'It's a calling': Doctor leads crusade to help needy in Haiti

[seemslikeadream]

By M. Catherine Callahan/Daily News staff


A young boy smiles outside his home in Jeremie, Haiti, in February 2002. Lowney's daughter Gail said she has seen people in Jeremie compete with pigs for scraps of food. (Kathryn Whitney Lucey photo)



he lifeline that stretches from Newport County to the embattled and impoverished nation of Haiti isn't mentioned during the nightly newscasts that detail the political unrest and suffering there.


Things were just starting to heat up again," he said. "It's a chaotic situation down there."

The political upheaval resulted in rioting and looting at many Haitian food warehouses, and the temporary closure of the clinic in Jeremie, Lowney said. "We are now trying to get whatever food we can. There is no food there right now," he said.

A 100-pound bag of rice that normally costs $38 now is selling for $250, Lowney said. "We're looking for money to purchase and to transport food," he said.


"I'd never in my life seen people and pigs competing for food," Alofsin said. "I still have the image, and I can smell and feel the poverty in Haiti."

http://www.newportdailynews.com/articles/2004/04/01/news/news1.txt

[liberalhistorian]

1. WTF? WTF?

Where the HELL is his, and that of other doctors, for that matter, concern for AMERICANS who have no access to health care, or who have lost their house and possessions and/or had their credit ruined because they or a family member had the nerve to get sick and needed care they couldn't afford?

Where the HELL is his concern when hospitals and doctors sic their ruthless, aggressive collection agencies on people who can least afford it, and who then use the sickening but perfectly legal, collection method of "body attachment", whereby they have the person thrown in jail? And we're talking things like pneumonia, viral meningitis, blood infections, miscarriages, etc., not elective cosmetic surgery here, medical conditions that need immediate treatment!

Why the HELL do all these American doctors have no problem going to another country and giving freely of their time, skills, and knowledge, when you can't get them to even fucking CONSIDER doing the same thing in their own fucking country with millions of people who desperately need the same thing?

Where the FUCK is their concern over the people, many elderly and families, who must choose between food and medicine/medical treatment or rent and medicine/medical treatment? GOD, I'M SO SICK OF THIS FROM DOCTORS!

[dakota_democrat]

2. Are you serious?

What are you angry about? Someone's helping the less fortunate, and you're going to nail them to the wall over it. Now, I understand the whole nationalism aspect you're getting at, but seriously, think about it. Our nation is so bureaucratic that the things this doctor is trying to do in Haiti can't be done here.

And second off, this kind of activity is great! If a doctor, or anyone for that matter, is willing to go to a lesser-off country to help the poor/sick, I commend them. There's nothing wrong with helping the less fortunate, and if you're willing to berate someone because they're showing some compassion, that I'm thinking you might be on the wrong side of the fence's message board.

[liberalhistorian]

6. I'm not berating them for showing compassion at all,

especially in a country like Haiti. But, dammnit, come on, you know exactly what I'm talking about here. You can't get American doctors to give a damn about the very serious health crisis we fact in our own country, with millions unable to afford or get access to badly needed medical care for themselves or a family member.

I work every day with people who are losing houses to doctors and hospitals with HUGE incomes because they had cancer or another serious illness that they either didn't have insurance to cover or they couldn't afford what their insurance didn't cover, especially since the standard treatment now runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I also work every day with people who have to choose between food and medicine/medical treatment or rent and medicine/medical treatment.

There are more than enough cases of CHILDREN dying because they couldn't get the treatment they needed due to money/insurance issues, and I didn't see any doctors stepping forward to help THEM. It's been documented that over EIGHTEEN THOUSAND AMERICANS die every year as a DIRECT RESULT of being uninsured! Where are these compassionate doctors then?

I have a friend with breast cancer, the mother of four young children, whose husband's very limited insurance won't cover most of the treatment and the doctors can't be bothered with the treatment she needs because she may not be able to pay for it. I have another friend with cancer who had to sell her house and everything else she owned just to be able to afford treatment. I have an uncle with lymphoma who's had to deal with doctors not wanting to give him the treatment he needs because his fucking insurance doesn't pay enough, and they're getting hounded left and right by the damned doctors' fucking collection agencies. The man may be dying and THIS is what he has to deal with, THIS is the compassion doctors show their own citizens. And most don't even care, with their political clout they could do so much to reform our system but what do they focus on instead? This phoney-baloney so-called "malpractice crisis", which is total bullshit!

So I make no apologies for my feelings on this. Yes, it's wonderful what this doctor is doing, and yes, it's desperately needed in Haiti and many, many other countries. But until I see them doing the same for their own citizens in their own country, I'll hold off on any applause.

[liberalhistorian]

8. Excuse me, I have 7,500

posts to your 49, so I don't think you have much right at all to question whether or not I'm on the right side of the board!

[demdave]

13. You belong here. See someone doing good and find a way to complain.

No matter what good is being done, belittle it as either too little, too late, not the way you would have done it or simply not fixing ALL of the worlds problems first. You, without a doubt, belong on the DU and I am sure, if I had the search option I could be positive, that a good number of your 7500 posts are in the same vein.

Amazing how easy it is to complain about the charity work someone else has chosen to perform while you sit on your overstuffed.....chair...behind a computer. I guess we should all present our plans for making the world a little nicer to you first, for approval and redirection. May I pick up some litter in front of my house now or do you have other projects in mind?

[liberalhistorian]

14. Hey, I have a lot of my own charity work,

I don't just sit on my chair behind a computer! And some of it I even do with my son (amazing, isn't it)?

When I read this post, I had just gotten off the phone with my friend with breast cancer who was crying her eyes out because she's terrified about not being able to afford treatment, losing the house and everything else she and her husband have worked hard for in order to get it, and her doctors were washing their hands of it, not giving a damn because it didn't involve money for them. Then there was the client who could lose her home because the hospitals and doctors where she went for her own cancer treatment want to foreclose on the lien they put on her house, her only asset. And I'm in the position to see that happening every day, over and over and over and over. And yet doctors have no problem going to other countries giving freely of their time, knowledge, and skills.

Now, mind you, I'm not doubting the need for that at all, or saying that American lives are worth more, etc., etc. But goddamnit, in matters like these, charity begins at home. You have no idea what I see everyday in this regard, all the time, so forgive me if I don't bow down and worship at the feet of doctors!!!!

[truthspeaker]

4. How do you know he hasn't considered it?

Yes, there are a lot of people in the United States suffering from poverty and lack of medical care.

But the people in Haiti, and many other blighted areas, have it worse. Ever had to compete with pigs for scraps of food? Ever work all year raising food on a tiny plot of land only to have it stolen by a bunch of vicious armed thugs?

[Bridget Burke]

5. They've been working in Haiti for 20 years.

As bad as things can get in the USA, they are worse in Haiti. A lot of good work has been done.

Are AMERICANS automatically worth more than citizens of other countries? The medical situation here will not be improved by hurling obscenities at these good people.

Definitely, prioritize your own charitable activities as you wish.

[cleofus1]

3. this man is a saint

Good for him...generally I don't have a overly high esteem for doctors...there are a few who won't touch you until they call the number on your insurance card to make sure the procedure will be covered.
But this guy gives me faith in humantiy...good for him!

[liberalhistorian]

7. Just a few?

Try MOST of them! I deal more closely with the health care system in this country than a lot of people here, and I see things you wouldn't believe!

[cleofus1]

9. I'm trying to be generous

They do save many lives a year and contribute greatly to trite television storylines.

[liberalhistorian]

10. LOL!

I guess we could give them that!

[seemslikeadream]

11. Haiti's Dark Secret: The Restavecs - Please read

Haiti's Dark Secret: The Restavecs



My Only Dress

Josiméne shows off her only dress during a pause between chores. Her possessions also include two pairs of shorts, one skirt, a couple of shirts, a school uniform and flip flops.


Crossing the Line Between Chores and Slavery


Josiméne, 10, and photojournalist Gigi Cohen.
Credit: Gigi Cohen
© 2004

March 20, 2004 -- Freelance producer Rachel Leventhal presents the moving story of one of Haiti's estimated 300,000 restavecs -- young children from the rural countryside literally sold to work for families in the poverty-stricken nation's urban areas.

Josiméne, 10, is a live-in maid in a two-room house outside of Port-au-Prince. Her parents are small farmers in Haiti's remote and mountainous heartland.

Among other duties, Josiméne cares for two younger children, cleans the house, washes dishes, scrubs laundry by hand, runs errands and sells small items from the family's informal store.

As part of the Child Poverty Photo Project, photojournalist Gigi Cohen briefly got to know Josiméne. In the course of her work, Cohen heard about the life the young girl lives as a servant and the life she left behind.

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1779562

Listen to the interviews!

[Zan_of_Texas]

12. Haiti is desperate. The U.S. is at least partly to blame.

The second nation in this hemisphere to throw off their colonial oppressors was Haiti. 1804. Yet the US, the first independent nation in the hemisphere, refused to recognize Haiti for over 50 years, because it was afraid US slaves would get ideas (Haiti was founded by slaves who refused to be slaves anymore.)

A protege of Jesse Helms, who always has had it in for Haiti, is now the US State Department official in charge of Haiti policy.

Even without any brandishing about of WMD reports, the US has gone in and booted out Haiti's elected president, and there is bloodshed and fear to add to abject poverty (people living on less than $1 a day).

-> The richest 1% of the population controls nearly half of all of Haiti's wealth.
-> Haiti has long ranked as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is the fourth poorest country in the world.
-> Haiti ranks 146 out of 173 on the Human Development Index.*
-> Life expectancy is 52 years for women and 48 for men*.
-> Adult literacy is about 50%.*
-> Unemployment is about 70%.*
-> 85% of Haitians live on less than $1 US per day.*

More than 80% of the people in the countryside regularly don't get enough to eat. Life expectancy is 56 years and falling. Infant mortality is more than double the Latin American and Caribbean average. (Figures from PAPDA the Haitian Platform to Advocate for an Alternative Development)

Few people in Haiti have a reliable supply of clean water and those who do buy it by the jug.

After 2000, the U.S. government put an embargo on loans to Haiti from the Inter-American Development Bank and got the European Union, another large donor to Haiti, to do the same. Some of those loans would have paid for clean water resources.


"Malaria remains a major contributor to anemia and death, exacerbated by lack of access to care. Polio, previously believed eradicated from the Western hemisphere, has again resurfaced on the island. Other infectious disease outbreaks - anthrax, meningitis, and drug-resistant tuberculosis - have also occurred." -- Dr. Paul Farmer is medical director of Zanmi Lasante and a professor at Harvard Medical School. Mary C. Smith Fawzi is an epidemiologist Zanmi Lasante and an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

[liberalhistorian]

15. I don't doubt any of this at all,

and Haiti has been a desperately poor nation, abused by its "leaders" for decades. But I repeat what I said above.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

17. You have a unique opportunity here. Talk to someone in the field. Now.

Me.

I'm not the physician in the article. I'm not a physician at all. I'm their boss, in humanitarian assistance, out here, in the field. And I am currently out in the field. I'll hang around here for a little while, then I have work to do.

I read your gripe, and I think you have to take issue with the tens of thousands of greedy MDs (and other healthcare professionals) who DO NOT come to the field - for in the big picture, only a very very very very small percentage of the total group of ANY professionals EVER come to the field. The percentage of those of us who make this our careers, "calling" as some may have it, that percentage is so miniscule that your argument against it is ridiculous.

So. If you have a gripe that is really about us field-folk, let's hear it. Otherwise, gripe at the greedy bastards back home - and support us in what we do out here.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

18. Hello? Gotta gripe? Tell it to someone who's there.

As I said, I'll hang around for only a little while.

[liberalhistorian]

20. Okay, you do have an excellent point.

And my commendation for doing something very few people, even people who believe in it in the abstract (as long as THEY don't have to deal with it), would do.

In retrospect, you're correct, and I admit that I should have waited to write any comments until this day was over, given what I've gone through today. But the question is, why AREN'T more doctors doing this and also helping their own citizens? I don't know the answer to that, because most doctors I know won't even give most people the time of day. Not all, mind you, but most. And I also have to wonder why more doctors who ARE amenable to field work don't see the real needs at home, as well?

[I AM SPARTACUS]

21. Bad days can get one down. No offense, you should see a bad day out here.

To the question why aren't more MDs doing this and helping at home - most MDs that do come to the field short-term, one-off, or occassionally - they DO help out at home. Most that come out here do so because they are already inspired by their work with the indigent at home. Many are work full-time in public health settings, many work a pro bono day-or-night-or-two a week in free clinics - and they become inspired.

Now, I know why most MDs - or any other folks - DON'T come to the field. Because it's hard. The work is hard, the living conditions are hard. Coming back to the States is hard. Those of us who do it probably mostly do it because that's the way we are. That may be difficult to understand, it's difficult to explain. It's what we do.

Why are MDs - and many other people - greedy and chose to ignore the poor and suffering? Mercy, I can't answer that.

[liberalhistorian]

24. I have no doubt that it's difficult

work all around. Why is it hard to come back to the States, though? Is it the huge, sudden culture change and the huge change in living conditions, and the discrepancy between the two?

[I AM SPARTACUS]

25. I can't even really scratch the surface on that one.

Please don't take offense, I mean that sincerely. I've struggled with what to say and how to say it. I don't think you can understand until you've looked from the other side.

You're a paralegal. When your son gets to college-age, go check it out - there are a few jobs/vol positions for legal-folk.

I'm signing out now. Cheers.

[llmart]

16. Your link didn't bring up the right article for me.

I've just finished reading Tracy Kidder's book "Mountains Beyond Mountains". Everyone on this thread should read it. It's nonfiction account of Dr. Paul Farmer who has devoted his life, money, time to helping Haitians. He starts out by telling about how the US Army Corps of Engineers built a dam on one of the major rivers which flooded the nearby farmland so the Haitians could no longer farm their own land and caused so much starvation. Just another "little project" for our Corps to use up the taxpayer money they're given and in the meantime they destroy a culture's livelihood.

[seemslikeadream]

23. Very odd

at google news if you type in the headline that story is there but the link is wrong now. Sorry

[theHandpuppet]

19. Links to relief agencies?

Can anyone here provide some links to relief agencies still operating in Haiti so we know where to make donations?

Thanks!

[I AM SPARTACUS]

22. the two best sites for humanitarian news and links

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf

http://www.alertnet.org

Go for it - you are the beginning of a bridge.