The Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center is presently an extension of the clinic.  The Rescue Center is a facility provided primarily for young children who are treated in the clinic and diagnosed as having severe malnutrition with complications. The RC is a place where these severely malnourished children receive 24-hour medical care and a regimented diet until they are a proper weight and healthy enough to return home. Those with moderate malnutrition are treated in the clinic in an outpatient setting. Once a child is diagnosed, the staff spends time with the family to see how the child has got to this degree of malnutrition.  Then they talk with the parent to educate them on how this happened, how to fix it, and how to prevent it in the future.  We encourage parents/caregiver to stay with their child during the recovery process, but if they are unable to, we have trained staff to care for the patients. Once a child has reached their goal weight, they are ready to return home.  The parents are given monthly appointment to return to the clinic with the child.  The staff checks to make sure they maintain weight and remain healthy, while also continuing to encourage the parents with education.  The patient is also given a food box each month when they come visit.

How it started

The vision of the Rescue Center began in 1999.  We began with our first child, a severely burned 6 year old, that had walked 6 hours to arrive at our clinic.  At that time, there were not any burn center that we knew of that would have taken in this type of situation.  We took her into our care to do daily dressing changes and help to manage her pain.  Two weeks later, we took another burn, and after two more weeks we had four children that were living with us.  After a few months, we began to take in malnourished children as well.  We continued taking in children and keeping them for a few months until they were “back on their feet.”  We usually cared for 8 to 10 children in our home.  It was a two-hour (one way) drive for us to the area of Cazale and clinic was held for three days a week.  In May 2002, we move to Cazale full time and started the Rescue Center then, beginning with 10 children and 12 staff members.  It has now grown to an average of 30-40 children and a staff of 24 ladies.