The public health statistics of Haiti speak of daunting challenges and motivate the global medical community in their search for systemic solutions. The facts find a lead in most articles about Haitian life: suffocating poverty, high incidences of child mortality, the prevalence of diseases long ago abated or eliminated in other countries, the nationwide lack of basic necessities such as adequate nutritious food, clean water, proper sanitation, and safe shelter.
While the CRUDEM/Hôpital Sacré Coeur community grapples with the overarching problems and administers medical solutions through the hospital’s community outreach program and the annual summer Tufts University Medical School Public Health Clinics, HSC’s Sister Ann Crawley tends to many of the complex issues, one life at a time and one family at a time. On a daily basis, Sister Ann literally meets the poorest, most at risk members of the Milot community where they are—on the streets, in cobbled together homes half the size of an American closet and in the wards of the hospital. With a practiced eye, Sister Ann spots the poorest of the poor and balances the provision of basic needs with individual servings of hope, love and understanding.
Personal Hygiene Supplies: An Easy to Supply Pathway to Health
The people of Haiti have been badly hit with rain storms, mud slides and houses are tumbling down. About 56 people lost their lives and many, many people are homeless, cold and hungry. Unfortunately the Government doesn’t help matters by raising the price of rice which adds to their terrible suffering
and poverty.
Life is certainly tough in this mountainous part of Haiti and it is very difficult for these poor people to eke out a living on the land that is drained of nutrients, as the torrential rain storms have washed all the topsoil into the sea leaving the seed scorched in the hot sun resulting in widespread hunger, disease and malnutrition.
There seems to be no end to the suffering in Haiti. The people are literally exhausted from the terrible effects of the many recent disasters; earthquake, hurricanes, landslides, floods and the terrible cholera which is still claiming lives every day.
I have just come from the hospital and have checked out all our patients to see that they have food, clothing, soap, toothbrush and paste. I do this every morning and bring food to those who have no one to care for them or those who have come from afar off. I also bring food to the mentally disadvantaged that lie on the street day and night and have no one to feed them or give them dry clothing when soaked in the torrential rain storms. I also take food to the blind and the frail in their homes.
Feeding the Hungry
Forty-two little ones from the Nutrition Center were sponsored for school this year.
In 2011, thirty-seven children from the Nutrition Center were sponsored to attend school and up to eighty little ones are given a meal in school every day. We have also sent many children to primary and secondary schools. This could not have been achieved without the help from all our generous friends and volunteers who sponsor the health and education of children.
The Importance of a Simple Conversation
I met an elderly woman near the hospital the other morning. She was on the last lap of her journey and was sitting in the ditch, bent in pain. When I talked with her she said she had walked a long way but couldn’t walk another step as the pain was too much.
I phoned for hospital transport to pick her up which they kindly did immediately. On inquiring later, I learned the poor woman had fallen in the mounds of mud and water near her home and had fractured her pelvis. How on earth did she walk and she in such pain . . . ! These people are heroic and have great stamina.
Building Houses for the Homeless
Recently we have built a little house for Kyleen, an orphan girl of eighteen years, who is paralyzed and was living in a shack of a hut with the rain pouring in on her. Kyleen is now very happy living in dignity in her new home and never ceases to praise and thank God every day for all those who have helped her.
Presently we are building a house for the Cola family. This house is for a family of eight who live in a tin shed which is held together with rags, rope and rusted tin. The young mother of five children, between the ages of one and ten years, died of cholera and then their bamboo house fell to pieces in the rain storm leaving the little family with no choice but to share the tin shed with their elderly and visually impaired grandparents. I am very excited to see the finished house and the smiles that will bring to the young Cola family and their grandparents.
I can get a bed made locally for around $150 US and have done so for a few blind families. So many families lie on old planks with rags as covers. Children often sleep on the rocky ground. I first had to build new homes and then a bed, a table and four chairs; all of which were made by locals. I have built houses recently from donations given by our wonderful donors. Four houses were built for the visually impaired who have been living in dreadful conditions.
Boosting Local Economy and Morale
Donations help our local people in self help projects; eg. the replacement of worn out roofing and the building of eight new houses for families whose houses had literally fallen down in rain storms, hurricanes and earthquake. Each house costs $5,000 to build. It is a tremendous blessing that we can help so many people and give some employment to our local people which helps boost their morale. We have been very blessed with honest and hardworking builders. It makes us realize more fully the power of God at work in this place and in His people.
The local young men are so happy to be working and earning a bit of money to support their families. They work hard from 6 am until dark and all the work is done by hand as we do not have any electricity or power tools. The water needed to make the concrete blocks for building and the sand, stone and cement have to be carried by hand long distances and uphill as there are no roads only mud treks in this mountainous part of Haiti. The employment from these projects is a big boost for the local men and women who otherwise would have no work. Some groups make tables, chairs and beds from local materials. I purchase these for the poor and for families that move into a new house and this brings tremendous joy as these people could never afford furniture.
Your donations helped me buy a bed, a table and chairs for a local woman whose house fell in an earthquake some weeks ago. We have now built her a new house and she is absolutely delighted. Her old house literally fell to the ground when Haiti was shaken by an earthquake which occurred on the border with the Dominican Republic.
I found her in tears as she tried to cook a meal over an open fire on the rubble of her shattered home. She is very poor and cares for about fourteen children and grandchildren.
Two of her daughters died and left large families. One daughter was dragged along the street by a truck and she nine months pregnant. She was rushed to the hospital and the baby was delivered by section but the poor mother died. God rest her.
Madam Sinclair is now extremely happy and never ceases to say “Merci” “thank you” and sing praise to the donors for making her dream come true … and she certainly deserves it as she constantly helps wash and feed the sick in hospital and in the local community.
Giving Back: The Mantra of Even the Youngest of the Poor
I can’t resist sending you this snap of Tufe, the little five year old fellow who lives on the street. I just love this little fellow who has no front teeth! You will see in the photo he is carrying big stones on his head to the building site and is hoping that one day the stones shall become his house!
The first time I met Tufe was along the street on my way to the hospital. I was telling him he should go home as it was getting quite dark when a woman spoke up and said, “But he has no home to go to.” His parents died of cholera two years ago and he sleeps rough in a shed”.
I went with him to the shed and found that the door had no hinges so I had to lift it off to get in. It was certainly a dark hole as there was no electricity. On the ground lay a few rags and flattened cardboard boxes on which the children slept.
There was a plastic basin outside the shed and their laundry was spread out to dry on a pile of stones … their sole belongings. It was heartwrenching, to say the least; to see this beautiful innocent child live in such poverty and so terribly sad that this little family should lose both parents to cholera and the roof over their heads because they had no money to pay the rent. God love and protect them from rats and disease.
They had not been attending school as they had no money to pay the school fees, buy the books and uniforms. But thank God for the goodness and generosity of our benefactors I was able to send this family back to school, buy the uniforms and books and all are very happy to be learning.
In spite of the poverty and hardship these children are always very gracious and appreciative of any help given them and offer to help me in any way they can. They help carry food to the frail and elderly in the local community and little Tufe helps me carry goods to the Nutrition Center before going to school . . . of course he likes the reward and certainly deserves the “protein toffee bars”!
The Importance of Establishing Routines
There seems to be no end to the suffering in Haiti.
With unemployment of more than 80%, it is a huge factor in hunger, disease and malnutrition. Haiti’s children are trapped in a cycle of poverty that has plagued the country for generations. One of the most important ways to help children heal is to get them back into a routine. I realize that one effective way to break this cycle is through education. I believe the old Chinese proverb that says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Since my coming to Haiti three years ago, I have been working with local families and try to get school sponsorship for their children. I give priority to children who are orphaned and would never have the opportunity of education. This year more than half the children sponsored have lost either one or both parents in the terrible recent disasters, God love them. I also look after children suffering from malnutrition in our Nutrition Center and when they have recovered I send them to our lovely new preschool where they are given a good meal and some snacks every day. So far I have over one hundred children in school but there are hundreds of children without education.
We have a Literacy Center, a new secondary school, primary schools and new preschool in the area. Father Tijwa opened the new secondary school last year, but only 15 children could afford the fees. I would dearly love to see more children attend secondary school, but this will never happen without a big miracle and huge effort on the part of our generous supporters.
Haiti is certainly one of the poorest countries in the world. It costs $100 to send a child to preschool, $130 for Primary School and $200 for secondary school. This covers the school fee, books and uniform for one year. (The uniforms are made locally giving some employment to local families.) And yet, even with such low costs, so very, very few of the local families can afford to send one child, like alone all their children, to school. Today many children brought me their school reports and I am very, very happy to tell you that our one hundred and fifty sponsored children are doing absolutely great in school.
As Mother Teresa said “Together, we can certainly make a big difference in the lives of the poor. What you can do, I cannot do and what I can do you cannot do, the needs are great and the laborers are few … But together we can make a difference.”
Hôpital Sacré Coeur is a mighty force in this area. The staff is just wonderful and does all in their power to help the suffering poor; very specially the babies. I don’t know what the poor people would do without them.
Only yesterday, another baby was abandoned, the second little one this week. Both infants are very beautiful. One is a newborn infant boy just a few days old and the other is a little boy of about eleven months. They are adorable. I would love to keep them myself! I shall try and keep them in the Nutrition Center in the hope the mothers will return. The eleven month old has two little lower teeth and a good grip as he clutches my finger and never wants to let go!! The poor mothers had to be in a desperate state to leave their lovely babies. God love them; keep them in prayer. Such is the terrible plight of the poor in this country.
Donations to Sr. Ann’s Projects MUST be sent to CRUDEM. Sr. Ann Cannot Accept Donations Directly.
