Training Hospital Staff

Location: Pilate

Situation:

The poorest country in the northern hemisphere, Haiti is emerging from a long political crisis and trying to reconstruct a state of law, which would respect the fundamental rights of its citizens. MdM is working in disadvantaged rural areas, characterised by a weak government presence and a subsistence economy that is vulnerable to changing weather conditions. MdM is also working in poor areas of Port-au-Prince which are blighted by crime and violence.

Activities:

Programme supporting Pilate hospital which has been run by Canadian nuns for several decades. MdM’s action combines:
• A surgical project: sending a full team for two weeks to carry out a hundred operations on patients selected by the nuns throughout the year;
• A mother and child project: using ‘health agents’ to screen and treat chronic malnutrition and training health agents, matrons and mothers;
• A psychiatric project: training Pilate healthcare staff in treatment of psychiatric illness and training Haitian medical personnel, with the head of the psychiatry department at Port-au-Prince University Hospital.

Outlook:

In 2007, MdM will continue these activities. In order to adapt the mother and child health programme, there will be an emphasis on treatment for acute malnutrition, training the nuns and other staff in nutrition protocols developed by Action Against Hunger.

Project start date: Since 1980