Strategic Trip To Haiti

Chuck, Beau, and I traveled to Haiti last week for a very short, but important trip.  We arrived Monday and settled in.  This was a strange trip for me, as we didn’t take any dental equipment and didn’t have plans to see any patients.  This trip was a planning trip, which is equally important for the longterm success of Believe in Haiti and improving overall health in St. Roch.

Day 1

We journeyed to the University of Haiti Dental School in Downtown Port Au Prince.  Thanks to the American Dental Association Foundation and leaders of International Humanitarian Dental Service, I got to meet the Dean of the School, Dr. Prophete.  We met at length about the needs of the school, the current program, and opportunities to partner.

We got a great welcome from the dental school and got a great tour of the clinic, classrooms, library, student facilities, and dental surgical areas.  The dental school is the only one in Haiti and is highly competitive.  We discussed opportunities for fourth or fifth year students to join in with our dental teams in April and October.  

We currently have a list of clinical items that would be helpful for the dental school:  things like impression materials, dental curing lights, surgical forceps, and more.  If you would like to learn how you can help the dental school out, please contact me for more details.

We also met with the architect and builders in town for the community center in St. Roch.  We are hopeful that within the next week and a half we’ll have bids from local construction builders, which will help us know the realistic timeline for the building to be completed. We got to walk the future site for the Hope Community Center and see even more of the vision for what is to come!

Day 2

We met with the local Believe in Haiti board members.  There are seven amazing Haitians, ranging from age 26-45, each with a strong commitment to improve Haiti.  They gave significant input and we were able to make some strategic decisions.  Believe in Haiti is doing everything it can to be helpful, but also relevant to the local culture.  Having American AND Local boards helps to give that well-rounded perspective. 

Day 3

One of the great things about this trip is that we are connecting with the St. Roch Foundation, a group that has been serving St. Roch with dental care for fifteen years now.  They have recorded more than 37,000 medical visits in their service to Haiti.  It was an honor to get to meet them!

The St. Roch Foundation is based in Boston, MA, but has local leadership from Haitian physician Dr. Eloy.  They have a dental clinic with a full and part-time dentist.  They also have a blood studies lab, pharmacy, and other support services as well.  We got to observe the daily clinical procedures and made a lot of new friends, including four dentists doing a trip from Tufts University to help supplement Dr. Eloy’s team.

This trip was strategic in a lot of ways.  We had a huge construction focus with Beau leading the charge with the local architect and construction crews.  We had deliberate time with our local board to plan and get to know each other more.  And, we had time to make strategic partnerships with the dental school and the St. Roch Haiti Foundation, which will allow all of our efforts to be even more impactful in the future.  Thanks so much for staying in contact with what we are doing down in Haiti.  We look forward to some cool things from our upcoming dental trip in April!