By Dessalines Ferdinand
NORTH MIAMI — On Saturday, August 17, 2019, Florida-based non-profit organization ‘Friends of Hopital Justinien Haiti Project’ held a fundraising event at a North Miami private residence. This social activity aimed to raise money to benefit the patients who turn to the main hospital in the second largest city of Haiti, Cap-Haïtien, for their health service needs.
Dr. Jean-Baptiste L. Charlot, MD, a well-known obstetrician-gynecologist in South Florida with many years’ experience in the health sector was the man who initially came up with the idea to start this charitable organization three years ago after witnessing firsthand the inadequate health conditions and sanitation systems and lack of access to proper healthcare in Haiti’s northern region while volunteering as a trainer for the Haiti Project of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health in ‘Hopital Université Justinien’.
The establishment of the Haiti Project was founded in 1998 by a cadre of department faculty including Drs. Michel Dodard, André Vulcain and Arthur Fournier. The initiative is a University of Miami unique partnership with the Ministry of Health of Haiti and L’Hôpital Universitaire Justinien of the city of Cap-Haitien, which is the main referral hospital for the North Health Department serving over 800,000 people.
While the curriculum developed remained faithful to the tenets of family medicine – with an emphasis on ambulatory care, continuity of care and a bio-psychosocial approach- provisions were allowed to equip trainees to address the Haitian health challenges. After only ten years of operation, the teaching program was staffed with Haitian physicians, fully trained in Family Medicine.
Through that partnership, experienced physicians from Miami have been trained Haitian medical school graduates in many health fields as they deliver much-needed services to Haiti’s rural areas. Well into 2019, the project has implemented educational and health care services and trained more than 100 family physicians.
While the Haiti Project has been focusing on training Haitian medical school graduates for the last two decades, during the past three years, the ‘Friends of Hopital Justinien’ organization, operated as a separate entity, has helped rebuild the Obstetrics-Gynecology sections and upgrade some existing services with new materials.
Supporting Hopital Justinien is particularly important for Dr. Jean-Baptiste L. Charlot, who interned at this public health facility as a young resident physician after graduating from Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie (Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy) in Port-au-Prince in the early 70’s. With other healthcare professionals based in South Florida, some of them with Haitian roots as well, including Dr. Michel J. Dodard, MD, and Dr. André Vulcain, MD, Dr. Charlot joined forces to get more people interested and involved in this social activity for the benefit of the Haitians who need care. Radio personalities Alex Saint-Surin and Jacques Cassagnol from Radio Mega are among the board members.
The Haitian-born doctors (Charlot – Dodard – Vulcain) volunteered with the UM-MSP Haiti Project and decided to start this charitable foundation so they could provide care for Haitians who require care. For the past three years, the organization has helped Hopital Justinien by providing important medical tools and material, not only to facilitate the work of local physicians, but also to make their journey less stressful and provide a better environment.
It was an invitation-only fundraising event that gathered about 100 donors. Board members, friends of the organization, and some significant local supporters, among others, were in attendance.
Dr. Michel Dodard, MD, welcomed the guests with an opening remark that set a wonderful and positive tone for the event. The organization’s board secretary and Director of Haiti Project/Family Medicine Program, expressed gratitude by thanking the gracious hosts who opened their North Miami residence to support the private fundraiser. Pleased to see so many friends show up at the event, he highlighted the importance of the gathering for this charitable cause before introducing his colleague, Dr. André Vulcain, MD who lead a 35 minute presentation, which provided the guests a great learning opportunity about the Haiti Project in Hopital Justinien.
Dr. Vulcain elaborated on the various aspects of the Haitian family doctors program over the past two decades. Based on the main presentation, the three year academic training progtam (modeled on the U.S. standards for Family Medicine) has been a great success. All trainings take place at the Family Practice Center and other clinical departments of Hopital Justinien. Sometimes the participants are rotated to external facilities. As of 2019, the program has graduated 70 family doctors and 10 residents are currently in training. Most importantly, as Dr. Vulcain noted, is the fact that over 84% of the graduates are practicing in Haiti and at least 7 of them are at the highest administrative levels in different departments throughout the country.
“The educational training program gives credence for what we call building capacity,” said Dr. Vulcain who shares his time between Miami and Haiti. “These doctors can serve in their community. These doctors can ultimately contribute in transforming the reality of the health care system.”
In a picture taken 15 years ago shown during the presentation, Dr. Vulcain pointed out three former family medicine residents who are now in charge at some of the highest positions within the Haitian Healthcare system, including Dr. Gerard (Director of the residency program in Cap-Haitien), with the Haiti Projects program that he and other physician colleagues helped to create; Dr. Kerline Israel who established an extension of the Haiti Project Family Program in Saint-Marc (her native city in the Artibonite Department); and Dr. Destiné who is the Director of that second program, just to name a few.
“Now They are Leaders of Their Own. They are doing a wonderful job,” Dr. Vulcain added. “If these doctors did not have the opportunity to go to our training, they would not be able to contribute to this work and stay in Haiti to help others.”
According to Dr. Vulcain, the program also provides residents with an opportunity to work outside the hospital through some health fairs for displaced persons following the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Family Medicine does not stop at the clinic; it is a primary care and community health care facility.
Dr. Vulcain also noted that obstetrics is very critical when it comes to training family physicians in Haiti. The maternal mortality rate in Haiti is astronomical. The audience learned that over 600 women died while giving birth, out of an estimated 100,000 newborns.
The Family Practice Center at ‘Hopital de l’Université Justinien’ established in March, 2000 consists of many components including the general ambulatory care clinic run by family physicians at the hospital and a teaching health center for family medicine. During the last 20 years, more than 230,000 visits have been logged, including patients of all age groups with a broad variety of acute and chronic medical problems. As for curative and preventive care, the main component of the Center of Excellence for HIV/AIDS Care received about 8,000 HIV patients between 2005 and 2019. Between 2001 and 2017, 4,000 pregnant women were seen at the Center of Excellence.
Some of the Haiti Project Haitian family doctors program’s major accomplishments include starting up physical rehabilitation, training HIV nurse practitioners (between 2014 and 2016), and primary care mental health training (between 2012 and 2013). The numerous contributions this program made were remarkable during the earthquake aftermath of 2010 and the cholera epidemic between 2010 and 2011.
Dr. Vulcain also covered some of the challenges Haiti Project is still facing, such as maintaining the quality of the academic program and adjusting it to meet the needs of the Haitian people (preceptorship), continuing to address the needs of the patients through the delivery of comprehensive services at the FPC (chronic diseases), and most importantly, generating the resources necessary to accomplish them.
Among the many funders of the program during the last two decades are Open Society Institute, Medishare, USAID(HIV), CDC (HIV), AMHE, and some amazing private donors.
The physician whose specialties include Family Medicine also showed gratitude during his presentation, naming many institutions based in United States that have been very supportive to the project. He went on to mention the UM Dept. of Family Medicine (1999 to 2018), UM Division of Infectious Diseases, UM School of Nursing (2012), UM Dept. of Pediatrics(2017), AAFP Foundation (2014 2018), Mobility Outreach (2011-2014), Rotary Club Dadeland (2014), and Burns Advocates (2011).
At the conclusion of his presentation, attendees congratulated members of the ‘Friends of Hopital Justinien Project Haiti’ organization for their passion and commitment to continue helping the northern population of Haiti in the health care sector. Dr. Arthur Fournier, one of the founders of the Haiti Project, who could not attend the event, addressed the audience over the phone.
Dr. Michel Dodard, who directed the program, expressed great satisfaction in helping others. He noted that the Family Medicine residency has raised the level and quality of medical services and has been used as a launching platform for several other clinical services and training programs benefiting the entire local health system in Haiti.
According to Dr. Dodard, continual funding challenges and uncertain sustainability remain potential threats to the growth and expansion of the Haiti Project. There is still a need to continue training in family medicine in Haiti. There is still an urgency to learn and process all the elements of family medicine. There is also remains an urgent need to secure funding for the present training program and an ever present need to extend its model to serve a larger demographic.
While the non-profit organization is a separate entity, the August 17th fundraiser was a way to keep the program alive, continue implementing educational and health care services in Hopital Justinien since the Center for Disease Control (CDC), an important financial partner, suspended its grant contribution to the program 18 months ago. It is crucial for ‘Friends of Hopital Justinien Haiti Project’ members to find ways to secure funds for the benefit of Haiti’s northern population. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through fundraisers, which is why it’s also important for generous people to contribute to this great charitable cause.
Those who attended this special event were pleased with the presentation, information, and direct knowledge of how their contributions are making a positive impact in the lives and health of so many Haitians through the Haiti Project. It’s one thing to feel good and assume that your donations are making a difference, and something more to actually bear witness to the results.
Anyone able and willing to contribute to the Haiti Project and help carry on a wonderful and powerful legacy of healthcare and support throughout northern Haiti are encouraged to contact Dr. Michel Dodard, MD at 305.757.9555 . No amount is too small, for even a single dollar will impact the life of someone who might otherwise have to forgo quality medical care. In order to keep the ‘Haiti Project/Hopital Université Justinien’ moving forward and making a difference, it needs financial resources, and we here in South Florida are blessed by the abundance we have, so this is a great opportunity to give back.
Dessalines FERDINAND