ABOUT THE CHALLENGE
The nation of Haiti lies a few hundred miles off the coast of the United States. Officially the poorest country in the western hemisphere, one of its islands, La Gonâve, is also one of the most water scarce places on earth.
In the 1950s, La Gonâve had a population of 10,000, but a government-initiated shipping of “undesirables” to the island increased the population to over 120,000 in just a few short years.
The Wesleyan Hospital remains the only medical facility on the island and desperately needs to be rebuilt to cope with a population 12 times the size it was designed to serve.
The Stark Reality
The 33 beds are simply inadequate, regularly sleeping two to a bed and corridors have become makeshift wards. The operating theatre struggles to maintain clean air through outdated filters as dust blows in and the obsolete delivery room serves as the only place for pregnant women to have emergency caesarean sections.
Fifty consecutive hurricane seasons have also taken their toll on the fabric of the hospital.
The building is condemned, with its concrete sickness no longer repairable and fears that the operating theatre will collapse within the next year.
On La Gonâve there are 23 Compassion projects supporting 5,574 children and the Wesleyan Hospital is the only one available to them and their families.
The Challenge
“Haiti is the most desperate place I visit in my role as CEO. I took a “reluctant” Justin with me around three years ago. We dreamed up this plan of a sponsored climb of Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, to raise funds.
A new hospital will make the lives of La Gonâve’s people safer, including thousands of Compassion sponsored children and their families; the kind of safety we take for granted,” says Ian.
Justin recalls, “When I first visited the hospital the dedication of the staff to do their very best in the crumbling structure touched me deeply. As we waited we saw a small boy rushed in with a deep cut to his abdomen that he’d torn as he tried to scale a glass topped wall. He arrived at the hospital on the back of a motorbike, literally holding his insides in. The hospital staff rushed him into surgery and with incredible skill saved his life. One of the nurses even donated a pint of her blood to save the child. That sealed it for me. I want to show that level of commitment to bring the very best hospital facility to the very least of these.”
This report was written before the earthquake that devastated the nation of Haiti. The Wesleyan hospital is now in ruins and is in desperate need of rebuilding. Work must begin urgently. Currently a make shift tent is all that stands to provide the vital emergency assistance needed to meet the growing needs of the critically injured. The need for a secure, stable and well equipped hospital is more vital than ever before.
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