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Robinhood Doctors Support Haiti – A Country Plagued by Disaster July 19, 2011
Since 1980, the small country of Haiti has suffered 36 natural disasters. Floods, hurricanes and earthquakes have had no pity on Haiti, knocking her down over and over again. In 2010 alone, the earthquake left up to 316,000 dead and stranded 1.6 million leaving them homeless. It’s no wonder that Robinhood Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine have a long and strong relationship of mission work in Haiti.
The desire to help Haiti started with Dr. Latta. He made the first trip in 1996. He found a country, while relatively close to North Carolina, where children are suffering and dying from lack of basic medical care and nutrition. Haiti quickly became an expanded area of focus for Robinhood Pediatric’s (formerly Forsyth Pediatrics of Robinhood) wider area of focus for health care for children. Haiti is one day travel away, is very needy, and has problems that our doctor’s skill set can help. Dr. Rainey states, “Once we started going, we fell in love with the country, her people, her language and especially her kids. We found problems we can help with and have brought children back here for more complicated interventions, like cancer treatment and cardiac surgery. We try to establish long term relationships with numerous ministries and attempted to implement public health interventions such as our involvement with Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti based in Leogane.”
Sadly, Haiti continues to suffer from international neglect, ignorant stereotyping and massive natural disasters. It has become a calling for many of the staff at Robinhood Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. “We live in a land of plenty, while the Haitian people are trying to rebuild their land,” says Dr. Latta.
Many Haitian children die from tetanus, rheumatic fever, tuberculosis and malaria, diseases rarely seen in the United States just a few hundred miles away. Vaccine rates are low and sporadic as the national health care system is underfunded and overwhelmed. Most health care for the poor is delivered by NGOs or faith based groups or by local “witch doctors” who often treat people based on appeasing ancestral curses. While clearly a horrible disaster, the earthquake was helpful in bringing vast health care resources in to Haiti but the distribution has been sporadic and uneven. “We have made more trips since the earthquake to respond to the urgent health needs and to support our Haitian friends,” Dr. Rainey explains. Dr. Rainey, Dr. Latta and Dr. Bell, as well as many nurses, have now made numerous trips to work with the families of Haiti.
Dr. Rainey, Dr. Latta and Dr. Bell find it inspiring to see the Haitian people persevere in the face of difficulty. “They always appreciate our attempts of support and friendship and we learn much from them about gratitude and contentment in the face of need. In general they are warm and friendly people and teach us much about adaptation and creativity when faced with major obstacles. The nation had a day of prayer and thanksgiving after the earthquake, which was amazing,” says Dr. Latta.
But there is much need. Dr. Rainey shares one poignant moment, “One mother of seven children, who had lost her husband and two children in the earthquake, pleaded with me to take her 2 month old home with me when I examined the child and told her how beautiful she was. She was struggling to feed the five remaining and like her nation was traumatized and depressed. I gave her some money, food and prayed with her but could not take her baby with me.”
It’s these heart-breaking stories that inspire Robinhood Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine to keep supporting their friends in Haiti. As the Haitian proverb goes, “it is better to light a small candle than curse the darkness.”
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