Haiti in Our Hands has sent nine Medical Missions to the village of Chauffard. Your generous donations also enabled us to build a new health clinic for the parish.
The original health clinic in Chauffard was built in the 1950’s and was severely damaged in the 2010 earthquake. The Haiti Committee at the Church of St. Michael and St. Peter worked very hard to raise the funds to build a new clinic. The building was completed in 2017, and the community held its dedication ceremony during our 8th annual Medical Mission to Chauffard in November of 2017.
As part of the mission trip, Joseph McCullagh, Megan Sovocool and NP Katie McDonnell performed a community health survey. The team of doctors, nurses and translators saw over 1050 patients. The most comment ailments suffered by the people of Chuaffard are: malnutrition, intestinal parasites (worms), high blood pressure, back pain, diabetes and peptic ulcer disease. Sometimes the doctors will see cases of malaria, and occasionally they get to do a well child check-up on a newborn baby!
We were able to send our 9th annual medical mission in the fall of 2018. The security situation was too unstable to send a team in 2019, then the pandemic hit. The security situation has further deteriorated, and we have not been able to visit our twin parish since the fall of 2018. We remain in constant contact with the parish priest, and continue to send money to support the schools.
Currently, longtime Chauffard resident and nurse, Anne Marie, runs the pharmacy in the new clinic. There are two more nurses on staff and one lab technician. Haitian doctors occasionally come to the area and stay for a while.
and currently works in the new clinic pharmacy.