Episcopal Press and News
Alabama Episcopal Church medical team serves Haitians during quake anniversary
Episcopal News Service. January 11, 2011 [011111-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
A gallery of photos taken Jan. 8-11 in Haiti by the Rev. Dave Drachlis, a member of a seven-person medical mission team from the Diocese of Alabama, is here.
Two days before the first anniversary of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake that devastated vast portions of Haiti, young children were making music in the ruins of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the capital of Port-au-Prince.
The sight and sound of students of the Diocese of Haiti's Holy Trinity Music School practicing under the open-air shelter that now serves as the cathedral nave was "very encouraging," the Rev. Deacon Dave Drachlis of the Diocese of Alabama told Episcopal News Service in a telephone interview Jan. 10.
The effort is part of Alabama's five-year companion-diocese relationship with the Diocese of Haiti. The relationship is focused on St. Simeon parish. The Diocese of Alabama sent six medical mission teams to Haiti during 2010 along with relief funds and supplies.
Drachlis recalled that he, Dr. Robert Serio and Dr. Don Evans were last in Haiti this past February when a strong aftershock severely damaged what then remained of the cathedral school complex.
There are encouraging signs at the diocese's secondary school, College St. Pierre, as well, said Drachlis, who visited the school Jan. 10. The College St. Pierre grounds quickly became a survivors camp after the quake, despite the fact that the buildings were severely damaged or destroyed and entombed the bodies of students and teachers. Today, the rubble is gone, Drachlis said, and students are studying in wooden classroom buildings. He added that no more than 50 tents remain in an area that once sheltered close to 3,000 survivors.
Drachlis and Serio told ENS that the physical and psychological damage caused by the quake is still evident, but they say that they are also seeing signs of hope and resiliency.
"I get a sense that the Haitian people are trying to get their lives back together," said Serio. "There's still a very long way to go."
Drachlis called this visit "bittersweet" because a year after the quake "there's still a lot of suffering going on and that's heartbreaking."
"While what I saw in one sense was discouraging, it's also hopeful because … you see some patching of buildings going on and you see some places that the rubble has been cleared away," he said.
"People are going on with their lives; they haven't given up," Drachlis added. "They're resilient and that resilience is an amazing thing and it's very, very hopeful and encouraging. But there are a lot of structures that look just the way they did when we were here in February."
On Jan. 10 the team saw patients ranging in age from one month to 70 years and older at Lespwa Timoun ("Hope of the Children") medical and nutrition clinic in Croix des Bouquets. A number of people came with common complaints such as ear infections, headaches, colds and sore backs.
"It was a broad spectrum of patients with a broad spectrum of complaints," Serio said, adding that the team saw some people with more serious concerns such as a young injured pregnant woman.
"We're still seeing a lot of the psychological trauma from the quake ... problems related to stress and depression as a consequence of the quake," he said.
Drachlis said the team has not yet encountered evidence of cholera, but predicted that they may yet see the disease during their week in Haiti, especially as the members head into more rural areas.
Drachlis, Evans and Serio and the four other members of the medical team arrived in Haiti Jan. 8 and are scheduled to be in-country until Jan. 15.
Team members are providing medical care through mobile clinics in three rural communities and Croix des Bouquets, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. On Jan 11, the team will conduct a clinic in the village of Thomazeau in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac east of the capital and on Jan. 13 will go to Gorman in the same area. On Jan. 14, the group plans to go to the remote mountain village of Crochu, according to Drachlis and Serio.
Jan. 12 has reportedly been declared a national holiday and day of prayer, they said, predicting that they would not have many patients if they ran a clinic that day.
Team members are camping in a churchyard in Croix des Bouquets. The Rev. Fritz Valdema, and his wife, Carmel, a Haitian public-health nurse, serve St. Simeon parish, which is comprised of six geographically separate churches. The Valdemas are helping the medical team with logistics. The Alabama Episcopalians have joined with Haitian medical personnel to form a joint Haitian/American team.
During the February trip the team provided medical care at College St. Pierre in downtown Port-au-Prince and at other locations where the Diocese of Haiti was caring for earthquake survivors. Drachlis reported on the February trip here.
The rest of the current team is made up of Marilyn Evans, pharmacist Deborah Collette, the Rev. Deacon Mary Groff and Sharon Drachlis. Serio, the Evanses, Collette and Groff are all from Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, which is sponsoring this trip.
Deacon Drachlis is a member of the diocesan staff and serves at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Huntsville.
This is Serio's third Haiti mission trip, Groff's second, Deacon Drachlis' seventh, and Ms. Drachlis' fourth trip.
More information is available here about Alabama's relationship with the Diocese of Haiti and the work done after the quake.