New year, new blog!

Hi, all!

First of all, byenvini – welcome! – to the brand spanking new CHM blog! I’m hoping to use this medium to share more in-depth stories with you about things going on at the clinic, patient stories, Haiti updates, and more! If there’s anything you’d like to hear more about, PLEASE comment below!

It’s a new year (good riddance, 2020!), and we’ve got some new things cooking at the CHM clinic in Haiti that we’re excited to share with you. So scroll on, dear reader!

Haitian Health Ministry

We are very excited to share with you that this year we are pursuing registration with the Haitian Health Ministry – or, as it is officially called, the Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population (MSPP)!

Doing anything in cooperation with the Haitian government is not easy, but we feel it is time that we make the big step to become an officially licensed health center! We’re not sure exactly how long this will take, as there are many, many steps, and getting paperwork approved in the government moves way slower than you could imagine. Your prayers are much appreciated to expedite the process! 🙂

FAQ: Why are we not already registered? This is a bit complicated, and takes some understanding of the mechanisms of the Haitian government, but the short answer is.. we tried! We submitted all of our paperwork to the government over 2 years ago, but because we didn’t have an extra staff members to go into the Health Ministry at least weekly to push our paperwork through and advocate for us, it sat stagnant and eventually was lost. Now that we have a Haitian pediatrician on staff (with a lot of connections) we will have a much easier time of things.

Part of the process of registration is to bring the clinic building up to the specifications of the Health Ministry, which includes things like additional sinks, patient bathing facilities, handicap access, etc. None of these things were needed when we were simply an outpatient malnutrition clinic, but oh, how things have changed!

Step 1 – Getting the Outside of the Building Ready

If you’ve ever been to Haiti, you know that some of the construction is not the sturdiest. We’ve put a lot of stress on our clinic building over the past 5 years, and while the main structure is still sound we had chunks of plaster falling off the ceilings and walls due to moisture seeping through the concrete. Like so:

This is a no-go, especially as it puts our staff and patients in danger!

Our facilities manager, Andy (aka my darling husband), traveled to Haiti in early January to coordinate the required repairs to the clinic building. It is our philosophy to provide employment for Haitians whenever possible, so we hired Haitian contractors to do all the work on the clinic. These guys were SO thankful for the opportunity to work, as there are not many building projects going on right now with the Haitian economy the way it is! All in all we ended up hiring 22 Haitian workers to do the jobs at the clinic. Hoo-rah for job creation! ✊🏾

The cement work was completed, and the building is just beee-autiful now!

Andy also had a shower built for our patient families, re-did the outdoor latrine into a functioning-toilet bathroom, and repaired all the sinks and toilets in the clinic building.

Fun surprise for him: our septic tank AND the latrine were both FULL to overflowing of you-know-what. I won’t add a picture of the poop-splosion that happened when he took one of the toilets off… you’re welcome. 🤮

Here is the pretty new bathroom:

You wouldn’t believe how dirty things get down there with all the dust and smog, so the the clinic got a fresh new paint job…

… a sturdy new railing for our stairs …

…and also some long-overdue new benches for the patient waiting area! Our old benches had become rotten and broken over the past 5 years and our patients were sitting on anything they could find, like concrete blocks:

Here are the new benches:

They look much comfier, don’t you think? A huge thank you to Calvary Lutheran Church of Golden Valley for providing funds for the benches!

These repairs might not seem so exciting, but they are getting us into compliance with MSPP regulations. We also think it is very important to provide our patients with the dignity of a clean, well-maintained clinic and something everyone can be proud of – they deserve it!

We will continue to update you on the next steps of the registration process as we make them.

Thanks for checking out our first blog post, talk to you soon! Drop us a comment below if you have questions about registration or what else you want to hear about! ❤️

P.S. Solda, the clinic guard dog, sends his greetings. 🐾