My Trip to Haiti; July, 2009 - Part I

In 1971, three months after the death of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, Haiti’s President for Life, I arrived in Haiti to live and work for the next two years. I built a bulk liquid storage facility and pier for my employer, the I.S. Joseph Co. We were importers of fats and oils, which I then sold to the local Haitian soap manufacturers and vegetable oil refiners.

Haiti was my first major job assignment after college and was one of the premier highlights of my career. It is because of this experience, and my ten-year tenure on Mount Sinai Hospital’s board of governors, where I was vice-chairman of the board, chairman of the strategic planning committee, and a member of the finance committee, that encouraged Michele Boston to ask me to join the board of No Time For Poverty.

Recently, I accompanied Michele, along with Sara, Jeff and Sydney on a trip to Haiti where Michele met with numerous groups of elders and civic leaders from the Port Salut area and its surrounding villages. Our typical day started out with a visit to one of the remote villages to view possible sites for the NTFP health outreach programs.

Our guide was the very able and well connected Giles Felix who is a very valuable friend to the NTFP project. Giles knows everyone. He is well respected by the community and an ardent supporter of ours. Michele would not be able to move as fast as she is in networking with the various interest groups and communities if it weren’t for Giles.

Also accompanying us was Nixon, whose background is a worthy story in and of itself, who did the interpreting for Michele at the meetings. Nixon’s English is superb, and he will soon be trained as a nurse here in St. Paul before returning to Haiti to live in Port Salut and work at the Timoun Nou Yo clinic.

Henry, our engineering student and former mayor of Port Salut, was also with us and provided additional translating assistance, along with driving support over some very rough and treacherous turrain.

After our village visits, we would then meet various groups at local restaurants and clubs to explain the project and ask for their input and support. Among the various groups that Michele presented to were the local village councils and administrators, the police, court, and customs officials, local healers and mid-wives (some of which are men), and religious groups, including the Catholics, the Protestants, and the Vodou priests.

Overwhelmingly, each of these diverse groups where very enthusiastic about the coming clinic. Many of them told us that NTFP was the first group to come to their community and ask for their input first before building the clinic. They appreciated the respect we were showing them in considering their views and they all pledged their support to do what ever was necessary to make this project work.

The only lament that was heard was that the clinic would not be serving adults as well. Michele’s quick response that brought a chuckle from the crowd was that if this project helped make their children healthier, they would be able to support them in their old age.

However, she was quick to follow up on a serious note, since health and education issues are two of the most important priorities of nearly all Haitian communities, to let them know that NTFP would be bringing in American physician teams (like we did in May 2009) who would be able to see people of all ages and in some cases be able to perform surgery in our clinic. This made everyone very happy.

Prior to my arrival in Haiti, Michele, Lori, and Sara traveled to Jeremie, which is north of Port Salut but cut off from direct travel due to a mountain range. The three of them spent five days with the Haitian Health Foundation, a Connecticut based health organization that for twenty years has successfully operated a clinic and health outreach program in Jeremie. Michele is partially using their program as a model for our Port Salut project.

After realizing how serious and dedicated NTFP is about its commitment to Haiti, HHF opened its doors to them and has offered to help train our nurses at their clinic, and to also send personnel to Port Salut to help train our health agents in the field.

Because Michele has spent the past four years developing relationships first and listening to the advice of the Haitian leaders in Port Salut, she has made strides that the HHF people said took them much longer to accomplish. It was a real tribute to the dedication and insight Michele has shown.