What else happens at Bethesda Medical Center.....

There is so much that goes on at our clinic that I haven't shared yet and over the past couple of weeks we have had a few special events.  The beginning of the month was International Women's day and apparently Haiti takes that day very seriously.

The MSPP ( Public Health Minister in Haiti) had organised for a team to come to Bethesda to have a celebration.  The team came on a Wednesday and held a program for antenatal and post natal women.  They did education sessions on nutrition, child development, breastfeeding and vaccines.  They had special prizes for some of the women who participated and there was even a film crew there. 

Last week we had another celebration,  on Friday 24th March it was world TB day to raise awareness about TB.  The day before we got a phonecall from the MSPP asking Ms Prudence who runs our TB clinic to come to Port au Prince for a conference.  When Ms Prudence was there she received a certificate of honour and merit and was told Bethesda has the best TB clinic in the country!! This is a huge achievement.  The MSPP gave us a big TV to use at the clinic so our patients can be educated as they wait, they will also visit Bethesda later this month to give us a plaque for our achievements.  

I want to share with you one of our patients stories who is currently in our TB clinic 

'I used to work as a builder but then I got sick.  I kept getting sicker and sicker until I couldn't work anymore.  My wife and I went to lots of different hospitals and clinics and every time they gave me medicine, I took it and it didn't do anything for me, I just kept getting worse.  

Then we started going to witch doctors until we spent all our money and I was no better.  Finally a witch doctor told us 'Go to Bethesda in Vaudrieul, you will find help there'.  So one day my wife took me on a tap tap and we asked the driver to take us to Bethesda, we had never heard of it before and did not know where we were going.  By this stage I was so ill I couldn't walk or stand and we had to get someone to carry me into Bethesda. 

There we met Ms Prudence, we explained we had no money at all to pay for treatment, she spoke to the director and they treated me for free, I needed medicine and IV fluids.  They then found out I was suffering from TB and put me into the TB program.  As soon as I started the treatment I started to feel better and I have been coming every month since then.  I am almost finished my treatment and soon I will be free of TB.'

This young man and his wife are also thinking about becoming Christians.  Ms Prudence has shared the gospel with them and they know they need salvation but are not ready yet to make the decision.

This past week Ms Ketlye who looks after our ante natal clinic invited some of our expectant mothers to a group which she would like to run once a month.  The objective of the group is to provide information and for the mums to be a support for each other.  This month Ms Ketlye gave some information on the importance of breastfeeding and some of the women shared their experiences with their other children.  Thanks to the generosity of one of our visitors we were also able to give each women a small gift which will help them once their baby is born,