Our CEO, Andy Mayo recently got back from the FSIL Nursing School graduation in Haiti. Read about the great works that God is doing there in his latest blog entry:
http://mbfoundation.org/celebrating-10-years-great-nursing-education-haiti/
“For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” Habakkuk 1:5
Today- This is the delivery of the first latex gloves and other supplies to IMCK in Congo that can be used with Ebola patients. Donated by Arcadia church. The MBF program with its partner hospitals and clinics is getting underway through support of US ministry partners.
Andy Mayo (MBF CEO) with Bernard Kabibu administrator of IMCK
11/5/14
I spent today building relationships. The day started out on the inpatient floor where I visited some patients. I spent time talking to them and their families, touching them, and praying with them. The way that they thanked me really touched my heart because they were truly sincere for my presence there. I also spent time talking to the pharmacist, a couple of physicians, the nurse in charge of the nursing students, some people in the hallways, and some nursing students. I listened to their concerns, their needs, their dreams, and their hopes. One of the most interesting conversation I had was with one of the translators. He told me that he will never be happy living in Haiti. When I asked him why, his question to me was ” how can I be happy living in a country with so much suffering”. I understood completely what he was talking about because I have Haiti with me everywhere I am. The suffering of my people is always in my heart. What I told him was ” Jesus wept over Jerusalem, Jesus cried for HIS friend Lazarus who had passed away, that it was okay to be sad for a situation, but as Christian our joy comes from the love of GOD for us and for HIS sacrifice on Calvary to save us from our sins.
It was a very quiet but fruitful day. Thank you for your prayers, may God bless you all.
Yoosly Lindor
Wayne PA
November 5, 2014
Dr. Wilsignac and Charlotte White visiting with patient at Darbonne
Sitting on her mother’s lap at the clinic, the little girl, age four, looked feverish but fairly alert and quiet. Yes, the chart showed a fever. She was breathing fast and her mother said she had been sick for over a week, but was not getting better. “She has respiratory problems often,” said her mother, “ and has been to the doctor several times this year with breathing problems.” She says her head hurts. The sounds through the stethoscope indicated she perhaps had pneumonia. But wait. I asked one of the clinic doctors,
Dr. Latagnac Wilsignac, for a consult on how to write the prescription she needed. He confirmed the lung sounds and helped write the prescription in French. But then he reminded me of a major consideration – malaria. “The rains started again recently,” he said, “and with them comes an increase in mosquito bites and malaria.” So I wrote an order for the malaria test, which required a finger stick in the same clinic. Since I left the clinic before the results of the malaria test, I cannot give an end to that possible diagnosis. But this experience reminded me of the constant threat of malaria.
Malaria has killed many children, especially when it arrived on top of another infection. Or was it malaria first in this little girl, which then caused the infection in the lungs? She was started on the antibiotic today, but Dr. Latagnac will decide whether to add the malaria medicine. How fortunate this little girl is to have his care.
Dr. Latagnac Wilsignac grew up in Leogane, a city with a population of about 200,000 in Haiti. While he was in his second year of college, he applied for a scholarship to medical school in Cuba. This program provides a full scholarship to medical school. Upon graduation, the graduate must return to Haiti and work a year in medical service in the community. Dr. Latagnac competed with 1,000 applicants, and was one of 100 people chosen to attend the medical school. He retuned to Haiti in 2008 after graduation in medical school and first worked in a sanatorium for tuberculosis. After the 2010 earthquake, he moved to employment at the Darbonne Clinic, which is affiliated with the Episcopal Church and situated far from the city.
Dr. Latagnac Wilsignac, Darbonne Clinic
After a morning of working with Dr. Latagnac Wilsignac, I sat down to interview him. Towards the end of the interview, I asked him, “What makes you work in a clinic so rural as the Darbonne Clinic?” He thought about his response before struggling to express himself in English. “I want to work in a place with the people far from medical help and to give them the first care.” He then clarified that he wished to give primary care. Then he explained that some patients walk four hours down out of the mountains to come to this clinic for medical care. Thank God for Dr. Latagnac Wilsignac and other dedicated staff who care for sick people coming to the Darbonne Clinic. And thank God for those who help to support Darbonne Clinic.
Charlotte White
Hilton Head Island, SC
11/5/14
It’s Wed night and we are still hanging in there. God has graciously provided for all our needs and allowed us to continue the work here. Here’s an update: We’ve been blessed every AM, noon, and PM, with wonderful meals from our hostess Jeanine. Dr. Rudy was right. The food is very edible.
Today we disbursed with Charlotte and Rony going down to the Darbonne Clinic, and a group of us headed over to FSIL (nursing school) for a tour. I (Dr.Larry) went off to give an exciting talk to the Junior nursing students- thanks John for the fashion tips… Charlotte, Dr. Rudy, and Dr. John have all successfully lectured as well and the students gave them all an ovation. Several of us went over to the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF/Doctors without Borders) Hospital and got a tour of the facility that has been used by the population of Leogane since the earthquake in 2010. They have provided some very needed services but are closing down in 10 months. Hospital St. Croix will be taking on many of the services that MSF had provided.
Dr. Kurt, Dr. Rudy, and Dr. Larry worked in the hospital making rounds and planting ” Faith Flags”, while Dr John did his lecture at the nursing school.
Glen and his team (Mark, Matt, John, Megan Curtis, Chris, and several volunteers) have almost completed the Pharmacy remodel and the meds are on the shelves. Mark and the construction team have taken on another task of remodeling the second radiology suite, with a fresh coat of paint and general cleanup.
Sharon and George continue to complete the entire hospital inventory. A huge undertaking but they are almost done.
MBF Haiti Mission Team
The highlight of dinner was a treat that Jeanine brought for Glen and Yoosly. Fresh quenepe!!!
We thank you all for your prayers for endurance and for Gods leading.
He’s alive and well in Haiti !!!
-Larry Anderson D.O.
St. Davids, PA
11/3/14
Our first full work day began with some apprehension for many of us because we felt we were walking into the unknown and wasn’t quite sure if we were up to the challenge. I remembered that our Pharmacy work-team which includes John and Sharon, Matt, Mark (from South Carolina) and I, had prayed the day before over the pharmacy and asked the Lord to help us. Our whole team prayed the previous evening as well for all of our concerns and we could also sense the prayers of many of our supporters from back home.
This morning, our team was scheduled to begin our work in the pharmacy which involves painting, redoing some of the shelving and focus on doing a complete inventory of all the medications. I expected to meet the head pharmacist and learn from him his process and organization of the pharmacy before I shared our plan that in effect would be turning his world upside down. I was prepared for resistance and was ready to display God’s patience, by listening and asking the right questions. Yet, I was about to see God’s glory.
When Matt and I arrived with our translator and I began to share the purposed plans with our Haitian pharmacist to hear his input, I was surprised to see him go into action by immediately helping us move medications from one area to another. I didn’t have to convince him and gain his buy-in to the plan and for the next two hours, he, Matt and I were able to clear out the main pharmacy in preparation for the renovation. Mark and John, with the help of our Haitian translator, were able to begin their work scraping off old paint and laying new shelving. Matt and I were then able to organize medications in the new area and prepare to begin our inventory.
By God’s grace we were able to get done on the first work day, what I thought would take at least two days. I was able to see in the midst of all the work, God’s hand guiding us at every step, opening our hearts and that of our Haitian partners to accomplish His plan and purpose. I also saw through the lives of our team members during our sharing time this evening how God was able to help Charlotte, our nurse practitioner, Dr. Roth and Yoosly Lindor RN do lectures that were engaging and prompted many questions. I even had a chance to see Mark begin a mentoring relationship with our translator Sammy reminding me again that it is people that are important, not projects. Tonight’s theme was one of gratefulness for all God has done and all that He will do as we continue to rely on him.
Glen Palomino PharmD
pharmacist
11/3/2014
Wow! Today was day #3 of our short term medical mission trip. We spent this past weekend getting to know each other on our team, getting to know our environment of Leogane,Haiti/Hospital St Croix/Pere Michelin and the Darbonne Clinic and Faculte des Sciences Infirmieres de L’Universiti Episcopal d’Haiti (FSIL) and nervously thinking about the week head. All of our anticipatory worries dissolved as we seemed to hit the ground running in seven different directions this morning! “Synergy by God’s guiding hand” to quote one of our team members. Construction on the Pharmacy project made huge steps with sweat and dust today. Academic lectures for the nursing school and spontaneous clinical education became routine with more questions from the students than could be expected! Our Dr. Larry jumped right in with assisting in surgery on a knife wound within the first 15 minutes of the day! As I presented an acute abdomen case to Dr. Bellanger his clinical and surgical skills were impressively apparent as he correctly took the care of a ruptured ulcer. And Dr. Alexi’s intelligence and compassion were evident as he took me through medical rounds on many tropical disease cases that I’ve only read about in textbooks! What these doctors can accomplish with so little is amazing! To finish the day God brought Dr. John today from Philadelphia with his expert knowledge of a pulmonary case that I haven’t seen in 20 years in practice! We truly thanked God for his guiding hand this evening as we excitedly planned our days to come.
Kurt Crowley, MD
Saturday, November 1st
We made it! Or at least 11/15 of the team is here. We are in Leogane, Haiti, which looks very close to Port-au-Prince on the map but can take a while when driving in heavy traffic. But everything went smoothly and we arrived in time for an awesome dinner. As one person said in our meeting tonight “we felt God’s grace in the journey and we sensed the effect of other people’s prayers.” So, we really appreciate the prayers of those who sent us.
Our church sings a song every year during our mission’s week – “Lift high the cross.” The hospital we are staying and working in, Hopital Saint Croix, means hospital of the Holy Cross. The building towers over other buildings in Leogane, and the Cross is clearly seen. During the earthquake, which had its epicenter in this city, the hospital stayed upright, guiding people here. Our hope is that we might lift the cross as well.
Hello from Léogâne Haiti and welcome to our Haiti Trip Blog site.
Don’t you just love preparing to take a trip? Go ahead and say it, no way! All the planning…flights, ground transportation, renewing your passport, what to pack, where to stay, concern with eating new foods, communicating through translators …yes, I agree preparing can be stressful. However, there are very few trips that I have taken that haven’t been well worth the stress and planning.
Saturday will begin early and be a full day of travel for our mission team as we make our way to Léogâne Haiti. Our team consists of 14; 7 on our medical team and 7 on our work team. We have come from Eastminster Pres. in Columbia, SC, Church of the Savior in Wayne, PA (Philadelphia), First Pres. in Hilton Head Island, SC and Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, NC. One neat fact about our team, everyone on the team has been on one or more international mission trips.
We are very excited about the projects our partners; Hopital St. Croix (HSC), FSIL Nursing School and the Darbonne Clinic have invited us to help with this week. The medical team will be seeing patients and providing training at the hospital and FSIL. The work team has three lofty projects… preform a make-over of the pharmacy at HSC, implementing an inventory system, new coat of paint and make room to expand the formulary… clean water survey work for all three facilities.
Pere Michelin
Sunday we are looking forward to worshiping with our Haiti brothers and sisters in Darbonne with Pere Michelin(pictured) and his congregation. The rest of the day will be filled with a tour ofLéogâne and times of planning for the week ahead.
Thank you for praying for our mission team. We want to be aware of the Lord’s presence and leading in all we do this week. The team is looking forward to forming new friendships, and growing deeper in our relationships with our wonderful Haitian partners.
Please check back each day to read an update on our activities from members of our team.
George Courtney
MBF Director of Development
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Despite it being early in the “dry” season, we woke up to rain this morning, being the first day we have not had perfect weather. Because our luggage was to ride on top of the vehicle while we rode inside, every piece was wrapped in black plastic. The first two hours of the drive to Lilongwe were marred by intermittent rain and fog, however the sun finally won the day as the clouds broke and things dried out. It appears that all the luggage survived and Mack once again delivered us to our destination safely.
Once in Lilongwe, we stopped at the arts and crafts market before heading on to the Korea Garden Lodge. It was nice to get out of the vehicle and rest after the 5 hour trip. Some of us went on walks, and actually some of us got lost briefly. Others relaxed in the garden. We shared our final sit down dinner together outside in cool weather. It is hard to believe that our trip is near its end and tomorrow we will board planes for the long journey home
MBF in the field 