TEMPORARY lEOGANE CLINIC MAKING GOOD
PROGRESS
(7
July 2008)
Kathy Walmer, FHM's executive director, tours the temporary Leogane
clinic currently under construction. Begun in March in response to
the closing of Hopital Sainte Croix, the new facility will house
FHM's cervical cancer prevention program now run from Hopital Cardinal
Leger, a private facility which has graciously rented space to FHM for
the interim. Click
here to read about FHM's
longer-term plans for the Leogane Family Health and Research Center.
Kathy and her family recently spent 10 days vacationing in Haiti and
enhancing on-going relationships with FHM's partners at the Blanchard
Clinic and in Fondwa as well as in Leogane. Their trip included a
visit to the northern beaches and the Citadel, below. The Citadel
was built by
Henri Christophe, a key leader during
the Haitian slave rebellion, after Haiti gained independence from France
at the beginning of the 19th century.
Peanut Butter BETTER than "mud
cookies"
You've read about "mud cookies" that very poor Haitians sometimes eat
when they can't afford real food. What happens to tiny children
who are routinely hungry?
In the southern Haitian mountains where FHM funds a malnutrition program
for infants and toddlers, peanut butter is making a real difference.
Sister Judy of the Sisters of Humility of Mary in Fondwa is also adding
infant formula to the protein supplements she's providing to 50 small
children. Mothers bring their children to the clinic three times
weekly or monthly depending on the need. They enjoy a snack when
they arrive plus a hot breakfast and hot lunch before they walk home.
Weight and hemoglobin checks show the children are progressing.
Both peanut butter and formula are being carried to Haiti by mission
teams this summer. The next team leaves for Haiti in mid-July.
To contribute, bring your donations of peanut butter or formula (any
size, any brand) to the Family Health Ministries office at 2344
Operations Drive in Durham by July 14. Call 919-382-5500
for more information.
FHM hopes to increase the number of children served to 100 by the end of
2008. To help, click
here.
Blanchard Clinic in Port-au-Prince
gets Roof
Thanks to recent donations, the Blanchard Clinic is sporting a new roof.
To finish the clinic, another $50,000 in funds are needed.
To help, click here.
US Medical team Serves 740 Patients
in Blanchard
Fifteen US medical care providers, twelve translators plus the Haitian
staff of nine at the Blanchard Medical Clinic in Port au Prince recently
treated over 740 patients in a four-day period.
Click
here to
sign up for the October medical trip to Fondwa or the October
construction trip in Port-au-Prince.
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Haitian IRB Approved
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced that
Family Health Ministries' application for an Institutional
Review Board/Institutional
Ethics Committee in Haiti has been approved. This registration
allows Haitian experts to approve FHM's clinical trials for new
technology to serve Haitian patients. FHM's team includes four
Haitians - a registered nurse, an attorney, an OB/GYN, and a
pediatrician plus FHM's Board Chairman, David Walmer, Ph.D., M.D.
An IRB is a committee of physicians, statisticians, researchers,
community advocates, and others that ensures that a clinical trial is
ethical and that the rights of study participants are protected. All
clinical trials in the U.S. must be approved by an IRB before they
begin. FHM's Haitian IRB will ensure the same consideration for
Haitians.
VBS Trip information Posted
If you are going or interested in
going on the July 19 - 27 Vacation Bible School trip to Blanchard and
Fondwa, please see the additional trip information recently posted.
Click here
for a trip overview and here
for notes from the first orientation meeting held on June 2nd.
Leogane Family Health & Research
Center Brochure
During Summer 2007, Family Health
Ministries purchased land in Leogane, Haiti, to build a health center
where they will continue their work of the past 10 years, fighting
cervical cancer in under-resourced communities.
During Summer 2008, FHM is finalizing
the center design and beginning fundraising. The new clinic aims
primarily to serve women and children in the Leogane community, building
healthier families, a healthier community, and a better tomorrow for the
underserved in Haiti. (See the next news brief for more details
about the need.)
Read about the project and share the
news with your friends and colleagues by downloading this .pdf of the
Leogane Family Health & Research Center
brochure (3 mg).
CERVICAL CANCER in the NEWS
Among resource-poor nations, Haiti has one of the highest incidences and
mortality from cervical cancer1. Similar findings prompted
FHM to partner with the community of Leogane to develop a cervical
cancer prevention program 15 years ago.
Today FHM’s program is developing and testing novel screening strategies
in Leogane, Haiti with the goal of expanding access to preventive
therapies and reducing the morbidity and mortality of cervical cancer in
Haiti. These novel strategies include liquid-based cytology, HPV DNA
screening, and portable colposcopy with a device that FHM invented
called the CerviScope.
FHM is conducting these efforts and making progress with the support of
partners like the Duke School of Engineering, Qiagen Corporation & Cytyc
Corporation. The importance of these efforts was recently emphasized by
a study sponsored by PAHO & the CDC, which estimated that without better
screening strategies, cervical cancer deaths may double in the Caribbean
by 2030.
Please consider supporting FHM’s cervical cancer prevention program
today so that we can help Haiti head off the projected devastating
consequences of this curable disease.
1. Stewart BW,
Kleihues P. World Cancer Report: WHO, IARC; 2003.
