HELP

Joanne Schafer has been dreaming about this for 17 years, and her dream was realized August 20-24 in Pignon, Haiti! Over 70 teachers and principals from the nine Christian Schools established by Comite Bienfaisance of Pignon came together for a teacher training event organized and funded by H.E.L.P. (Haitian Education and Literacy Program) of Pella, Iowa. H.E.L.P. was founded by Joanne Schafer 17 years ago to provide scholarships for students in the Pignon area that could not otherwise afford to go to school. Dr. Guy Theodore, who established Christian Mission of Pignon (now Promise for Haiti) in 1981 had been helping young children go to school by providing funds from his own pocket and realized the need was just too great and shared his concern with Joanne. That’s when God gave Joanne the vision for a scholarship program and she stepped in to create H.E.L.P that now sponsors over 1,200 students yearly in the Pignon area to attend primary and secondary school.

But that wasn’t the end! Joanne also had dreamed of training and equipping teachers and principals, who have little or no opportunity for formal training and had also dreamed of the day students could have access to real textbooks. Until this fall, teachers have taught without the aid of textbooks and have had no visual or teaching aides except for one chalkboard in each classroom. Bev Brand, who has been working with Joanne for the past 8 years and has 21 years of experience at the university level in teacher education at Central College in Pella, Iowa, organized a team of educators, including Katie Peterson of Pella and Sherry Grunder of Mount Vernon, Iowa to lead the four day workshop. Stages of child development, learning styles, and effective teaching strategies were shared and demonstrated. Hands-on learning, puzzles, counting chips, Venn diagrams and sequencing were new ways of preparing children for higher order thinking and problem solving that teachers in Haiti rarely experience. Members of Third Reformed Church in Pella, donated “a mountain” of teaching supplies, people in Mount Vernon donated 106 puzzles and H.E.L.P. provided teacher bags, gifts and meals for all participants. CRECH (the Consortium for Reinforcement of Christian Education in Haiti) sent instructors from Port au Prince, Haiti and provided excellent instruction on how to use the 2,100 new textbooks purchased by H.E.L.P. and most importantly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was shared, teachers were given Bibles, the school year was dedicated to the Glory of God and praise and prayer filled the conference room at Hospital Bienfaisance.

This fall, there will be a new reality! Students will have textbooks to study Christian education for grades 1- 6, social science textbooks for grades 1 -2, and government grammar books for grades 3-4-5 and 6, plus globes, maps and manipulatives for each school. The following years, more textbooks will be added, more teacher training will be offered and many other school improvements will be realized.

H.E.L.P sincerely thanks all of our faithful sponsors who have supported children in our scholarship program over the past 17 years and for numerous donors who have generously contributed to make teacher training and textbooks a reality this fall. We just wish you could have been there with us to see the joy on the faces of teachers and principals as they were valued, honored, empowered and given tools to be better teachers and to also feel the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as we sang, prayed and worshipped together.

It was a dream come true for Joanne and all of us were blessed far beyond what we could have ever dreamed!

Houston Haiti Relief Initiative Team and Rotary International Make a Difference in Haiti! Evenel Osias, Hospital de Bienfaisance manager, tells about the great things that are happening in Haiti by means of scheduled meetings. As written in his own words, Evenel says,  "Missionary Hospital Bienfaisance in Pignon /Haiti Teaching to other Hospitals scattered all over Haiti to keep updated  their Hospitals Equipments. Training of Biomedical Technicians for Repair of Equipments for Hospitals all over Haiti. Hopital Bienfaisance in Pignon training technicians of Hospitals in Haiti  from North to South and East to West. One of the weakness of Hospitals in Haiti is to find Repair persons to keep their medical equipments working when needed.   In the past, sporadically, some helpers could show up from the States for a week to do some repairs. Most of the time, the time is too short to finish the work and the Trainees  rarely have the time to absorb the teachings. This time, a sustainable continuous training  for 3 consecutive years , with a rotation of 2 weeks every 2 months for 3 consecutive years. This program is being initiated and given at the Hospital Bienfaisance  in Pignon with the support of HHRI & Rotary International.   See the list of the Hospitals Technicians coming from all corners of Haiti: 1- Centre de sante de St-Michel, St-Michel-Haiti, 3 people. 2-Polyclinique de l'avenir, Gonaives-Haiti, 2 people. 3-Centre Medical de Beraca, Port-de-Paix,Haiti, 2 people 4-Centre Medicale Dumarsais M. Simeus, St-Marc-Haiti, 1 people. 5-Hopital Adventiste de Diquini, Carrefour/Port-au-Prince-Haiti, 2 people. 6-Hopital Albert Schweitzer, Verrettes-Haiti, 1 people 7-Hopital Bienfaisance de Pignon, Pignon-Haiti, 6 people. 8-Hopital St-Michel, Jacmel-Haiti, 1 people 9-Hopital Immaculee de Conception, Les Cayes-Haiti, 2 people 10-Hopital Espoir (HOPE), Delmas/Port-au-Prince-Haiti, 2 people 11-Hopital St-Nicolas, St-Marc-Haiti, 1 people 12-Institution Brenda Staford, Les Cayes-Haiti, 1 people 13-Polyclinique de la rue Berne, Port-au-prince-Haiti 1 people    Pignon Hospital is proud of being of service to other Hospitals inHaiti Please pray for the continuation of this program of Reinforcing Hospitals in Haiti and mainly contribute financially to this program while Bienfaisance Hospital is going to very difficult time financially."     Vicki Brentin, a member of the HHRI Team wrote this account of their trip to Pignon!   "Sunny Sharma, Past District Governor Rotary 5890, bio medical engineer and owner of a Houston medical equipment supply and repair company, always hada vision to develop a medical equipment training program that would benefit developing world nations. Rotary Club Past President and retired Methodist minister, John Collier has a long history of supporting international service projects through Rotary and his work as President of Caring Friends. He made his first trip to Haiti in the Fall of 2009 with a water and sanitation NGO. Rotary Club Past President and retired lawyer, Vicki Brentin, spent many years working for a large international humanitarian organization and also leading Rotary world community service projects. She made her first and what she expected to be her only trip to Haiti as part of a Rotary team on January 12, 2010 - arriving 45 minutes before the earthquake. Together they have led efforts to develop and launch Haiti's first formal classroom training program to teach bio-medical equipment repair." To read further about their wonderful endeavor in Pignon, please click here:     Newsletter Report from Vicki Brentin

Dear All, The Hopital Bienfaisance de Pignon was inaugurated as a Center of Excellence  and Reference for Obstetric and Neonatal Emergencies by USAID / MSH  on June 25, 2012.At that time (on June 25, 2012) the Executive Director of US Gobal  Health Initiative (GHI) has visited Pignon withUSAID/MSH staff.   Global Health Initiative (GHI) was created by President Obama to  help countries save lives today, and strengthen health systems to  built stronger nations tomorrow.Everyone (the Executive Director of GHI,  the Representative of the Minister of Health/Haitian Government,  USAID /MSH) wassatisfied of what we are doing in Pignon.  And the news were published in a Haitian newspaper called the " Nouvelliste" No. 38776 /Wednesday June 27, 2012. Some pictures of the visit are attached. Thank you. Adele

Christian Sojourn Haiti team

Christian Sojourn Haiti team to Pignon

    In June I had the privilege of leading a thirteen member work team to Pignon, Haiti.This was not a new experience e for me since I have led  medical-surgical or  work teams to Haiti for the last 35 years. Our first visit to Pignon was in 1984 when I led a medical-surgical team.  It was like going home once again. A few things had changed,  but much still remained the same.

    We traveled to Port au Prince on American Airlines and then flew via MAF to Pignon. The 30 minute flight was a delight instead of  three hours on the road. After our arrival in Pignon, we checked into the dorm and settled in. That afternoon we met with Dr Guy, and he briefed us on the hospital and Pignon. It was great to see Dr. Guy once again after all of these years.

    My team consisted of 6 teenagers and 7 adults including a high school principal, a teacher, a realtor, a nurse, a family physician (myself) and Pat Moore, who retired after serving as a  missionary in Haiti. She had started her career as a missionary in Pignon so it was wonderful to see her make contact with many old friends such as her cook and watchman.

    We worked on several projects during our visit, making school desks and  doing plumbing and electrical repairs.

     We cleaned out, screened, and painted a small house that will be used for a missionary couple who will be coming to Pignon in July.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this couple was Gene and Valorie Hauck. Valorie had come to Haiti as a teenager on one of my trips where she met her future husband. He is a general surgeon and she is a nurse midwife, and they are considering becoming long term missionaries.

    It was really rewarding to reside right in the middle of Pignon. The dorm has a large veranda, and we all enjoyed sitting out there and watching the people go by on the main street below. There were donkeys, ox drawn carts, over-loaded pickups, and one day even a marching band!

    One of the highlights for our young people playing basketball. They became acquainted with a group of Haitian youth, and every evening they played basketball togetherl. The teams were very competitive, and they really bonded and had a great time.

    We attended a Haitian church and experienced an uplifting service. That afternoon we visited an orphanage which was just outside of town. The week went by so quickly, and it was time to go home. My entire team had a really good experience in Pignon, and I am looking forward to taking another team there soon.

                                -Stuart P. Embury MD; President Christian Sojourn Haiti, Inc.

    

Fargo Moorhead Medical team

Our trip always starts a few months earlier as thousands of pounds of supplies are collected, some bought/some donated, boxed, labeled, palleted, shrink wrapped, and shipped to Florida. We are working to optimize the shipping process trying a new method each year. This year we shipped by container by boat to Cap Haitien and then by truck to Pignon. We sent 10,000 pounds of supplies, on 20 pallets. The primary benefit is the cost savings of more than half what we would spend shipping via MAF. The supplies arrived in better shape this year, but we did lose 70 boxes somewhere in the process. The challenge is to get the details of the paperwork (detailed bill of lading, estimated costs of donations, letters of donation) and the efforts of the folks in Haiti coordinated to get the franchise customs exemption, and then safely transport the supplies from Cap to Pignon. We have opted to hand carry the mission critical supplies: drugs, suture, etc when we come but hope to refine this process in the future.

Carrying Scheduled/controlled medications out of the country is also detail intense, requiring pre-approval by the DEA, letters from the hospital and from the donors and notifying the various TSA authorities at the involved airports. This is always intense for those concerned as we typically carry over $3000 worth of medication, and most is not available and/or affordable in Haiti.

Our 15 member team consisted of 2 surgeons (including a 4th year resident), 2 OB/gyns, 4 CRNAs, 4 nurses, 1 supply expert, and 2 non medical personnel/ community liaisons. We did 35 cases, most of them major procedures (requiring a recuperative stay in the hospital), including many hysterectomies, large hernia repairs, cancer resections.

We brought a fourth year general surgery resident this year, having gotten approval from the residency to get credit for this experience and intend to bring a resident in future years, training them for future work in developing countries. Our community based activities include support for the goat program as we typically have 40-50 donors each year. We also help support the Campbells’ orphanage with in kind donations. Kevin traveled to Cap to connect with a Minnesota based mission working on wells, as he serves on their board. We continue to work with the hospital staff to identify and prioritize equipment and supply needs which the anesthesia staff and Georgia focused on. We also collaborated to improve some of the organization of the supplies working towards accurate inventory in the future.

Our focus is provision of necessary surgeries especially for the poorest of the poor, continuing education and support for the Haitian staff, and provision of supplies for the hospital to function through out the year. However the development and nurturing of our relationships with the hospital staff and the community is of equal importance to us. We were overcome by the generous gifts and notes given each of us from the OR staff, knowing of the challenges that are part of their daily lives.