Haiti Rehabilitation Centre

Since the 2010 earthquake, we have been lucky to have international partners that send teams of volunteers to our Haiti Rehabilitation Unit. The idea of these partnerships is to perform continuous and ongoing training of our Haitian staff, but also to give medical professionals from other countries the chance to experience working in a developing country’s setting.

Over the past 3 weeks, we’ve had a team from Switzerland come to work alongside our rehabilitation staff here at our hospital. A main goal was to fit and adapt patients’ wheelchairs, such as that of Wilmanice, a resident at our respite home for children with disabilities.

Her wheelchair was not much more than a stroller before, but has now been adapted with new equipment so she can sit more upright and more comfortably. This small change can make a huge difference to their independence and confidence in social situations.

The visiting team are also teaching specific topics chosen by our Haitian staff, as well as “just” working along side each other and learning new things from one another. 4 wheelchairs were re-adapted completely, one of our in-patients got different auxiliary materials adapted to his disability and new assessments were introduced.

This often leads to a lot of questions from both sides, which were discussed thoroughly in order for everyone benefit from them. It is great to see the connection between Haitian and international staff, especially when teams, such as our Swiss friends, visit regularly and build long term partnerships. Thank you for supporting this pioneering work in Haiti.

Links:

• HHA disability care work