshow.

H'Art Pictures Preview!

2010-09-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Check out some of the first photos from last Friday's ultra-successful H'Art & Soul of Haiti Gala! Thanks for all of you who supported this effort!

"Patients from the Hanger Clinic in Deschapelles, Haiti are the definition of resilience"

2010-08-16T10:44:00.001-07:00

The following is a guest blog entry written by HVO Volunteer and physical therapist, Karen Helfrich, who just returned from a session at Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti and the new Hanger Clinic in Deschapelles.

Patients from the Hanger Clinic in Deschapelles, Haiti are the definition of resilience. Each person is there because somehow during the course of their life each one has lost part of a limb or multiple limbs from their body. Coming to the Hanger Clinic is a new beginning for each person. At the Clinic, the patients receive a new prosthetic limb of what they previously lost. Each patient has a story to tell, and each has left an impression on me that I will never forget.

We had a young woman come walking into the clinic on her knees with flip-flops protecting her knees from the ground. At the age of five she lost part of both of her legs because of an infection. Now, sixteen years later, she is standing up tall and walking. On the first day that she got her new legs, she spent time learning how to walk again on the parallel bars. Over a period of time, with much hard work and sweat, she said goodbye to those parallel bars and is now able to walk without any assistance. Every day she would come into the clinic and give me a hug around my waist because it was as high as she could reach. I had to return to the United States before she was finished with her therapy, but I hope that some day I can return to Haiti and get a hug from her as she is standing tall.

We had a five-year-old girl who brought laughter and excitement into the clinic. She too had lost one of her legs. She was not able to wear her new prosthetic leg yet, but would walk all around the clinic with her forearm crutches and her one leg. Her favorite pastime while at the clinic was to play soccer with anyone she could rope into it by batting her pretty little eyes, and smiling wide.

The patients all had one thing in common: the loss of a limb. This helped unite them.

As new patients were admitted, and other patients got ready to graduate from therapy, they each helped teach each other what they had previously learned in therapy. As patients were waiting for their therapy time, they wouldn't sit in the halls, but would rather be up walking around, practicing the stairs, and walking on the terrain.

They are all so strong. I worked for a week and a half straight before I had a patient tell me that they were tired and needed to rest. I must admit I was relieved when I heard this because I wasn't sure if I could continue much longer with the activity we were doing, myself!

I have learned so much from my patients by their courage, strength and resilience.

To see more of Karen's photos from her time in Haiti, visit our RTTP Flickr album here.

For more information about the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program, visit the Friends' Projects page here.

Way to go, Denise!

2010-06-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

Denise English accepts the first Humanitarian Award from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, presented by Dr. Cliff Brubaker (left), dean of the school, and Dr. Kevin Conley, president ofthe SHRS Alumni Society.

Our very own Denise English was honored this week by her alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh. Denise was awarded the Humanitarian Award from the University’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) on the occasion of the school’s 40^th anniversary.

Denise was the first alumna to receive this honor, which was created “to recognize those who are respected by their peers, recognized as leading experts, and are devoted to the promotion of human welfare.”

According to Dr. Clifford E. Brubaker, professor and dean, SHRS, “Mrs. English has gone beyond the call of duty in her humanitarian efforts related to providing rehabilitation training and therapies to the people of Haiti. Her work has spanned more than two decades and we are very proud of her dedication and commitment to others. We boldly count her among our most deserving alumni award recipients.”

The following statement was issued by the University of Pittsburgh on June 16th:

A 1973 graduate of SHRS’s Department of Physical Therapy, English has been the driving force behind the development of the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program at the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles, Haiti. Having worked on development projects in that country since 1988, English realized the need for training programs that would develop local human resources and enable Haitian rehabilitation workers to serve in their communities. Once envisioned, she, along with a team of volunteer rehabilitation educators and clinicians from U.S. and Canadian universities, set about developing the curriculum and recruiting teachers. English and another instructor were providing student training in Haiti when the devastating earthquake rocked the island in January 2010. They continued the training and demonstrated hands-on skills as they assisted patients pouring into the area for care.

English is a volunteer professional with Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO), Haiti site, where she serves as program director. She also serves as co-coordinator on their Rehabilitation Curriculum Committee, helping to develop a rehabilitation aide curriculum that can be implemented in other underserved areas. English continues to provide PT services in the Pittsburgh area and is actively involved in the American Physical Therapy Association’s Health Policy Administration Section and the Cross Cultural and International Special Interest Group. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Physical Therapy Association (PPTA), the Haiti Solidarity Group of the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh, and Health Volunteers Overseas/Physical Therapy Overseas, a board member of Friends of HAS Haiti, and is active in other Haiti-related organizations.

Time Flies!

2010-05-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

If you're still around, thanks for sticking with us! The past few months have been very busy for the Friends of HAS, as we are still adjusting to the aftermath of the earthquake in January. The earthquake, though tragic, has brought about a good deal of positive change at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, including new programs in collaboration with national and international organizations. Here are a few updates on our work in Haiti and in the US.

One of these programs is a community development project, which is a collaborative effort between HAS Haiti and the United Nations. This project aims to employ many of the internally displaced Haitians in the Artibonite Valley through providing crucial improvements to the communities in this region. This includes everything from road improvements to a community mural project. You can follow this project's progress at their blog here, or of course, you can expect updates on the Friends' blog.

Another such project instituted in the past few months is the creation of a long-term prosthetic and rehabilitation center, based in Deschapelles, Haiti, near to HAS. This March, HAS announced that it was launching a new center in partnership with the Haitian Amputee Coalition. Through the creation of this center, the opportunity has arisen for HAS to play a significant role in the future of Haiti's health care by serving as one of eight planned centers for the provision of artificial limbs in the country. As with any disability, the loss of a limb in Haiti quickly translates into a loss of livelihood and economic security in an already fragile economic environment. With appropriate prosthesis and rehabilitative care, most patients can regain substantial mobility and independence, and can even enter the work force. Staffed by the US prosthetic experts from Hanger Orthopedic Group and Physicians for Peace, in conjunction with local Haitian medical professionals, the Haitian Amputee Coalition for Prosthetics and Rehabilitation Center at HAS is now functional. This initiative also compliments HAS's Rehabilitation Technician Training Program, which, as you know, was established in 2007 in collaboration with Health Volunteers Overseas to build professional infrastructure for rehabilitation services in Haiti. We are all very excited to be a part of this effort, which addresses a monumental need in today's Haiti.

On the US front, we have indeed had our hands full! Our very own Dr. Ian Rawson gave the commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University's graduation ceremony a few weeks ago. View the speech here.

Earlier this month, the Friends of HAS Haiti's Pittsburgh Marathon team was successful in not only completing a very long race, but in managing to raise over $8,000 for the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program. Congratulations team!

Plans are now well underway for our annual benefit gala, which will occur this year on September 10, 2010. The event will be honoring Louise Stephaich, a hospital board member who has worked tirelessly for the cause both before and after the earthquake. The event will be held at the Ellis Armory in Pittsburgh's Shadyside neighborhood. Ticket prices and more details will come soon! See the Save the Date email here. To request more information, or an official invitation to the event, email us at info@friendsofhas.org.

We are so excited about where we are headed as an organization, and we really could not do what we do without the support of our friends. Thank you for your continued support of our cause, and please stay in touch!

A Uniquely Haitian Experience...

2010-04-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

The following was taken from a letter to our president from Cathy Donahoe, who was visiting HAS Haiti as a volunteer with our rehabilitation program. This was one of Cathy's more unique experiences, which she wanted to share with our blog readers:

While I obviously had many experiences during my two weeks at HAS, a uniquely pleasurable one came on the weekend. Plans to hike to two trees overlook with some other visitors didn’t go as planned and it became a solo hike for the sunrise. As I neared the overlook, two Haitian women were going to the same place and we started chatting in my weak Kreyol. On arriving, they split up and took their postures of prayer. The sun was just behind the mountains with cloud cover to delay the sunrise and make it more spectacular at the same time. I took my initial set of pictures then assumed my position for devotions. After a while, one of the ladies started singing and the chorus sounded easy enough that perhaps I could learn it. She began a moving meditation and singing, coming near where I was sitting. It took some effort to communicate that I wanted to learn her song, but we achieved the understanding and the lesson began. Singing together like this was a bonding time for us. We continued to try to communicate as others arrived. When I learned they planned on several hours there, I said my farewells and returned to the hospital grounds, singing my new song as I went, greeting the others heading up the trail to join the event. A couple of days later I met her as I walked along the canal road with others. We shared a quick hug and greeting before continuing on, but she is one whose picture I don’t require to remember her, though I have one.

Thank you and bless you for your efforts on behalf of the people in the Artibonite Valley and your encouragement and support for rehab services!

Cathy Donahoe

SAMS Missionary

Apartado 587

San Pedro de Macoris

Dominican Republic

Here are some of Cathy's pictures from her time working with rehabilitation patients and caregivers.

Video Interviews in Deschapelles, Haiti

2010-02-11T11:26:00.001-08:00

This video was filmed and edited by Edward Rawson, son of Dr. Ian Rawson, current board president of HAS Haiti. For more of Edward's video interviews, visit his website at www.edwardrawson.com

"An ill wind..."

2010-02-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

The following is a post from Denise English, RTTP program director, who has returned to the US from Haiti. Here are her brief reflections.

February 9, 2010

It’s been four weeks today since everything changed. Three weeks since I’ve written an entry. Two weeks since I’ve been back home in Pittsburgh.

Much to think about since returning. Words not coming easily.

Everything indeed has changed. So many things for the worse.

Some, as a result, for the better.

Infrastructure is being created. Groups are working in concert rather than isolation. Rehabilitation is now being pushed front and center.

"It is an ill wind that blows no good." -- English writer John Heywood (c. 1497 – 1580).

Reflections from David Charles Rehabilitation Services Manager

2010-02-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

The following is a translation from French of a blog entry written by David Charles, HAS's rehabilitation services manager. He recounts, from a physical therapists standpoint, how the Rehabilitation service at HAS grew and learned to accommodate the in-pouring of trauma victims they encountered in the wake of the January earthquake.

On Tuesday, January 12th 2010, several hours after the quake hit, the rooms and hallways of HAS Haiti were already brimming with victims and the parents of victims of the major earthquake that hit Haiti and caused unprecedented damage in Port au Prince and its environs.

In the meantime, I wasn't at all conscious of the situation in Deschapelles, as I was at the Plassac Dispensary (one of HAS satellite despensaries), accompanying an rehab technician from RTTP's first graduating class in his adjustment to the first week of work. We were, to say the least, incredibly impatient to return to Deschapelles, not yet knowing the extent of the damage there.

The following day, we returned to HAS and the reality of the situation immediately presented itself. We prepared ourselves to receive incoming patients in the hospital courtyard as there was no longer any space in the interior of the hospital to house quake victims. All hospital personnel were in a state of alarm, and this was also the case for the rehabilitation service which was assailed by requests to immobilize fractures as the physicians made their evaluations.

Only a couple days thereafter, we saw a need to expand the rehabilitation work we were doing at the hospital. Our technicians, those responsible for rehab service, along with the program's professorship--all were implicated in transferring patients from the floor onto beds, to tech patients how to use their crutches after their casts were set, to mobilize patients in beds during their time in the hospital, and to both convince and teach the family how to continue these therapies at home. This crisis time allowed us to better understand how to handle mass car accidents; we were receiving a good deal of patients with all sorts of injuries, broken bones, that were necessary to immobilize immidiately as the victims waited for surgical intervention. Our greatest challenge was to learn how to best manage cases of spinal trauma by acute care, or an immobilization of the spinal column, and all with what little means we had at the time. Among the eight medullary [neural tube] trauma cases that were diagnosed, two passed away during their first five days at the hospital. Of the six others, one died after one week of treatment. The rehabilitative care in these extreme cases consisted primarily in the prevention of pressure sores and contractures, all while we kept the spinal column immobile, all this in addition to educating families how to continue these therapies. Only one patient developed pressure ulcers in the sacro-lumbar region, which, once identified were quickly treated.

Amputees were also among those to whom we gave rehabilitative support, even as soon as a few hours after the amputations were performed.

Right now, we are still in a crisis state, and our major preoccupation is of course the future of the patients who need a good deal of therapy after their trauma. The rehab service staff, composed of three technicians and one physical therapist, is now bolstered by a volunteer who was present at the hospital last year, and who wanted once again to lend a hand to the service.

In the time between my arrival at HAS Haiti in August 2009 to today, I have seen the rehabilitation service here evolve into a program that is much better structured, and which is now remarkably better able to respond effectively to major problems as they arise. The rehabilitation service of HAS is truly rare in that it is one of the few rehabilitation centers that provide therapy from the first day of hospitalization until the day of discharge, and in that it continues to accompany the patient beyond their release with a rehabilitation program that best suits their individual needs.

The rehabilitation service at HAS Haiti will continue to work to improve the living conditions of persons with disabilities by helping them to reintegrate into society. We thank, from the bottom of our hearts, all those who help us to exist, and those who work with us.

David CHARLES

Rehabilitation Services Manager

Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti

Deschapelles, Haiti

January 19, 2010 Evening

2010-01-20T12:41:00.000-08:00

My father turned 87 years old today.

Many this last week have commented that “anpil moun ap soufri anpil anpil. Se la viv an." Many people are suffering very very much. This is life.

This is usually followed by “Bon dje pral ede nou.” God will help us.

The recognition of suffering as part of life is not said with condemnation – or resignation. It is an acknowledgment of the situation in which they now find themselves.

Faith here is powerful. I remain deeply moved each time I hear expressions of faith in the midst of this.

The hospital halls and outside courtyard areas remain occupied.

More steam in. We continue to get the very severe cases.

Today there was a reassessment and discharge of those who were ready. Or in some cases not ready, but nothing more could be done.

This is a difficult reality. “Bon dje pral ede yo.” God will help them.

Our staff has worked, and continues to work, non-stop to provide care and they are, along with many supplies, stretched to the limit.

On surgical rounds this morning we methodically moved from patient to patient. Our docs making decisions about how to handle each situation.

They were greeted with relief and questions.

During what is mostly a very serious process we found laughter. A gift from a very special patient. In the midst of an outdoor area sat a woman. One of those incredibly beautiful elders whose faces defy description. She is blind. On her bed sat her young grandson.

I’m not 100% certain of what she was saying, but it was heartfelt and insistent and not to be ignored. She was giving us all what I believe was a piece of her mind. And her assessment of the situation.

With every attempt to move on came another commentary. Our quiet surgeons soon found themselves stopping for affectionate banter.

The entire ward was drawn in.

A new team of surgeons arrived this morning. They went immediately to the operating room. Rumor has it that they are very energetic and determined.

With this increased capacity to provide surgical intervention comes the increased need for post-operative nursing.

If I could wish for something else to arrive today it would be more nurses and pain medications.

And Dad, I’m wishing you a happy birthday.

MASH - Tuesday, January 19, 2010

2010-01-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

The following reflections were written this morning by Denise English, physical therapist, and director of our Rehabilitation Technician Training Program, who has been working at HAS since before the earthquake.

Today I wake to the sound of helicopters overhead.

Our doctors and nurses who were stranded in PAP returned on Sunday.

A team of surgeons arrived. The US Coast Guard brought them in from Ft Lauderdale.

Much needed back-up for our staff. Also a sign to those waiting that indeed the rumors were true. Help was coming.

Dr. Maibach [HAS boardmember and former medical director of the hospital] was in Port Au Prince when the quake happened. He spoke at morning medical meeting yesterday. He expressed his deeply felt sense of having returned home – home here to HAS.

The team from Ft. Lauderdale was to work through last evening and into the early morning – we heard the 3:00 am beep of the vehicle taking them to Cap Haitien. They will be exchanged for an arriving team.

It took them 48 hours to get here. Long circuitous route. They are hoping for a more direct trip home.

Aircraft continue to pass above us. Dawn is breaking. Soon they’ll be visible.

I’m remembering Radar O’Reilly.

Update from HAS, Monday 1/18/10

2010-01-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

The following is an update from the managing director of HAS, Ian Rawson.

The flow of urgent cases from Port au Prince continues as before except that they are more serious cases. It has been possible to treat and release many of the patients, so slowly the ones who remain are taken off the floor and put on cots, and then to beds.

A surgical team from Miami arrived yesterday evening on a military flight, started to work immediately, and had done a dozen cases by midnight. There is still a long row of surgical candidates in the hallway by the operating suite. The team has provided a welcome relief to the Haitian surgeons, and they are prepared to continue their work through today. They had been stalled in Miami for two days due to the confusion surrounding flights into the Port Au Prince airport.

We are learning every day about disaster medicine; we are a microcosm of what is happening throughout the country, especially in Port au Prince. The clinical demand is astounding; thousands of injured people are seeking care in Port au Prince, and for many it is a race against infection and systemic damages.

We had, and still have, a desperate need for clinical personnel; the surgical team which arrived yesterday has helped a great deal. Our OR nurses have worked as hard as the physicians, and are also in need of a break. More surgeons represent more demand for their services. The Surgery post-operative ward has spilled out into other spaces, but with only a few additional nurses, who are stretched thin.

I hope this comes across not as complaints, but as a description of what life is like on the ground here at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, where the vast majority of our services have been provided by an exclusively local Haitian staff, and are only now getting support from international specialists.

Many of our patients have been in our hallways now for days, patiently waiting for help. We have become good friends and I appreciate their forbearance when I explain why they have not yet had their much-needed surgeries. Their pain is becoming more intense, and they must be frustrated, but they always respond with a smile and an assurance that they are doing all right, when it is obvious that they are not.

Several patients have brought radios. One of the early morning broadcasts play hymns. The patients turn up the volume a bit, and many people quietly join the songs, from both wards, the halls, the pediatric clinic, which is filled with beds, and the old horse parking lot, which is also filled. Many Haitians have lovely singing voices and the sound is angelic. For many, it is an inspiration that their faith will help them to endure the pain.

Your collective concern and support has helped to sustain us all in the face of an incomprehensible demand. I, and all of us here ion Deschapelles, send our sincere thanks.

Ian Rawson

News from Deschapelles and Rehabilitation at HAS

2010-01-15T08:05:00.000-08:00

The following is an account sent by email to us from Denise English, the director of the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program. Denise is currently in Deschapelles, Haiti, at HAS.

I find my telling of this new beginning far differently than I imagined. It will remain an account of hope and reaffirmation.

We arrived, Chuck Gulas and I, on January 4, 2010. Chuck flew in from St. Louis. Ian Rawson and I flew in from Pittsburgh. Chuck was waving from the curb outside the airport, having arrived ahead of us.

The trip up from Port au Prince to Deschapelles went smoothly. The vistas spectacular. Haiti never disappoints.

Chuck Gulas, PT PhD, is the Dean of the School of Health Professions at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri. This is his third trip to Haiti as volunteer faculty for Health Volunteers Overseas www.hvousa.org.

Beginning the second Rehabilitation Technician Training Program at Hopital Albert Schweitzer (HAS), brought us back. We’re a team. Class started on January 6, 2010.

We find ourselves sharing knowledge and laughter with our six delightful students – each one different – each one engaging – each one expressing their desire to become part of the health care community here assisting the disabled.

They are pioneers. Rehabilitation in this country is in its infancy. Chuck has a way with students. Knowledge delivered with humor. Yesterday class finished with laughter.

The last several days have been quite somber. The students each know someone who has been affected by the earthquake in Port au Prince. Most have family there. Yesterday phone service began to return with news of family and friends. Some good. Some devastating.

Patients began arriving at HAS before dawn on Wednesday. We’d felt the quake here late in the afternoon Tuesday, and the after shocks continued into the next day. We’re not certain, but we think that we felt some slight ones yesterday.

Most medical facilities in Port au Prince were rendered inoperable. Hôpital Albert Schweitzer is one of the few operating without interruption, having been spared the damage of the earthquake. It is now a key rescue facility.

Wednesday continued to see the arrival of vehicle after vehicle of the injured from Port au Prince. Many have been identified as from this area, or having family here. We are 70 miles by road from the capitol.

Our classroom at the hospital has been turned over for patient care. The Physiotherapi room is cleared out and functions as a ward.

Yesterday, we had class here at the house. The day began with discussion of news the students had received. The day ended, as noted above, with laughter. A good decision to spend the day together yesterday. A sense of purpose in a situation that is full of uncertainty.

Chuck and I were privileged to witness the initial mobilization of the hospital staff and community members in response to the arrival of the injured. A sense of calm – in the midst of suffering – prevailed. Patients were carried in the doors – often in the arms of security staff and other hospital employees called into action. Community members came to assist. We began to fill up fast. A search began for additional beds and mattresses. The staff began evaluating and then designating people for radiology and surgery. The nurses moving quietly between patients. Soon it appeared that every possible place was filled.

Hallways were impassable at times.

The patients continued to arrive through the night Wednesday and were still coming last night, Thursday, when I returned to the house around 11:00.

There was not as much heart-wrenching wailing this evening. Hymns could be heard being sung in the wards

Earlier last evening, Tomasz Skowronski, our HVO onsite contact and my partner in coordinating the HAS end of the training program needs for our teachers, was helping to coordinate and effort to secure more beds and mattresses. Now we were spilling out into the courtyards. The halls had long ago been filled to capacity – and then some.

The decision was easily made to press into service a bed and two mattresses that we were not using. Why we didn’t think of it sooner I don’t know. Tomasz arrived shortly with his team and whisked them off. We slept better knowing that someone else did as well. It was touching to watch Tomasz work along side of the others here.

David Charles, PT - the Director of Rehabilitation Services here at HAS – has been a leader in the efforts here – moving amongst the patients and assisting the physicians and nurses. Today we hope to be able to begin to work with him as patients are identified as ready for rehabilitation services.

The injuries are sobering – fractures, spinal cord and head injuries, amputations.

The families are remarkable – caring for and comforting, supporting one another.

Last night we were remarking that when we are in the midst of this we feel hopeful.

We are certain, more than ever, that the training of rehabilitation workers here will impact the lives of many that they touch. It already has. A reaffirmation.

Those who provide that service – our HVO Volunteers – and the sponsor organizations, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer and The Friends of HAS, are key.

In times like this, heroes are mentioned. They are indeed here in Deschapelles. We’ve seen them.

To make a donation to the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer earthquake relief fund, click HERE.

We need your support!

2010-01-14T10:29:00.001-08:00

In order to continue to administer care to Haitians affected by this tragedy, we need your help! Please show your support through donations made online here:

www.hashaiti.org

Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS), located 40 miles NW of Port Au Prince, was able to withstand the recent devastating earthquake and is currently operating with full staff helping victims. With mass casualty protocols in place, the medical staff is evaluating each patient, performing diagnostic tests and delivering life saving care.

Due to the expertise developed over its 54 year history, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS) is one of the few institutions positioned to provide timely hospital care for the injured. As the flow of people urgently seeking care increases over the next few days and weeks, our resources will be pushed to the breaking point. It is critical that we receive support to help us continue with our mission!

Pittsburgh Office
Hôpital Albert Schweitzer
P. O. Box 81046
Pittsburgh, PA 15217

USA

412.361.5200 phone
412.361.5400 fax

Afternoon Report Wednesday, 13 Jan 2009

2010-01-13T14:12:00.000-08:00

As we have all heard many reports of the terrible disaster---a 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, the worst in 200 years. Up to 3 million people may have been affected. So far, tens of thousands of people have died.

Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, located 40 miles NW of Port-Au-Prince was able to withstand the recent devastating earthquake and is currently operating with full staff helping victims. With mass casualty protocols in place, the medical staff is evaluating each patient, performing diagnostic tests and delivering life saving care. Due to the expertise developed over its 54 year history, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS) is one of the few institutions positioned to provide timely hospital care for the injured. As the flow of people urgently seeking care increases over the next few days and weeks, our resources will be pushed to the breaking point. It is critical that we receive support to help us continue with our mission.

Ever since early this morning, a steady stream of vehicles, mainly the open-back pickups which serve as public taxis on Haiti's roads, has come to the front of the hospital. In the back are one or two people, their legs or arms covered in bandages or clothes. HAS security staff rush out to the truck with a backboard or gurney, and bring the patient inside to be triaged by the emergency team.

Now, in early afternoon, a crowd of over 200 people are outside the hospital, friends or neighbors of injured patients. They rush to the arriving trucks and try to help to carry the new patients inside. Occasionally, the combination of the person's injuries and the truck ride are more than can be sustained by the patient, and the family members, with great wailing, adapt to the shock of the loss of a loved one. A sound system has been set up outside, so that family members may be called into the hospital to meet with doctors.

Each patient is brought into the Observation Unit and quickly evaluated. Some are sent to for an X-Ray or lab test while others are taken immediately to the holding area outside surgery, where both operating rooms are being used full time.

All beds have been pressed into use, and still there are patients on benches. Gradually, some of the early arrivals and less injured are prepared for discharge.

Systems at HAS are working well; preparation and practice have paid off. The greatest resource, however, is the dignity and grace of people who have suffered a great shock and sometimes tragedy, and remain calm and show concern not just for the people with whom they have come here, but for others as well.

This is the most serious challenge ever faced by HAS in its 54-year history, and while we are currently coping with the onslaught of the injured, we urgently need support.

At this moment, we don't have the capability to accept material goods or personnel. Our greatest and most urgent need is for funds to pay overtime wages to our dedicated staff, and to buy replacement medicines and supplies.

We will update the www.hashaiti.org website with news of relief efforts. To make a donation that will have immediate impact, please go to www.hashaiti.org.

Thank you again for the many expressions of help and caring that are coming from around the globe.

HAS Haiti 1/13/09

2010-01-13T13:22:00.001-08:00

These are images taken today outside of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. Please, if you are able to dig deeply into your hearts and help us, please do so immediately through making direct contributions to our hospital.

Click HERE for a statement from the Friends' president, Lucy Rawson.

Earthquake in Haiti - Morning Report for Wednesday, 13 January 2010

2010-01-13T07:34:00.000-08:00

Please donate to the HAS Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund by clicking HERE.

The following is the report we received this morning from Haiti:

The halls are filled with people who have come in overnight; all nurses and residents were called in to handle a large number of new patients - traumatic injuries, mostly. Hard to get a social history, but several reports of collapses of multi-story buildings in Petite Riviere.

The influx has been handled professionally by the all-Haitian medical staff and nurses - although all available gurneys and benches are occupied, patients are triaged and staged along the corridor to the operating suite and lab/radiology. Families and friends wait anxiously outside, while the necessary care is provided calmly and quietly.

Among the most serious impacts has been the loss of communications as the cell phone towers collapsed; everyone in this area has family in Port-au-Prince, with no contact. Several people left last night for PauP, taking public transport as far as possible, and then prepared to walk several miles into town to check on family members and to report back to anxious relatives.

Out here in the valley, we experienced only minor tremors, but people poured out of their houses onto the roads. As I write this, I am feeling a very small aftershock. Major cell towers are out and only Haitel has a signal. Only a few calls are getting through to PauP, where the radio says that many large buildings have been affected. Our twelve new residents and all physicians all have families in PauP, but can't find out how they are.

You may be getting better news from CNN or Fox than we are; we will continue to monitor as best we can, but we are afraid that the daylight will bring sad information from Port au Prince. Earthquakes are rare here - only the older people realized what was going on. Since the hospital has lights and electric current, the front is crowded with people listening to radios and sharing rumors.

Unfortunately, Haiti has a long experience with natural disasters, including floods, hurricanes and mudslides; each one reinforces our awareness of the fragility of the formal social service system, and the strength of the informal systems, where communities and families come together to care for victims and to ensure that the most seriously injured come to HAS and other facilities.

We are grateful for the many messages of support; time and demands don't allow for personal answers, but be assured of our appreciation. As is usual in disasters, we have sufficient doctors and nurses, a full stock of medications for the most part, and we are fortunate to have not lost power or water. We appreciate your concern, and will continue to offer updates as time allows.

Ian Rawson and the HAS staff

Please donate to the HAS Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund by clicking HERE.

Meet HTRIP

2009-12-18T13:57:00.000-08:00

Since 1956, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS) has provided vital health and economic recovery resources to the inhabitants of Haiti’s Artibonite Valley. HAS has always been more than a hospital—it works with Haitians to revitalize and improve the health and well-being of the over 300,000 inhabitants of that region. As a hospital program, the HAS Haiti Timber Re-Introduction Project (HTRIP) is unique amongst reforestation efforts. The project intends to have a range of positive impacts on people’s lives in this region: improved economic stability, and the basis for combating the environmental problems that lead to malnutrition and other serious health conditions. We haven't talked much about HTRIP on this blog, but that's just because we're so busy with this exciting project. Since its inception in 2005, HTRIP has become increasingly effective, despite its relatively small budget. This past summer, HTRIP added 5 new communities to the program, including over 1,050 graduates of its education programs. Now, there is a total of 35 participating communities involved in HTRIP, who have grown over 80,000 seedlings!

To boot, a pair of young filmmakers recently travelled to Haiti, and made a short film about the project, which we hope will be ready to show you in early 2010!

We recently received some seasonal updates from our collaborators in Deschapelles. Here's what they have to say!

Since October, our reforestation project has spent a good deal of time collecting data on the project's progress to date, throughout all the 35 participating communities. At present, we're really analyzing where we ought to focus our efforts for the coming year and beyond. Though this is a tedious effort, it still is not as exhausting as carving out terraces in the hills or building rock retaining walls as we do at the beginning of each year.

Most days, our team of about a dozen technicians splits into smaller groups, and we ride up to the more remote communities on motorcycles or ATV's, or occasionally (as distance and road quality dictate) our Landcruiser. Having arrived, we meet with the local community leader and walk with them to the plots. IT's normal to find only two or three plots on the side of one steep mountain, and often these plots have a great deal of distance between them.

After reaching each plot, we verify the owner of that plot, as well as the number, quality and length of the walls or canals within it, and the number of trees. Later in the spring, we'll start to measure the growth of each tree in relation to their distance from taller surrounding trees, neighboring canals and retaining walls, and tree mortality.

At this time of year (the dry season) our reforestation plots don't always look as one might normally imagine. The trees are planted earlier in the year, with the other crops the landowner has decided to grow. Young cedars, flamboyants, mahogonies and frenns are planted at one-yard distances from each other, and are interlaced with crops such as squash, peas, corn and millet. Now, in December, the millet is just about ready to harvest, towering with ten-foot stalks, and our seedlings seem lost in the mix. Fortunately, our trees are shaded from the brutal sun by other crops, and many of them will survive this hard season as a result.

In addition to data collection, HTRIP has been continuing regular instruction courses in new and old communities on some of the best strategies for soil conservation and sustainable farming strategies in the face of such harsh climate changes, and such tumultuous landscapes.

Stay tuned for more HTRIP updates in the new year!

See an HTRIP Slideshow here.

More info about HTRIP and other Friends projects here.

Stanley

2009-12-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

Stanley is ten years old and lives in scenic Petite Riviere with his mothers and sisters in a small, but attractive painted house. Late this summer he was rushed to the hospital after an oil lamp toppled over by his bedside, and burning oil poured onto his legs. His legs and thighs were very badly burnt.

After extensive skin grafts and surgery, Stanley was able to be moved and begin his rehabilitation. Not only did his muscles have to be excercised back into use, but special attention had to be paid to control scarring, which might have detrimental impacts on his everyday mobility and physical functionality.

He left HAS and rehab being able to walk, and his mother was taught what daily excercises he needed to practice in order to continue proper healing.

A few weeks ago, a team of RTTP and HAS staff members went to Petite Riviere to check up on Stanley. He hadn't checked in at HAS or any other clinics in the area for a long time, and some people were growing increasingly anxious to know how he was.

Stanley wasn't very easy to find, since he hadn't checked in or scheduled any appointments. Although the hospital had records of him living in Petite Riviere, and some physical therapists recalled the neighborhood he lived in, there was still no clear notion of where to find him.

After dozens of phone calls, a small team from HAS hopped from clinic to clinic, to local community leaders, trying to follow every lead as to where he might be. Eventually they found Stanley and his family. Much to the team's excitement, Stanley's mother had been very diligent with is daily exercises, and Stanley showed visible improvement. Although he is still mostly confined to his house and can't wear pants due to the irritation they cause for his wounds, Stanley was doing remarkably well. After David Charles, one of the leading physical therapists at HAS sat down to test his range of motion and examine his overall flexibility, it was clear that he was indeed healing quite well. Stanley could even run, and demonstrated an impressive range of comfort in different movements. Some of his wounds were infected and needed cleaning, but Stanley denied that he was in any pain at all--what a trooper!

We are all very confident that Stanley's family is taking his healing very seriously, and is being careful to make sure that he continues his daily exercises every day, and actively recovers through the rehabilitation techniques they learned at HAS, in the Physio-therapi department.

Above: Stanley and his mother at home in Petite Riviere, after months of at-home rehabilitation and recovery.

To learn more about RTTP and other Friends of HAS projects, click here.

A note from Ian Rawson, HAS Board President, in Deschapelles

2009-11-09T12:04:00.000-08:00

After one year, RTTP has seen its first class through a successful graduation. Hired in July of this year, David Charles is HAS's first Haitian physical therapist, and Dr. Ian Rawson, president of HAS's Board of Directors, sent us some updates from a recent meeting at the hospital.

Ian writes,

"David Charles made a lovely presentation today to the medical staff about the rehabilitation services.

He explained that in the first month of services, over 110 patients were seen by himself and the graduating students. These patients were referred by hospital doctors from among inpatients, mostly surgery and trauma. They also saw a number of patients who had been discharged and who returned for regular sessions as outpatients.

He has recently spent days at the dispensaries in Plassac, Bastien and Verettes, where he saw a number of new cases, mostly stroke, who will need active follow-up.

He explained that at HAS the philosophy for rehabilitation goes beyond mere physical therapy, but to needs which the patient encounters in his immediate environment and home, or Lakou. All of the factors of the social environment, both supportive or otherwise, are considered in developing a treatment plan.

Dr. Maibach [HAS Medical Director] closed by saying that HAS is unique in Haiti for having sch a well-developed program, and for having a philosophy of care which is drawn from the dominant philosophy of the hospital, Reverence for Life.

Love and congratulations,

Ian"

The Rehab clinic at HAS.

Happy Belated Birthday, RTTP!

2009-10-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

September 5th was the one-year anniversary of our Rehabilitation Technician Training Program (RTTP), which is perhaps the only program of its kind in Haiti. Ok, are you ready for all these acronyms? Let's see: RTTP was designed by the Friends of HAS Haiti (FHASH) as a way to professionalize Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti's (HAS) rehabilitation service with its limited resources. Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) came on board as a partner, as HVO affiliated teachers had been seeking a site in Haiti to operate. This collaboration between FHASH, HAS, and HVO set a platform in place to allow each of the partners to achieve their goals.

That said, we'd like to introduce you to the individuals that have made this program into the fledgling success story that it is today!

Meet Shaun Cleaver –
Coordinator of Rehabilitation Services Development

Shaun Cleaver is a Canadian physical therapist who has spent more than a year in Haiti. Shaun moved back to the country in April 2008 to work as the Coordinator of Rehabilitation Services Development for the RTTP. In this role he was responsible for establishing the framework of the training program and the system for providing rehabilitation services.

Shaun fulfilled numerous roles for the RTTP. When the training program started in January, Shaun was first and foremost the onsite contact for the training program, orienting teachers to life in Deschapelles and being a consistent face for students amid the constant changes seen with the teacher rotation. This role also makes him the interface with the RTTP and other political and independent social institutions in Haiti, including HAS of course, but also the Haitian government and local Disabled Persons’ Organizations. Shaun also works with the HAS staff to improve the current provision of rehabilitation services and facilitates the expansion of services and hiring of new employees. This included traveling to outlying areas where he stays at and works out of small health centers, seeing patients and collaborating with local employees to integrate rehabilitation. Besides this field work, he also spent a good deal of time with his hands on the keyboard and eyes on the screen, communicating with RTTP stakeholders, drafting documents to help the program raise funds and planning budgets and schedules.

Focusing on immediate needs, though, Shaun’s biggest job at RTTP's inception was to select the students and the local translator. The RTTP searched for the best candidates in these roles and engaged in a rigorous process to identify these people. For Shaun, this was a new and interesting challenge that at the time required better knowledge of the Haitian education and labor systems.

Outside of work, Shaun is known locally for his morning 3 mile runs and Kreyol fluency, allowing for animated banter and joking with the area’s residents. He is also fluent in French and often fulfills ad-hoc translation duties in HAS. He enjoys gardening, hiking and the wide variety of personalities, both visitors and local, that frequent Deschapelles.

Shaun has stayed in Deschapelles for over a year at this point. While he is currently facilitating his own transition away from his position in Haiti, he has already put systems in place which have allowed this to happen on its own. Despite the challenges, RTTP is a success after one year, and you will be sure to hear of some of the trials & triumphs of this project both in real-time and retrospectively. Shaun plans to complete his PhD in order to seek an academic appointment integrating teaching, research and service. More generally, Shaun’s career focus is integrating rehabilitation therapy in resource-poor environments and across cultures. It is likely that he will return to South America or Sub-Saharan Africa where he has traveled, worked and lived previously. Nonetheless, with a record that includes substantial, and repetitive, time living in Haiti, it is likely he will stop by here again too…

Meet Denise English – Program Director

Haiti has been an important part of Denise’s life for over 12 years. She has fulfilled a variety of commitments in Port-au-Prince, Lacroix (near Gonaives), St-Louis du Nord and now Deschapelles. In her role as Program Director, Denise is responsible for all of the educational aspects of the RTTP. It was really through Denise's efforts that RTTP was founded as an official program of the Friends of HAS. Denise established the vision for the training program, led the curriculum development, recruited teachers and oriented them to the program and providing guidance for important decisions regarding student selection, evaluation and discipline.

Denise’s affiliation in the RTTP partnership is with Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO). HVO is based in Washington, DC, and its mission is to create opportunities for health professionals from high-income countries to build health and human resources in low-income countries. (Whoa – that’s a mouthful.) Now, what does this all really mean? At the most basic level, HVO programs are rooted in teaching. Professional volunteers from the United States and Canada travel to international sites to collaborate with locals to train health care workers. In this way, HVO’s work should serve to strengthen health care systems at their local program sites. All RTTP teachers are HVO volunteers with previous experience in Haiti.

HVO has a strong physical therapy component, currently with programs in Bhutan, India, Nicaragua, Peru, St. Lucia, Suriname and Vietnam. According to Denise, “Working with HVO provides us with a wealth of international expertise and important contacts.” Denise is in regular contact with the Program Directors from the other sites, enabling exchanges regarding experiences and lessons learned.

HVO is sponsored by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and has a reputation among physical therapists as offering a very organized volunteer experiences. The RTTP is proud to have HVO as part of our team and excited about the opportunities this provides.

We are also lucky to have friends like Denise and Shaun on our side.

Read an Article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Denise English and her work with the RTTP.

Join Us

2009-10-07T13:46:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends,

We've created this page so that we can tell you about all of the wonderful things we do in Haiti and beyond. We are the Friends of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. We are a non-profit 501(c)3 organization based in Pittsburgh, which designs and implements projects in collaboration with HAS' mission of improving the health and well-being of the people in Haiti's Artibonite Valley. We sponsor a rehabilitation training program to help Haitians heal better. We reforest mountains so that farms and their crops can grow. We support Haitian artists to celebrate the vibrance of this culture we have come to love.

We hope that, in time, we can build up direct, meaningful and dynamic relations between what we do in our little offices in Pittsburgh, and the big, beautiful world of Haiti and our own Hôpital Albert Schweitzer. This is the first step: talking to you, straight from Haiti.

Thank you for joining us on this great adventure, the fulfillment of a vision that dawned over half a century ago in a remote valley in Haiti. Read, learn, and communicate with the people whose daily efforts are what make us who we are.

Byenvini!