Happy Friday from C2C! Our newest clinic has arrived in Cap Haitien, been cleared through customs, and the containers are happily on their way to serve the community in Camp Coq. American Global Logistics ensured the containers arrived safely in Cap Haitien, donating shipping costs to C2C. The containers will be in place with plumbing and electricity early next week! Photos coming soon!
What does it take to open a primary care clinic in Haiti? Join us as we work to open our newest clinic – from fabrication to opening day and beyond, follow what happens on our blog. We hope you will ask questions and offer suggestions and support along the way.
Let’s start with where we’ve been:
Clinic Fabrication
Our fabricator in Miami started with an empty shipping container. He added high windows for ventilation that preserves privacy; then he added flooring, shelves, cabinetry, and doors until the interior looked just like any other doctor’s office. Medical equipment, including examination tables, lab equipment, and other necessary items, was packed inside the clinic. This entire process takes up to 6 weeks.
Site Research/Decision
C2C spent many months researching potential clinic locations in Haiti, suggested by the Ministry of Health and other nonprofit organizations. C2C chose Camp Coq because there was need, a population large enough to support a clinic, and community support for a clinic. C2C conducted in-depth community research – focus groups, door-to-door surveys, community leadership interviews – early in 2013 before finalizing the site.
Now where we are:
Shipping and Site Preparation
From our fabricator’s site in Miami, the clinic will soon travel more than 600 miles to its new home – Camp Coq, Haiti. Workers are preparing the site for the clinic, placing concrete footings to hold it in place, and leveling the grounds.
Community Steering Committee
A steering committee is in place, comprised of 11 Camp Coq community leaders, to guide C2C’s entry into the community and serve as ambassadors for the organization to their neighbors and friends.
Clinic Staff Hiring
Staff Training and Orientation
Community Outreach
Clinic Opening
At C2C, women are at the heart of everything we do. Our clinics, which specialize in maternal care, ensure that women stay healthy so that they can care for their families and be leaders in their communities. Today is International Women’s Day, which gives us a special opportunity to honor and thank women around the world who do so much for their communities each day.
UN Women has also chosen to honor women today, through the art of music. They’ve teamed up with women from many countries to create One Woman, a song “that inspires listeners to join the drive for women’s rights and gender equality”. It’s a beautiful song that features singer Emeline Michel of Haiti, among others.
We encourage you, in honor of this holiday, to talk to someone today about the challenges that women face and C2C’s dedication to keeping them healthy.
C2C is dedicated to expanding the global health conversation to include new health care delivery methods that achieve sustainability over time. We believe that encouraging discussion and innovation in maternal health issues is absolutely critical to generating new solutions for women and babies around the world.
Luckily, we are in good company! This month, the Global Maternal Health Conference was held in Arusha, Tanzania. The conference, which promotes the sharing of ideas, innovations, and information in the field of maternal health, featured almost 700 presenters and participants.
The Conference website contains materials for most of the presentations that took place, and is a great resource for everyone interested in current maternal health issues. For example, this presentation examines improving knowledge of birth preparedness in Bihar, India.
To view the resources from the conference and join the conversation, take a look at the conference website here.
Who hasn’t stared with at least a little confusion at an ultrasound picture? Is that really the baby’s head? Those fuzzy pictures connect us to babies before we can hold them. They link us to our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and the children of friends – all of whom we can’t wait to meet! Even more important, they help doctors identify and address many complications before they endanger mother or baby.
Unfortunately, most soon-to-be parents worldwide don’t have access to this technology that we take for granted. Doctors and nurses practicing in the developing world are often unable to spot difficulties in time to save lives. By including ultrasound as part of comprehensive prenatal care, we can address many of the World Health Organization’s top causes of maternal and neonatal mortality: hemorrhage, obstructed labor, asphyxia, birth injuries, and preterm births.
Thanks to generous funding this year from MA and James Gallerani, the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation, and the Jack Tarver Foundation, expectant mothers visiting our clinic in Port-au-Prince do have access to ultrasound technology. Our clinicians are able to identify abnormalities early, determine gestational age and estimate due dates, and monitor uterine cysts and other conditions that might become dangerous. They are able to diagnose issues on the spot – without asking the mother to wait, return to the clinic in a week, or travel for a referral. For women who often journey hours to our clinic, it is critical that they are able to access necessary care quickly and in one location.
As we all look forward to a bright 2013, I would like to introduce you to Rosemonde and Joulie (pictured above and below). They are especially hopeful for the New Year, and have much to look forward to as they wait to meet the babies they have just seen for the first time. From all of us at C2C, here’s to a beautiful New Year for our patients, our supporters, and our organization’s growth to serve thousands more women and children!
“Are we there yet?,” How many times have you heard your kids ask this question while en route to your destination? The same question is being asked in the arenas of global development with respect to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and improving international development efforts. To be clear, while the MDGs are the closest road map we have to taking a bite out of globabl poverty, they are by no means comprehensive in outlining what is needed to make the world in which we live a more equitable, peaceful and safe place.
As The Lancet aptly points out in its recently published <a href="http://www click over here now.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2812%2962092-3/fulltext” target=”_blank”>“A manifesto for the world we want” , there are things we need to attend to that fall outside the carefully worded MDGs that are still critical for a world we want to leave out children. Front and foremost is the role of women in society and the need to provide them the basic rights to education, health and employment that men enjoy. The Lancet calls for integrated development efforts; women need basic health, education and job opportunities to break the cycle of poverty in to which they are born. You cannot have one without the other two and expect a woman to be able to overcome the obstacles to moving beyond her economic station. As we move into this holiday season and reflect on that for which we are most thankful, let us also renew our pledge to those women and children in developing nations who do not yet have a voice and cannot lift themselves out of the impoverished slums, squatter camps and underdeveloped villages into which they were born. “Are we there yet?” No we are not, but we are getting ever closer to our destination: A world we want.
We’ve been working on a Community Health Education program for a few months, and are excited to share some of our progress and impacts. In partnership with Grace Children’s Hospital, our twelve month program strives to improve health knowledge, attitudes, and practices among community members, as well as training Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA’s) to enable safer labors and deliveries.
To date, 19 Community Health Workers (CHW’s) have been trained on health communication techniques and health data collection, and have visited over 150 pregnant women in their homes. UNICEF and the World Health Organization identify home visits as a vital step in improving newborn survival, and C2C’s home visit program helps to identify high-risk pregnancies- leading to safer births and healthier infants. The CHW’s have also distributed dozens of antenatal care kits to pregnant women in the community. The kits include essential items like diapers, blankets, soap, and warm clothing which can drastically reduce infant mortality.
Finally, C2C and Grace Children’s Hospital have continued our “Responsible Motherhood Program”, which awards certificates to women who attend 4 antenatal care visits and are committed to healthy pregnancies. Future initiatives as part of our Health Education Program include Mothers’ Club meetings at our clinic and targeted outreach to HIV-positive mothers.
This Health Education Program is vital in the community surrounding our clinic, which is characterized by extreme poverty and informal housing. Our passionate, skilled CHW’s serve the heart of this community to identify at-risk pregnancies and encourage healthy pregnancies. This direct impact can be seen in our patients who receive care at our clinic and go on to have safe births and thriving babies. Below, see some photos of the CHW’s at work in Port-au-Prince.
Last Thursday, I was in Ixtapa, Mexico. The difference between this Thursday and last is pretty enormous. Today in New England, we’re watching the final orange, red and yellow leaves drop from the trees and spending long yet exciting hours in strategic planning meetings for 2013 and crafting the end of year appeal. But last Thursday, I was among about 200 folks who gathered for the annual “non conference” called Opportunity Collaboration looking over the gorgeous pacific coast beaches of Ixtapa. I had my reservations—how was the week going to be productive with “no agenda,” with 200 people to get to know and too much to do back home?
It’s hard to put it into words, but it was a phenomenal week of where I shared our passionate work with other non profit practitioners and learned from thought leaders in the fields of social impact investing and micro-finance. I met the Executive Producer of “Half the Sky” –the 4-hour documentary film that had the C2C team in tears the week before. I learned about new ways of measuring impact from really smart university think tank folks. And I also heard from global funders who struggled with being sought after and how hard it was to say no to so many great projects and ideas that always needed more funding. I flew from Mexico City to Ixtapa with a 26-year old Pakistani woman who has been advocating for girl’s education in her country for 10 years and knew the young woman who had been shot in the face as she rode her bus to school the week before.
I came away more certain that ever that the C2C model is critically needed to build capacity to deliver primary health care to women and children. At OC, I learned about and hope to create partnerships with many other great organizations and individuals who want to leverage each other’s core competencies, resources and collective energy to eradicate global poverty through thoughtful action. Never before have I felt so certain about our direction. Please join us as we grow and expand.
At C2C’s clinic in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 35 pregnant women were awarded a “Certificate of Responsible Motherhood”, recognizing their attendance at the WHO-recommended minimum of four antenatal care visits. Despite the living conditions in central Port-au-Prince, these women are doing everything in their power to ensure the health of their unborn babies. C2C is humbled by and honored to support their efforts.
