John Francis Peters

WORK: Ayiti: > Hôpital de L'Artibonite

On the days following the catastrophic Haitian earthquake of 2010, the road leading out of Port au Prince into the mountains north, was filled with thousands escaping utter destruction and chaos. Many would travel for hours or days toward rural based medical facilities such as Hospital Albert Schweitzer in the Artibonité Valley of central Haiti. This flood of injured souls would overwhelm the HAS staff. However dark the moment was, it would not shut down the hospital. HAS continued to help those in need under endless pressure, as it has since 1956. Thru decades of political violence, waves of disease, hurricanes and millions living in abject poverty, the hospital has continued its humanitarian service to the Haitian people.

Hospital Albert Schweitzer or (HAS), has been providing medical care and community development programs to the impoverished peoples of Haiti’s Artibonité River Valley for over fifty years. This region of Haiti suffers from some of the worst environmental conditions and poverty in the world. The hospital has sustained in what is seemingly an endless humanitarian crisis. The poverty and environmental destruction going hand and hand, Haitians fight daily to survive off a land that has been brutalized due to poverty and lack of progressive national development.

Though the backdrop against which HAS provides its services is incredibly harsh, it is the hospital’s commitment embraced by the Haitian spirit which moves it forward into a hopeful and more progressive era.

It’s Not Supposed to Be Easy, But When Can it Be?

by Nicolas Rawson Atkins, HAS Community Art Projects Manager

On a day when I was high up in the mountains above Haiti, I thought about how difficult it was for me to get up there. I’m hiking for miles, its intensely hot, I have very little water, I’m hungry, I’m tired, for the most part lost, and then a mother walks by gracefully carrying a baby and some huge heavy thing on her head. And I think to myself “ This is the everyday life for this mother and her baby, walking miles to go see a doctor, to get water, to get food”. And yet somehow every person that walked passed me had a smile on their face, said hello, told a story or showed something new and interesting to a stranger. Each moment I experience like this, I’m glad and grateful to witness the true source of Haitians strength and I hope that others may in some way catch a glimpse of what life is really like in Haiti.

From the far flung mountains to the rubble of the capitol, the people of Haiti have the strength to survive but need the world’s help to get them on their feet.

10/13/2010

Sunrise over the Artibonité River Valley. The longest and most utilized river in Haiti, the Artibonite provides irrigation for farming throughout the countries central plateau region.
   
Walking down from one of the outlying mountain villages, a woman carries her child to the Tienne dispensary. The HAS dispensaries or rural outreach clinics, provide basic health care checkups and hospital referrals for the regions rural population.
  
Farm boys on their way to the market in downtown Verrettes. Verrettes is the largest town in the general vicinity of the HAS. Its market acts as a major venue for commerce in the area.
     
  
Yan
   
Prosthetics await fitting for patients at the Hanger Clinic in Deschapelle. HAS and Hanger formed a permanent partnership, which offers prosthetics, and rehabilitation to those handicapped by the earthquake and various traumatic limb injuries.
   
Mike Shelove spends a few final moments in her bunk at the L'Escale housing community for disabled Haitians. Mike was injured in the January 12th earthquake when a wall fell on her legs. One had to be amputated; she lost her parents and family in the earthquake. Mike spent 3 weeks at HAS to be fitted for an prosthetic leg and get physical therapy.
     
  
   
Tercide Dantesse administers checkups at the Bastien dispensary. Physicals are given daily to women and children who have been injured or become ill. With extreme cases, Tercide will refer them to the HAS main compound hospital in Deschapelle.
   
(L to R) Georgeline Jean-Louis, Ruth Augustine, Jean-Charle Modlina and others talk the afternoon away at the L'Escale temporary housing community for disabled Haitians.
     
  
Ozet
   
The Cash For Work concept is to pay unskilled laborers a weekly wage to clean and fix their community environment, boosting the economy quickly and fixing areas in need. The program is provided by many NGOs throughout Haiti.
   
Elites Lexidor, age 19, and his brother Fadou, age 10, chop down young trees to be turned into charcoal. Ninety-eight percent of Haiti has been deforested due to logging for timber, slash-and-burn agriculture, and the cutting of trees to fill the great demand for charcoal.De-forestation causes such environmental occurrences as soil erosion and flash flooding which displaces and kills thousands of people every year. Some Haitians means are based around the production of charcoal, thus many of these people are faced with the hard decision to continue destroying the land in order to survive.
     
  
The HAS “Haiti Timber Re-Introduction Project” or HTRIP program, focuses on community organization to build sustainable re-forestation plots. Trees are eventually harvested and replanted during a multi-year cycle.
  
Jean-Claude
   
Residents of Petite Rivière scramble to cross the rising Artibonité River as a torrential rain storm quickly approaches. Flash flooding is a major problem in the Artibonité River Valley displacing and killing tens of thousands of people each year.
     
  
Rainstorm, Leaving Deschapelle.
   
  
Gathering horses during the early morning hours in Tienne.
     
  
A farmer and her daughter stand in their home which has been lived in for over two generations.
  
  
Fana
     
  
Children play football while villagers gather on the steps of an ancient French fort in Lakwa.
  
Ruth Augustine, age 19, dances with her walkman after receiving a new prosthetic leg.