The road to Jouanau

Awaiting their turn.

Dr. Elysee at work

Waiting their turn at the pharmacy.

At the dispensary

a report from team member Dr. Elysee Edmond, M.D.
see a slideshow from the day here

November 5, 2011 The first mobile clinic at the village of Jouanau

We left Croix-des-Bouquets at 7:30 and we got to Jouanau at 9:30. The road is bumpy, full of water floured and narrow. There were more than 400 hundred patients most of them were kids. We started seeing patients at 10:30 due to the first preparation like find the best place to install a tent, chairs, table, and also organize everything. I had six people in my team, three doctors, one person at the pharmacy, and two to control the flow of the patients at the pharmacy and at the clinic. My wife Dr Penina Edmond she is an excellent and very experienced medical doctor with a great heart. She’s a Christian and she likes so much to help the poor people. She saw about 200 kids. Dr Monpremier he’s a four year medical school he saw about 80 patients and I saw the rest about 150 patients. He’s also a Christian with a great heart. Dr Ruth, she was in the pharmacy, she was so much happy to help. Marcellin, and Mackenson (two local church members they are wonderful people that have started the church there. We saw the patients and we shared the Gospel with them because the plan is not only to help the patients with their body but also their soul. This is why I had in my team Christian people only.

It was very difficult for us because we had more people than expected. I couldn’t have more volunteers because they asked me to pay them and we did not have a budget for that. My wife was seeing kids, and the other doctors (a four year medical school) and me, we saw adults.

It was 4:30 when we realized that we would not be able to see all the patients, so all the doctors stopped seeing patients and went to the pharmacy to help. You can see that at the pictures. I was the one also to take pictures. We left the place at 6:00PM.It was very dark.

We brought different type of medications like antibiotics, vitamins, pain medicine, fungal and antibiotic creams, cough medicine, worm medicine, iron, eyes and ear drops, pedialyte, and Gerber, skin lotion for fungal, scabies etc, hypertension medication, diabetes medicine and Aqua tab for the water.

The name of the village we did the mobile clinic is Jouanau. It is very difficult to get there because the road is terrible .Take a look at the pictures. There is absolutely no medical center to see patients and to delivers babies. There are many kids in each family. You can see in the pictures a lot of woman with many kids. I met a lady of 40 years old who got 12 kids, a lady of 20 years with 5 kids .You can see in the pictures the type of houses they live. Those people experience large post-partum complications. The ones who deliver babies do not have any medical education so they cannot face the very common post partum complications. They have many kids, without a job or money to get food or send them to school. Malnutrition is therefore very common among a big population of non-educated people. Vaccination is also a big concern. Water is also a big concern. The water they use to drink is the same they use to wash their clothes and bath. This water is not clean at all it is a big source of a large variety of infections. The kids and adolescent (from 0 to 16) represent 50 percent the youths (16 to 40) represent 30 percent and the adult and very old people represent 20 percent of the population. They don’t have shoes and clothes. Take a look at the pictures.

The agriculture system is not developed enough with poor infrastructure due to a lack of agriculture instruments. Polyculture is common, like rice and plantain on very small parcel of land. The water drainage system does not exist. In a rainy season or on a rainy day the road is totally non accessible and the water get into every single house .Since the houses they live in are not strong some of them disappear after or during the rainy season. There is only one church and one school in the village of Joaneau and some other churches and school with very poor infrastructure. The environment is extremely vulnerable. Most of the people do their needs on the ground during the rainy seasons everything is drain to the small river (canal).

The most common diseases that we saw are: lower and upper respiratory infection, gastro-intestinal diseases, malnutrition, scabies, diarrhea, impetigo, fungal infection ,hypertension, cataract, visual problems, UTI, vaginal infection, infection with tinea capitis, malaria, typhoid, gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcer, hernia and hydrocele, parasitosis(worms), teeth problems.

The people are very happy and they wish to have a medical visit them every week .They ask me to establish a clinic, a school and an orphanage there. They ask also if we can help them to remodel the road.

My plan is to open a clinic, a school and an orphanage there. We can start with a mobile clinic program every two weeks at the same time we can bring foods, (Gerber, milk, peanut butter, cereals, etc.) clothes, shoes and a hygiene kits (soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, towels).