I wanted to make you aware that it appears that cholera has spread to Pestel. Both Dr Seneque and Sister Fidelis have now mentioned this.
Please pray for wisdom. And pray that somehow the issue of cholera would resolve quickly in Pestel.
Dr. Seneque emailed me today to ask that the workers be allowed to continue working through January (you may recall that we have the workers taking a break until March 2011). He wants to use them to spread the word about cholera up into the mountain communities, and to do community education.
This is really good news, in my opinion, because it indicates that he sees the value of having built a 'network' of workers from the various sections. It is also important because it allows the workers to take on a new level of responsibility related to health.
The challenge here will be in developing something rather rapidly to respond to the cholera issue--a worker education program to address hygiene, keeping safe, responding appropriately to illness. This is no small feat. There is also the added challenge of treating sick people with very limited resources (i.e. lack of IV fluids in Pestel). These are not insurmountable, just challenging.
The workers have served important purposes in 2010: they have done a fantastic job of delivering the medications to 12,000 children WHILE obtaining crucial baseline data. Beyond this, they were instrumental as an early warning system for Hurricane Tomas, and now they may be used to combat an epidemic. The last two efforts go well beyond our expectations.
My next trip to Haiti will be in January--this was confirmed today. I'll meet with Dr. Seneque in PAP. Please be praying about that meeting also.
Ben
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