Sunday is a day of rest. Well, most of the day was. This was the opportunity for the team to enjoy a day of R&R at the beach...just 15 minutes east of Jacmel at TiMoulage. It is a beautiful area, but I long for my beach at Isle Caramel near our village of Bod me Limbe in the north.
Doctor Mona and I left mid-afternoon for a meeting with a representative from the city. We discussed health issues in Jacmel and how the government and city contribute to health care. Understanding the issues, and connecting with the local population is key to helping Haiti in the long run. This meeting led to two others, arranged for later this week.
It's great having Mona with me, as I work further on setting up the Health Network in Jacmel. Her understanding of the local system helps faciliate the types of projects I will be able to work on in the future with the health network.
I won't comment further on what the government needs to do to improve it's services, only that if change does not come from within Haiti most of our foreign contributions will only be band-aid treatments to this impoverished nation.
Our goal is to provide sustainable front line medical care and health education in rural Haiti. Our recent work has focussed on Jacmel Airport where Dr. Tiffany Keenan spent 5 weeks on the ground post earthquake coordinating the Health NGOs in the region. Our new projects include a new medical clinic in Jacmel, a National Air Ambulance service with Partner organizations and the Haiti Health Facilities Database with Google and the Haitian Dept of Health.
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