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Happening ... in the Local Church
Sharing the story of helping hands in Haiti
'Once again we were blessed with a
wonderful mission'
 Dr.
“Benny” Sulit (right) with a young patient (Photo provided) |
By Mike Vanden Bossche
Special to The Catholic Moment
St. Joseph Parish in Rochester, St. Ann Parish in Kewanna and St. Anne Parish in Monterey are all sister parishes with Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish in Belladere, Haiti. This relationship began in 1983 when St. Joseph Parish was “twinned” with the Haitian parish and Father Richard Puetz was pastor of the Rochester parish.
During the ensuing years, many pastoral, medical and dental missions have taken place with groups who were both geographically and ecumenically diverse.
Our most recent medical mission to Belladere began with American Airlines Flight 4343 from Indianapolis at 6 a.m. on Jan. 25. Some members of this dedicated group had started their long day as early as 1 a.m. in Osceola, Rochester, Peru and Hartford City. Others arrived a day earlier from Ohio, Denver and Minneapolis. I joined them in Miami for our afternoon flight to Port au Prince, Haiti.
We arrived in Port au Prince just before 5 p.m. and, after passing through immigration and customs, were greeted by our hosts from Matthew 25 Guest House (a facility operated by the Haiti Parish Twinning Program) and by our Haitian pastor, Pere Duportal Michenet. We spent the night in the capital city of Haiti and made preparations for our Saturday journey to Belladere. We were joined just before our departure by five Haitian interpreters.
As we left the city, we were surprised and delighted to find that our travel over the first set of mountains was on a new road surface that was about to be paved. This road was paved during my first visit to Belladere in 1983 and had since deteriorated to the point that there was no longer any visible sign of pavement. Heavy traffic, poor maintenance and severe weather had taken their toll.
Upon arrival in Belladere, we saw unbelievable work under way in the center of the town. Streets were being paved with batches of concrete mixed ¼ yard at a time. The wall around the rectory had been removed in preparation for other improvements. Previously unfinished additions to the rectory were being completed. My immediate thought was, “If the government could just maintain some lasting stability, so much would be possible.” Of course, Haiti is still very impoverished, so the funds for all this improvement must come from others.
We arrived at our destination in record time and immediately set about the task of setting up our clinic in the parish hall. We began seeing patients at 7:30 a.m. on Monday and in the four days of our clinic we saw more than 1,100 patients, both medical and optometry.
Dr. “Benny” Sulit (Hartford City) performed several outpatient surgeries, in addition to seeing general medical patients. Doctors Tom Lee (Hartford City) and Don Rudy (Glencoe, Minn.), along with Donna Woodward (Osceola) and Brian Aubin (Sturgen Lake, Minn.) also saw medical patients, while Lora Slone (Newark, Ohio), Pat Woessner (Peru), and Sherrie Chapman (Montpelier) were in the pharmacy.
Dr. Sulit was assisted in surgery by his wife, Karen, and his longtime surgical assistant Jani Downhour (Hartford City). Patients were signed in by the local Haitian pastor, Pere Duportal, and then weighed in with vitals being taken by Lara Daniel (Denver) and Diana Ring (Hartford City). I handled crowd control.
Our group of Catholics and non-Catholics all attended a two-hour Mass, which included liturgical dance and more singing than I thought possible. I did not understand a word of the Creole language, but it was very fast-moving and enjoyable because of all the singing.
A Sunday afternoon visit to the local hospital was followed by visits to several local homes which were using the “Gift of Water” filtration systems that had been provided by our program. These systems go a long way in preventing disease, especially among the very young and elderly.
During a Monday evening meeting with the hospital chief of staff, we tried to work out details that would allow us to establish a cataract surgical unit in the hospital. Dr. Tom Troutman (Rochester), seeing optometry patients, was working with a native Haitian occulist who also joined our team last year.
Dr. Troutman has repeatedly identified a significant number of potential cataract surgery patients, but we have been frustrated in our attempt to find a facility where their surgery could be performed because the demand is too great. We were given high hopes that a surgical unit could be set up in the local hospital and we made a commitment to equip such a unit.
While the Belladere Hospital is a governmental unit, it is supervised by a staff member from Dr. Paul Farmer’s clinic. Dr. Farmer is a Harvard Medical School staff member and world renowned in the treatment of infectious diseases.
Once again we were blessed with a wonderful mission and we plan to return to Haiti in January 2009.
Mike Vanden Bossche is a parishioner of St. Joseph, Rochester.