Climb aboard the "tap-tap" bus and travel to Cherident through our picture gallery!
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The Village of Cherident
Cherident is a small village in rural Haiti, located in a mountainous area of southeastern Haiti called Grand Colline. People in this area, as in the rest of Haiti, are very poor and suffer from most of the diseases of poverty: malnutrition, hookworm, anemia, tuberculosis, and many waterborne diseases.
Children are particularly vulnerable. Mortality among young children, always very high, has actually increased in the last 10 years. Women are also very vulnerable. Many younger women die from complications of childbirth, and many older women die from cervical cancer, both rare events in developed countries. However, there is hope—much of this disease burden is preventable with basic health education and health care.
Medical teams from the U.S. have been visiting Cherident for several years, providing immediate care to the degree that they could. However, clearly the people of Cherident desperately need basic medical care on a regular basis, as well as knowledge of prevention strategies.
In response to that need, members from several Presbyterian Churches recently formed Haiti Healthcare Partners (HHP). In the past year, HHP has financed the renovation of an existing building in Cherident and the hiring of a beginning team of Haitian healthcare providers. As of June 1, 2006, a part-time doctor, fulltime nurse and nurse assistant, and an administrator are staffing the clinic and beginning to provide services. In the near future, we hope to finance the training of several Community Health Workers (CHW) from nearby villages in Grand Colline. These CHWs will be able provide prenatal care and educate their neighbors about basic nutrition and hygienic practices for food and water, as well as provide care in many other areas.
Getting There
The trip through Port-au-Prince is as eye-opening as one might want to experience. Crowds, crushingly close autos, a feeling of barely controlled chaos. People everywhere, on the street, in rundown houses and in makeshift markets.
Spirits lift, as does the sense of safety, once out of the city. There are panoramic views of water, mountains, and meadows. The beauty and elegance of the land is breathtaking. The people seem more purposeful, industrious. Make no mistake, conditions are still terrible, but there are good signs, such as a road construction crew at work, a bit of building going on, and a stretch of good, paved highway.
As we go up into the mountains, the scenery is increasingly beautiful, the going increasingly rough. There are sharp mountain turns on rocky, pitted roads. We meet the colorful "tap-taps" (buses), it seems, at all the narrowest spots. We go past largely dilapidated houses of rusted tin and aged wood in blues and pinks. We reach the wide spot in the road—the office of the farmers’ cooperatives; secondary and vocational schools on one side of road, the Episcopal church; primary school; and the new medical clinic on the other. Welcome to Cherident!
A brightly colored tap-tap drives through Cherident, a literal wide spot in the road where incredible possibilities lie.
A Decade of Friendship
Dozens of American volunteers have taken the familiar trip in the past 10 years: Miami to Port-au-Prince, juggling luggage and supplies through the chaotic airport past throngs of needy people into a soon-overloaded truck or Trooper. In the countryside, Haitian eyes seem brighter, smiles and waves are given more freely, and the air is fresh.
Even before this trip, we made familiar preparations: packing shots and medications, bottled water, cool clothing, rugged walking shoes. An endless packing list stuffed into a single duffle bag.
Perhaps everyone returns with the same reaction: we are overwhelmed at the profound needs of the Haitian people, amazed at their resilient hope, but frustrated at our inability to do more, something lasting.
We find that in explaining to others the work we do in Haiti, it’s difficult to be succinct. Even the names and places can get confusing in our storytelling:
- Haiti, the western half of the Island of Hispaniola, shared with the Dominican Republic.
- Grande Colline, the mountainous geographic region south of Port-au-Prince.
- Cherident, the wide spot in the road that was “home base” for Episcopal priest Pere Jean-Wilfrid Albert. Also home of the Frances Landers vocational school, and of Floresta Haiti. And the little pink and green St. Matthias Episcopal Church.
- And now the home of the Father Jean-Wilfred Albert Medical Clinic.
From the gathering place on the front porch of the "guest house", we fan out across Grande Colline to do the work. Many amazing things have occurred over the past decade. Through Frances Landers’ Haiti Education Foundation, dozens of primary and secondary schools are bringing life-changing knowledge to over 13,000 students. Through Floresta, farmers work in cooperatives to improve crop yield and economic return. Individuals and teams have installed solar-powered electrical and lighting systems; conducted makeshift medical clinics for hundreds in need; taught English in the schools; brought musical instruments, medicines and supplies.
A wooden stool—to support a load, to keep from being wobbly—needs three sturdy legs. We are trying to make a lasting difference to this impoverished region. A wobbly message, a fragile quick fix, simply won’t do. But imagine if we were to help thousands of Haitians across Grande Colline get a good education, heal the environment, and get quality health care. The Haiti Education Foundation and Floresta are doing their parts, the first two. Now Haiti Healthcare Partners is ready to help with the third.
The arrival of friends from the U.S. instantly brings helpful Haitian youth to unload supplies.
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