30848: (news)Holmstead - Quick glimpse of misery in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: John Holmstead


Quick glimpse of misery in Haiti
August 03, 2007
Carol Goar

The emergency team at Jude Anne Hospital, which
provides childbirth care to Haiti's poorest women, no
longer has to perform triage in the parking lot.
Médecins Sans Frontières, which opened the hospital
a year ago, has now added a second building.

That is how progress is measured in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti's wretchedly poor capital, said Paul McPhun
grimly. He is operations manager for the aid agency's
Canadian section, which is responsible for the
obstetric hospital.

McPhun and his colleagues were pleased that Prime
Minister Stephen Harper visited Port-au-Prince two
weeks ago on his tour of Latin America. They would
have liked it better if he'd come to their hospital.

"We have an obligation to show politicians the
realities of life in Haiti," he said. "We want people
to see the humanitarian crisis, not just the recent
security gains."

It is true, McPhun admits, that the scale of violence
in crime-ridden Port-au-Prince has abated in the last
year or so. But basic health services remain out of
reach for most Haitians. The country has the highest
maternal mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere.

Women simply can't afford hospital care. It costs $13
to deliver a baby in a state hospital, assuming no
complications. That is six times the average daily
wage of a Haitian who is lucky enough to have a job
(60 per cent don't). A caesarean section costs $55,
not counting drugs and post-surgical care.

Jude Anne Hospital charges nothing. It is one of five
free hospitals run by Médecins Sans Frontières in
the Haitian capital.

When it opened in March of 2006, the staff expected to
handle 300 births a month. By September, exhausted
medical teams were delivering 1,300 babies a month â??
about one every half-hour.

That's when the parking lot became a makeshift triage
centre.

It is not surprising that Harper didn't visit the
facility. It does not receive â?? or want â?? funding
from the Canadian government. For Médecins Sans
Frontières, neutrality is essential.

"We are one of the few aid organizations that can go
into the slums," McPhun explained. "That's because the
people with the guns know we are not affiliated with
the police or the security forces, who receive support
from Canada and the United States."

Nor would the Prime Minister and his entourage have
found photogenic children or grateful aid recipients
at Jude Anne Hospital. A mother who gives birth there
has little to look forward to.

She has a 35 per cent probability of dying before her
40th birthday. Her child has a 12 per cent chance of
dying before the age of 5.

She will live in one of Port-au-Prince's
gang-controlled ghettos, where the threat of sexual
assault and armed conflict are ever-present. She will
probably be among the 56 per cent of Haitians who live
on less than $1 a day.

Harper got a glimpse of this misery as his motorcade,
guarded by armed United Nations soldiers, made its way
through Cité Soleil, one of the poorest
neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince. He visited a
hospital â?? Sainte-Catherine-de-Labouré â?? that
receives funding from the Canadian government. He
delivered a blood analysis machine to speed up its
HIV/AIDS testing. He seemed genuinely moved by the
hardship around him.

"I think all of us, as fellow human beings, as people
who have our own families, can only begin to
understand the true difficulties and challenges that
so many people in this country face on a day-to-day
basis," he said.

Harper stayed in Haiti for only six hours. His primary
focus was improving public security. He made no change
in Canada's aid commitment of $100 million a year.

McPhun gives the Prime Minister credit for going to
Port-au-Prince. "I think a high-profile visit can only
be a positive thing."

But he wishes Harper had stayed longer, seen more and
recognized that healthy babies matter as much as safe
streets.

Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.



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