The Bumi Sehat women’s and child health clinic in Jacmel, Haiti is 25 miles from Port au Prince. Plenty has been communicating with the Bumi Sehat staff. The clinic is serving the hundreds of people camped out on the clinic grounds and more people are arriving daily from Port au Prince. Plenty is recruiting volunteers, especially health professionals who can help staff the clinic, but they also need people with skills such as carpentry. If interested in a three-week minimum posting, please contact Plenty or Bumi Sehat directly from their website.
This morning we received the following email from a staff person at the clinic in Jacmel:
“Week 2 update Team 1 Bumi Sehat.
Since the last formal update, so much has happened.
Bumi Sehat now has rented a house which is on the same piece of property as the new clinic. Our team is building a vision for our future superstar teams for the clinic and a class room which will be used to teach healthy, gentle midwifery care, family planning, small garden & earth friendly handicraft projects, breast feeding support and overall health and wellness. Our hard work that we are currently creating extends well into the future that will sustain healthy families.
A good way to explain the energy of help and aide here in Jacmel, would be the vision down at the docks this morning….Coming through a gate being watched by the Sri Lankan UN guards. Then driving past the Canadian military guys, smoking cigarettes and playing cards. In the distance one Dominican Republic military boat is unloading with the logistics efforts of 2 folks from a small NGO from US and CA. Then the conversation comes up about what supplies are coming on the next boat and the next boat is coming closer to the dock. A large sailboat filled with tattooed, mohawked, pierced pirates from the US. They pull up beside the dock and unload massive amounts of medical supplies. Then we drive out of the docks and back into the rubbled city where the people sleep in the streets all night because they are homeless or afraid to sleep inside.
Bumi Sehat has gone into all of the refugee camps and laid down our sarongs and held prenatals for pregnant women. Each day has been filled with sorrow and an awakening of the gratitude of life and how fleeting it can be. We rocked in our arms a 28 week old baby girl that did not make it due to hospital conditions. Robin will forever remember a husband’s/ father’s grief for his malnourished wife and mother of his 4 children when she took her last breath under the tents filled with smiling new mothers nursing their newborns. Strength, beauty, poverty, pride, sorrow, anger, love and laughter….Haiti is rich with all of this.
We are almost ready to erect our permanent clinic. We have a room in our house that is a small prenatal clinic and we have one bed for a mom to give birth. We have been giving well child check ups. Yesterday we saw about 30 kids. All of them were smiling ear to ear and a bit nervous to sit down and let us talk to their parents. The tarped tent was full of squiggling hungry children and crying babies. And we managed to see each one and leave them with sardines, EmergenC , donated clothes. cleaned open sores and a smile. All of the children have scabies and many with dengue and even more with systemic staph. We will have 5 consecutive days to see these children to help the parents care for the children in this way. There is no wash water and plastic tarps are their homes. Being dirty is not a choice right now in Haiti.
We are waiting for our dome. Yes, this is true. We have cried, yelled, prayed, kicked dirt and rolled with laughter at the unbelievable journey of the dome. When it comes it will bring a whole new understanding of ” Domes Day”. Please mark the day of it’ arrival on your calendar. We will make it a public holiday with greeting cards. Heather will be our master of ceremonies for this day. She has been our rock with the journey of the dome and EVERYTHING that to do with ANYTHING not here. She is celebrating her’s and Daisy’s birth 3 years ago today. Happy birthing day, dear sister. We are on to you…we just want to know where your invisible airplane is, so we can fill it with medical supplies and food. Hot red and super hero blue are your best colors.
Thank you to everyone who is helping. Your donations and/ or energy has helped soooooooo many people. We are dedicated to doing our very best with what we have begged, borrowed and bought, which is NOT enough water, NOT enough food and NOT enough roofs over homeless and hopeless souls.
Bumi Sehat Haiti team members are going to become many and we need team members here and there. So, pass on our passion for wanting this world to be a better place and keep the vision alive that every child is going to bed under a permanent roof, freshly washed with a full belly. We are going to bed tonight knowing that their are some that are, due to your help.”
There is an urgent need for tents in Jacmel, Haiti where the Bumi Sehat clinic is located. Tents are being collected at the following locations in the US:
West Coast:
Penny Tyrrell
c/o Bumi Sehat Haiti-Tent Drive
93 North Polk Eugene, OR 97402
East Coast:
Andre Gillis
c/o Bumi Sehat Haiti-Tent Drive
417 North Front Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
Midwest people please ship to the East Coast.
The first shipment will depart for Jacmel in about one week from today, but there will be a continuing need for tents for some time.
We are looking for tents in good condition of all sizes that are water proof and have a rain shield protection. In addition, if possible include a tarp to go with these tents for additional rain protection.