Volunteering in Haiti for Midwives for Haiti - Game Day

Carrie is the "fiery readhead" Clancy and Jessica met last month during their trip to Haiti to meet the new midwifery students. Carrie is the volunteer coordinator for Midwives for Haiti. She sent us this blog and it was so good, we had to share it with you.  

Game Day

Just because we are in Haiti doesn't mean we can't root for our preferred teams in the SuperBowl. Yes, we are having a party for the big game. Three pretty chickens were waiting outside of our door this morning. I sure hope they look just as good in the hickory barbecue sauce we found at the store for our SuperBowl dinner tonight! 

To sum up the week, I have been busy updating documents, formatting papers, and learning new processes on the internet. We are streamlining most of the "volunteer application process" to me now because I can give volunteers a better idea of what to expect, what to bring, etc. with me being on the ground. 

I also made another trip out to Thomassique this week to visit St. Joseph's Clinic and the matròn program we helped start there. We are working on starting some inservice training there that will involve volunteers teaching and working with the three midwives staffed there.

 

Speaking of midwives, I recently chatted with my friend who just graduated from the MFH class last year. She is in Cité Soleil, one of the largest slums in the Northern Hemisphere. I asked her how her work was going (she is heading one of the Save the Children clinics). She replied, "Not good at all." She had not been able to go to work for two weeks because it was too dangerous. The overpopulated shanty town has many roaming gangs that threaten and kill people for money, food, etc. I hope the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti can do something about this if the government will not.

On a more positive note, St. Therese Hospital here in Hinche hired seven of our recently graduated midwives. This just happened in December. With more hands and more skilled midwives, the maternity center can handle more patients without the staff getting overworked! We are now telling our volunteers that extra hands at the hospital really aren't needed. There isn't enough room in our labor and delivery room anyhow!

This article was originally posted on Carrie's blog.