Access to Healthcare in Rural Haiti

The sad truth is that Haitians are dying every day from curable diseases. Every day. In many parts of rural Haiti, there is only one doctor for more than 50,000 people. Most people need to walk miles or come on the back of an animal to get to a clinic. This is very difficult if an individual is sick and can even make symptoms worse. As a result, many Haitians have a fatalistic perspective about illness, even though most ailments could be easily treated by a health care provider.  Words In Action Haiti recognizes that, for our Haitian brothers and sisters to move forward as a society, they need to be healthy. Our clinic is open 4 days per week and is staffed by a nurse with periodic visits from doctors.  We see approximately 10 patients each day with the number closer to 80 per day when a physician is on site.  Our vision for the future is self-sufficiency for the clinic.  This means that the clinic would be completely staffed by Haitians for Haitians.