Every time I set foot in Milot I am amazed at all the achievements evident at Hôpital Sacré Coeur. As one hospital staff member told me, “Sacré Coeur is a country. It is so different than the rest of Haiti.” His point is not such a far-fetched characterization.
While so many of the physical problems: severe healthcare challenges, poverty, malnutrition, economic woes, food and clean water scarcity run rampant throughout Haiti, successful Hôpital Sacré Coeur efforts to reduce these conditions and limit their toll on human lives is seen throughout the Milot area.
The true driving force, the unrelenting captain behind these victories is YOU.
Look at these mothers with their infants to the right.
Each time I visit Hôpital Sacré Coeur, I see young mothers give birth in an operating room for the first time — instead of delivering in a dirt floored mud and bamboo hut.
In 2014, almost 1,300 mothers safely delivered their babies at Hôpital Sacré Coeur.
Thanks to your generosity and compassion, infants enter our world safely and with dignity.
I smile when I see mothers walk out of the hospital with healthy children. Instead of planning their child’s funeral, like so many women in Haiti do, these mothers can plan for their children’s schooling. Imagine having that powerful an impact on so many lives.
Take a good look at this 16 year old girl. She was blind from mature cataracts. After CRUDEM volunteer, Dr. Peter Kelly operated on her at Hôpital Sacré Coeur this January, she could see her mother’s face. Could anyone put a price on that gift? Your donations made that miracle possible.
Look at these precious youngsters:
Over the twenty plus years I have volunteered at Hôpital Sacré Coeur, I have witnessed children valiantly fighting for their lives against tetanus or TB — conditions almost unheard of in the States. With the resources and medical expertise provided at Hôpital Sacré Coeur, children routinely win their battles. And, thanks to the compassionate generosity of donors like you, more and more children get the vaccinations needed to prevent unnecessary medical tragedies.
Can you imagine all the suffering you have eliminated? I hope you can.
The gifts you have given to the people of northern Haiti are nothing short of life changing.
Take a good look at these Hôpital Sacré Coeur staff members:
Hôpital Sacré Coeur is a major employer in northern Haiti and a major economic driver for the region. Your donation dollars allow these motivated individuals to provide for their immediate and extended families; your dollars stimulate the local economy and put food on many tables, provide children with educational opportunities and create even more local jobs.
That’s a lot of significant, long-lasting impact!
In terms of facilities and infrastructure, the list of Hôpital Sacré Coeur achievements continues for pages: new clinics, a filled to capacity modern emergency room, biotechnology capacity for quick, accurate diagnoses, enhanced radiology facilities, improved medical equipment, regular supply deliveries, a set formulary, a stocked pharmacy, an outstanding state of the art laboratory, a rare for Haiti prosthetics workshop, and on and on the list continues. All these achievements work together to provide a quality healthcare delivery system remarkable for Haiti.
You are the reason Hôpital Sacré Coeur can provide quality healthcare to the poor.
Your steadfast generosity saves lives every day.
I must tell you though; the emotional transformations strike me even more than the physical accomplishments. Not only do healthcare needs get addressed at Hôpital Sacré Coeur, so do emotional and spiritual needs.
You stand as the sentry holding back the ever encroaching forces of death and despair.
You ensure the safe arrival of hope.
Hôpital Sacré Coeur seems like a country in its own right because amidst a nation of suffocating poverty, relentless tragedies, unconscionable suffering and routinely broken promises, the people in our hospital’s orbit experience different possibilities.
In spite of the considerable ongoing daily challenges, patients and staff know they live and work in a place where grace often triumphs over tragedy, hope routinely outruns despair, love takes the sting out of suffering and humans work together toward a common vision of quality healthcare delivered with love and dignity.
Together, you and I, provide the vital means that ensures Hôpital Sacré Coeur remains a fertile environment for saving lives, solving problems inherent in a limited resource country, encouraging critical thinking among the staff and imbuing patients, staff and community with a strong sense of self-worth, inherent dignity and priceless value. In a nation long beleaguered, these feats are huge accomplishments.
have turned Hôpital Sacré Coeur into a transformative endeavor.
Your support heals broken bodies and steadily builds healthy, hopeful futures for the community we serve.
For that, YOU are most certainly a hero. And you have my deepest thanks.
With gratitude,
David G. Butler, M.D.
Chairman
P.S. The doors never close on Hôpital Sacré Coeur. The patients continue to come in search of quality healthcare. Those doors stay open only with your generous support. Send your tax deductible donation by March 31st. Remember: 100% of your donation goes directly to patient care programs.
