New Duplex Housing Provides Homes for HSC Physicians and Their Families

The duplex houses two resident physicians and their families.

At Hôpital Sacré Coeur, we are blessed to have the skill sets of a number of very talented Haitian medical staff. Most of them live outside the Milot community and commute on a daily basis from the Cap Haïtien area and must endure an arduous journey, over sometimes barely passable roads, to come and serve our hospital population. There are a small number of the very dedicated individuals who have decided to live in Milot to provide continuous medical coverage for evenings and weekends, foregoing those advantages of a more private existence. For those who have made this effort, we have begun a building program to provide them with housing that allows some quality of life to their residency at Höpital Sacré Coeur.

Recently, we completed the first of a series of housing improvements with the construction of the hospitals first duplex. Drs. Nadine and Jerry Bernard and Dr. Michelle Hanna and their children moved into this first finished structure located next to the convent on the CRUDEM campus. Each unit has a small kitchen/dinette, a living room, two bathrooms and three bedrooms. The 800 square foot space is not luxurious, but comfortable. It has the added appeal of some wonderful landscaping and gardening, done by Nadine Bernard, which extends the living area into the outdoors in a most satisfying fashion.

Medical staff housing offers powerful retention motivation. Each unit has three bedrooms and two baths.

After the destructive earthquake centered in the south of Haiti spotlighted the tragedies of poorly chosen construction materials, the Buildings and Grounds Committee, in cooperation with our Haitian General Services staff, designed and constructed the entire structure from a new building system referred to as SIP construction or Structural Insulated Panels.

These lightweight laminated Styrofoam panels are sturdy, insect proof, watertight and virtually harmless in an earthquake.

The product has been getting a lot of play here in Haiti during the reconstruction as it removes many of the inherent problems witnessed by the 7.1 magnitude quake. Most of the damage in the south came from poorly constructed concrete and masonry structures that are difficult to test and monitor during the construction phase. By comparison, the SIP construction is a rapid and inexpensive approach to the more conventional methods with greater integrity and long term viabilities.

As additional land and financial resources become available, we hope to make more such homes accessible to other key member of our medical staff. Ultimately, this program will increase our ability to serve and provide vital and timely care to those who suffer from the many traumas that plague the countryside.