Carrying a burden for Haiti, Trinidadian missionary Avonelle Hector-Joseph and her team–Is There Not A Cause (INTAC)–have rendered yeoman service to poverty-stricken Haitians. The "good Samaritans" went into Haiti distributing food, clothing and assisting with shelter and building schools for children. They have visited Haiti about 22 times. After the devastating earthquake on January 12, Hector-Joseph and her team intensified their humanitarian efforts. Based on European Union statistics about 300,000 people died, 70,000 bodies were recovered, 250,000 were injured and 1.5 million rendered homeless. To date, many still live in tent cities. Apart from Haiti's litany of woes including political instability, cholera struck.
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine. Its transmission is primarily through consuming contaminated drinking water or food. Once more, INTAC reached out to Haiti–"often labelled the sick man of the Caribbean." The escalating cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,700 people and made 75,000 sick, according to the Red Cross. There was no love in the time of cholera as its outbreak stoked violent demonstrations against United Nations peacekeepers, said one AP report. A week ago, Hector-Joseph said she was baffled at the genesis of Haiti's cholera outbreak. Although she hadn't gone into the Haitian heartland during the outbreak, she relied upon updates from INTAC's missionaries and her spouse Christopher Joseph.
Relief to cholera victims
During the period November 18 to 25, INTAC missionaries/volunteers Tricia Parris, Joseph Eastman and nurse Beverley Stanley left on their mission of mercy. From their base in St Marc (outside Port-au-Prince) they set to work immediately bringing relief to cholera victims. Hector-Joseph said: "I would like to know where it came from. Haiti never had cholera in 50 years. They are saying it is the Asians. But we don't know. INTAC is not saying that. It's the first time we are seeing a cholera epidemic." Meanwhile, Hector-Joseph said INTAC had to position itself to be proactive and respond to the emergency of the situation.
She thanked Reginald Dumas and the Media Net Haiti Relief Fund for sponsoring the vaccines and the rehydration salts which were shipped to Haiti. "One vial cost $250. We had about 315 vials shipped on a private plane. We had a nurse administer the vaccine. We treated about 500 adults and children," Hector-Joseph added. Like a warrior, Hector-Joseph felt INTAC has to arm itself for unforeseen battles in the fight against poverty. "We have to always have food, medical supplies and water on hand to assist the Haitians in the event of another outbreak or disaster. We always store a lot of water at the Centre where we work from.
But we just don't know where the cholera came from," said Hector-Joseph. Asked whether cholera had been brought under control, Hector-Joseph said: "It is harder to get it under control or to say if it under control in a society that is volatile as Haiti." She is also keenly aware of the election violence. "We don't want to endanger our workers on the ground." Meanwhile, Hector-Joseph continues to labour in the vineyard for Haiti. She said that on November 30, another "small train load" of rehydration salts left T&T bound for Port-au-Prince."
Struck by poverty and oppression
During Parris' maiden visit, she was struck by the poverty and oppression experienced there. "I saw people without basic food, clothing, water, a proper home. Dusty roads. Barely paved roads. Rubble everywhere. The poverty there was not compared to anything here. "I felt the people were oppressed. There were no opportunities to advance themselves...to get out of the poverty. Unemployment is high. Haiti is rich in resources. So it is sad to see such poverty."
Cholera victims stared her in the face. "Cholera is like a serious case of gastro," she said. Scenes of adults and children writhing in pain, vomiting and easing their bowels while lying on the floor of the hospital remain etched in her mental archives. "I saw children with gastro...severe cases. Some of them were like eight...ten...They wore no clothing. Their eyes rolled back in their heads. You could see white. They were vomiting and crying. If cholera is not treated within four hours, the person can die."
Dehydration ran rampant. "We distributed dehydration salts to the different children's homes that INTAC is responsible for.
We would mix it with water. We gave out regular drips. Within a week, it was almost finished. It was an oral vaccine," she said.
Among the children's homes INTAC was responsible for include Adelson, Fenulus, Bon Repos and Maranatha Children's Home.
Latrines, which might be frowned upon in T&T, would be considered a luxury. With faltering footsteps, a few could make it to the makeshift toilets. "Their toilet is a piece of plywood. A hole is cut through it. A bucket is placed under it. There are people to remove it when it is filled." Since January, AP reports said humanitarian organisations have installed 13,000 latrines.
Most of them are traditional portable bathrooms, concentrated mostly in the tent camps that average 50 people to every toilet. Parris was grateful not to have witnessed any deaths. "I have not seen any deaths in the hospital." On the flip side, she lauded their indomitable spirit and will to live. Waxing philosophical, Parris said: "They want to live. While there is life, there is hope for a brighter tomorrow." INTAC volunteer Joseph Eastman said he worked in both the St Marc and Gonaives areas.
"Gonaives had a lot of unreported deaths," he said.
He said before they returned to Trinidad, they had moved them from St Marc Hospital to St John's on the seaside. Upon arriving at St Marc's hospital, Eastman said the medical personnel had run out of vaccines. "The medication we brought up was what kept the hospital," he said.
Need for sewage treatment plant
There is no sewage treatment plant in all of Haiti, and until this changes, the threat of cholera and other infectious diseases shows no signs of abating, experts say. "The biggest challenge to battling the cholera epidemic is sanitation," said Henry Gray, a water and sanitation emergency coordinator for the Paris-based non-profit Medecins Sans Frontiere. While the Haitian government mulls plans to build a sewage treatment plant, "that would be a drop in the ocean for the amount of sewage that's being produced," Gray said.
To date, an expert submitted by the French foreign ministry said the cholera that had been ravaging Haiti began at a camp for UN peacemakers from Nepal. Respected French epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux had conducted a study in Haiti in November and concluded the disease could have been traced back to the Nepalese base.
