Haiti 2010: A Year in Review
COHI continues to focus on women in crisis around the world, specifically those living in Fond Parisien, Haiti. It is difficult to believe over a year has passed since the devastating earthquake rocked the very foundations of Haiti. As we continue our efforts to improving the health and well-being of women affected by the January earthquake, we’ve provided highlights from 2010, as well as our plans in 2011!
Initial Response
COHI arrived in Haiti on January 17th, and immediately began providing care to the pregnant women living in Fond Parisien Haiti. As a part of our initial response, COHI conducted a Women’s Health Needs Assessment at Camp Hope, an ARC tent encampment in Fond Parsien, Haiti. The assessment included questions regarding food security, safety, gender-based violence, and access to healthcare. COHI used responses obtained from this assessment to inform future programming.
Maternity Care (ongoing)
COHI partnered with Christ Pour Tous (an existing Haitian clinic in Fond Parisien) and Midwives for Haiti (a midwifery training institute in Hinche) to hire two Haitian midwives to provide maternity care to the women living in and around Fond Parisien, Haiti. From March 2010 through December 2010, the two midwives have provided over 1,000 prenatal appointments and over 200 safe deliveries.
EmOC Referral Site (ongoing)
In addition to ensuring women living in Fond Parisien have access to quality maternity services, COHI also understands that sometimes emergencies arise, and that access to comprehensive emergency obstetric care is vital to the survival of women in crisis. In response to this need, COHI developed a referral network between Christ Pour Tous and a maternity hospital in Croix des Bouquets, which ensures women in need of emergency obstetric care, including cesarean sections, have 24/7 access to these life-saving services.
Women’s Health Summit
In September 2010, COHI held its first Women’s Health Summit in Fond Parisien, Haiti. COHI invited all organizations (local and international) working in the area to attend. The summit focused on identifying healthcare needs of the population, as well as the needs of those providing the healthcare services. Participants first discussed the various barriers and issues present in the community, and then worked on developing collaborative solutions to these needs. Each of these activities focused on developing cross organizational collaboration between the various groups working in the area enabling them to better serve the population of Fond Parisien.
Community-wide Needs Assessment (results ongoing)
In October 2010, COHI partnered with Boston University School of Public Health masters students to conduct a community-wide needs assessment in Fond Parisien. These students developed a survey which included questions regarding fertility and birthing history, access to prenatal care, sexual activity and family planning, gender-based violence, general health measures, food security, and sanitation. Fifteen Haitian women were trained in surveying techniques, and then conducted interviews with over 500 women living in Fonds Parisien. COHI is using the results of this assessment to prioritize future programming to address the most pressing needs identified by the population.
Additional New Programs:
Gender-based violence trainings
Data from the Fall 2010 needs assessment identified gender-based violence (GBV) as an issue that affects a large proportion of women living in Fond Parisien. In spite of its pervasiveness in the community, GBV remains a “taboo” subject that continues to go unaddressed. COHI is currently developing a series of GBV training sessions- specifically geared towards increasing male involvement- that will be offered to all staff at Christ Pour Tous, and eventually to the greater community.
Family Health Day
Another problem identified during the Fall 2010 needs assessment was a lack of knowledge about, and access to, family planning services. In response to this, COHI plans to host a “Family Health Day” in Spring 2011 at Christ Pour Tous. This event will offer several services to the general community including: blood pressure screenings, height and weight checks for children, face painting, games, balloons, etc – but more importantly will offer educational sessions to both men and women regarding family planning, to hopefully increase awareness and demand for family planning services in the community.
We would like to thank all past and present COHI volunteers and staff, our generous donors, our dedicated Haitian partners, and to all of you who have made all of these efforts possible!
Mesi Anpil!!
Rachel Bedenbaugh, MPH
Haiti Program Coordinator
Mar 12
COHI conducted its second successful gender based violence training this week with IDP camp staff and health workers in Fond Parisien.
Mar 10
On Wednesday, we traveled to Thiotte in order to complete an assessment of access to reproductive health for the women living in that area. Typically, the only health care available in this region is privately owned and very expensive. COHI did locate a small health clinic in the area that provides basic emergency obstetric services; however, it takes 4 hours to reach the facility, and is totally inaccessible during the rainy season.
Mar 9
We've had a total of 23 births since our midwives arrived on the 16th, with one birth in the car as it drove in to the clinic! We've been able to triage emergent patients, and appropriately transfer 5 of these cases to Port au Prince. By the end of the week we are hoping to have a closer facility, as Port au Prince is a long distance to travel from our clinic in Fond Parisien.
Our team trained approximately 20 clinical staff, translators, and community leaders on gender-based violence (GBV). The training was a huge success!
Thank you for your continued support of COHI and our efforts in Haiti!
Feb 25
Three volunteers on the ground now, with two more coming in on Sunday. One rests after working all night, one to Port au Prince to meet with other organizations, one stays in Fonds Parisien to work out how COHI can and will be used in the future.
Feb 24
COHI's midwives had quite a night with 4 different pregnancy complications.
COHI representatives met with the district mayor of Ganthier to talk about COHI's work in the district.
Feb 23
Moved maternity ward to larger part of clinic! Very exciting and now more integrated with other ongoing medical work.
Feb 22
Two fantastic volunteers head home after 2 and 3 week stints, thank you!
Feb 21
COHI midwives today trained midwives/doctors and TBAs on general women's health and how it will all be integrated into the surrounding health clinics and extended referral systems. THe COHI midwives that arrived earlier in the week have been a wonderful addition to the clinic. It is our hope that we can continue this as a model for more clinics which are short of midwives, in Haiti.
Feb 19
Three COHI volunteers traveled south from Fonds Parisien to assess the needs of other border area towns. Many displaced persons from the city areas have integrated into local family homesteads rather than in tent communities. It is estimated that the population has increased about 10% since middle January.
Feb 18
Two midwives trained from Midwives for Haiti arrived today and have started their transition to become the leaders for the only women's health focused clinic in the border area. These two midwives will allow for a more comprehensive focus on women's health needs and will also allow the general Christ pour Tous clinic to function and focus on other their other many needs.
Feb 17
COHI received a donation from UNFPA of mattresses for residents of the transitional camp behind the Christ Pour Tous clinic. Our Haitian counterparts distributed the mattresses to residents of the camp, as COHI believes that solutions for Haiti are best when they come from fellow Haitians.
Feb 14
COHI volunteers had a very productive meeting today with the reproductive health and protection divisions of UNFPA, and COHI continues to share information to make sure that the health needs of women are prioritized and addressed. Additionally, COHI volunteers are promoting and educating about breastfeeding, which is one of the major steps that we can take to prevent mortality of children under two. COHI wants to ensure that the health of infants is also prioritized, and that clinicians on the ground know how to support the breastfeeding relationship.
Feb 13
Today, COHI teams distributed clean delivery kits, condoms and dignity kits with personal hygiene supplies to women in the outskirts of Port Au Prince. COHI volunteers also provided trainings for birth attendants in this area.
A big thank you to Marsha Aaronson who kindly transported a big box of medical supplies to the Dominican Republic, now its way to COHI volunteers in Haiti!
Feb 12
COHI is very happy to announce that our clinical team at the Christ Pour Tous Clinic in Fond Parisien will be joined by two Haitian midwives who have completed their training with Midwives for Haiti. Midwives for Haiti will pay their salaries, and COHI has committed to covering their expenses. They will be joined by their former professor, who will facilitate their introduction to Christ Pour Tous, and they will be arriving on February 17th. These talented providers will allow the clinical team to care for even more women, and will help COHI ensure that we are leaving a sustainable project in place and fulfilling our mission to increase the capacity of women's health care providers in crisis settings.
Feb 11
Anna Thomas, a long-time COHI supporter announced that a yoga fundraiser will take place in Brooklyn, New York on February 27th at 6pm. Please see the advertisement on this page for more information.
Feb 10
Two new volunteers, a public health specialist and an obstetrician, hit the ground running today and are already hard at work caring for women. They brought over 125 pounds of in-kind donations and COHI supplies, including nearly $3,500 USD worth of medical supplies donated by Direct Relief International.
Nickie and Julie Tilsner announced that they raised 3000$ this past weekend at a fundraiser they hosted along with returned COHI volunteer and board member Sharon Craig Economides. Thanks Nickie and Julie for all your hard work! Funds are still urgently needed-please contact us if you are interested in hosting a fundraiser of you own.
Feb 09
COHI is still hard at work on the ground in Haiti.
At the Christ Pour Tous clinic in Fonds Parisien, Haiti, our
practitioners are seeing about 50 women each day. Our midwives have
been innundated with patients and complicated cases. We are working
with Haitian clinicians on the ground to help bolster their
women's health skills, working with them one-on-one in patient care situations and presenting training workshops on various
topics.
In addition to this, to create sustainability for this
clinic, we're working with Midwives for Haiti to secure jobs for two
of their graduated Haitian midwives. These two midwives will help take
over
women's health clinic responsibilities in the long term. In the
meantime, COHI will be there to help train, organize and put systems
into place for these newly trained professionals at the Christ pour Tous
clinic.
Our Rapid Health Assessment has been completed and we will be
receiving the results as early as this evening. This
assessment was done in collaboration with UNFPA and will be used to
better focus on women's health issues and any gaps in
response to women's health needs in the Fonds Parisiens area.
We have
trained 15 female
displaced persons from a tent camp 2 km from Christ pour Tous
clinic. As well as gaining general interviewing skills and acting as a
vital part of our data collection team, this group also participated in a
women's health workshop yesterday, and learned about community health care
needs.
Over the weekend, two of our volunteers conducted a survey of
12 clinics in Port au Prince and the surrounding areas. They were able
to gather data that will improve the ability of the UN and other agencies
to respond to women's unmet health care needs.
WIth two new volunteers on the ground today (a public health
specialist and an obstetrician) COHI continues to make
connections and develop partnerships with other organizations.
We still need your help to make all of this possible. Thank you to
everyone who has donated, and if you have not, please consider a donation now.
See latest newsletter for details.
Feb 05
The work goes on in Haiti. Our teams on the ground continue to provide badly needed women's health care, working out of the Christ Pour Tous clinic in Fonds Parisien, Haiti. Christ Pour Tous has been seeing about 350 patients a day, including many pregnant women, and is in the process of becoming the main OB/GYN referral site for the surrounding area.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) continue to pour into Fonds Parisiens, and are being housed in tent encampments. Women's health needs continue to be exacerbated by the crisis, and our volunteers are seeing about 25 pregnant women a day, as well as gyn patients, women who have survived rape, sexual assault and other gender-based violence.
Our team has been teaching health care providers about meeting the needs of victims of violence, and they have also attended several births.
More IDPs show up every day at Christ Pour Tous. A new project has been assembling and distributing kits with the essentials items needed for safe and clean deliveries to all pregnant women.
Our epidemiologist has finished training 15 female IDPs from the tent encampment and they are currently surveying women in the Fonds Parisiens area about their most pressing health needs and overall health status. As well as providing COHI and other organizations with valuable data, our survey takers are hopefully learning a skill that they can use to find jobs once this crisis has passed.
We continue to make connections and develop partnerships with other organizations, and we are starting to look towards the future, and our ultimate goal of building the capacity of women in Haiti to care for their health and the health of their communities. Donations are badly needed.
Jan 29
Our COHI volunteers are continuing their much-needed work in Fond Parisien, Haiti where they have teamed up with a local health clinic - Christ pour Tous Community Clinic. Christ pour Tous is a Haitian owned clinic that has been serving the community for over 20 years, and we are excited about partnering with a local, grassroots organization in this crisis.
An internally displaced person (IDP) camp is currently being set up near the health clinic to house the thousands of IDP's entering the area. Our epidemiologist has finished trained several local women in quantitative and qualitative interviewing techniques, in preparation for the Rapid Health Assessment to assess the healthcare needs of this population.
In addition to this, three of our volunteers are also working in conjunction with the UNFPA addressing the health care needs of women in the area. The clinic we are working with has now opened a small, obstetric hospital which will serve as the referral facility for the greater Fond Parisien region. In addition to providing necessary direct patient care, our team will offer their expertise in training the local health workers to ensure that women’s unique health needs, such as gender based violence and obstetric care, can be addressed.
The first team of COHI volunteers has been working tirelessly for the last two weeks, and will be relieved by three additional volunteers next week.
Finally, we at COHI would like to thank MADRE who generously provided the monetary boost in the first few days that has allowed us to respond to the urgent needs of the women in Haiti.
Jan 25
We now have 7 volunteers on the ground! COHI will be working out of the Fonds Parisien area, where they will be caring for pregnant women, victims of sexual abuse, and those injured in the earthquake. More and more IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) are moving into the area by the busloads, making COHI's work there even more needed, everyday.
In addition to our abilities to respond clinically, our epidemiologist has already started preparing for our Rapid Health Assessment and and has started training interviewers on the ground. All interviewers will be Haitian women from the IDP camp, allowing COHI to empower the women by training them in interviewing skills (both qualitative and quantitative). This will also help them by providing an income while conducting the survey.
We are still struggling to meet our fundraising goal for this project and have only raised about 15% of that goal. Thank you to those that have already donated. Please though, consider a second donation and/or encourage your friends and family to also donate. Some individuals are also hosting fundrasiers or asking for corporate sponsorships.
Even from home, you can help make a difference to the women of Haiti. Please feel free to contact info [at] cohintl.org if you have any questions.
Jan 22
Our team on the ground is continuing their hard work caring for earthquake survivors. They are working with a clinic in Fonds Parisiens, Haiti providing badly needed lifesaving clinical care. They will be joined tomorrow by another team comprised of a doctor, an epidemiologist, and a nurse-midwife from our board. Their focus is on gathering information about women's overall health and most pressing needs which will be shared with other agencies involved in the relief effort. They will be collaborating with UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
Jan 21
Our volunteers are safe and on the ground. They are in based out of Jimani, helping with the makeshift hospital there made from two empty buildings. Reports from the volunteers state that there are many, many people with very serious injuries and the needs are "intense". Reports of deaths due to these injuries are not uncommon.
Today the volunteers are headed towards the border into Haiti to hopefully help with the need for women's health practitioners in Fonds Parisien. COHI is keeping in very good contact with the volunteers and they sound in OK spirits in the midst of all this despair.
Jan 20
COHI's first team, made up of volunteer women's health care providers and public health professionals, left for Haiti on Tuesday.
|
