It’s October, meetings have started, the treasurer is calling for dues, trip leaders need deposits and Killington got 10 inches of snow yesterday. So what is Carol Myers doing in Haiti?
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For the third year in a row, Carol has joined a team of doctors on a volunteer mission to Milot , Haiti. It is a program called CRUDEM, which stands for the Center for Rural Development in Milot (Haiti). It is typical of many such projects founded by various religious or international organizations to help poor countries with their medical needs. Crudem was founded by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart and is now supported by major grants from the Knights of Malta and other sources.
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Milot is a town if 25,000 people in the mountainous northwest corner of Haiti. It sits twelve miles away from Cap-Haitian which is the second largest city in the country. It has no electricity.
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As for Haiti itself, it is the poorest country in our hemisphere. The average annual income per family is $250.00. There is now a temporary government with an election for president scheduled. The roads are bad, there is no sewer system, sanitary conditions are very poor and malnutrition is common especially among the children. Communication with the US is mainly thru satellite phones and sporadic web service.
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The political situation in Haiti has been extremely fragile. President Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected president in 200 years of independence, had defiantly insisted he would remain in office until his term officially expired in 2006. But the sweeping rebellion which had largely encircled the capital - coming on top of years of complaints about his second election - proved too much, and he left the country on February 29, 2004.
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Prior to the overthrow, fighting between the pro and anti-Aristide factions caused numerous deaths. Even now, with UN peacekeepers stationed in the country and elections looming next month personal safety remains a grave concern.
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There is a UN compound a few miles from Milot.
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Again this year, Mother Nature has not been kind to the island. Haiti was hit by hurricane Wilma in mid-October causing deaths, mud slides, flooding and property destruction. Late Saturday, October 22 Tropical Storm Alpha raced across the country dropping 15 inches of rain and causing at least 12 deaths. There was widespread flooding in Port-Au- Prince. Carol arrived in country Saturday morning. Luckily, the town of Milot got the rain, which made a bad situation worse, but damage was minimal. If tropical storm Beta avoids Haiti, Carol will return to the US on Saturday 10/29/2005. She flies into the recently re-opened Fort Lauderdale airport.
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The hospital, Sacre Cour, was built from an original clinic in 1986 by Brother Yves Beausejour. In 1986 the operating room was outfitted by Dr. Theodore Debuque a surgeon from St. Louis who also performed the first operation that year. It has been continually expanded to its current capacity of 40 beds, 2 operating rooms, a one room delivery suite, a pediatric ward and various clinics.
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For the past two years Carol has spent a week at Crudem with a medical team. A team typically consists of a gynecologist, a general surgeon and at least one internist plus nurses and residents. A typical day consists of continuous surgical clinics in between operations and lasts from eight in the morning to six or seven at night with a break for lunch. Each surgeon performs about 30 operations per week.
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Free time is in the evening. It is spent reading or watching DVD movies (of course the hospital has its own generator for electrical power). Refreshments include Rum Barbancourt, one of Haiti’s finest exports.
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That’s what Carol is doing
in
Haiti. |
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