Transcript A Better Tomorrow for Haiti “Demen Miyo Pou

A Better Tomorrow for Haiti
“Demen Miyò Pou Âyiti”
Collaborating Partners:
FISH Ministries
Academie Chretienne de Macombre
University of Florida College of Public Health and
Health Professions
Rotary International
Mission
Using a school-centric, community-based approach, we will integrate
public health, agriculture, and economic best practices with faith-based
education to develop individuals with high ethical and moral character to
lead Haiti to successful self-sustaining economic development.
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Major Activities: Past, Present & Future
Already accomplished:
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Assist in the earthquake relief efforts
•
Facilitate the rebuilding of local schools
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Initiate a post-quake vaccination program
New Initiatives
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Establish a school-based Family Health Center
•
Institute a “train-the trainer” program for
community-based health promotion
•
Launch the Infectious Disease Field Laboratory
Other Activities (planned or initiated)
•
Conduct a community-wide public health needs
assessment
•
Enhance the existing agricultural infrastructure
for school-based nutrition programs
•
Establish vocational training programs
•
Employ microfinance strategies to encourage
agricultural entrepreneurship
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Starting Over
School sessions resumed in
April of 2010 using tents
donated by Samaritan’s Purse
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Rebuilding
Rebuilding of the local schools
began almost immediately following
the quake with assistance from UF.
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Vaccination and Health
Assessment Program
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Vaccination and
Health Assessment
Program Summary
• The program was conducted
June 27-29, 2010
• Clinic was held in tents at the
Academie Chretienne de
Macombre
• 624 individuals, representing 478 families attended the clinic
• The ages of the participants ranged from 8 days to 95 years old
• Participants were interviewed in Creole and health histories were
recorded by trained staff
• Participants received a brief physical exam
• Children and mothers were provided with a 30-day supply of
multivitamins
• Pregnant women received a 30-90 supply of prenatal vitamins
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Vaccination Program Summary
Vaccines administered
No.
Tetanus Diphtheria
Tetanus Diphtheria and Pertussis
60
Total
243
303
Vaccine not administered
Under age 8 (no vaccine available)
Other reason for not receiving vaccine
(e.g., immunized within past 6 months, sick, or
refused)
Total
Grand Total
205
116
321
624
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Community Health Assessment Summary
Living Conditions
Percent
respondents
Living in a tent
78%
Purchasing food from market
90%
Water from public pump
78%
No shoes
61%
No change of clothes
43%
No mosquito net
86%
No compensated work
76%
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Resumption of the Child
Nutrition Program
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Vocational training and economic development activities
begun before the quake are continuing
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New Public Health Initiatives:
Establish a school-based Family
Health Center
Problem:
• Mortality and morbidity of children in Haiti is the highest in the western hemisphere
• Schools are the logical setting for child health assessment, early intervention, referral, and
tracking, but schools in Haiti do not include this service
Action:
• Renovate and equip small building at L’Academie Chretienne de Macombre as a family
health center
• Develop an automated health tracking system linked to the system of the Ministry of
Health
• Conduct assessments of all children in the school, including height, weight, vision,
hearing, development, physical anomalies, and immunization status
• Provide immunizations to bring all children up-to-date
Expected Outcome: Early intervention and treatment of health problems; prevention of
vaccine-preventable diseases
New Public Health Initiatives:
Initiate health education in school curricula
and launch school-based community services
Problem:
• Poor sanitary and hygienic practices, including drinking water from contaminated streams,
contribute to diarrheal and other debilitating diseases.
• Malnutrition contributes to 60% of all deaths in children
Actions:
• Educate all teachers at L’Academie Chretienne de Macombre in basic health principles and
practices, with special focus on hygiene, sanitation, clean water, air and vector-borne diseases, and
nutrition
• Provide age-appropriate materials for teachers to integrate into regular classroom activities
• Select and educate 15 community health workers on the same topics and nutritional, health, and
health service issues of infants and pregnant women
• Develop a train-the-trainer program for teachers and community health workers
• Expand the program to the school at Christianville
Expected Outcome:
• Reduce the incidence of diarrhea due to water-borne diseases and prevent outbreaks of typhoid
and hepatitis.; improve nutritional status of children and pregnant women.
New Public Health Initiatives:
Launch the Infectious Disease Field
Laboratory and Training Program
Field laboratory under construction by Fish
Ministries, Gressier, Haiti, Oct 2010
Problem:
Haiti is reported to have many endemic infectious diseases but diagnostic capabilities are even more
sparse than before the earthquake.
Actions:
• Launch the infectious disease field laboratory (estimated readiness April 2011)
• Commission etiology of acute respiratory and diarrheal disease studies leveraging existing UF
infectious disease assets.
• Offer introductory vocational training in laboratory technology and public health field work that
may lead to employment or more formal career training.
Outcomes:
Answer important questions like these:
1. What pathogens are causing outbreaks of diarrheal or respiratory disease?
2. What public health interventions are likely to reduce this most infectious disease morbidity?
Construction of the Infectious Disease Field Lab
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NEXT STEPS for the Family Health Center and
Health Education Program
•
Complete renovations of the Family Health Center at L’Academie Chretienne
de Macombre and equip the facility with health assessment equipment, health
education materials for children and adults, refrigerator/freezer for vaccines,
computers for health tracking, and appropriate furniture.
•
Secure training in the Haiti Ministry of Health tracking system; develop
additional tracking fields, as necessary.
•
Conduct assessment of medical and other specialty health services that serve
Gressier residents, and arrange referral agreements with these agencies
•
Conduct child health assessments and interventions in collaboration with the
Ministry of Health, partnering agencies in Gressier/Leogane, and L’Academie
Chretienne de Macombre
•
Provide educational programs for teachers and community health workers
•
Plan expansion to Christianville School
NEXT STEPS For the Infectious Disease Laboratory
and Training Program
•
Complete construction and outfitting of the infectious disease field laboratory
(estimated readiness April 2011).
•
In collaboration with local Ministry of Health authorities and NGO medical clinics in
Gressier, Haiti, design and conduct pilot etiology of acute respiratory and diarrheal
disease epidemiological studies. Such studies will require the local hiring and
training of Haitians to conduct the work.
•
After these very common infectious disease problems are better understood, we will
use the preliminary data to design more focused studies for external funding. Such
studies will require further vocational laboratory and field epidemiology training of
Haitians and eventually, full-time laboratory and epidemiological staff to manage the
studies.
•
As we increase the training experience of Haitian professionals, we anticipate their
readiness to receive more sophisticated public health training perhaps in the United
States. Examples include our year-long certificate programs and our 2-year MPH
degree program.
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Acknowledgments
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Rotary International
Sunrise Rotary Club of Palatka
St Augustine Rotary Club
US Southern Command
US Department of Defense
Samaritan’s Purse
Project Hope
KORE Foundation
Putnam Community Medical
Center
• Shands Hospital
• Double Harvest
• Alachua County Health
Department
• Levy County Health Department
• University of Florida
– College of Design,
Construction and Planning
– College of Medicine
– College of Nursing