Dr. Bob Fall 2011 Update
Posted By admin on October 26, 2011
So much has happened since my last report in April of this year, I hardly know where to begin. As I reported to you then, Vanessa and Tom Carpenter (AngelMissionsHaiti), having felt called to open a K-12 English Immersion school and home for children at Jolivert, moved into mine and Betty’s apartment there this summer along with five of their children for a trial immersion of their own into the culture and community of Jolivert. Some snags, but overall it was a good experience, and they went home ever more dedicated to carrying out their plans beginning in the near future.
They have already bitten the bullet by purchasing two acres of land joining our compound to the rear and plans are on for Boss Wilson to begin excavation and foundation work in the immediate future. A new access road is planned immediately to the north of our property as well.
My April trip included a tour of the new hospital at Bassin Bleu (on the site of their old crumbling and neglected clinic so inadequately operated by the Haitian Ministry of health over the past many years). What a delightful surprise! It seems a consortium involving three countries (Venezuela, Peru, and Cuba) have constructed a lovely little hospital complete with two operating rooms, an ER, lab, pharmacy, and x-ray (although the x-ray is, like ours, non-functional just now). More importantly, it is fully staffed by both Haitian and Cuban doctors and nurses, including general surgeons who are operating almost daily. And here’s the wonderful kicker to it all: their services are provided at NO CHARGE! Even limited amounts of medication are provided free by the pharmacy. What a boon to this desperately poor community; and only 5 kilometers from our clinic at Jolivert. Needless to say it has practically put our clinic out of business, since we are still required by the ministry to charge a small fee for both medicines and services, including lab. And it is only by doing so that we can continue to purchase needed meds for our pharmacy and to meet payroll of our thirty-plus employees each month.
Needless to say, it has caused us to re-examine our medical role in the area and decide upon a change in focus. One such change revolves around a brand-new full service x-ray machine kindly donated through Lumier Ministries. A huge need will be met for the area at large by providing a good x-ray service which is currently non-existent. Moreover, Dr. Blanc, our American-Haitian physician who donates his time to our clinic by holding a busy clinic there each Friday, is also trained in ultrasonography, and one such unit has been donated through the Carpenters that will be on site soon. This can save many lives of young mothers with inadequate birth canals who can timely referred for C-section births.
We are pleased to have been able to have procured a recently gifted laptop computer to present to Dr. Blanc for his invaluable services to the poor of our area. He has needed one badly to assist with his opening a school for nursing in Port-de-Paix. We are sponsoring a student from the Jolivert area to begin classes there next month, and also for several of our medical missionaries to accept his invitation to teach there for varying time slots each year.
Finally, Lumiere Ministries has also procured an anesthesia machine for us, and along with our new Bovie electro-coagulation machine will now permit us to equip a state-of-the art surgery for visiting surgical specialists to use. Lumiere will also provide us with teams of such surgeons who can come in for a week or two at a time to do elective cases in such badly-needed areas as urology, orthopedics, gynecology, ophthalmology and the like; many of which are not available at Bassin Bleu. One small problem here: our present surgery is a temporary one employing our x-ray room. But now that we will be installing a new x-ray machine, we must begin construction for a free-standing combination operating room, recovery room and sterilizing room in the very near future. And, while we have practically all the equipment needed for these rooms, we lack the funds for the blocks and mortar to raise the building itself. Thus God provides us with yet another fund-raising challenge to sink our teeth into over the coming weeks. One thing we’ve learned over the years at Jolivert: God has all the money in the world, and if it’s in His Will, IT WILL COME! We have only to “trust and obey.”
A final word regarding the new hospital at Bassin Bleu: a wise man once said, “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” There are already rumors that the backing promised by the countries mentioned above will peter out in another year or so, and we’ve learned that already many of their employees are not being paid their promised salaries. Therefore, our trusted old friends and colleagues, Blaud and Christophe, have warned against closing down any of our services at the clinic; especially the free malaria treatments and testing so generously provided us by our Malaria Fini partners. Thanks to their gifting we are one of the few clinics in Haiti utilizing the new instant spot tests for malaria, and who’ve passed out thousands of mosquito nets to area families. In fact, our clinic has gained such recognition that we have now been approached by CDC and CARE to become a major center in the northwest of Haiti for testing, treatment and counseling for the hundreds of HIV-positive and AIDS patients in the northwest. They have also scheduled a recognition ceremony for Christophe, Nurse Evelyn and the rest of their staff for their outstanding service to the northwest through our safe water program; now serving over 18,000 families and which has become a model program touted by the CDC throughout the Third World. And a heartfelt thanks again to you , Bill Gallo, wherever you are!
Bottom line: secular services and humanitarian programs seem to come and go in Haiti down through the years, but MISSIONS OF LOVE is all about God’s Love….and His Love is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So long as we have you dedicated and compassionate supporters and prayer partners we, the officers and directors of MOL will carry on…for the poor and lost of Haiti, and all to God’s Glory! God bless all! Dr Bob
