Port-au-Prince trip

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of events that culminated with our trip to Port-au-Prince this weekend. Fellow volunteer Melissa Chappell and I made the arduous bus trip with our friend and lead medical translator Santo. Five hours on a school bus with 71 of my closest friends sitting six to a row driving at an average speed of 60 mph was an experience I will not soon forget. Neither will my neck, back and gluteus maxima. Once arriving safely after only getting into only one head on collision with a truck (everyone was fine) we drove to the Oloffson Hotel. There we were greeted by a close friend of Melissa’s, Stuart Farmer who owns and operates Open Air Cinema. The company manufactures large inflatable screens for movie watching and has invented a smaller, lighter prototype to travel overseas. They were contracted to come to Haiti and to work in conjunction with Film Aid to show the National Debates interspersed with educational videos on nutrition, sexual abuse hotlines, prostitution and other key issues. The viewings were a major success and the reason for the trip on my part was to try and secure this equipment for use in Cap Haitien and the surrounding areas. One thing we have found is that there are so many common issues and misconceptions regarding health, nutrition and family planning that we are   coming across in consultations. Though we can educate each patient during the visit, some key issues such as Cholera prevention, food introduction, coffee intake in infants and sexual education topics that are seen across the board would be most effectively taught to large numbers of people, empowering the community as a whole. This is where Open Air Cinema comes into play. Stay posted for more of our collaboration with them as they are planning to come up and show some videos here at MamaBaby!

We also took this opportunity to tour the tent cities where those displaced by the earthquake reside. These aid tents have morphed into miniature homes and the entire area feels like a community of houses. This pleased me though to my dismay there is still so much to be done regarding reconstruction of homes and reassurance that people are safe and they can return to living in buildings, something many are too scared to do. Maybe it is too soon, I will never be able to truly understand as I did not have to go through such a traumatic experience. Either way I know that I was in awe at how ‘normal’ life was in PAP. Among the fallen buildings and rubble were school children walking to school in their uniforms, taxis going to and fro as well as street vendors selling their wares. All of the documentaries I have seen so far have highlighted the devastation in PAP and although it was present, the more palpable feeling was that of a community bonded by this catastrophe and whose resilience shines through.

Guess who's staying in Haiti!!!

My initial plan regarding my trip to Haiti was to come for three months. I knew quickly that I would by no means be able to leave Haiti at the end of the allotted time. So quickly I grew to love everything about this beautiful country, including the people, the way of life and the amazing stories of perseverance and survival I saw day in and day out in the clinic. I began to send out emails to family and friends in order to secure some donations for my living expenses here in Haiti, which by American standards are probably what a person would make in less than one week. Unfortunately in this economy most people were unable to donate and the majority of my friends are fresh out of school, starting families or trying to get on their own two feet. It quickly became apparent that I might not be able to extend my stay as time was running out for me to collect donations and I knew that without them, I would be unable to pay my bills, however small.

Then as if it were meant to be, raw food chef Melissa Chappell came to MBH and began her volunteer work. Not only is she an amazing chef but a savvy business woman with a heart of gold. After seeing the work we do here and how passionate about it I am, she linked me up with several of her friends from Utah who have decided to sponsor me to stay in Haiti for another 6 months!! I am a firm believer in the fact that things will work out as they are meant to be however for a moment I was nervous that my desires to stay in Haiti would be limited by my least favorite rate limiting factor, money. I cannot begin to describe how happy and thankful I am to all the donors as well as how much it makes my heart happy to see that there are people in the world who are willing to step back from their lives for a moment and see the bigger picture. Everything we do to help those in need is not simply for them, it is for us all and for the greater good of the world we live in.

Thank you to all who helped and know that your donations are going directly towards providing patient care in Haiti. One more Physician on staff can increase the patient load hugely, we can now continue to see over 100 patients per week, teach more educational classes and add on more clinic days! I will try and blog about more patient cases with pictures and stories so you all can see just what is going on here at the MBH clinic…all contingent on power that is ;)

Patients, patients everywhere!

Another successful day in the clinic has come to an end. We had a well oiled machine running on high power today with three doctors two translators and over 30 patients! Dr.'s Sarah, Sean and I are are getting more and more comfortable with the conditions we are seeing here and with our treatment options so we are spending less time figuring things out and more time with hands on patient care, I love it!
We have decided to see children only on Mon/Thurs and adults on Sat which is great to be able to focus on certain populations...you know how much I love the kiddos! Today was rash day and we saw numerous cases of tinea, some impetigo, shingles, insect bites, pustules, and boils to name a few. We have so many GREAT Naturpathic treatments for the above mentioned conditions and it has been wonderful to see our patients getting healthier and happier with every visit!

What's new in Morne Rouge

It has been a slow week here at MamaBaby Haiti, mostly due to the torrential downpours we have been experiencing. Apparently in Haiti people have a severe aversion to the rain, this is funny to me as I grew up in Oregon but when the rain puts such a halt on your activities of daily living, I can see how you might be hesitant to go out in it. Edie, the lead midwife thinks we will have a huge flood of babies since we have been having a dry spell which would be okay by us as we are eagerly awaiting more sweet little babies to be born here! The clinical side of things is moving along as normal, less patients show up but we still have full days of seeing patients with three Physicians working-I guess “slow” is a relative term. We have been seeing many return patients which is great as we can track how out treatments have been working and are able to know where we might need to tweak protocols. The limiting step is still the medications, supplements and botanicals that we have to ration out for each patients treatment protocol. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have all of the botanicals we would like to use or an endless supply of things like vitamin C and quality multivitamins so we can give a few weeks worth at a time. In my view of medicine, not only do we need to treat the underlying pathology or illness but we need to be able to support the body while it heals. If we can get people to a healthy baseline, they are less likely to contract many of these illnesses that can be fought off with an effective immune system. Keeping our patients healthy is as important as treating their diseases. One of our most remarkable cases has been a young girl who had impetigo so severe it looked as if she had burns covering her entire face, ears, and some of her extremities. She was also severely malnourished, delayed physically and was barely able to sit up. Her mother was quite diligent about bringing her back for routine checkups and she has now been seen five times. We saw her last week for a cough and she looked phenomenal! A completely different child, her skin is healing beautifully, she appears stronger every visit-sitting up, looking alert and most important she is becoming a happier healthier child.

Blog #1

My experience so far here at MamaBaby Haiti is hard to put into words. Having never been to Haiti but having traveled to many other countries in need I had notions of what to expect though for me, traveling to a new country always brings with it individualized experiences, new memories and life changing adventures.

Here in the northern part of Haiti, we are surrounded by beautiful mountains, kind gentle people and intense poverty and despair. I have felt welcomed by the locals and I am grateful for the staff and friends of MamaBaby Haiti who have opened their home and their arms to the volunteers, making this experience even more rewarding.

As a Physician who has always had a passion for working with populations in great need, I feel my work here in Haiti has satisfied my calling to help my brothers and sisters as well as to provide the highest level medical care for people who are generally so underserved. The look on a sick child’s face when I try and use my broken Creole, or the delight in a mothers eyes when she returns and her child has been well after a long bout of illness are the driving forces behind why I feel such an intense connection to practice medicine here in Haiti. We have given nourishment to starving children, treated severe skin conditions, halted voluminous diarrhea and given parents what they should all have; a sense that their children are safe and well taken care of. I believe our patients know we would do anything to make sure they are free of disease and being able to help provide that reassurance makes me grateful beyond words. I became a Doctor to help children who are ill; I am living my dream working here in Haiti and am creating as much happiness within myself as I hope to be helping others to achieve.

The current staff of Doctors, Midwives and volunteers here is some of the best I have seen. Their dedication to their chosen crafts is evident when they rise in the middle of the night to deliver babies, work through illnesses of their own and continue to push themselves to the limits to care for one more patient so they don’t have to go home without seeing someone after waiting 8 hrs. Never have I felt that anyone here regrets the decision to come to Haiti, lacks the desire to truly understand this wonderful culture or takes this experience for granted in the least. I am humbled and in awe everyday of their work ethic and the desire to help those in need. I am grateful to have been able to spend so much time with such an amazing group of people; we have built a bond that will never be broken.

I am excited to see what the next two months hold for me here in Cap Haitien, I hope the end of my stay does not come too quickly though as I feel there is so much more to learn and understand about this beautiful country!

Dr. Zeenia Junkeer 

Heading to Haiti!

Now that I am a fully licensed and board certified Naturopathic Doctor, it is time to get out there and save the world! Or just get to work providing care top notch care for people in need. It must have been fate that in Oct 2010 I learned about two of my classmates/colleagues, Dr. Sarah Preston Hesler and Dr. Sean Hesler and their new position as medical directors of a clinic in the Northern part of Haiti. I called them immediately and a few months later I was on my way to Cap Haitien, Haiti to stay at the beautiful MamaBaby Haiti Clinic and Birth center. What started out as a 3 month stay to work as an N.D. here has morphed into a life changing experience that I feel compelled to blog about...ENJOY!

Reusable lunch baggies! Hooray!

While browsing at a local children's store I happened upon the most ingenious (long overdue) item ever. They are cloth reusable instead-of-plastic-baggies, lunch 'sacks". They come in many colors and they have a water resistant completely sealed inside so you can carry things such as cut up fruit, salad (to be later placed on a plate), chips, sandwiches...and the list goes on and on. I purchased 2 and I have been using them for any and everything I can think of. I feel better about having my food clothed in non-harmful chemicals, I LOVE that the baggies are not sitting in some landfill waiting for the extinction of the human race to happen before they themselves leave and best of all, I can wash them in the dishwasher or by hand (my preference)! I think as we move towards outlawing plastic grocery bags we should consider moving away from a plastic lunch bag world as well.
Another big HOORAY for healthier, cleaner, more sustainable lunches!
Peace.