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 !
