Unrest in Haiti

Hello all, Just wanted to write a quick note to let you all know that there has been some political unrest here in Haiti this week.  Protests against inflation, the high cost of goods and lack of food were scheduled for yesterday, Monday, all over the country.  Unfortunately, in many areas, the protests became violent…

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Public Health Corner Spring 2008

Medical personnel sometimes wonder what is the difference between medicine and public health? Or, as I like to phrase the question, what is the difference between the medical model of care and the public health model? Physicians are trained according to the medical model, which basically involves looking at an ill patient and deciding how…

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April 2008

Last month I reported on the very dry conditions in the area around Jeremie, where we live.  Crops were being lost due to lack of rain in the past few months.  Well, it seems the Lord heard your prayers, because it began raining last week and has rained almost every day since!  That’s good for…

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March 2008

Right now, we are nearing the end of the dry season, and the dirt roads we travel on are dusty and hard.  The land around our clinic site is dry and crops are struggling to survive.  We’re hoping some rain will start to fall soon; otherwise, the farmers are in danger of losing many of…

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February 2008

We continue to do patient consultations twice a week in our “house clinic” on the site of what we hope to be a larger clinic facility in Gatineau.  We are seeing an increasing number of patients each week, which is a testimony to our services and developing reputation. It is gratifying to see that patients…

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New Year in Haiti

We had a very quiet holiday here in Haiti, where the true significance of Christmas is not drowned out by the commercialism that is so much a part of US celebrations.  New Year’s Day is actually a bigger celebration here and it is a time to wish friends and family members health, prosperity and longevity…

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Public Health Corner December 2007

You will notice that we write quite often about the goal of providing primary health care to the people in the areasurrounding our clinic site in Gatineau. You may wonder what, exactly, is primary health care? Basically, it refers to the first level of health care in the community and may include some or all…

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December 2007

We have just gone through a very wet rainy season and the road we have to travel up the mountain from Jeremie to our clinic site has become nearly impassable.  We’ve been pleading with the local government transportation director to make some repairs to it, so please pray with us that our concerns will be…

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November 2007

Our clinic site in Haiti is in the mountains outside the town of Jeremie.  It’s only 15 miles away, but takes over an hour to reach in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, due to the extremely poor condition of the roads.  When people in the mountains are ill, they often need to be carried down the…

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Public Health Corner October 2007

When we think of public health, we think or populations of people, whether in a village, city, country, continent or theworld. In fact, the motto of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where I recently received my Master of Public Health degree, is “Saving lives, millions at a time”.  As Christians, however, we are…

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