Visit to Thomonde with CI partner Project Medishare

In August, I had the chance to visit with Project Medishare, a Cross International partner that is involved in a number of community health interventions in an area called La Hoye. La Hoye is in Haiti's Central Plateau region and sits near the border of the Dominican Republic. The below photos show the area clinic that is being rehabilitated through the support of Cross International and USAID. Medishare is collaborating with the Haitian Ministry of Health in the process and will run the clinic once it is completed.
In the meantime, Medishare has medical staff providing services in an area school. Medishare hopes to have at least a section of the clinic construction completed by October so they can make the move before the start of the school year.

Project Medishare provides support services such as medical care, psychosocial support, and education (paying of school fees) to area vulnerable children and their families. Medishare is also coordinating an income generating activity with the mothers of some of these children. In addition to dealing with increased cost of food, many of these women opened up their homes and are now caring for extended family that moved in since the eartqhuake. The women are now being trained to make dolls out of socks, which will eventually be sold in the U.S. The extra income coming from this project will go a long way for the women as they struggle to meet the needs of their families.

We then drove out to an even more rural area called Hycauqes, where Medishare was running a mobile clinic in a church. This was one of the most rural parts of Haiti I have ever seen. As we drove, I couldn't believe how much open space and land there was with so few people. We drove on walking paths through the bush and had to scope out ahead on foot a couple of times to determine if it was going to be passable. Roads in the area are basically non-existant and it showed when we got stuck in some heavy mud with our new Toyota Land Cruiser. Luckily, we had just purchased a tow rope and we had two vehicles traveling together on that particular day. I had figured that we might be using the tow rope to pull out other vehicles. Little did I know that our brand new vehicle would be the one that needed the help. Our project staff seemed impressed with my skills in dealing with the mud. They didn't understand when I tried to explain that I used to drive through the mud for fun in Ohio... The work Medishare is doing in this part of Haiti is really impressive, and truly defines the meaning of community health. They are bringing quality health services to the people in one of the most remote parts of the country.

Closer to the Medishare office in Thomonde, they are taking final steps to begin production at their Akamil facility. Akamil is a vitamin fortified, highly nutritions food product that is made with local ingredients including maize and beans. The factory, which will create jobs and support the local economy, will support malnourished children, pregnant women, and people living with tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS. If all goes as planned, the product will be available for distribution to Cross International beneficiaries by the end of October.