Dr. Jean-Jumeau Batsch,MD! 

Thank You!  

Dr. Batsch is from Haiti and has received his education there as well. On November 2005, Dr. Batsch decided to join the medical staff at Hospital de Bienfaisance de Pignon and has a vital role. Dr. Batsch is the Medical Director at the Hsopital de Bienfaisance. Not only is he busy administering to patients, but he is busy observing daily hospital operations and services. He provides obstetrical, gynecological, and internal medicine care to the Central Plateau area of Haiti. He also delivers and organizes continued medical education for the hospital system along with ensuring quality care through medical staff review and consultation. He provides mentoring for MD Residents, nursing staff and other members of the health care team for professional and personal success.Dr. Batsch coordinates,organizes and executes grand round and other educational activities for current and visiting physicians, nurses ancillary staff. In conclusion, he is very admired for his dedication and service that he has given to the hospital and volunteer teams who have traveled through Promise For Haiti, Inc.      

PFH Executive Director, Denny Brand, Visits Pignon

Last month Denny, Bev Brand, our H.E.L.P. administrator, and five other team members visited Pignon. On their visit they met with Dr. Guy Theodore and staff while observing the many areas that have been developed by volunteers and local citizens. Remembering where the mission started and now seeing its development makes one see God's work and inspiration.The following list composed by Bev Brand reminds us of the many accomplishments made by our volunteers through Promise For Haiti, Inc.

Health Care

Hospital de Bienfaisance, a 65 bed facility with two state-of-the-art telemedicine capabilities

Specialty Clinics: Prosthetics and Rehab, Maternity and Family Planning, Cholera, Dental, Eye Care and Surgery, Out Patient Services

One Remote Clinics in LaVictoire 

Feeding Program for patients

Education

Eight Primary Schools

Feeding Program for the children

Christian Bible Curriculum

Scholarship Program supporting 1,200 Local Students (H.E.L.P.)

Advanced training through university scholarships (H.A.S.P.)

Agricultural Development

Farming Operation

Animal Health-Goat Project

Crop Development/Mango Operation 

Clean Water

2,500 wells built and maintained

Community Development

Mid-wife training and services

Community Library

Microcredit program

Community Health Care Workers

Summer Bible Schools

New Pella Christian School in progress in Sauvenette!

(Submitted by Bev Brand)

What a joy to see the excitement of the men, women and children of Sauvenette as they watched the foundation of their new school being formed! As the group of seven from Iowa watched, men were pumping 5 gallon buckets of water to be carried about a city block to the site of the school so cement could be mixed on the ground and poured into the foundation. The little road was lined with piles of rocks of all shapes and sizes that had been carried down from the mountain to sell and be used in the building of the school. The leaders of the village, the new school principal, pastors, boys and girls as well as the workers looked on as 750 pieces of paper with prayers written on them from the students at Pella Christian School in Iowa were passed out. Excitement mounted as the kids of the village were instructed to place these precious prayers in the foundation of the school. One by one the prayers were placed, some of the prayers were read out loud, some were carefully examined, some were held in curiosity, but all are now part of the foundation of the new Pella Christian School.

     New well at the Pella Christian School site in Sauvanette   

 The VanMaanens (center) passing out prayer cards.

Last November, Tim and Lucia VanMaanen and four of their children went on a mission trip to Pignon ,Haiti. After the trip a vision was born that perhaps there could be a Pella Christian School near Pignon. All of the VanMaaanen children attended Pella Christian, their school was paid for, the VanMannen children had been blessed by having a great opportunity to attend the school, so Tim and Lucia prayerfully considered if they should go to their school board and ask if the school in Pella might be interested in helping build a school in Haiti for children who could not otherwise attend school. The idea was embraced and within a few months all the money was raised by the Pella Christian family to not only build the school but to also build the well, the kitchen, the latrine and pledges were made to sponsor the students. The dream became a reality when construction began this past September. The school is slated to be completed after the first of the year with an official start in the fall of 2012.

            Laying the foundation of the new school.    

                                         Prayers in the foundation of the new Pella Christian School.

Tim and Lucia wish to thank all those who contributed to the project and also Many Hands for Haiti for handling the finances as well as Promise for Haiti and the Comite Bienfaisance for their help in making this new school a reality. The school will have eight rooms to house students in kdg through grade 6. Plans are in progress for 2 Pella Christian teachers, along with a team from HELP to visit the site in November and bring hope and encouragement to those working on the school and to the community. If you are interested in helping with sponsoring a student in one of the 8 mission schools, contributing to one of the school feeding programs or making a donation towards student books, please contact HELP2000@mchsi.net or check out our new web-site www.promiseforhaiti.org and contribute on-line.

                                You can bring hope to the children of Haiti!

Meet the Newest Nursing Student!

As stated in the September Issue of our e-newsletter, the Pella Regional nurses from the Pella Regional Health Center are sponsoring a nursing student in Haiti. During a recent trip to Pignon, Denny and Bev Brand met Ficoise and her family. Below is an account of their visit.     

       Interview with Ficoise Dehilaire in Pignon, Haiti               Saturday, September 24, 2011

(submitted by Denny and  Bev Brand) 

                                                                              Ficoise Dehilaire

(note - Ficoise and her family smiled a lot as we talked with them but Haitians rarely smile for photos even when you ask them to smile !!!!!)

Ficoise (Fe swhaz) is 25 years old, the oldest of 2 brothers and 2 sisters. She graduated last June from College de la Grace Secondary school in Pignon. Even though her family is extremely poor, her father and mother thought it was important for her to attend a good school. They managed to scrape enough together to pay her tuition in full. She and her family attend a Baptist church in Pignon. Her father is Elidieu Dehilaine and he is a subsistence gardner who grows crops for his family and sells a bit of surplus to others. Her mother, Evanie Deravine, gathers rocks from the nearby mountain and breaks them up to make gravel to sell. It is very hard work but Evanie was so proud to show us her piles of rocks. Both her mother and father are part of a volunteer group from Pignon that cleans the yard at the hospital and Minnesota House and also cuts weeds and grass at the airstrip outside of town. They have done this for a number of years - if you have stayed in the compound and heard women singing and sweeping the driveway to Dr. Guy's house and sweeping the "dirt" around the compound, one of them was probably Ficoise's mother. They do this for no pay and both said they want to make this a better community. It was humbling to hear their servant hearts and even more humbling to know they have nothing but are giving back to the community and the hospital.

Ficoise will start her three year nursing program on October 10 at Institute Superior for Sciences, Nursing and Technical Studies in Port au Prince. As part of her scholarship she is given a housing and food allowance. She will share a small room with 1 or 2 other nursing students in Port au Prince.

Ficoise was chosen because she applied to the nursing school in Port au Prince but did not have money to attend. The school referred her to HASP (Haitian Advance Scholarship Program run by Hospital Bienfaicanse in Pignon). Because her parents have volunteered for years at the hospital and because Ficoise is a good student, the HASP committee awarded her a full scholarship. The family is very poor and continues to pay what they can toward tuition for all their children to go to school. Ficoise and her family have signed an agreement (contract) to give back two years of working as a nurse to Hospital Bienfaicanse for each year she attends school. She will be paid her salary as a nurse but will be expected to work in the hospital for six years. After her commitment is over she is free to find work at any hospital she chooses. This arrangement benefits both the student and the hospital - Ficoise will have a paid job when she returns and the hospital will have an educated nurse.

Ficoise said she wanted to be a nurse in order to help the people of her community. She promises to study hard and pray for the nurses in Iowa who are sponsoring her. She is a beautiful and charming young lady and wants the nurses in Pella, Iowa to know her deep thanks!

The Dehilaire family showed us their small home and surrounding yard. To us the house is little more than a shack by our standards but they have three tiny rooms - a living room probably 4x6 with a small table and one straight back chair with a small "bouquet" of artificial flowers hanging from the ceiling. You see this in many Haitian homes - a small attempt to decorate and make your home beautiful. The other two rooms are bedrooms with a worn and tattered twin size mattress on the floor that fills almost the entire room. There is a clothes line to hang one or two shirts and a dress in each bedroom. With 6 in the family, they take turns sleeping on the mattress in each room. The others sleep outside or on the bare cement floor. The house has a tin roof, a real working door (instead of a curtain) and was clean and well kept. You could tell the family took pride in their home. There is an outdoor "kitchen" in back of the house made of sticks and woven grasses with an open fire on the ground and a big kettle to cook in. The Dehilaries also have an outdoor latrine which many Haitians do not have. Their house is at the foot of the mountain so Evanie carries big rocks from the mountain and breaks them by hand with another rock into smaller and smaller sizes to sell for cement and gravel. The work is hard, but with all the streets in Pignon currently being paved, there is need for gravel. Evanie is working hard to sell her piles of gravel to the paving company.

The family was most humble, gracious and appreciative. We prayed for Ficoise and her family near the rock pile in the back of their house before we left. (picture below) They will appreciate and covet your continued prayer for Ficoise as she moves to Port au Prince and begins her nursing program. I can't imagine how scary that will be - the big city is not always a safe place for young girls and Ficoise will have to provide for herself. The distance will not allow her to come home often and her family will not have access to computers for e-mail. But they have entrusted her to the care of her heavenly Father and Ficoise is excited to begin her training. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

Thank you so much for giving a young girl the means to fulfill a dream - a dream of a better life - a dream of providing for her family - a dream of helping others.

It was a joy to meet Ficoise and her family.

Ficoise's mother

Cholera Update in Pignon,Haiti!    

As to date, the 65 bed hospital has treated 4,597 patients in total at the Cholera Treatment Center. 4,553 patients have been discharged while 13 are now hospitalized.      

The deceased total is now 31.    

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