We made a brief stop in Perches on Feb. 8 after our clinic in Danda. We had Dr. Mesadieu, who does mobile clinics there, Dr. Eugene, Dr. Ally Joseph, Juline from the Network Support Team, Pastor Elima Etienne from Danda, and some of the visiting students from the nursing and surgical tech school from Lorain Community College in Ohio, with Joseph and Jean Brunel, interpreters, all in Dr. Eugene's truck.
The Network recently connected with the Haitian Baptist Church of Orlando which it turned out has connections, through their pastor, in Perches. Pastor Antoine Fils-Aime is from there, and has directed his church to assist the village in a long term, broad way. They are building a new church, which will have a clinic. They bring a team with medical and other volunteers to the village at least once a year. Patrick Delice and Jean Leblanc are part of the HABCO Haiti mission leadership team that I met in Orlando.
I was surprise that Perches was a little larger, better organized, and nicer than expected for a village that does not show up on most maps. It is in the northeast department, not too far from Grand Bassin, which is a central larger village south of Terrier Rouge.
Dr. Mesadieu introduced us to the nurse in charge of the Dispensaire of Perches (currently the only healthcare there), named Paul Marie Lourdes. She is pictured with Dr. Mesadieu. Coincidentally, he and her husband also have a connection with Fort Bourgeois, way back near Cap Haitien, where Dr. Mesadieu has his ULS clinic. We also met the other nurse of the dispensaire.
The dispensaire has an exam room, a central main room, and a pharmacy with just a handful of meds on part of one shelf.
They have a separate semipermanent cholera tent, an education area, and a latrine.
They would welcome visiting volunteers and mobile clinic teams to help them.
On the way out, we stopped at the guest house that the HABCO members stay, and met the owner. It was a very nice house with nice grounds, and they were receiving visitors just coming in for Kanaval.
We look forward to working with Perches and HABCO as participants in the Network.
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