C2C’s partner in Haiti, AmeriCares, was instrumental in the founding of the Haiti Adolescent Girls Network. Sexual and reproductive health is critically important for vulnerable adolescent and teen girls. Gender-based violence in the IDP camps impacts tens of thousands of women and girls. AmeriCares and the Population Council are addressing the issue head-on.
The International Museum of Women (IMOW) is currently hosting an online exhibition entitled MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe. The project opened last month and will run through September 2012, featuring eight topic galleries about different dimensions of motherhood. The current topic, “Mama to Be? Who Decides If, How, and When a Woman Has a Child?“, features stories, photographs, and interviews about becoming (or not becoming) pregnant.
Take a look at this fascinating exhibition and continue checking back over the next eight months to see what else the MAMA project has in store.
We are very excited to announce that a C2C clinic headed to Namibia has shipped from Charleston, South Carolina! We expect the overseas travel to take about five weeks, and can’t wait to get set up once it arrives.
In Namibia, the maternal death rate has more than doubled in the past decade; C2C is honored to be working in partnership with the Namibian Ministry of Health in an effort to reverse these trends.
See below for a video of the clinic preparing for shipment- and a big thank you to Steve Brown at Fox Audio Visual for the media assistance!
On this 2nd year anniversary of the earthquake, the US staff at C2C continues to stand in solidarity with the millions of Haitians who lost loved ones, their homes, their livelihoods and their access to health care. As I read the commentaries and funding reports leading up today, I remain disheartened at the larger picture of what has not happened in Haiti in the past 2 years. Yet, when I think about what happens on a daily basis at the C2C clinic at Grace Children’s Hospital on Delmas 31- we are proud to be part of the rebuilding of Haiti. We regularly collate health data and surveys from the C2C clinic and we are excited to have accomplished our mission of providing high quality health care to women and infants.
It has not been an easy year for anyone working or living in Haiti. When I drive from the Coconut Villa Hotel to the clinic, I cannot imagine trying to raise children or fall ill AND still be living in a tattered tent on the steamy, congested streets of Port-au-Prince. The lack of security for young women and girls who return home after dark is obvious and horrific. My public health eye immediately fears for the child who plays in the grey water that pools outside the molded family tent. It is heartbreaking to consider that a family that is struggling to rebuild has to tolerate the unbearable temperature that registers inside their tent at midday.
When I imagine what that is like, I am frustrated at the slow pace of rebuilding but when I arrive at the C2C clinic, I am struck by the clean and orderly environment that allows the staff to deliver health care services to dozens of pregnant women and their infants every day. We have conducted surveys of the women who attend the clinic and these are a few of the things that they appreciated:
“The clinics are well equipped and the waiting area is always clean
The clinics are always open and staffed with highly trained, motived and caring clinicians, technicians and nurses
The quality of care and support is very high,
The cost of the visit is very low
and prescriptions are filled at almost every visit.”
Tori Stuart Photography
When I founded C2C three years ago, these types of comments would have spelled success for an idea that had swirled around in my head for years after I returned from two decades working in clinical medicine and for international health organizations. We certainly were not sure that we could deliver the high quality care that we are committed to providing when the clinics arrived in Port-au Prince in June of 2010–6 months after the earthquake. I had never seen such devastation, shattered infrastructure and barriers to health care. I know now that our success can be wholeheartedly attributed to the commitment and enthusiasm of the Haitian staff that are employed by Grace Children’s Hospital and work at the C2C clinic—namely Dr’s Roche and Justin, Natacha Denis, Enock Dorcelly, lab technicians and security personnel. The leadership at Grace including Wesley Romulus, Dr. Frederic Vilme, Hoverlaw Prou and Jocelyne Arnoux, have been true partners and enablers of the C2C model.
Natacha Denis, Clinic Assistant - Tori Stuart Photography
On this 2nd year anniversary we are proud to be considered as a partner in this innovative solution that has allowed nearly 9,000 maternal patients to receive treatment at the clinic. We are grateful to our other partners, Management Sciences for Health, especially Dr. Georges DuBuche, who practically pulled the clinics out of customs with Kathleen Fleming 18 months ago and a huge thanks to Brian Hoyer and Rachel Granger at AmeriCares for their friendship, integrity and donation of pharmaceuticals.
My vision was never to drop in a shipping container clinic and hope the recipient could keep it running to provide care to women. The C2C model acknowledges that no one organization can rebuild alone and we have found that the strength of partnership has enriched our model, our learning and our lives. Thank you for the opportunity to work in Haiti–we look forward to treating more women and learning more from the C2C staff.
The above video aired last week on CNN, and provides insight into why we do the work that we do. Christy Turlington Burns, a global maternal health advocate with Every Mother Counts, articulates the issues that pregnant women face in many parts of the world, including the barriers to antenatal care. Christy expresses an important point at the conclusion of the clip, stating:
“I believe that every woman, every person, has some skillset that they can contribute in a meaningful way.”
Upon reviewing the above video of Sebastian Walker’s incredible reports from Haiti starting just 24 hours after the earthquake in January 2010 through September 2011, it leaves one scratching his or her head about how best to engage as a non-profit organization trying to help. While there is an element of demonization that pervades Mr. Walker’s report about the lack of coordination, accountability, urgency and impact of the NGOs that work in Haiti, surely this generic classification cannot apply to all those organizations working to help the Haitian people. The numbers are stunning, to be sure: $2 billion in aid money over the past 18-24 months and Haitians are not much better off for it by any set of indicators.
Much has been written about this phenomenon so rather than conduct a literature review on the subject, I think about our own experience in Haiti thus far. Containers 2 Clinics, has created a reliable, safe haven for pregnant women and girls in the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince where they can receive comprehensive antenatal care at a small cost. Women have come to rely on us to provide the care they need in the absence of any other alternative in their catchment area. While it hasn’t been easy, we are providing a critical service for them amidst the chaos, corruption, and lack of accountable leadership that exists in Haiti.
Spending time in Haiti and even viewing Mr. Walker’s report can leave one with a sense of utter desperation and hopelessness about the apparent lack of progress in Haiti. But does that mean aid organizations should pack up and let Haitians fend for themselves? Given the countries colonial history, back-breaking national debt and exploitation by neighboring countries, is it any wonder that the Haitians, despite their best efforts, have not been able to get off their knees? Are we all not obligated to right the wrongs of the past, provide sufficient infrastructure, basic health care and education to allow market forces and social systems to develop naturally?
As with any country so heavily dependent on foreign aid, Haiti must develop confident, patient, autonomous and visionary leadership to shepherd the country through this evolution. But leadership development takes time, something most Haitians battling cholera, malnutrition, lack of shelter and staggering unemployment simply do not have. In the meantime, we cannot turn our backs on the Haitians when they so desperately want a better, more dignified, life for themselves and their children.
Despite the challenges of occasional pharmacy stock-outs, diagnostic equipment failures, and staff shortages, Containers 2 Clinics continues to deliver quality antenatal care to the women and children in central Port-au-Prince. And word is getting out. On a recent trip, it became clear that women are coming from farther and farther outside Port-au-Prince because they have heard that they can receive reliably-comprehensive care from the C2C clinic at Grace Children’s Hospital. So they queue up at 6am in order to be at the front of the triage line when the hospital gates open at 8am. But for them it is worth it to know that they won’t have to go elsewhere for consultation, diagnostic testing or medications. In fact, they repeatedly ask if they can deliver their babies in the clinic.
When I arrived on Monday, December 5th, it was my twelfth trip to Haiti. As C2C’s Director of Operations, I first came to Haiti just sixty days after the devastating January 2010 earthquake to work in partnership with AmeriCares to develop clinic sites in a country whose health system had reverted to chaos. C2C entered Haiti with one objective: to work in partnership with local institutions and to support their recovery efforts by providing focused, integrated maternal and child health services for Haiti’s most vulnerable people.
Douglas Hodgkins Photography
In March 2010, the Port-au-Prince airport was still in disarray: one runway was functional and visitors and aid workers entered the country through a temporary warehouse which functioned as both immigration center and logistics ground-zero. I was reminded of that first trip on Monday when I was processed swiftly and efficiently through immigration. The customs official welcomed me warmly to Haiti and I was handed a tourism brochure. What a difference nearly two years can make.
These days, we travel to the C2C clinic and partner sites on roads that are reasonably cleared of rubble. Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in IDP camps; the traffic is still congested beyond description; and Haitian people still struggle to meet their basic needs. But things have changed – not fast enough, but for the better. The influx of relief and aid organizations has thinned and streamlined its collective efforts.
Tori Stuart Photography
Despite hurricanes, cholera outbreaks, periods of civil unrest, and pharmaceutical shortages, the C2C clinic continues to do what it set out to do over a year ago: to provide women with high-quality health services. Over 9,000 women have been treated at the C2C clinic. Drs. Roche and Justin, physicians on-site daily at the C2C clinic, provide comprehensive pre-natal care to pregnant women. Our nurses triage patients upon arrival at the clinic and manage medical records, tracking the progress of each woman’s pregnancy. On average day at the C2C maternal health clinic, 40 women receive urgently needed care – a testament to our partner, Grace Children’s Hospital, whose staff has worked tirelessly to rebuild a 40-year old local health institution.
In 2012, C2C will integrate two programming additions to our service delivery: community health education and ultrasound technology. Health education services will focus on preventive care on important topics like: healthy pre-natal and post-natal practices, proper breastfeeding and infant care techniques, HIV/AIDS prevention education, and sanitation and hygiene. By introducing ultrasound technology, our pre-natal patients will be better served by identifying dangerous obstetric complications early and identifying solutions to ensure safe delivery.
C2C is working to grow its clinic presence in Haiti and to expand our ability to more reach women and children, to help keep families healthy, and to support local institutions to grow their capacity to serve patients in the year ahead.
Secretary Clinton with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah
Last week, C2C participated in the final round of the Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development grant (www.savinglivesatbirth.net) in Washington DC. More than 600 applicants submitted proposals to the RFA issued by a consortium of USAID, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, World Bank and Grand Challenges Canada. C2C was selected as one of the 77 finalists to participate in the Development Exchange, a three-day event in Washington where finalists could network and share their ideas with one another as well as speak with the final evaluation team about their innovations. Our Director of Partnerships and Development, Jessica Thompson Somol, and Founder/President, Elizabeth Sheehan, met with hundreds of key opinion leaders and other organizations in the development arena, including representatives from the Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, representatives from corporate social responsibility programs, politicians and media.
Christy Turlington Burns
The event provided C2C with tremendous exposure and publicity. The forum was open to the public for part of the time and many people walked through the booths learning about some of the new cutting-edge innovations being proposed to save the lives of mothers and infants at the time of birth. The C2C team is looking forward to following up with the many valuable connections made in Washington to advance its model, exploit possible funding options and expand the exposure this event afforded C2C’s work in Haiti and its upcoming deployment to Namibia. Unfortunately C2C was not awarded one of the 19 seed grants but the team remains optimistic about other funding opportunities based on some of the reactions and feedback it received. On the last day, we were treated to keynote speeches from Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christy Turlington Burns from Every Mother Counts, Kevin Starr from the Mulago Foundation and others. It was a terrific three days and we were proud to be there!
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