CAP HAITIEN, Haiti — Women and children crowd up to the door of the Justinian Hospital’s pediatric outpatient clinic, waiting to see the health agent, who can help them with basic needs such as vaccinations or checkups.
Inside, a newer power backup system keeps the lights on at night, even during the frequent blackouts. The hospital was able to put away the kerosene lamps it had been using – a serious danger around the oxygen used for patients.
And in a neonatal intensive care unit, family members watch over quiet babies in incubators, as doctors talk to parents of new patients.
“Every bit of equipment in there is from Maine Med,” said Nate Nickerson, executive director of Konbit Sante, a Portland-based nonprofit that has been working for nine years to help improve northern Haiti’s health care system through its work at the Justinian Hospital and a clinic at Fort St. Michel, Cap Haitien’s poorest neighborhood.
Here’s a link to the rest of “Maine-based efforts, donations help Haitian hospital run more smoothly” by the Portland Press Herald’s Matt Wickenheiser.
My name is Keith Michaud and this is “Letters From Away,” a blog written by a Mainer living outside the comfortable and sane confines of New England. The blog is intended for Mainers, whether they live in the Pine Tree State or beyond, and for anyone who has loved ’em, been baffled by ’em or both. Ayuh, I am “from away.” Worse still, I live on the Left Coast – in California. Enjoy! Or not. Your choice.
Letters From Away 