It's a wrap!

Our projects are now coming to a close, and it’s amazing to think about how much we’ve accomplished in only 2 months. To summarize, we have:
• Written and translated a Creole brochure about cervical cancer
• Distributed 1,000 copies of the brochure to women in the Leogane marketplace, Fondwa, and Petit Guave
• Contacted 81 HPV positive women to remind them about their follow-up appointment for treatment, as well as to survey about barriers preventing them from returning to the clinic
• Surveyed 136 women about their current knowledge of cervical cancer for future education programs
• Written and produced an education sketch film about cervical cancer with several local nursing students
• Gave 4 presentations about cervical cancer to women in Fondwa, Petit Goave, and Leogane.

Bassin Bleu

To wrap our 2 month stay in Haiti, we took a trip to Bassin Bleu over the weekend. We started out in Jacmel, and we rode horses up a mountain to Bassin Bleu. There were some gorgeous views of the ocean and the plants on the way up the mountain. Bassin Bleu has 3 “basins”, and the last basin has a huge waterfall. Matt, Hannah, Max, and I all climbed up the waterfall and jumped off into the water!

Fondwa Presentations

We had the opportunity last Friday as well as today to present an education program to a group of women in Fondwa. On Friday, we presented to 6 women. Today, we had 29 women at our presentation! We told them about the disease, how it is transmitted, and how to reduce the risk of contracting to disease. We also addressed some common misconceptions that some women have about cervical cancer, such as the belief that it is caused by voodoo. The women really enjoyed learning about cervical cancer, and I was very impressed with their insightful questions at the end. The experience also shed light unto some of the cultural differences between Haiti and the United States. For example, we told the women that it is important to limit the number of sexual partners, and to make sure that their partners also limit their sexual partners. The women replied that, “There are no faithful men in Leogane.” They said that their husbands have multiple partners, and it was out of their control. This shows the importance of knowing the social context and way of life of the audience that is being addressed. We replied that although they do not have control over their husbands, they do have control over their own bodies and they can still be responsible for their health. At the end of our presentation, we showed them the 10-minute film about cervical cancer that we made with the local nursing students.

On Wednesday, we are going to give a few more presentations in Petit Guave.

Global Health Article

Here is a link to an article about our projects from the Duke Global Health Institute: http://globalhealth.duke.edu/news-events/stories-from-the-field/women-and-prevention-are-priorities-for-fieldwork-projects-in

Education in the Market

We’ve finally had a chance to begin educating women in the Leogane area about cervical cancer! The brochures that we designed a few weeks ago were printed in the U.S. and brought to Haiti by one of the Family Health Ministries teams. On Wednesday and Thursday, we began by going to the marketplace and finding women to educate as well as survey about their current knowledge of cervical cancer. Hopefully, future DukeEngage students will be able to use information from the survey to design more health education programs. I thought that we would have difficulty finding women that were willing to talk to us, but within minutes, we had a huge crowd of women as well as men who wanted to do the survey and get a brochure. Perhaps they were curious to see what we “blancs” were doing in the marketplace! We surveyed women from as young as 14 years old to as old as 56 years. The women were very eager to learn about cervical cancer, and I was surprised to learn how many of them personally knew someone who suffered or died from cervical cancer. Many of the women didn’t know much about cervical cancer – some thought that the only way to treat it was through a voodoo priest. I am also not sure if our brochures will helpful for all, as some are illiterate(one man was reading the brochure upside down). However, our translator, Wilkins, said that most people were able to understand it. Overall, I think our presence was well-received, and I am excited to continue our education program!

Health Fair

Matt and I spent Saturday at a health fair put on by the nursing students. The health fair took place about 20 minutes away in a rural part of the Leogane community. There were several nursing students from Minnesota at the fair as well, and they let us “shadow” them for the day. I observed the patient consultations throughout the day, and the nursing students were eager to teach me various things such as taking blood pressure and pulse measurements. The severity of some of the health problems was disconcerting, and left me wondering what these patients would have done if the health fair did not take place. This was probably the only form of health care that people in these rural areas receive, and it was only possible because the nursing students were willing to spend their weekends organizing it. I found their passion for making health care accessible to all quite inspiring, but even so, these “mobile medical clinics” are far from being adequate for addressing their problems. For example, many diagnostic tests are not possible in such a setting, and the treatments and medications offered are extremely limited. There is no opportunity for follow-up care, and so the patients do not have any means of receiving alternate treatments if their problems do not improve. The limitations and shortcomings of the health care system in Haiti were made very clear through this experience. Even so, “mobile medical clinics” seem to be the most prevalent avenue of aid for many Americans travelling to Haiti on mission trips. The health care problems need to be addressed in a different manner in order to provide more sustainable and effective care.

Mountain Hike

We took a break from our work at the Leogane clinic to travel to Kenscoff, Jacmel and Fondwa. We left Saturday morning and traveled to Kenscoff to see the Baptist Mission and Fort Jacques. After spending the night at a lodge, we woke up early on Sunday to begin our 2-day hike through the mountains. The hike was about 30 miles long, and it was extremely rough, especially since several of our group members weren’t feeling well. However, the views were spectacular, and we saw a very different part of Haiti compared to where we’ve been living. In fact, part of trail went through a forest that almost looked like northern Michigan. We also passed several waterfalls and really pretty tropical plants. Our hike finished at the beach in Jacmel, which was a nice ending. We spent Tuesday in Fondwa, another community in the mountains. Family Health Ministries, the organization with which we are working, sponsors an orphanage in Fondwa. We visited the orphanage and played some games with the children.

The website for Family Health Ministries has some pictures and stories from our hike: http://familyhm.org/dukengageandfamilyhealthministries.htm