Shared Beginnings

As I look around at the lush, green mountains that surround the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Deschappelles, Haiti, I can’t help but be reminded of a similar pastoral setting many thousands of miles away— the Project HOPE headquarters in Millwood, Virginia. A country apart, the hospital and HOPE share in an often-intertwined vision of humanitarian aid and health education.

That the two organizations have led such parallel lives throughout the years is not a coincidence. Indeed, they were founded within two years of each other: Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) in 1956 by Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence Mellon, while Project HOPE was founded in 1958. A generous donation in 1977 by Rachel “Bunny” Mellon helped make possible the Project HOPE headquarters at Carter Hall, her childhood home in Virginia.

Fast forward to 2010. After the January 12th earthquake, HAS became one of the two leading centers for trauma-related surgical amputations and subsequent rehabilitation-- thanks to the generosity of the Hanger corporation (whose headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland is just steps away from our Health Affairs Journal offices).

In keeping with our shared mission, HOPE contributed to the hospital’s response to the earthquake. Currently, HOPE volunteer nurse, Jill Caporiccio of the Massachusetts General Hospital, is coordinating activities at the Hanger Clinic. With HOPE’s participation, the clinic has fitted over 400 Haitians, young and old, with prostheses, allowing them to return to normal lives.

Meanwhile, Haitian-American Certified Nurse Midwife and Project HOPE volunteer Carine Richard has been busily building the hospital’s midwifery program at its local dispensaries scattered throughout its 600 square mile service area.

Ian Rawson (stepson of Dr. Mellon), who now heads the hospital, shared an observation about Haiti today during an afternoon visit with patients. And it is one that I found very compelling. He observed, “Haiti is always in chronic crisis-- whether it be malnutrition or tuberculosis. Sometimes it is in acute crisis as well, from earthquakes to flooding. In the face of tragedy, the Haitian people are not rigid. They bend like bamboo, coming back with the best of resilience.”

His perspective has great relevance to HOPE. Where there is crisis there is HOPE. For us, the crisis may be acute, quiet or unseen. As our recent experience with HAS demonstrated, we are able to respond quickly to make a difference to those in need, no matter the crisis.

Inspiring Action in Haiti

Port au Prince, Haiti
Here in Haiti, at the frontline of a quiet crisis, we continue to meet leaders, young and old, who bring creativity and influence to the common good -- at the least, providing inspiration and at the most, inspiring action to move the country forward.

Inspiration. I suppose this could be one of the most cliché concepts to be covered in this kind of blog. Yet, for sure, it was the recurring theme of our day today.

It was seen in Carlene Dei, USAID country director for Haiti: a leader of noted academic and professional stature, who kept her appointment with Project HOPE -- in a most memorable way. She held the meeting with us in our sweltering SUV, when a security issue left us unable to enter the U.S. Embassy building. After a distinguished career with USAID, Dei was eligible to retire. Yet, she chose to continue to lend her expertise, gained in her native country of Jamaica and in Ghana, to her role as country director for Haiti. She is now leads a severely understaffed staff, with the wisdom of an experienced leader.

Additional inspiration came in the form of a chance encounter, as I picked my way through the graffiti-covered rubble of the nation’s only public medical school, with two young men on their way to class. The pair, fourth and fifth year students from Cap Haitian, are among 600 students at the school, one which regularly receives over 5,000 applications each year. While taking a break from a community health exam, they talked about their hopes and aspirations. I couldn’t help but marvel at them. Even in the most supportive of settings, medical education is nothing if not a daunting pursuit. But, here in a setting of utter destruction?

Finally, no sooner had our team been told that volunteerism is not often seen among the poor of Haiti (their days understandably involved in the very pursuit of survival), we witnessed an unforgettable sight. As we approached the Adventist Hospital of Haiti, we saw a line of young men and women bearing shovels, wearing familiar bright blue Project HOPE t-shirts. They were removing trash and rubble from the Hospital grounds -- as volunteers. This was yet another example of how HOPE inspires volunteerism -- and provides the setting to make it possible.

I continue to be reminded, here in Haiti, that the immensity of its tragedy does not lend itself to single heroes. Instead, it calls upon many individuals, many heroes humbly going about making a difference in the lives of those in need. I hope that you will be equally inspired.

Where There is Crisis, There is HOPE

Port au Prince, Haiti July 28
As sleep lifted me from my fog this morning and the aircraft carrying our team descended into Port au Prince, browns and blues formed into the solid shapes of crumbled buildings and tarp-dotted tent camps. And somehow it all seemed so familiar-- a true physical manifestation of the countless news story images and my own imagination filling in the blanks.

But my first day in the battered Haitian capital still proved to have lessons in store. What I have seen in my brief tour so far has shown me that the Haitian people survive on sheer determination. They have walked through fire and come away with an inspirational sense of hope.

We saw the best of humanity in the faces of Theodore Clermelie and her 10-month-old son Joseph Salomon, who waited patiently all day on a crowded outdoor patio at Clinique Sainte Marguerite in the Delmas 75 neighborhood of Port au Prince for a treatment for the boy’s itchy-looking skin rash, a surprise allergic reaction.

Our backgrounds and languages were different, yet the tenderness with which Theodore engaged her son— bouncing him on her knee and using the bright red liquid in a bottle of Project HOPE-donated PediaLyte as an ad hoc toy—was universal.

Never in conversations did we hear talk about the recent traumatic events of the past. There was no looking over shoulders. From a vantage point six months from the date of the earthquake I suppose that I expected more of a focus on personal losses. Instead we saw eagle eyes trained on the future: Haitians engaging the world community in the common quest for bettering the country.

Without exception, the Haitian Ministry of Health has also stepped up to the plate with a daunting request of Project HOPE: to assess the biomedical equipment of Port au Prince’s six largest hospitals (which together possess 60% of the medical equipment in all of Haiti). This month-long project proved to be an intensely productive collaborative experience for the Project HOPE team of four volunteer American biomedical engineers and four of their Haitian counterparts—which assessed and catalogued 931 items.

As Project HOPE now moves into the second phase of this project, the training of Haitian technicians to use and maintain these machines, we are proud to be part of the unglamorous side of the job—making sure that things work for the people that need them.

Today, like many days, I see that where there is crisis, there is HOPE. And I can’t help but categorize what our team has seen into two distinct categories: acute crisis, such as was seen in Haiti immediately after the January quake, and quiet crisis, which can arguably represent what the country is experiencing now—with the focus shifting to the treatment of chronic illness and rehabilitation.

I am firmly reminded that as Haiti transitions from acute crisis to quiet crisis, Project HOPE continues to have relevance and importance for the people that it serves.