Stories From The Field
Lubin Pierre
Effective child health and survival strategies in Haiti are critical
in providing hope to children and their families. As an extension
of Grace Children's Hospital,
ICC's Urban Community Health programs reach out into the slum areas
around the hospital to provide an extensive array of health services
to those who have so few resources.
People living in underdeveloped countries, like Haiti, who are
malnourished and live in close quarters, stand the greatest chance
of contracting highly contagious diseases. The conditions that accompany
poverty, although not the cause of disease, certainly contribute
to their ability to spread.
Therefore, ICC partners with the community to promote health and
wellness through education, health promotion, birth attendant training,
micro-enterprise projects, adult literacy training and child health
clinics. One of the main projects carried out by ICC's Urban Community
Health program is child inoculation.
In Citè Silait, one of the many shantytowns surrounding Grace Children's
Hospital, ICC sponsors an urban health clinic. Each week the clinic
is held in different sections of the community, sometimes in a home,
a church or even in a private health center. Four times a month
the clinic is specifically used as a vaccination post for mothers
to bring their children for immunization.
When Marie Leurdes Colin, a 25-year-old mother of five, arrived
at the clinic there were already 30 women, with children in tow,
waiting their turn for vaccinations. Marie had brought her youngest,
ten-month-old Lubin Pierre, to receive his latest series of immunizations.
On this day ICC was offering BCG, a vaccine against TB; Vitamin
A, to ward off blindness; and a vaccine for measles. Marie, who
lives in Citè Silait, brings her children to the vaccination post
each month in an effort to keep their immunizations and health records
current.
While at the vaccination post, Esther Damus, one of ICC's Urban
Community Health supervisors, noticed a rash on Lubin's neck. The
rash was quickly diagnosed as type of skin disease and Marie was
given medicine to treat Lubin's infection.
Over 68,000 people are served through ICC's Urban Community Health
program in the communities surrounding Grace Children's Hospital.
The goal of this program is to improve the overall health of the
population, particularly the health of its children. By increasing
access to effective and affordable community based primary health
care services, and by stimulating and increasing awareness at the
community level, International Child Care is able to positively
influence the health and well being of this vulnerable population.
