September Update Additions--Education focus

I just received a neat report from Sister Fidelis that I wanted to share with you:

I mentioned that we've been raising some funds to help support teachers' salaries in Pestel.  The report is below.    We've been able to provide partial funding for these teachers.  Full funding is something around $1000 per teacher per year.  Keep in mind, however, that these folks are often high-school trained.  But very dedicated.  

I find it hard to go back sometimes and see them because they continue to work, despite receiving little pay, because they know what they are doing is important.  I have heard several times from different teachers in different villages:  "I have been teaching for the past 3-4 months without any pay.  I just cannot keep doing this.  I have to care for my family."  

I am not trying to manipulate emotions here; just stating what has been in my head for the past 3 years--that it is sometimes hard to tell them, "Please keep doing what you're doing!"

That being said, here's the report:

Father Parnell's Update on Education in Pestel

August 2010

Saint Maria Goretti School (La Sal--photo attached. They meet in an all-bamboo structure)
34 children;  1 teacher
Grades offered:  1st and 2nd

Saint Rose School of Lima (Ferye):
50 children; 2 teachers
Grades offered:  1st and 2nd

Notre Dame Lameci School (Dezet):
37 children; 1 teacher
Grades offered:  1st and 2nd

Saint Gerard School (Tomas Eli--this is the school that received the school benches):
91 children; 4 teachers
Grades offered:  1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th

School in Ka foo Sitwon (this is the school I mentioned some time ago where the land was donated by a family, and the community came together to build the school!)
97 students; 5 teachers
Classes offered:  1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th


TOTAL Children:   309
TOTAL Teachers:  13
TOTAL Schools:  5

If you break it down to $1000 per teacher x 13 = $13,000. We have probably been able to send something like $4000 in the past year (I don't know the number right off hand).

One way to look at it could be something like this:

$13,000 / 309 children = $42 per child per year.

That's more manageable! :)

I want to be clear: the schools listed above are not the only schools in Pestel! Not by any means! Some very good elementary schools exist down in the town (including one supported by the Sisters of St. Francis in Sylvania, OH, and Odelin Francois' school supported by his network in NYC). The schools above were some of those who were at higher risk of shutting down due to funding, or other similar priority issues.

My "thing" is health care. As I survey the issues across Pestel I am convinced that the way forward is education. No doubt in my mind.

The workers are just about finished with the household survey (an entire month ahead of schedule!). The survey will tell us how many kids attend school. We sort of know the answer (it'll be low), but it'll be important to put hard data behind our observations.  

The education-issue is similarly daunting like with the health issues.  

1. how to provide basic primary education for all children throughout Pestel?

2. how to ensure educational value for the $ invested in the schools? Standards of education, standard curricula, teacher oversight....superintendent? school boards?

3. where will the teachers come from? How to build local capacity to teach?

And I didn't even mention anything about high school. For high school the few kids who attend have to go to the cities.

The other option that exists in Pestel, and that just started up about 2 years ago, is a trade school. Great idea! I'd love to support that effort as well. Masonry and animal husbandry are the two areas they currently teach.

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Messiah College

Hi All,

Just letting you know that I had a really terrific evening last night at Messiah College.  I took part in a panel discussion, and I provided some insight into the health conditions in Haiti.  The panel was a good mix of personalities and expertise.  The audience was about 1000 first year students and faculty (and some friends and family!) that had finished discussions of "Mountains Beyond Mountains."

It went quite well. And I'm really grateful for the opportunity to have spoken about the health issues in Haiti and try to encourage the students to trust in God, despite great challenges.

I have two more invites:  one to the Pre-Med group at Messiah College, and another later this year with a local group called Kingdom Builders (thanks to Stephen Sands!).  Oh yes, and we'll be having a 'booth' at our church's mission fair in a couple of weeks.  We'll be featuring Johnny Zook's CharRocket stove!  I'll try to send out a short video about that stove fairly soon.  

I'll keep you posted!

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Water Mission Intl Video

Thanks to Rebecca for passing this along to me!  

This link will bring you to a video about Water Missions International.  This is the same group that we are partnering with to begin establishing some of these water purification systems in Pestel.  In November I will be taking a trip to Pestel (with Steve Miller again!) and we'll be exploring the countryside with John Lane (who has done a lot of work with WMI) to look for suitable sites related to water and these systems

http://www.watermissions.org/water-missions-featured-on-cbn-morning-news

Ben
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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

August Haiti Updates

Hi all,

Is summer flying super-fast for everyone else, of just me?   I've really enjoyed this summer--spending it with Jen and the kids, and slowing down.   Humans are not meant to go for 7 days a week, every week, for prolonged periods of time.  I kind of forgot that  :)

A couple of neat things:

1.  Over 9000 child forms have been entered into the database.  I'll have another 1000 or so coming fairly soon.  One of my friends, Odelin Francois (who runs a school in Pestel), will be bringing them back for me since he was just in Pestel.  Odelin lives in NYC, and his family is from Pestel.  

2.  I met with a wonderful guy named Frank from the large engineering firm in Harrisburg.  I believe he said that his organization is in the top 50 nation-wide in terms of size.  They build BIG things.  They are very interested in doing some humanitarian work in Haiti.  And Frank has excellent contacts in Haiti.  I'll meet with him again on Monday.  

3.  I was able to get in touch with folks who are coordinating the Nutrition Cluster for Haiti.  They put me in contact with a person from UNICEF who is in charge of coordinating nation-wide Child Campaigns for Haiti.   Hopefully more to report.

4.  I've been asked to participate in a panel discussion on Haiti at Messiah College, my alma mater.  Messiah 1st year students will all be reading the story, Mountains Beyond Mountains, which is about Dr. Paul Farmer and his tireless work in Haiti.  They're asking me to talk to about 700 students/faculty about the medical aspects in Haiti.  A great honor.  And this opportunity is directly from my in-laws, and several people at my church who are faculty as Messiah.  Thanks!!!

There is a great hymn that says, "Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the GodI love"

 I struggle with the issue of self-sufficiency, and of seeking human solutions and human wisdom.   Please pray that I would seek God's wisdom, His ways--in the nitty gritty detail work as well as in the big scheme ideas.

The whole verse to that hymn:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Ben
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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

For those interested in data

Hi all,

I just worked on some of the data related to anemia, and I'm attaching it if you're interested in seeing the results.

The gist of it is this:

1 out of 2 children in Pestel is anemic.  (50%)

Across the board, younger children are likely to be MORE anemic.  This unfortunately makes sense because about 1 out of every 8 children do not make it beyond year 5.  They die from pneumonia, diarrhea, malnutrition primarily. 

The worst region is the island:  80% anemia.   And the degree of anemia is FAR worse.   Anemia is roughly defined as a hemoglobin level less than 11.   The average hemoglobin in the other 5 sections hovers around 11.  You can see from the section graphs, though, that a lot of kids fall below the red line, which is the cut-off for anemia.  The island, on the other hand, AVERAGES 7.9.   That's horrible.  And it will be a focus for 2011.

One goal will be to move as many kids as possible above the red line on the graphs.  We've already started that process with deworming.  Now comes the hard part.

Let me know if you're interested in helping with this.  It'll take quite a comprehensive approach to 'fix' this one.  The impact of anemia on kids' health cannot be overstated.  But in this setting it's symptomatic of something deeper-->malnutrition-->poverty.   

I'm truly thankful to God for this data.  As some of you mentioned, each data point is a child.  For me this is not just 'data'.  These represent kids.

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Variety International Newsletter - Haiti Supplement

This just came out from Variety International.  I'm sorry if not all the links work, but they did such a nice job!  They remain a great encouragement to me and a huge support for the people of Pestel.
This newsletter goes worldwide.  England, Australia, Israel, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, and so forth.

We can thank God for this opportunity, and pray that God might move in people's hearts.  The health projects in Pestel are leading off a new effort by Variety to reach very under-served areas (such as Pestel).  Hopefully the visibility of our undertakings in Haiti through media such as this newsletter can benefit that important effort.  

Also, please be in prayer about an upcoming lunch I'll be having with an executive of a large engineering firm.  I'm not sure where the conversation will go, exactly, but I'm glad for the chance to sit down with him.  I suspect I will get some really good advice from someone who has a tremendous wealth of international wisdom and experience.  I believe that he is, among other roles, on a planning team for USAID-Haiti.

Ben

PS:  USAID is the United States' foreign assistance program.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Variety International <evariety@varietyinternational.org>
To: nfredrick@psu.edu
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:41:00 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Variety International Newsletter - Haiti Supplement

Haiti Supplement July, 2010 Greetings! As mentioned in our official July newsletter, we have more information to share about our bigger picture foray into Haiti.  We're excited to present the initial work being done in Haiti in this supplemental edition.      Sincerely,   Michael Huffman Director of Development & Communications Variety International     Variety International  - Making a Difference in Haiti   In 2009, Variety International commenced creation of the Variety International Children's Fund to expand our reach to serve those in need in areas where Variety does not have an established Tent.  Our mission was to develop an expanded Variety program to reach where our normal strategy to raise funds, establish a network, and find those in need of help to support is not sustainable in a particular area.  Haiti was selected as our first project.  The financial support and partnership of Variety International was coupled with the expertise from Penn State Global Health Center to produce excellent results.  Our foray into Haiti, the impoverished mountainous area of Pestel to be exact, positioned us to quickly respond at the time of the earthquake.  The earthquake in Haiti served to magnify already staggering needs, and cemented our commitment to help there.  In 2010 alone we have already reached 12,000 children and anticipate reaching over 20,000.  We are already off to a promising start.   ©        Health Education.  We are improving nutritional practices through community-based education.  14 local health workers have been retained and trained to educate villages about Vitamin A and iron-rich foods, as well as basic sanitation.   ©        Vitamin A Distribution.  Health workers are providing Vitamin A, an important medication that has been shown in this setting to dramatically reduce death, and eliminate blindness and visual blurring from Vitamin A deficiency.  Death from measles is reduced by 50% just by taking Vitamin A capsules every 6 months.  In a rural area such as Pestel where immunizations are currently non-existent, this Vitamin is going to save lives.   ©        Anti-Parasitic Campaign.  We are implementing an anti-parasite campaign covering all children from 6 months to 10 years of age to improve nutritional impact.  The health workers are providing an anti-parasite medication called Albendazole to the children, to prevent newly hatched insect larvae (worms) from growing or multiplying in the body.  Worms can consume up to 25% of a child's nutrition and with an abundance of malnutrition, this treatment is helping to at least reduce this epidemic.       ©        Investigative Health Research.  The 14 health workers and 2 managers have been trained to collect essential health data.  Worker evaluation forms, data collection forms, and inventory forms have been developed for the project.  Height, weight, and levels of anemia are being collected on children throughout Pestel, Haiti in addition to health conditions, educational status, and water and sanitation conditions for baselines moving forward as well as insight into future needs.    ©       Fighting Starvation.  In June 2010 we began the pilot program "Medika Mamba", a highly enriched food to treat severe malnutrition.   Early reports indicate that in the worst areas of Pestel 1 in every 4 children has moderate to severe malnutrition.  We are in discussion with Kiwanis International and Meds & Food for Kids to develop an agricultural-nutrition program to eliminate malnutrition.   ©        Exciting Collaborations.  We are approaching new partners to develop diversified collaborations.  50,000 free doses of Vitamin A and Albendazole EACH were received from Vitamin Angels.  Approximately $2000 worth of additional supplies were received from companies as a result of the collaboration between Variety International and Penn State's Global Health Center.    Haitian parents are already thrilled with the campaign because they are finding that the medication is killing worms in their children's intestines!  As a result of this immediate and evident change in the children, the program is gaining momentum and the parents are advocating for the program.  Through pre-treatment and post-treatment measurements, we will be able to evaluate how effective this campaign truly is at improvingnutrition, growth and energy and reducing anemia!        In This Issue Making A Difference in Haiti In Haiti - Relevant Statistics 2010 Child Health Campaign In Haiti: ·    One third of newborn babies are born underweight.   ·    Acute under-nutrition among children under 5 is 9%; Chronic under-nutrition is 24%.   ·    50% of pregnant women and two thirds of children under 5 are affected by anemia.   ·    72 % of children aged 6-12 in rural areas suffer from iodine deficiency.   ·    32 % of school-age children are infected by intestinal parasites.   ·    Almost 30,000 babies suffer mental deficiencies because their mothers suffered from iodine deficiency during pregnancy.   ·    One in eight Haitian children will not make it past their 5th birthday.      2010 Child Health Campaign - Year 1 Phase I  (March-May) ·   Vitamin A,  Anti-parasitic medication, Biometrics Phase II (June-September) ·   Household Surveys ·   Pilot "Medika Mamba" Phase III (October-December) ·   Repeat Phase I THE AMAZING PARTUpcoming Events   The 2010 project will average a cost of just $3 per child reached.  And the return on this investment will be seen within a year, if not sooner -- the beauty of the simplicity of what a difference we can make.       There is a great amount of work to be done, but as usual, Variety is committed to the cause.  Through careful planning, persistence, and flexibility we will continue to take steady steps through this grass-roots effort to tackle the major illnesses that are taking the lives of children in Haiti.  Together, through the strength of our existing Tents, our network of champions and partnerships, we have the potential to reach many in need of our help.  Our initiative in Haiti is a great first step for the Variety Children's Health Campaign.  We'll continue to keep you posted and hope you'll take on the challenge to support the initiative.    For only $3 a child your contributions can make a huge impact ©        $30 à   10 kids ©        $300 à 100 kids ©        $3000 à 1,000 kids              Together we will help to make it happen!                    Closing Headline   Continue to bring joy and comfort to the hearts of children.  Thank you for being a part of Variety, the Children's Charity!      Contact Information     © 2010 Variety International.  All rights reserved. Photos courtesy of Steve Miller and Dr. Fredrick.  All rights reserved.

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Data entry as a spiritual activity

I was greatly encouraged today at church.  Several people who have been working on entering the data on the Child Health Campaign mentioned to me that as they would work from form to form (a blurry example is attached) they would find themselves realizing that the numbers and 'data points' really represented a single child in Pestel.  They would see values that were well outside of normal (10 year olds weighing 40-50 pounds) and they would be compelled to pray.  

They had to keep themselves moving, however, or they knew they wouldn't get through the data entry at that pace.

What a gift to these children!  

There is a need to get the data entered in a timely fashion.  But the need is so much greater for people to be praying for the children.  

Moving toward data entry into a PDA or cell phone is an efficient (if it works!) technological advance.  But it does have the unintended consequence of removing visual prompts for some people who have turned data entry into a spiritual activity.

Ben

PS:   7,220 children's forms have been entered to date!

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/