It was a long day, but a great day. We were up early for a “family” breakfast before boarding our bus to Grande Saline. We saw a very different part of Haiti today. It was a four hour trip each way (about half of that on bumpy, dirt roads). When we finally arrived in Grande Saline, we were greeted by several children who welcomed us and told us how glad they were to see us. It was very sweet because they had obviously practiced so that they could welcome us in English. We got right to work setting up our clinic, pharmacy and classroom. We used a church building and, as you will see, there was a great deal of interest in what we were doing.
“Team Clinic” assisted Dr. Robinson and saw over seventy patients. They helped Dr. Robinson to treat several cases of malaria, worms, scabies, respiratory infections and high blood pressure. Several people also received glasses. The students did a marvelous job with triage for Dr. Robinson. “Team Clinic” is learning so much from Dr. Robinson. He is enthusiastic about helping them to recognize abnormalities in heart and lung sounds and the signs and symptoms of many diseases. “Team Health Education” set up to gather information about community water usage, present about cholera and to demonstrate and distribute the Family LifeStraw filtration units. Dr. Robinson had selected 75 families to receive the systems, which will provide the families with clean, safe water for 2-3 years. Our long term plan is to provide the community with a large filtration system that will serve thousands of people, so an important task today was to gather information about water usage and the best place to put the system. We learned that the people of Grande Saline take their water directly from the river. This community has suffered terribly from cholera and Dr. Robinson told us that the education program was very critical to dispel myths and help the community to protect themselves.
Once again, every Health for Haiti student did a phenomenal job today. I think everyone here would agree that the eight hours on the bus were well worth it to provide assistance to this remote community. I also want to thank our amazing translators. They are with us every step of the way and tirelessly help us to communicate and travel around Haiti. They do so much for us every day, we could not do this without them! Below are some pictures from our day .
SUNY Broome Health for Haiti 