Medical Students Registering at UNIFA - Sept 2011

On September 26, 2011 the Medical School of UNIFA (the University of the Aristide Foundation)  officially reopened its doors to a new class of future Haitian doctors.  Seven years after the school’s forced closure in 2004,  and four months after the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti, medical education resumed at UNIFA.

Over the summer of 2011, the Faculty of Medicine (pictured below) was repaired and refurbished after sustaining mild damage in the 2010 quake.

UNIFA MEDICAL SCHOOL

In late August, recruitment of students began.  A week-long registration period brought thousands of young applicants to UNIFA and the Aristide Foundation where initial registration was held.  Nine hundred students whose grades and scores on the Baccalaureate exam met the minimum requirement went on to take an entrance exam.

Sitting for the Medical School Exam

Exam Results Posted at UNIFA

From the 900 applicants,  126 students who received the highest test scores were selected.

UNIFA was founded in 2001 in response to the desperate need for more doctors and health professionals in Haiti.  A fundamental part of its mission was and is to begin to break down long traditions of exclusion of the poor majority in Haiti from access to higher education.   Even before the earthquake there were very few spots in medical schools in Haiti (private or public).  Gaining entrance to Medical School was nearly impossible for students without connections or financial means.    The earthquake destroyed or severely damaged 80% of the institutions of higher education, most are still struggling to resume full functioning.   All of this made the reopening of UNIFA a priority.   Today UNIFA still aims to  combat social exclusion by recruiting students from families who have historically been unable to access higher education, from all ten departments of Haiti, and with a commitment to equal gender representation.    Without financial support from the public sector, UNIFA can no longer offer Medical education free of charge.  However tuition at UNIFA is just one-third of what private medical school in Haiti charge.

On September 26, 2011 Dr Ginette Lubin the new Dean of the Medical School welcomed the new students to the campus.

Dr. Ginette Lubin welcoming students to UNIFA Sept. 26, 2011

New medical students gathered the UNIFA auditorium September 26, 2011

Classes began the next day.  This fall the students completed a 3-month intensive Spanish language program.  As was the case before 2004, UNIFA’s medical curriculum is based on the curriculum used in Cuba, which has trained thousands of doctors from Latin America.   UniFA’s faculty today consist of a mix of Haitian and Cuban medical and languages specialists.  A select group of UniFA alumni, doctors from the original three classes of medical students who went on to complete their medical studies in Cuba after the 2004 coup d’etat, are assisting in the classrooms.  The long term goal is that some of these young doctors will go on to get pedagogical training and eventually become faculty members at UNIFA.

UNIFA Classroom

After completing the first phase of their language training the new class began the Medical portion of their studies in January 2012.   They are expected to complete their studies in three to four years.

The reopening of UNIFA war financially possible due to two generous donations.  We are deeply grateful to Dr. Paul Farmer and Partners in Health for their steadfast support.  We are also grateful to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund for the faith and dedication they have shown to the AFD and to UniFA.

We congratulate this first class of medical students for their success in gaining entry to UNIFA.  We salute the sacrifices that they and their families are making to allow them to attend.  We also salute the tremendous hard work of everyone involved, the staff and faculty of UNIFA,  for coming together, rebuilding and reopening in such a short time.

Dr. Ginette Lubin w/ UNIFA faculty members

Marie José Paul, a recipient of a loan from the Aristide Foundation, in front of her business.

This past August sixty market women gathered at the Aristide Foundation for Democracy to plan and discuss the opening of a micro-lending initiative.   The earthquake had a devastating impact on the small businesses of the woman gathered. Many had lost homes, businesses and/or inventory.  Almost all were living in tents or other temporary housing and lacked the funds to restart any commerce to support their families.

Since its inception in 1996 the Foundation has worked closely with women in the informal sector, making loans, selling food at low prices, and helping them to build organizations to advocate on their behalf.   This summer with assistance from Haiti Emergency Relief Fund  the AFD launched a women’s micro-lending project with a small loan fund of $7,000.   A first group of 20 women received further training in early September, after which loans were made on September 8, 2010.  Each woman received a loan of 12,000 gourdes ($300US).   Interest on the loans is 5% (bank interest rates are 20%-30%).  The loans are for a five-month period, with early repayment allowing them to pay less interest.  The project is directed by Gladys Delouis, a long-time organizer with the AFD, and overseen by Director Toussaint Hilaire.

The women gather every fifteen days to share experiences.

Signing loan papers with Antonine, the project bookkeeeper

The 20 women who received loans sell their goods at the markets of Croix-des-Bouquets, Croix-de-Missions, Croix Brossals (the main market in downtown Port-au-Prince), Tabarre and Cite Soleil.  The small businesses they launched with the loans include: selling cooked food by the plate (manje kuit), selling raw food (manje kri), fried snacks (mange fritay) as well as selling charcoal (marchand charbon) and clothing (marchand vetman).   A couple of the women in the group, who live in La Plaine and have access to land, borrowed money to plant quick growing food stuffs which they plan to harvest and sell.  Of the 20 women who received loans, 17 are the sole providers for their families.

The markets where these women sell their goods are the commercial hubs of their communities.  In these markets, and many others across Haiti, thousands and thousands of men and women work, and many more thousands of Haitians buy their daily necessities.   Historically, the markets that serve Haiti’s poor majority were ad-hoc, unplanned, and dirty.   While Aristide was President from 2000-2004 fifty-three public market places across the country were constructed or repaired—including all of the markets listed above, where the women in this project work.   Clean and dignified stalls were created for vendors, roofs, drainage, and toilets were put in.  Public literacy centers, and medical clinics were set up inside the markets for the benefit of both sellers and customers. Since the coup in 2004, most of these facilities have fallen into disrepair because the state does not bother to maintain them.  Programs like the marketplace literacy centers and health centers were abruptly abandoned—facts well know in on the ground in Haiti, if virtually ignored internationally.

Since September, the 20 women in the micro-lending project have been meeting at the Foundation every 15 days, to check in, share ideas and continue to shape the program.

Members of the AFD's micro-lending project.

The past few months have been difficult times for ti marchand (small merchants). Even today, 11 months after the quake 1.5 million people are living in inhuman conditions in tent cities.   The urban economy is still shattered, and despite billions in aide promised and given almost none of it has gone towards creating jobs for Haitians, or lending money to them to restart businesses. All of this means that street level commerce is tough, as the city has never been as starved as it is right now.    The cholera epidemic has also impacted all of these women.  The epidemic puts a particular burden on women selling cooked food.  Food is one way the disease can be transmitted.  The Foundation has shared information with all the women in the project on how to make sure that does not happen.  Nonetheless, given the climate of fear around the disease, food sellers still worry that they could be blamed if customers fall sick even if they are not the cause.    The election period was also though on business.  In addition to the insult of an illegitimate election from which Haiti’s largest political part was excluded and which most Haitians boycotted, and the chaos of election day itself, where thousands and thousands of people who tried to vote were unable, the unrest and continuing uncertainty mean fewer people circulating in the streets, and risks for everyone who makes their living in public markets.

Despite all of this, after three months all twenty women are up-to-date on their loan payments and all have a functioning business.  We salute them for the courage and strength it takes to be in the streets, feeding other people, while struggling to support their own families everyday.   We will update you on their progress as the project continues and of course welcome your support.

Nadege Lamartiniere, another particiapnt in the micro-lending project, sells cooked food in a market in La Plaine

Every Wednesday morning in the auditorium of the Aristide Foundation for Democracy in Tabarre, Haiti, over a 1000 people receive free primary care treatment.  Almost all of the people coming to the Foundation for care are living in temporary settlements in the area.

The clinics have become a weekly gwo konbit medical - with 40 or more doctors, dozens of volunteers and health workers and pharmacists, working together to make sure that everyone who comes sees a doctor and receives the medicine they need.

Services offered include: general medical care, as well as pediatric, eye, dental,  gynecological, orthopedic and psychological  care.   The Haitian Ministry of Health (MSPP) sends health monitors to carry out vaccinations for all those who want them.  Canned milk is distributed to all pregnant women and mothers of young children.

The most commonly observed health problems are malnutrition, diarrhea in children, respiratory ailments, urinary tract infections,  intestinal parasites, and untreated high blood pressure.  The vast majority of those attending the clinics are living in temporary settlements (tent cities) across the metropolitan area.  Many of the health problems they face are a direct result of the conditions in the camps, which have little or no sanitation and limited water.   And it is now raining nearly every night.

While waiting to receive medical care, patients also hear a health education talk – for instance on malaria prevention.  On April 21, they got a concert.   Tatann of the Gwoup Lakol, a Haitian musician from Miami  stopped by to sing for everyone, doctors, patients and staff, while they worked and waited.

Volunteer psychologists are also on-hand at each clinic to work with people exhibiting symptoms of PTSD.  About 100 people each week participate in  group counseling sessions with psychologists offering guidance and support for dealing with post traumatic stress.

AFD doctors have seen and provided primary care treatment to:

• March 10, 2010 – 650 people   

• March 17 – 1169 people

• March 24 – 1284 people

• March 31 – 1192 people

• April 7 – 1178 people

• April 14-1276 people

• April 21 – 948 people

We are grateful to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund for providing funding for these clinics, and also to several institutions who are contributing the medical supplies needed each week including Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante and the government of Taiwan.

We launched our Mobile School project in late February to do two things: support children living in refugee camps across Port-au-Prince and to offer immediate employment to young Haitians to work with kids at a time when the whole economy has collapsed.   With the generous support from the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund we were able to get schools up and running very quickly.  Since late February we’ve been running Mobile Schools, three hours a day, five days a week, serving 1260 kids in 5 refugee camps in the earthquake zone.

This project has surpassed our expectations at every level.

First the amazing compassion, vitality and professionalism of the 102 monitors we called on to staff the project has inspired us.   The monitors are mostly young people who were students at the language and computer school of the Aristide Foundation at the time of the quake.  Many of them have lost their houses and are facing terrible difficulties in their own lives.  The coordinator of the mobile schools at the Tarpage encampment in Tabarre, Mirlande Janvier, was buried under the rubble with her son for two days after the quake before being rescued by her neighbors.   But she wanted to open these schools.  All the monitors and staff come to work every day with incredible energy and love for the kids they are working with.   In March they got a boost when  Leah James, a social worker from the University of Michigan did a training with them on how to support kids suffering form PTSD.  (See her story on the Huffington Post here. )

Second the overwhelming response of the families in the camps has humbled us.   At each site when we opened there was a massive press of parents desperate to get their children into the schools.  We knew we were offering a very modest program – under tents in the open air, without books or professional teachers. The parents saw this as something far more profound –a chance, a future, some hope for their children.   Here are a couple of testimonies from parents:

Esau, 31, Nazon: I thank God every day that my children can continue their education here at the school. You spend your whole life working to build a home to make life better for your children and then in a moment the catastrophe takes all that work away from you. We moved from our house because there were a lot of cracks in the walls. The concrete split open and was hanging from the ceiling. It was not safe anymore. First we stayed [in a camp] near the airport but it was very crowded so a month ago we moved here (to Nazon). When the director accepted my children to attend this school I was so very very happy because I want them to continue learning and getting an education. It’s good for them to go to school to have a normal life like children should have. It helps them be more confident.

Marjory 28, Tabarre: At the school my daughter learns to count, to say the alphabet and also she learns hygiene. When I come to walk her back after class she sings to me the songs they sing in the school. Her favorite song is “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” Now she knows all the parts of her body and the days of the week, and months of the year. She is very clever and is learning everything very quickly. The teachers at the school are caring and love each of the children.  They know what are the strengths of each child and they try to help each child. Going to school helps children forget about the earthquake for a short time. It’s good that the school is outside because the children will not go indoors. When there are aftershocks, the teachers calm the children.

We planned to take no more than 800 kids – we ended up with 1260.  We had to draw the line there because we simply don’t have the money to do more, but school coordinators in each camp continue to report getting pleas from parents everyday to take their kids into the schools.

And then of course the kids themselves are amazing.  They arrived from the first day in clean clothes, every child with shoes on.  How is that possible when we know the kind of misery these families are living in?  Well Haitians have always sent send their children to school with pride and dignity – even an earthquake, even the misery of the camps, cannot shake that.  Watching the kids sing, dance, play, laugh, smile has been healing for everyone involved–kids, monitors, coordinators, parents.  It’s a cliche perhaps to say that children are resilient and yet, they are, and they are the future of the nation.

When we opened the schools we thought, we hoped, we prayed that food distribution to families at refugee settlements would become more dependable.  This has not happened.  In none of the five camps where we are working is food distribution regular or sufficient to meet the needs of those living there.   Two of the settlements – at Nazon and at Fontamara report that the Aristide Foundation was and is the first and only aid agency of any kind to come to where they are.  These two camps are not on main roads (though they are smack in the middle of Port-au-Prince), but even at Carradeux on the campus of UniFA (the Medical school of the Aristide Foundation), at Tapage in Tabarre, and at Building 2004 , a stone’s throw from the airport, there is nothing resembling regular food distribution.

The terrible reality is that the snack we provide in the mobile schools is for many kids the only meal they get that day.   Naturally children line up more than once, or stash away snacks for their parents.  And yet, somehow the AFD monitors and coordinators along with the families in the camps have established enough discipline to run this project – including a daily snack distribution for the children right in the midst of camps of starving people.  There have been no major disruptions –a profound measure of how committed these communities are to making these schools work for their kids.

________________

Mobile School Update July 2010

An estimated 90% of the schools in Port-au-Prince were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake. Tens of thousands of children are living in refugee camps and will be for many months to come.

The government of Haiti officially reopened school in early April–meaning they announced that schools were reopened. But with so many schools destroyed and with the responsibility for reopening schools primarily left in the hands of individual school directors, some of whom received gifts of tents and supplies, many of whom did not, schools opened slowly if at all.  By late April about half the kids in the Mobile School project had returned to school.  We were very happy for those children.  And very worried about the rest of the kids for whom school remained a distant possibility (for all kinds of reasons–their school was destroyed and there is no sign of it being reopened, they lost their uniforms in the quake and their parents had no money to buy new ones, their parents can no longer pay school fees, they are displaced from where they once lived and cannot afford to travel back to their old schools, or, for a minority, they were never in school before the quake.)
We never intended to run full-time schools– this was always to be a temporary project to respond to the immediate emergency of the earthquake.   But the parents in the camps begged us not to leave.

We’ve decided to continue the program as a recreational/arts/sports program 2-days a week, with a schedule, which will not conflict with school for those who have returned to school.   After a Summer holiday in June and July we plan to tranisition the project to a Friday afternoon and Saturday morning program.   The AFD will still be able to be present in the camps, accompanying children, and building on the relationships already established with their parents.   We will also be able to keep providing a work stipend to a group of young teachers.   In addition, to the recreational activities the kids have already been doing (arts and crafts, singing, dance, theater) we will increase the emphasis on mental health and add an agricultural component.
We plan to increase an emphasis on mental health work by more closely linking this project with the Soulaje Lespri Moun (Relief for the Spirit, our Lay Mental Health Worker Project aimed at parents).  Through the Soulaje Lespri Moun project  professional mental health workers from the US have been providing training to our staff to enable them to lead workshops with earthquake survivors in the camps.   A group of 37 Haitian-American Psychologists and Social Workers will be coming to Haiti and staying at the AFD for a week in August.   The Mobile Schools monitors will all receive training from these professionals on working with children after a trauma.   Together the Mobile School project and the Soulaje Lespri Moun Project will offer workshops and training on dealing with trauma and symptoms of PTSD for both children and their parents in the camps.

Finally, we will add an agricultural education program for the children in the Mobile Schools. Near the Foundation in Tabarre we have an ongoing agricultural project with a group pf 150 peasant farmers, who are growing corn, beans and vegetables and planning to build fish ponds.   In the wake of the quake, the importance of supporting local food production, and of maintaining food producing land near the urban center has become even more urgent. We want to connect city kids living in refugee encampments to food production.    On Saturdays groups of children from the Mobile Schools will work on two integrated farms plots (groups from each of the camps will work in rotation). The mobile school monitors will accompany them as will the farmers who are cultivating the plots.  The kids will participate in creation of the plots, learn skills associated with organic, integrated farming, including irrigation processes and fish farming   When the crops come in and when the fish produce each child will get a share to bring back to their families.

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A group of AFD Monitors opens a Mobile School site at Building 2004

On Monday Feb. 22, the Aristide Foundation for Democracy inaugurated its first mobile school  in front of Building 2004 (near the Parc Jean-Marie Vincent refugee settlement).   Mobile School openings at three other locations followed in quick succession this week.  Community support for this project has been overwhelmingly positive, with over 1,500 children now enrolled in the program.

Open-air classrooms are now up and running three hours a day, five days a week at four locations: Building 2004/Parc Jean-Marie Vincent – 600 children enrolled, Carradeux (the encampment near the student dormitories of the Medical School of the AFD) – 550 children enrolled, Fontamara 27 (in the southern part of Port-au-Prince) – 150 children enrolled, and Nazon – 350 children enrolled.

Classes are led by high school and college grads (monitors) recruited and trained by the AFD to lead the kids in activities—singing, dancing, artwork, discussions, sports—and to share a snack each day.  We hope to add some very basic reading and writing once we have enough school supplies.

AFD Monitors Prepare the Mobil School Project

In addition to reaching out to children in the camps this project offers employment to 102 young Haitians—supporting their families in turn—at a time when the whole economy has collapsed.

AFD-Haiti Director Toussaint Hilaire lead a Mobile School Training Session

A volunteer psychologist and AFD staff led trainings to prepare the monitors.  We are now recruiting and training more monitors to meet the needs at these four sites. Ongoing discussion and training for all the monitors on how to support children suffering from PTSD and from the loss of loved ones in the quake is planned for the coming weeks.

To prepare for the mobile schools  AFD staff worked with community members in these four refugee encampments to construct shelters to house the classes.

A huge Thank You to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund for making this project possible!

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