REAL HOPE FOR HAITI – ONE YEAR CHOLERA REPORT

One year has come and gone, but cholera is not going away and neither are we.  We know that many of you have kept up with the cholera situation over this past year and we appreciate that.  There have been many of you praying for us, the staff and the patients.  We have had many come to help care for patients, clean, fix tarps, play music to calm and encourage, and even dump buckets.  There are many organizations and individuals that have sacrificially given funds, staff, medications, and supplies.  We could not have cared for so many without your help.  We continue to offer our hands for God to use to care for these patients.  He is using many of you to fill our hands with supplies to make the Cazale CTC run effectively.  I can not to begin to name everyone that has helped, but here are a few – Christian Aid Ministries, Heartline, Dr. Jen Halverson, IOM, Americares, Grassroots United, HaitiServe, Love-A-Child, Ceralyte, Drip-Drop, Austin Stone, Samaritan’s Purse, Global Outreach, MSPP/DSO, J/P HRO, Medical Teams International, International Aid, Healing Haiti, Michael Rudolph, Acts2HelpOthers, Agape Flights, Better Health for Haiti, Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church, Debbie Woodward, Lorie Geiger, Haiti Mission Project, North American Rescue, Caring Partners, International Action, Artist for Hope, North Christian Church, ACWAM, Caroline, Trinity United Methodist Church, Hilfe Weltweit and Anna (my jumping buddy!).  THANK YOU!  Those two small words just don’t seem to capture the deep gratitude that we and our patients feel when we think of all that you have done to support us in this effort.

Here is some information to put this past year into perspective…..

ONE YEAR STATS – Nov 9, 2010 to Nov 9, 2011

Total patients received:                                 4622

Total patients treated:                                   4610

Total patients that died in the CTC:              12

Death rate:                                                    0.26%

Repeats:                                                       2 times – 19 patients, 3 times – 2 patients

This chart breaks down our patient by age and also notes the deaths.

These next charts show our patient activity throughout the past year.

This is the area that the Cazale CTC serves (in red).

This is a close-up of the above picture.  That is Port-au-Prince to the south of us.

Here is even a closer shot with the villages that have cholera health care workers.  There are twelve of them.  I’ll be writing another post about them soon.  Caroline and I trained them in the summer to care for cholera pts, clean, triage, disinfect homes, and prepare the bodies of those that die.  We provide these 12 workers with supplies, support, and encouragement.  When they are unable to treat a cholera patient with oral rehydration solution, they refer them to us.

Here are a few comments from our patients:

After God, it’s you.

I was very sick, but I knew if I made it to the gate, I would have a chance to live.

I didn’t know I had that much fluid in my body.

I would not have lived without IV fluids.

There are no places next to my house that treat cholera.  I’m thankful that you are working here in Cazale.

If it wasn’t God that sent you here, there would be hundreds of people that would have died with cholera.

Thank you, God, for this clinic that You put here in Cazale.

Thank you for working here and helping me and my child.

You weren’t scared of me.  You opened your arms and took me in and gave me life.

I didn’t think that I would live one more day.  I’m so happy to see the sunrise and I’m still alive.

If God wouldn’t have sent you what would we have done?

I don’t want to be that sick again.  I promise I’ll wash my hands.

The staff here is nice and treats me like a person.  I’ve been to other hospitals and they treated me like animal.

I don’t like drinking the ORS but I know that it is a good medicine that will make me better.

It’s the grace of God that does this.

God’s hand is upon this house.  I’ll continue to pray for you.

Thank you to everyone that helped us serve these precious people.  We believe it is a privilege and an honor to be able to work here and count on donors like you to support this continued effort to save lives, educate, and provide clean water and latrines to many families in our area.  We pray that the Lord continues to bless you as you have reached out to these critical cholera patients to help bring life and healing.  ……and don’t forget to wash your hands too!!