Mombin Crochu 2017

This is my first attempt at blogging but I need to tell you about our visit to Haiti in January 2017!!

After hustling through the baggage porters and meeting up with Justin,we stopped at the local veterinary supply store and headed out of town for the long bumpy drive and 8 water crossings needed to reach Mombin Crochu.

After arriving in Mombin,we unpacked the supplies we had brought. Marck,our local vet/vet tech, Mr.Cadet, Justin and I sorted out what we would take to the mobile clinic the next day. They pulled most of the Ivermectin, Fendbendazole (worming medications) and injectable vitamins I had brought. We sorted out syringes and antibiotics. I prepared dispensing bottles with labels pre-written in Creole for some of the more common medications I thought we would be dispensing. Then we threw in stethoscopes, a few fluids, thermometers, halters, nose tongs and other equipment. We packed it all into three large bags I had obtained from Salvation Army (a great place to shop!!) and were ready for the next day!

The next day was busy!! After breakfast, we drove about 5 miles to another part of the district and parked our car on the side of the road. There were a few animals tied to trees waiting for us.

One of the gentlemen with us announced our presence with a bullhorn. More and more people with animals began appearing. Marck, Mr.Cadet and I divided the veterinary tasks. I worked with goats, a few horses and a couple of rabbits (whose owner received a bunny nutrition lecture, after telling me he only fed the rabbits rice!). Marc and Mr. Cadet dealt with bulls, cows, horses and pigs. We certainly could have used more veterinary help!

Most of the animals we saw were in pretty good health and received preventive anti-parasite medications and vitamins. We used up about 2/3 of the medicine I had brought at this one clinic!! We had two more planned!! However, the weather was not to cooperate with us and for the next 2.5 days, it rained and rained and rained. It did not stop! We had to cancel the clinics because working with animals in muddy slippery conditions is not safe and many Haitians only own flip flops!

Our time was not wasted. GDAC has a small building we rent as a pharmacy. The building has a small meeting room as well. So during the rainy days, we were able to gather about 12 -13 members of GDAC and delivered 2 days of education. It was an excellent time of sharing information both for them and myself as we covered wound care (including suturing for Marc and Mr.Cadet), parasites and how they are spread, and the use of feeding tubes in young animals (which they had never seen before). I had brought about 30 feeding tubes for them to use (and milk replacer and recipes to support starving animals).

I also took advantage of the cold rain to talk about care of cold animals! (I never thought Haiti got cold but I will tell you - 2.5 days of rain and wind gets cold!!). I got an opportunity to demonstrate a plastic bag raincoat for a very chilled animal that was left all afternoon for me to examine, tied in the front yard of the house where we were staying with no protection from the wind and rain. This goat had been tangled in a rope about 2 months prior to our visit and and couldn't stand normally due to damage to the tendons and nerves of the back legs.

When the rain abated we toured animal shelters that GDAC-US has sponsored. We visited many shelters (which allowed nosy Marcy to really look at how animals were being cared for). We learned that many people in Mombin lost animals during the December 2016 hurricane but the 48 GDAC families with shelters lost no animals at all!! That really demonstrated to our Haitian families just how important shelters can be!! While not all shelters had floors and complete walls, all of them had roofs and withstood the winds of the hurricane, giving the goats a place to curl up out of the rain,

And Justin, our Haitian engineer GDAC Founder has done a miraculous thing for the town of Mombin Crochu. With government support, he completed a water project in which an underground spring is diverted into two reservoirs in the town, the water is treated and then dispersed to the city. Two hundred families in Mombin now have water taps with potable water in their yards!! Last year, one of the two wells in the town had dried up and people were forced to walk very far for their water. Can you imagine, going from walking and hauling water to having a tap right in your yard! What an amazing thing! And our GDAC Founder built it all!

We left our medicine in the hands of Marck, Cadet Sr and the GDAC committee. They will use it to treat animals that need help. Owners are asked to pay what they can for the medication and the money is then used to purchase more medications. People in Mombin are just beginning to realize that investment in their animals' health (worming, vitamins) gives them healthier animals who produce more offspring. We have been able to prove it to the people who come to our education events. GDAC is not breaking even (donated medication is still needed) but good new habits are beginning to be instilled.

Last, but not least, we left Mombin and traveled to a town called Deschapelles . We visited a new veterinary technician program which has been developed by Kelly Crowdis (a Christian Veterinary Mission veterinarian who works in Haiti) and a dedicated young Haitian man, Acky Franso Fracciterne. There is no doctor of veterinary program in Haiti. This is the only program in the country that focuses exclusively on veterinary technical education The students are taught basic veterinary skills including some common surgical procedures that are needed in the field. Thanks to Kelly's familiarity with the common problems seen in Haitian animals, a sensible program that teaches practical skills is taught. We are very happy to announce that two of our GDAC members will be students at the Ag-Horizon Vet Clinic and Training Center beginning April 3, 2017!!.

I am astonished at all that I have written. But I must say that this year I was fully convinced of the importance and the impact of what we are doing in the area of Mombin Crochu. Bringing much needed veterinary expertise into an area where there is so very little has already benefitted the animals and the people of this area. Being part of this project has truly been a blessing and a privilege. I can't wait for the next trip!!

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