LACA in Haiti

In March 2005, the LACA Board of Directors voted to take on a project in Haiti which is acknowledged to be the most impoverished country in the western hemisphere. Funds were allocated for tubing to provide a clean drinking water supply for Hope Hospital in Haiti. In addition, some Board members are collecting medical supplies for the Holy Cross nuns who run the hospital. Most recently, LACA sent $10,000 to Haiti: $4000 to build houses for two homeless families; $2100 to finance medical care for seven patients needing surgery, and $3850 for the education of 35 high school students.

LACA Supports Haitian Micro Loan Program - Spring 2009

s09_5_3LACA continues to keep its focus on Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Haitians reap benefits from LACA’s other projects: feeding seniors and the disabled, building concrete block homes, educating two university students, conducting a medical clinic and supplying emergency assistance after hurricanes.

The foundation most recent project is its involvement in micro-loans. In 2008, LACA decided to donate $3000 to Fonkoze’s microloan project to help the ultra-poor at the lowest level of a four-step process. Experience from Bangladesh’s Grameen model predicted a success rate of 70%. Remarkably, in Haiti, the first 2008 completion rate exceeded 93%. This was truly amazing. s09_5_4The director of the first-step program reported, “Most of these women were too sick or too poor or too vulnerable to enter the regular microcredit program.” In his own words, he remarked that they were… “without hope, they were dead already, but not yet buried.” After reaching out to the poorest of the poor, the 18 month program supports them with training, one-on-one supervision and encouragement. Other services include health care for their families, home improvement- a tin roof, a concrete floor and a latrine. Additional benefits include: water filtration system, school enrollment for their children, a small stipend, training in finance, and livestock (i.e.: goats and chickens) as future assets. -Sheila J. McAlinden



Micro Credit Loan-Mimrose’s Story - Spring 2009

s09_5_2Mimrose St Fleur, a graduate of the first 2008 class illustrates the transformation made for these ultra poor women. She is a mother of six children and another one on the way. When she began the program she said, “I had nothing, my kids were not eating regularly and basically I knew that this was the way my life would continue until I died.” She recognizes that she has too many children, but she said, “They are such a joy to me and each other.” Originally she received three goats. With the help of a Fonkoze case manager, she now has eight goats and a garden tended by her husband that provides vegetables and nuts. She sold three goats to buy a cow and eventually hopes to buy a donkey to take her to market to sell her produce. Now she says, “I’m smiling with my face and heart because I see a future for my children and myself.” -Sheila J. McAlinden



“LEAVING POVERTY” written by a student of Fonkoze - Spring 2009

Misery and poverty
turn beautiful women into ugly and desperate women.
Misery and poverty
turn young men into old men before they reach middle age.
Misery and poverty
teach children how to lose respect for their parents and for themselves.

I have left misery behind and taking small steps to leave poverty behind
And I swear 7×77 that I will never return where I was two years ago. That is what
Fonkoze has done for me and for all the women graduating out of extreme poverty
today.



SPECIAL EDITION FOCUS ON HAITI - 2008

In January 2008, a six-member medical team made LACA’s first trip to Haiti. Since Haiti is often perceived negatively in the United States, the LACA group naturally felt some concern, but still remained open to this new adventure. After their week’s exposure to Haiti, they wrote brief articles. This issue will introduce the writers, and print their summary of activities, observations and impressions



The Founder’s Initial Impressions - Lillian Trillo - Jan. ‘08

In my twenty years of travelling to Latin America, leading medical clinics and assessing LACA projects, I have never seen anything comparable to the poverty in Haiti.

As we traveled from the capital city of Port au Prince to our clinic site, I saw Haitians everywhere trying to eke out a living by selling trinkets, gum, soda and sometimes, food. Young men were sitting in makeshift booths, trying to rent out phones for local calls. One of the major forms of transportation was converted pick-up trucks with benches and colorful camper tops. Because these semi-buses are in short supply at times, many people resorted to walking long distances to and from work or school.

Despite U.S. news reports, we saw no violence. On the contrary, Haitians were warm, refined, friendly and courteous. Even in the midst of the overpopulated city of Port au Prince, where the traffic was horrendous, with only two traffic lights and one policeman directing traffic, motorists gave the other drivers the right of way. After the medical clinic in Carrefour, three team members (Elvia, Linda-Marie and I), piled into a Toyota pick-up covered camper with two benches and an over-capacity of fellow travelers, for a planned trip to Baradera To say the least, the eight-hour journey on a rough and rocky road crowded with people, left us exhausted. As we approached our destination, we saw hundreds of seniors awaiting our arrival to get their monthly supply of food. Quickly, we finished filling the black plastic bags with rice, beans, sugar and oil, and then distributed the portions to 250 grateful elderly and disabled people.

While in Baraderas, we saw fragile homes constructed with sticks and banana leaves, and made a special trip to view the new concrete blockhouses financed by the Friends of LACA. What a contrast! The evening before our departure, about thirty people came to thank us for their new homes. Their humility, sincerity and gratitude overwhelmed me. If you are as moved as I was, you may want to contribute to the building of new houses. Two thousand dollars purchases the materials, while Haitians supply the labor. Every donation adds up. Be sure to specify on your check: “House”.



Students Show Concern for Haitian Food Crisis - 2008

Children from Ms. Apaydin’s class at Henry J. Kaiser Elementary School in Oakland, California chose to donate $300, the entire proceeds of their recent bake sale to help feed families and children in Haiti. Ms. Harper and her class of 7th graders at Bohannan Middle School in San Lorenzo, California, were looking for some way to help a people in a Third World country. After some research they found the LACA website and voted to support the Haitian Relief effort. In a matter of a few days they held a bake sale and with a check from Ms. Harper added to their receipts, presented LACA with $200.



Merci, Haiti - 2008

Geralyn Martinez, FNP

If someone told me years ago that I would visit El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti in three consecutive years, I would have thought travel to these troubled countries was not possible. Political/social unrest and natural disasters recurred so frequently in these regions, that it was unsafe for American health care providers to consider them as destinations. Changing times and increasing channels for humanitarianism, such as those provided by LACA, have made helping people in these areas a reality. After a two-hour drive from Port au Prince, we arrived in Carrefour, a mountainous region for our first medical mission in Haiti. Being adventurous types, we welcomed the challenge of bringing some of our expertise, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to people in this country, the poorest in the western hemisphere. Haiti faces a number of serious issues including: poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, overpopulation, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, high infant and maternal mortality, contaminated water supplies, poor sanitation and decreased life expectancy. Where would we start? Lillian Trillo, our leader, arranged the infrastructure. Marisa Mendez, our pharmacist, organized the medical supplies. Dr. Sabrina Derrington, our pediatrician, treated children and I served as the nurse practitioner examining adults. Elvia Villalobos and Linda-Marie Loeb rounded out the team.

The patients had many medical problems that we see stateside such as: diabetes, hypertension, thyroid disease, asthma, congestive heart failure and sickle cell anemia. The difference was that the conditions were untreated and had advanced to a level of pathology not commonly seen in our practice at home. We also did some teaching and preventive care by dispensing vitamins, anti-worm medicine, condoms and contraceptives. In addition, LACA paid for a number of referrals for patients who needed advanced evaluation and care by specialty physicians. We would like to thank our hosts, the Little Sisters of Saint Therese, who educate and care for the poor of Haiti. For a week, we lived as they do every day, with limited electricity provided by the government for two hours a day, and water from a cistern for daily needs. We were glad to experience a bit of Haitian culture, music, art and encounter these special people with their deep spirituality and graciousness. Our hope is that their country will one day reclaim its proud heritage.

Note: Geralyn Martinez is on the helicopter rescue team at Stanford Hospital, and an emergency room specialist at San Francisco General Hospital.



Pediatrician’s Insights - Hope for Haiti - 2008

Sabrina Derrington

People throng the courtyard adjacent to the small schoolroom where we set up our makeshift clinic. Children shout and laugh, babies cry, men and women share gossip. One after another, for four days straight, they enter the schoolroom, which has been transformed by surgical drapes and duct tape into a clinic with two small exam rooms and a pharmacy. The complaints are vague and multiple. “My daughter has stomach pain, she doesn’t eat well, she has diarrhea, and she often has fever. Oh, and she has a skin problem.” Or, “My son can’t memorize his lessons. And he can’t walk up the mountain” (translation: he gets short of breath). These people are so accustomed to their children being ill that when I ask them how long the fever has lasted or how long the diarrhea has been going on, they tell me, “Since she was born”. If I question very concretely I can discern that the fevers, diarrheal episodes, or the cough have been intermittent rather than constant; frequent illnesses are the product of malnutrition, inadequate sanitation, and crowded living situations. I begin to learn the association between the complaints and the illnesses. Abdominal pain and poor appetite mean intestinal parasites. So does diarrhea with blood. Being unable to walk up the mountain means anemia. Difficulty memorizing lessons is often because the child in question is hungry all the time, or too poorly nourished to think very clearly. When I begin asking questions I find that many children in Haiti get only one, or if they are lucky, two meals a day. And those meals are usually made up of cornmeal, rice and beans. Vegetables are too expensive for regular meals, and so is meat. And clean water?

Well, it is expensive to buy bottled water, and boiling all the water for family consumption is a formidable task when you have ten or more family members and your fuel is the homemade charcoal that women sell in baskets on the street. Occasionally I see problems requiring resources far beyond what we have available. A boy sustained a third degree burn that was never appropriately treated; as a result, his arm has scarred down in the shape of a sling, severely limiting his mobility A t wo-year-old girl has an unrepaired severe congenital heart defect; her heart can support her taking only a few steps before she sinks to the ground, out of breath and sweating, and I know that she is unlikely to live to see 2009. It is difficult to witness the result of such dire poverty and lack of resources, especially with only four days to try to help. But the medications we give, however transient in their effects, are immensely appreciated. Multivitamins and Tylenol bring hope and somehow seem to lift the burden of helplessness that many parents carry in watching their children struggle through lives marked by illness and poverty, often only to die before they reach adulthood. On the last day of our clinic, there is a festival going on outside. The children who attend this school dance and play as music with a Haitian beat swells with an irrepressible vitality. A number of those children are here because of scholarships provided by the generous donors to LACA, and I delight to watch them enjoying the simple joys of childhood. I hope that the 30-day supplies of multivitamins we gave improved their state of health and allowed them to concentrate a bit better. I hope they stay parasite-free for a while. I hope that the scholarship recipients grow and learn and attain a better life for themselves than the ones their parents had. I hope that Haiti regains some semblance of political stability and that they can raise crops, sell goods, and afford to buy food and boil water for their children someday. I hope they feel in some way loved and cared for because they remember my smile and the touch of my hand. I know I remember theirs.

Note: Sabrina Derrington is a resident in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles. She enjoyed working with other members of LACA and was thoroughly impressed by their commitment to the needs of the poor in Latin America.



A Board Member’s Assessment - Real Progress - 2008

Interviewing LACA scholarship students is a top priority when visiting a country. In Haiti, LACA sponsors 35 secondary and two university students. While observing the high school, including the computer lab, LACA Board members were impressed with the advanced curriculum – Latin, French, and Calculus.

But we were saddened to know that many come to school on empty stomachs and may not even get a lunch. Students who are orphans or live at great distances live with local families in exchange for domestic work such as cooking, cleaning and caring for small children and elderly relatives. Despite these hardships, these students are fortunate, since they have the advantage of an education. Over half of Haitian children never attend school.

Bernadette Latouche, one of our university students, experienced enormous family misfortune. Without LACA support, this bright young woman would probably not attend the university and without an education, her skills would be limited for employment. Haiti’s unemployment rate is approximately 50 – 60%. This rate is two to five times higher than Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama.

Wilson Catolin is our agronomy student at the newly founded University of Fondwa. Academically, he is doing exceptionally well. Additionally, he is energetically fulfilling the requirement of LACA scholarship students to serve their communities. Wilson has implemented an ambitious multi-faceted plan to improve his community’s farm economy. When he returns home on weekends, Wilson teaches farmers how to replace their crops with more marketable varieties, develop irrigation systems, and propagate and plant trees to prevent erosion and repair the damage caused by deforestation. Without a doubt, Wilson is a promising student! Linda-Marie concluded her Haitian experience with “I love Haiti, I’m coming back soon!”



Support for Haiti Offers Hope

Native of HaitiAt the February meeting the Board approved two scholarships; one for an applicant to attend the University of Fondwa and the other for a student to enroll in a two-year tri-lingual secretarial program.

Recent seminars and discussions by the San Francisco Diocese have emphasized another avenue to reduce the plight of the poor. In September 2000 the millennium year, the members of the United Nations pledged to give seven-tenths of one percent of their Gross Domestic Product each year for development assistance to poor countries. The United States joined the effort. Some nations are meeting this goal. The United States has not. As American citizens we need to help our country fulfill its promise.

An example of what can be done happened in December 2006. A bill, HR 6142, came before Congress - Haitian Hemisphere Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE).

The bill gives Haiti preferential access to U.S. markets, which ought to create jobs, reduce Haitian poverty, and increase national stability.

LACA Board members exercising their right as individual citizens united with ecumenical churches, advocacy organizations and concerned citizens contacted the House of Representatives. This united effort encouraged Congress to pass HOPE. What this legislation could accomplish far surpasses the abilities and dreams of LACA.

Haiti has been one of LACA’s special projects. In a past newsletter we spotlighted Haiti citing statistics proving that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. LACA responded to requests for help by building houses, financing medical care, and providing scholarships. LACA’s efforts helped individual Haitians, but the HOPE Act is creating a system, which in the long run may help thousands.