Public
Health - Family Health Ministries in Blanchard, Haiti
Since 2002, Family Health Ministries has been working in Blanchard, Haiti. Also called Terre Noire by locals, the area is an urban community in Port-au-Prince
located approximately 2 miles from the slum area of Cite Soleil. With
the help of Duke Chapel, FHM built and operates the Blanchard Family Health Center that
provides primary care and public health services.
STAFF & SERVICE LEVEL
PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH
RECENT SERVICE EXPANSION including Pathology Laboratory
HISTORY
ON-GOING NEEDS
 
Above - the first medical mission team to use the newly completed Blanchard Clinic in June 2009
STAFF & SERVICE LEVEL
FHM's
clinic opened in December 2006 with a Haitian staff of nine. The clinic has a
physician, nurse practitioner,
nurse, pharmacist, two public health
workers, receptionist, office administrator and cleaning staff. They provide
care to approximately 500 patients per month not counting patients seen by
visiting healthcare teams.
"Missionary doctors" as they are referred
to by our Haitian patients also provide healthcare at the clinic many times
per
year, hugely expanding the number of patients seen. Read about FHM's mission trips and join a team.
PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH
FHM employes two public health workers who circulate through the community daily with a questionnaire about the number of people living in each dwelling, their source of water, their sanitation processes and similar information. Community members are asked for their health priorities. After any children are weighed and measured, they are given an antiparasitic. Finally, each questionnare is positioned with a GPS, allowing FHM to track the local communities' needs.
Below, Annaus Franckel completes the health questionnaire with the woman of the house, and then weighs and measures her children. Back at the office, Annaus uploads the GPS data he has recorded and inputs the data from each health questionnaire. During the analysis, heights and weights are compared to norms, and access to sanitation and clean water factored into the results.
  
RECENT SERVICE EXPANSION
The second floor
of the clinic was recently completed (February 2009). The new second flor is primarily used for visiting medical personal and students
who are interested in direct patient care, education,
and research. The first FHM medical team used the new facility in June 2009.
The new space will also enable FHM's
Haitian staff to expand their educational outreach program in the
rooms now used by visiting teams,
providing preventative health care classes for
patients and family members.
Secondly, FHM has hired its medical laboratory workers as regular staff people, rather than using contractors. The expectation is that profits from the lab can be used in the clinic to defray costs for the many patients who are not able to pay for services, as well as to pay for lab costs.
FHM recently expanded its cervical cancer prevention program to Blanchard and Cite Soleil. During June and July 2009, FHM tested 2100 women. Follow up is in progress during Summer 2009 by volunteer Dr. Kris McCain and FHM employee Dr. Junior Duliepre.
To complete the cervical cancer follow up process, FHM has needed access to lower cost pathology. Thanks to Qiagen corporation, FHM is building a new pathology lab at the Blanchard Clinic.
Above, the team assembled in Cite Soleil
(left to right) Dr. Junior Duliepre, Dr. Elizabeth Pritts, FHM Research Coordinator Jackie Ndirangu, translator Evelyne, nurses Guerda and Sophonie, and in back, Blanchard public health workers Josian Casseus and Annaus Franckel. Read more about the project.
HISTORY
Initially, the Terre Noir area was considered a
rural getaway for Haitians who had the resources to purchase land and
build nice
homes. However, it has rapidly grown into a very poor community with
limited resources as increasing numbers of people fled the widely reported,
civil unrest in Cite Soleil, particularly in 2004.
Family Health Ministries was
introduced to this community by Pastor Leon Dorleans after he helped some of
the people who left Cite Soleil start a church and a school in this
community with the assistance of Haiti Outreach
Ministries, Inc. This community had limited access to health care
and had to travel approximately two
hours north of
Port-au-Prince to see a doctor. Pastor Dorleans asked
Family Health Ministries for assistance.
With the help of the Duke Chapel and many other donors, Family Health Ministries
began raising the funds for the health center. While funds were being
raised, FHM placed 3 public health workers in the community and began
collecting health data and creating a GPS map of the community.
This work, with enhancements, continues today.
In
April of 2004 (top left), the foundation for the clinic was poured. Over
the next 2 1/2 years, the construction continued
but costs rose dramatically due to
the issues of building in the midst of political instability,
kidnappings and civil unrest.
The money was eventually raised, and on December 5,
2006, Dr. Yves and his staff opened the doors and saw the first
33
patients (below).
 
Construction continued sporadically on the second floor throughout 2007 and early 2008. After FHM's spring 2008 event, An Evening of Art for Haiti, raised
$17,000, the
second floor walls were finished and the roof installed (bottom left). A church group from Kentucky finished the painting in February 2009. Donations from churches in Greensboro, NC, allowed FHM to finish the ironwork and plumbing at about the same time.
ON-GOING NEEDS
The Blanchard clinic operating budget is $2795 per month ($2145 for salaries and $650 per month for medications and supplies.)
Another $12,000 was donated for a short-term feeding program through September 2009 for those further impoverished by the Fall 2008 storms. The Blanchard Clinic has been able to distribute $700/month in rice and oil.
Approximately $7500 - $10,000 is contributed annually as in-kind donations from visiting medical teams.
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