We left early Monday morning for Port au Prince and returned late. We had a busy, fruitful day.

First stop was a National Nutrition Cluster meeting at the Unicef tent at the UN compound near the airport. This cluster meeting is normally a monthly event which we have participated in, but now it is happening once or twice a week. It allows the NGOs that are doing nutrition work to meet as a group and strategize. It also gives us a chance to network with partners who can support us in our programs.

 

 

 

Conor has been networking with a lot of organizations to procure medicines and supplies, and to arrange for the transport of critical patients from Port au Prince to our facility. He attended a few meetings yesterday and came back to pick me up from Unicef, where we had also arranged to meet up with members of the 82nd Airborne who have been doing work in the camps and orphanages. They had been checking in on Missionaries of Charity Home for Children (Mother Teresa's home) in Port-Au-Prince and asked us to come and assess some children to see if we could help.

The main Children's Home has sustained significant damage but is still standing. Everyone is staying outdoors in the covered chapel area because the building is not sound. Many of the children who were there for nutritional stabilization have been picked up by their parent(s) and taken out to the countryside where they will stay with family. The children who are orphans are being gradually relocated to other orphanages. There are still some sick children remaining. Due to the unstable nature of their main building, the sisters are no longer able to accept any new children for malnutrition but instead are asking us to take these children back to Fond des Blancs for treatment.

Dr. Miliane came with us to help us with the assessments and to offer her experience and expertise to the meetings. She has been working in a few of the makeshift refugee camps in Port au Prince, so has been able to provide us with insight and help with planning.

We brought back a little one year-old girl with kwashiorkor (severe protein malnutrition) along with her mother and three year-old sister. The mother had no one to leave her second child with. The family comes from a part of Port au Prince called Villa Democracy, a tent settlement on a garbage heap near Fort Dimance and Cite Soleil. We drove with the mother there to pick up her second child. We will treat the little girl, Nerline, until she is stable and reaches a healthier weight, then we will return them home. The Missionaries of Charity in Port-Au-Prince will be working with us on a weekly basis to bring any further malnourished children back to Fond des Blancs for treatment.

Driving through the city we saw many of the large camps - Petionville, aeroport, Champs Mars - but we also noticed that people are very much trying to continue on with their lives where possible. The street markets are functioning and there is food to sell. Prices are very high, so it is extremely difficult for the poor. Some buildings are being excavated so the stench of death is still being released.

Before we headed back to Fond des Blancs, we stopped in Carrefour to pick up a sick elderly woman to come to the hospital. We traveled with a very crowded ambulance, but made enough room in the back so that her mattress could be placed on the floor. She was made comfortable with pillows and was accompanied by her grandson.

It was a difficult day, but a lot was accomplished.

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