Haiti has long been one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, with most people living on less than $2 a day and a life expectancy of just 44 years. Half of Haiti’s children are undersized as a result of malnutrition, and AIDS alone has orphaned more than 200,000 children.
Playing with kites at St. Helene
In 1987, Father William Wasson founded Nos Petits Frères et Sœurs (NPFS), a home for orphaned and abandoned children in Kenscoff, a lush and cool location about 25 miles up the mountain from the capital Port-au-Prince. St. Helene is home to 350 children and has a elementary school on the property, chapel, and other amenities. The children at St. Helene are not placed for adoption but instead are given a permanent home and a loving, new family – the other children, staff and volunteers who become their brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. An additional 240 children live with extended family or in student housing offsite that receive our support.
Thankfully, when the earthquake of January 12, 2010 hit, St. Helene’s high elevation and distance from the epicenter saved it and all the children from significant damage or injuries.
Down in Petionville, the earthquake took a far greater toll. The Father Wasson Center, which served as the administrative hub for NPFS in Haiti, and also housed volunteers and a school and physical therapy for children with disabilities, collapsed, trapping several volunteers inside. Two young Americans lost their lives – Ryan Kloos, who was visiting his sister Erin, a longtime NPH volunteer; and Molly Hightower, a 22 year old from Washington State who was spending a year working with special needs children.
In Tabarre, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, stands a new, state-of-the art hospital. As part of NPH’s mission to truly serve the needs of the poorest children, Haiti National Director, and doctor, Father Rick Frechette started our first medical center in 1989. The new St. Damien Hospital was opened in 2006 – a 45,000 square foot, 120-bed facility with an emergency room, surgery and cancer wards, infectious and non-infectious disease wards, a dental clinic, outpatient clinic and public health center. Pre-earthquake the hospital treated more than 30,000 patients a year.
The healthcare programs of Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs are motivated by the gospel command to care for the sick and strive to offset the injustices of poverty and unemployment which make healthcare inaccessible for many poor people. Poverty imposes a tremedous burden of sickness and suffering on many children. In an effort to help precisley these children, St Damien Hospital offers both children of poverty, and children of any social level in emergent distress, quality and dignified healthcare. St. Damien always seeks to include the parent participation in this care through ongoing dialogue, on-site opportunities for education, and encouraging any level of material support they can offer for the care of their children.
On January 12, the perimeter walls of the hospital fell during the earthquake. Patients fled the building for several days, fearing aftershocks. Miraculously, the hospital escaped major structural damage, and soon became a magnet for the critically wounded – children and adults.
St. Damien served as a hub for trauma care, treatment of quake-related injuries, and even maternity care – more than 50 babies were born at the hospital in the first three months after the quake. It also became one of the premier orthopedic medical centers within Haiti. In just the first three weeks after the earthquake, over 10,000 adults and children were treated and thousands of surgeries performed.
Waiting lines at the hospital in Tabarre
The hospital is now fully functioning again as a pediatric hospital but with added services of a maternity ward and neo-natal ward due to the earthquake.
In 2004, Gena Heragty, the Director of Kay Christine (home for special needs children at the St. Helene orphanage), started offering outpatient services to disabled children in the slum of Wharf Jeremy. The concept was to offer services to disabled children and support for the mothers so they can develop the tools to care for their children and not abandon them. This outreach grew and was then relocated to the Father Wasson facility in Pétionville, which was destroyed due to the earthquake. Currently this program named Kay Eliane, is being re-established in Pétionville, so that services can still be provided to children and parents who once attended the school and physical therapy program in the Fr. Wasson Center.
Adjacent to the St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Tabarre, is Kay St. Germaine, a 2,300 sq. ft., rehabilitation, physiotherapy and educational center which opened in September, 2008. Kay Germaine offers the same services as Kay Eliane, a special needs school, physical therapy, and now houses a prosthetics lab for amputees from the earthquake. Also onsite is a therapy room specifically for amputee therapy. Volunteer therapists work alongside our local staff to support and train them in providing services to these quake related patients.
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Currently 150 visitors on the website from Brazil (1), Chile (1), China (7), Colombia (4), France (15), Honduras (1), Japan (1), Mexico (8), Netherlands (1), Nicaragua (2), Panama (1), Peru (2), Ukraine (1), United Kingdom (8), United States (63), and Uruguay (1), and 104,159 visits to this page since March 24, 2011.