16416: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Health Care in Haiti-Letters to the Editor (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Aug. 16, 2003

Health care in Haiti

AsPresidentEmeritus

of Project Medishare, I thank Elinor Brecher and Marice Cohn-Band for
sharing the rigors and joys of rural Haiti in their Aug. 10 Focus story
Healing hands in Haiti.

I also want to recognize the legions of unsung heroes who have contributed
to this effort for nine years. Some of these heroes include Dr. Scott
McDonald, who is bringing needed plastic surgery to rural Haiti; Dr. Andr
Vulcain, who spends six months each year nurturing our family-medicine
residency programs for Haitian doctors; and Ellen Powers, our executive
director in Miami. She keeps Green and me focused and has effectively
brought to our project the Peace Corps philosophy of cultural competency and
cultivation of local resources.

I commend The Herald for the accompanying article by Anthony Lake, Young
AIDS victims in Haiti need a new plan. The public-private partnerships that
he proposes represent the best hope for Haiti's health. It is unclear,
however, how much and when that $149 million in international aid will be
released.

I doubt that any of it will come to Project Medishare or to Haitians in
isolated rural communities. We need help from all of South Florida.

Send contributions to: Project Medishare, c/o Ellen Powers, Executive
Director, 8260 NE 2nd Ave., Miami FL 33138. Call 305-757-9555 for more
information.

DR. ARTHUR M. FOURNIER

Miami

Elinor Brecher produced an outstanding article. In the early 1980s, when
HIV/AIDS had just been described, I had the opportunity, through a physician
in Haiti who sent desperately ill patients here for diagnosis and treatment,
to care for some of the earliest cases.

But Haitians need much more than medical care and infrastructure. They also
need access to family planning. Until this is addressed, along with our own
political leadership's obstruction of this obvious and just approach, there
will be little progress in countries afflicted with such desperation.

DR. PEPI GRANAT

South Miami


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