Friday, March 15, 2019

Midwife Training

Greetings !
Living in a rural village like Sonis or Belot means you don't have easy access to basic medical care. Sonis, Nouvelle Terrain is a 3 hour hike from the nearest road (well, maybe a 4.5 hour hike if you're carrying a bunch of stuff....or you're Dad). We sometimes have mobile clinics to provide medical care in rural areas of Haiti. Sometimes we have trainings about the importance of drinking clean water. Regardless of the particular project, we try to involve the community so they take ownership of the work being done. Well, buckle in 'cause we're going to talk about a topic that gets a little bit heavy.

Last year, we were involved in a 12-week long midwife training in Carrefour Badio (near-ish Nouvelle Terrain where we're helping the community rebuild their church). Around 30 midwives from the surrounding areas showed up for at least some of the classes. Perhaps surprisingly to some of you, midwives in Haiti are mostly men. Women--especially in rural villages--are almost always too busy with daily household chores like washing laundry, cooking food, carrying water, etc to have a paying job.

Anyway, neither Mom nor Dad...nor any of us Sheppards here are midwives. But, a friend from the US who was a certified midwife lived to Haiti for a while; she wanted to help us out while she was here, so she hired a local midwife from Tabarre and they both taught the midwife course.

The training mostly centered around hygiene. The first picture is the midwives clapping their hands and singing a song about washing hands. I'm gonna say this part as PG as I can, but one of the midwives took it upon himself to carve some wooden models (fashioned after himself and his wife) to serve as anatomically correct visual aids during the class and that caused a bit of a stir. All-in-all, we chalk the training up to a big success.

Mom is doing many things here in Haiti, but a large part of what Mom does is in the field of mental health. Unsurprisingly, many Haitians have experienced significant trauma which effects their quality of life. Mom talks about the first three trauma factors too often coming into play in Haiti: Stressful pregnancy, traumatic birth, and early hospitalization. The majority of children born in Haiti aren't born in a hospital or with a midwife present (UNICEF said it was about 37% back in 2016). As a result, many children die before their first birthday. The infant mortality rate in Haiti is one of the highest in the western hemisphere (around 46.8 compared to 5.8 out of 1000 in the US). That's why it's so important that expectant mothers have access to prenatal care and a skilled attendant on hand at the delivery particularly in rural areas.

We are so grateful to have been involved in the midwife training. We were given a basket with vegetables as a gift of appreciation from the students. Another interesting thing, the mayor of Carrefour Badio showed up for the graduation ceremony to give a speech as did other important members of the community. It's great to know that we aren't the sole driving force trying to improve the community. They are picking themselves up and encouraging each other. We're just glad God has put us in a place to help them in the ways we can.

Please consider donating to help us with the work we're doing in Haiti. There are many projects we're involved in and many more we hope to undertake, but we can't do this alone. Thank you very much for all your support ! Tax deductible donations for this or any other project can be made at The Chance to Dream's website https://www.thechancetodream.com/donate

That's all for now. Talk at you next time !

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Our Work in Nouvelle Terrain

Woah, life's been busy since I've been gone. Hi everyone, my name's David and I'll be writing a few blog posts to update you on the goings-on here in Haiti :) Looks like the last post was about the volcano erupted in Guatemala and Linda (Or, as I call her, Mom) went there to help with the relief work. That was last June ! Sorry for the long wait between posts...I'll try to get the next one out sooner.

While Mom's busy with all her various projects, Dad's been chugging along with the rebuilding of the church in the village of Sonis, Nouvelle Terrain that was blown away during hurricane Matthew in late 2016. Nouvelle Terrain (which means, "New Land") is about a 3 hour hike from the nearest "road"...over a few mountains, down into a valley, and then up the side of another mountain. It's quite an adventurous hike for us...especially when you're carrying supplies. We've hiked in there for medical mission teams, for water safety education, and for building projects.

Hurricane Matthew was quite a while ago, you might say. How come it's taking so long to rebuild a church ? Well, we want to build something that will last and won't be blown away by another storm, it's difficult getting supplies to the village, but most importantly we want to encourage the community to help themselves. We don't want to build a church for them...we want to help the people of Sonis build their own church. So, the wood being used for the church are cut by a local wood farmer nearby, for example.

We've also had other projects going on in Nouevelle Terrain aside from the church building. We recently finished a 12-week long Midwife training with the help of a Haitian midwife as well as an American RN midwife. There's also a project going on to build a motorcycle pathway to the village. Dad bought shovels, pickaxes, and hoes to supply to Pastor Saint Pierre for this project. Finally, we have entered the "plannificating" (ie planning) stage of a new project to pump water up the mountainside using a special, homemade, water ram pump that Dad's built.

So, after two years of carrying supplies and plannificating this church building, the building process has started ! The foundation is finished and made of sturdy, rebar-reinforced concrete; the framing is also finished. We've got some pictures below to show you.

Great progress is being made and we're proud of the community, Pastor Saint Pierre, and all of you who've helped through prayers and financial support. Next up, we need to get a bunch of plywood wall sheeting and hike it up there. The sooner the better, otherwise the framing might get damaged by the mountainside winds.

Please consider donating to help us with the work we're doing in Haiti. There are many projects we're involved in and many more we hope to undertake, but we can't do this alone. Thank you very much for all your support ! Tax deductible donations for this or any other project can be made at The Chance to Dream's website https://www.thechancetodream.com/donate

That's all for now. Talk at you next time !