SOIL Clinic - 2010 Haiti Earthquake (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods)

1/5/11 CHHN Blog
Thanks to AmeriCares we were able to distribute much needed ORS, IV sets and fluid, antibiotics, gloves, disinfectant, hand sanitizer, children's bandages and nutritional supplements. Madame Bwa and all the clinic staff where there to receive the supplies and were extremely grateful: the pharmacy is being restocked as we speak.

Before these supplies came the community of Shada was relying on Madame Bwa to make home-made oral serum day and night because of the poor access they have to treated water.

We also supplied some MSPP posters and creole educational info for the clinic staff
-----------------------------

12/23/10: CHHN Update
Started seeing cholera pts. Nov. 13, 2010
Over 100 deaths last month
Needs bleach and ORS (HHA and Konbit Sante will be starting ORP program next week)
SOIL has put in water tank for hand washing
-------------------------------

FROM THE SITE:

Cholera Outbreak Emergency Update
Submitted by leahnevada on Wed, 10/27/2010 - 12:25

Thank you for keeping us in your hearts as you read the news about the spreading cholera outbreak in Haiti. SOIL has the dubious honor of being one of the very few organizations or institutions actually treating human waste (as opposed to the typical practice of dumping it untreated into locations where it continues to contaminate the groundwater) and with this comes a serious level of responsibility. SOIL is taking every precautionary measure possible to contain the extent of the outbreak, including:

* Continuing to provide clean and hygienic sanitation services for over 20,000 people in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan region and 5,000 people in Northern Haiti.
* Setting up cholera information stations in every one of the thirty one camps in which we work in Port-au-Prince. A team of health promoters will be onsite to provide water treatment tablets and information on the closest clinic to seek medical care.
* Implementing new measures at SOIL's urban waste compost sites to protect groundwater and contain any possible contaminated waste.
* Setting up strict disinfecting procedures for all trucks entering or leaving SOIL's compost sites.
* Monitoring the availability of treated water and clean hand-washing stations at the camps where SOIL is working as well as the other camps throughout the city to ensure accountability in the provision of appropriate sanitation services.
* Working with the government ministry of water and sanitation (DINEPA) to set new standards for the containment of sites receiving human waste in light of the increased risk of cholera spreading from these locations.

In addition, in the past few days we have:

* Educated all SOIL staff who come into contact with human waste on safe practices for the safe treatment and disposal of waste.
* Visited every single family in every one of the thirty one camps in which we work in Port-au-Prince in order to pass out information on the prevention and treatment of cholera.
* Distributed 520 hygiene kits, buckets and soap to the most vulnerable families in the communities in which we work.

SOIL's cholera prevention team visits families in Port-au-PrinceThank you all so much for all your kind wishes and your support over the past few days and thank you to our friend Emily Johnston of Seattle who wrote us to say: “The first reason to think about cholera in Haiti is basic decency; people are dying because of the lack of functional sanitation systems and a few pennies worth of oral rehydration solution. There is nothing acceptable about this.” We couldn’t agree more strongly. This devastating tragedy demonstrates all too poignantly how the lack of access to basic sanitation services is undermining the recovery effort in Haiti. As the director of our Haitian sister organization, SOL, Baudelair Magloire puts it: "Without health, we have nothing."

SOIL's Cholera Prevention Team visited every single tent in every one of the camps where we provide sanitation services within the first week after the announcement of a cholera outbreak.

Together we will fight this outbreak and together we will do everything we can to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Thank you for joining us.

Sincerely, the SOIL team

--------------------------------

Cap Haitien Network team member reports that Shada would like to add a lab so that they can properly diagnose their patients as the patients tend not to go to other clinics because they can not afford it. MONEY is needed to set up the clinic.

BLOG: http://www.oursoil.org/blogs

--------------------------------

Meds on Needs list that are not listed yet on database

Amox with Clauvanate
Dexamethasone vials
Hypoglycemics- Glucophage (?)