Yes...this is Haiti

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TravelBlog 3/1

It’s difficult to sum up all that has happened during the past two weeks. The easiest thing to say is that is that it has been a long series of Very Interesting Days. If you need an example, please check out the story titled “An Interesting Day…” found here on this site. That particular day was one of many experienced in Vanuatu during the month of November. But there I was familiar with the culture and language, and I was at home in the country that apparently has adopted me. There also, I had my people about me like Dr. SueLin Hilbert, The Optimizer Frank Zolnai, and the Support Crew on Alvei.

Here in Haiti, I got to enjoy the support of Dr. Hilbert for a few days at the start and then have had to build an infrastructure of ‘My People’ to make all that has happened a reality. Fortunately for me one of those superheroes was firmly installed in the trenches when I arrived. This man is a few years my junior, but is a far superior man than I was at his age. Michael Rudolf (or McGuyver as we call him) is truly the man that has made this whole operation possible.

“What operation is that?” you may ask.

To state it simply: it is the running of a hospital for a community of 200,000 (by and impromptu collaboration of partner groups, volunteers, the Grace of God, and Pure Luck). Fifteen non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governmental agencies, and religious entities have come together to establish a Hospital Cooperative. All of this has taken place in the Haitian town of Petit-Goave (30-40km West of Port-Au-Prince).

Cooperative Partner organizations include:

Aid for Haiti (AFH)
International Wesleyan Church - Canada, Florida, Michigan, Haiti
Haitian National Wesleyan Church
Barnes-Jewish Hospital / Washington University (BJC)
United States Marine Corps (USMC)
Marines del Armada Espana / Spanish Navy and Marines
Missionary Ventures International (MVI) - Florida, and Maryland
Acts of Mercy (AOM)
Crisis Response International (CRI)
Cross World (CW)
World Hope (WH)
Hearts Afire (HA)
Portland Fire Department (PFD) - Oregon
Quesquea Christian School (QCS)
Corazon Del Fuego (CDFS)

External Partners Include:

Notre Dame Hospital - Petit-Goave (NDH)
United Nations Organization for Coordinating Humanitarian Aid (OCHA or UNOCHA)
Medicin Sans Frontier / Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Medicos Del Mundo / Doctors of the World - Spain (MDM Spain)
Medicin Du Monde / Doctors of the World - Belgium (MDM Belgium)
International Medical Corps (IMC)
Cap Anamur / German Emergency Doctors
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Oxfam
Save the Children
International Committee of the Red Cross / Red Crescent (ICRC) - Canada, Norway
Brigada Medicos Cubana / Brigade of Cuban Doctors (BMC)
ADRA / German Hydro Engineers (ADRA)
I originally came for specific reasons but as the hours progressed, those reasons grew in number. Until today I have had no boss of sorts, but have been working as an external consultant to the Wesleyan Hospital Cooperative. We the volunteers have established systems for the smoother running of the Hospital’s operations and have collaborated to form an exit strategy for all organizations. Since the beginning of this work all involved knew that this Co-op Hospital was a temporary set-up. This operation which grew so large was never planned to be sustainable for the long term, but was only meant for short term disaster relief.
All members of the cooperative knew that we could not close up shop cold turkey and that to do so would be very harmful to the people we meant to help. The exit/closure plan that we created allowed that all partners involved received what they wanted and ensured that the Haitian people would never be left without health care services. The services our hospital cooperative has offered include:

Daily Outpatient adult care
Pediatrics
Ob/Gyn
Dental
24 Hour Maternity
24 Hour Emergency Service

Before the earthquake, Notre-Dame Hospital (NDH) was the local health provider for the region and it offered several of the services that our Co-op Hospital does now. Unfortunately, the NDH staff had not been paid for 6 months before the quake. When the Big One hit on Jan. 12, the staff fled the buildings (which sustained great damage) and did not return. Luckily, the Red Cross Canada and other big NGOs have started the revitalization process of NDH.
The plan as of now is this: as services become available again at Notre Dame Hospital (or by other external partner organizations), we at the hospital cooperative will discontinue identical services and refer patients to appropriate providers. The final service to be discontinued will be our maternity services. We are the only ones in town, at present, that are catching babies all day and all night.
During the past few weeks that the Co-op Hospital has been running on the Wesleyan Compound it has served on average 2000 patients a week with 50 of those being deliveries. We have quite a pack of storks working for us day and night.

I was originally slated to return to the states after a week in Haiti. This did not happen and I changed my flights at great expense. I remained for a second week to finish negotiations between partner organizations and to build the plan for health care transition. Once everyone had agreed on the plan, I knew that there was still more week to be done in order to carry it out. The looming departure flight, however, meant that I would not be the one to finish the job.
During my last Health Cluster meeting, I mentioned to participants (OCHA, ICRC, MSF, MDM, IMC, BMC) that it would be my last meeting as my time with the Wesleyan Cooperative Hospital was at an end. The following morning, I was approached by MDM Espana with an offer to finish the transition under another flag. I signed a local logistician’s contract with MDM Spain two days later and am now working at the Notre-Dame Hospital to make it ready to receive those 2000 patients a week that the Wesleyan Co-op Hospital will no longer serve.
I was building this transition from the ‘Push-side’ of the equation, and now I’m finishing it from the ‘Pull-side’ of the equation. Either way, my boss is still the same…it’s the Haitian people that we all aim to help.

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Comments

[Frank]

Wish I was there...
Well mate, you're in the deep end again and regrettably I can't be there with you. I'll make up for it on our next MARC Project. Keep up the good work and stay safe. (FF/TO)