Following the glow of passing my exam, I felt a bit paralyzed with uncertainty about how to get where I wanted to go in Haiti. There are many, many non-governmental relief organizations (NGO’s) in action there, and these organizations also work in locations around the world. Naturally, I want to go with a well-recognized group for my own safety and security as well as for their resources to provide good care. I worried that in applying to a big NGO it might be difficult to get placed in my desired location.
I decided to start with my target and work backwards to the appropriate NGO. I was fairly certain that I wanted to go to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) (http://hashaiti.org/) in Deschapelles, which is 60 miles from Port-au-Prince and away from the majority of the devastation. This facility appeals to me for three reasons. The first is that I feel a need to be somewhat shielded from the most dire situations in Port-au-Prince. Another is that there is a rehabilitation facility there (http://friendsofhasprojects.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html) with a clinic established after the earthquake by the Hanger Foundation, which is a part of Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics in the U.S. (http://www.hanger.com/Pages/HaitiRelief.aspx). This seems like a good place to work with amputees in the long-term phase of their rehabilitation. The third appealing factor is that for the past two years, there has been a Rehabilitation Technician Training Program (RTTP) there, in which 6 students follow a 9-month course (http://friendsofhas.org/projects/rttp.php3). I would like to play a role in helping Haitians train for employment, and to help them learn to help others in the process would be even better.
I started my inquiries with people who were involved with HAS. I had read about a therapist from NYC, Claude Hillel, who was featured in some articles I found online about HAS (http://projecthopeinthefield.blogspot.com/2010/02/personal-loss-drives-hope-volunteer.html). He had managed to pull together supplies and get himself to Haiti soon after the earthquake. He was placed on the hospital ship USNS Comfort, and later helped establish the post-earthquake amputee clinic at HAS. I found his contact info and sent him an email, and before long he called me.
He was patient and encouraging about my quest, and had a lot of good information. At the time that we spoke, he was about to head back to Haiti to celebrate one of his patients, a young mother and bilateral above-knee amputee featured in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgNB4DYDF-Q, who was about to open a little business selling oil and rice. This highlighted for me the connections made with these resilient and appreciative people and those who come to feel honored to help them.
I expressed concern about my amputee training, and Claude replied that, because the prosthetists are good at training the therapists at the facility, the more difficult adjustment has to do with the culture and the climate. I found this comforting in terms of my clinical position, but humbling in terms of the physical and emotional adjustments that I will have to make.
Through a contact that Claude gave me, I contacted the coordinator of the PT program at HAS, Shaun Cleaver. He was happy to hear from me, noted that they were covered for PT’s through 2010 and hadn’t yet started planning for 2011, and suggested that I contact the director of the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program, Denise English. This was exciting for me, because the RTTP is where I would love to end up!
So, after strings of emails through chains of different people, I am scheduled to be at HAS through Physicians for Peace from February 3-19 as a physical therapist in the amputee clinic. Next, I am tentatively scheduled for March 25 to April 12 as an instructor in the RTTP through Health Volunteers Overseas, and then September 3-25 as a clinical instructor during the last phase of the program.
If I get to do all of this, it would bring me full circle in my quest to help in Haiti, beginning with direct patient care, continuing with classroom instruction (in French!) and culminating in clinical instruction and the class’s graduation. It’s both frightening and exciting!
