Here are some statistics reflecting the efforts that our Integral Life Foundation group made during its health care visit to Haiti two weeks ago:
- We visited seven orphanages.
- The medical team assessed and treated approximately 600 children.
- We distributed 600 mosquito nets to the orphanages and hung about 300 of them.
- We cleaned and disinfected 300 mattresses and then wrapped them in plastic.
We returned to Kansas City last week, tired but with a feeling that we had done some good and made a difference that will help make those young lives somewhat brighter.
It was very exciting to see that our clinic is virtually built in Les Cayes, a metropolitan area in south Haiti located near an orphanage and a church. The clinic creates sort of an economic engine in the area. The residents are used to missionaries and medical teams visiting there and they line up for the doctors.
The clinic will be used as the base of operations to provide healthcare for orphans. This will become more evident as we bring more medical teams from the U.S. and as we begin to employ Haitian physicians.
The first chapter of the story is complete, along with the physical shell of the building. Now it needs to be equipped with standard medical office supplies, dental equipment and imaging apparatus. There is not a single CT scan nor MRI machine in the entire southern region.
As U.S. citizens we don’t think twice about receiving basic medical care, and that is exactly what is needed in south Haiti, where children routinely go without immunizations for measles and malaria and care for HIV AIDS.
So when seven volunteers come from the U.S. to help, the results are tangible.