September 2010

It is with excitement that I can report to you on how we are coming with our plans on opening Confidence Health Center in the southeast corner of Haiti. This has been an interesting journey so far, and yet we are just beginning. I was in Haiti a few weeks ago working at getting some buildings rented for this, and as the community started catching on that an infant and maternity clinic will be setting up…. I was blessed to feel the swelling warm excitement of the people there. Some of the expecting mothers could hardly stop grinning after I answered their questions in the affirmative that “yes we will be helping mothers safely have their babies”. J Some of these mothers literally have been fearful for their lives every time they get pregnant, because they have seen the death toll in their families and community. Bottom line is that these mountain people need help or else especially the under 6 yr old kids and their mothers experience way too much suffering and death.

To tell you some of the recent developments and where we are right now…

• We have rented a 4 room block building that will serve nicely for a clinic. It is written up as a 5 yr rental and renewable. The clinic is one of the nicer buildings around there, but yet it needs alot of work to get it in shape. It’s built of rough unpainted block and has a leaky tin roof. First priority will be to paint, patch roof, and build a yard wall, and set up water sterilization and a few solar panels for very basic electrical needs. It will be a nice, clean, even cute place yet though! J
• There wasn’t many choices for a house to rent to live in, but we did locate one which will be serviceable for us as a family as well as a nurse. A school room and extra bedroom is being built onto the property, and a new roof is needed for the house. We will all live in the little outbuilding while we do these modifications.
• We were able to purchase an older 1998 Suburban 4×4 for a reasonable price, and it is in the shipping process from Miami to Haiti next week. (Help us pray that this vehicle will be durable enough for the 2 hour, incredibly rough, rocky, riverbed road up into Oriani)
• Kimmie from Idaho, who is a nurse with some midwife training, is ready to come start working the first of November, and we as a family plan on going mid Oct. The Haitian “doctor” is ready to start as soon as we can get the clinic building ready.
• We are consulting with a couple other clinics and a Canadian midwife who lives in Haiti, trying to establish what kinds of medical supplies and equipment we will need. Fetal dopplers, microscope for blood tests, and smaller instruments etc will for sure be needed, but a portable ultrasound machine would also be very useful for checking for complications in baby etc. These items may have to be brought in from the States yet. Other small supplies like vitamins, medications and antibiotics, dewormers etc all seem to be available for purchase in Port-au-Prince or in the nearby cities of Dominican Republic.
• Bank accounts are opened here as well as in Haiti, and we are getting the bank to bank transfer working. There is an independent accountant who has offered to look after our accounting, and a couple of church brethren here in St.Marys are ready to assist with managing the funds.

So, it’s looking good! It has taken a few months to get to this point, but it has been very interesting to me how God has opened the door for all this. We want to prayerfully continue as He leads, and we beg for a little place in your prayers as well. That’s all I can think of for now, but I will keep you updated if you wish.

Sincerely,
Keith and Candace Toews and family
St.Marys, Ontario (yet)

May 2010

The problems in these mountain regions of Haiti.

• There are a lot of uneducated expectant mothers who use traditional and somewhat dangerous practices during the prenatal period.  Expectant mothers who do not have proper nutrition and care end up having babies with low birth weights and developmental delays or even retardation. Practices like wrapping the stomach tightly to force the baby out and many other things which can be dangerous and unhealthy, are the norm.  Children are being fed rice when they are just days old and their stomachs are unable yet to digest hard foods. They are doing this because the mother’s nutrition is so poor that there is no breast milk.  These people need education on what causes these problems, and sometimes assistance with getting infant formula etc.  Infants and children who play in the feces laden dirt often are infested with worms and parasites that have sickening and even deadly effects on them.  Burns and wounds are often treated in very unsanitary ways, causing further infection, and even permanent impairment.  Some children have been left to die because of the hopelessness of caregivers who don’t know what to do next, or the inability to travel to find better medical care.  If a mother or a father dies there are often 3-10 orphans who will struggle for existence and love. Many of these situations are able to be helped and sometimes prevented. We also know a lot of Satan worshipping VooDoo witchdoctors are being consulted for cures and treatments.

How we feel we can help….

• We can provide a clean attractive clinic where we can give competent, compassionate care for those who need help.  We can have a center where they can get sanitary first aid, medicines for common ailments, dewormers and vitamins… a clinic that can provide care and teaching on issues like, nutrition, and parasites, and sanitation. We can also provide a service to mothers and infants with checkups etc., nipping problems in the early stages. If life threatening or very serious situations come up that would be beyond our abilities, then referral to a larger hospital, or even providing ambulance service might be in order. We see the potential that overnight care for a few patients may be needed and provision for that could be made as the need would arise. We also see the possibility that some children may never be able to go back to their former settings because they are orphans, because of abuse, or simply that their parents/caregivers lack the ability to look after them. Complete family care is important here, yet sometimes these children of God the Father may need to be cared for until a permanent solution can be worked out. Solutions are worked out with proper authorities and may include finding them local foster parents, or taking them to a good orphanage that helps with official local or foreign adoptions so they can soon have a Dad and a Mom again.

We believe a medical/nutritional clinic is a good place to also introduce people to Jesus, the Great Physician.  Running it as a soul clinic would also be part of the underlying principle of operations.

What we need to get started…

• A house or that could be rented and modified to function as a clinic. It would need solar panels, some plumbing, and water sterilization, etc.   It would also need to have some cabinets, beds, some minor equipment, and supplies, including a stock of medicine.  These are somewhat available in the country and/or in the DR.
• We need some compassionate, qualified people to attend to these medical issues. Nurses from abroad, and maybe locals as well. In the village there is a man who has some medical schooling and has been practicing as a “doctor” for 15 yrs. His practice is currently located in a rented single room that is unsanitary, has only one cot, and no lights or water. He is eager to expand his practice, learn more, and work with us.
• A reliable vehicle that could traverse the long dangerous mountain road, through the rivers and up the mountains.  A 4×4 with a diesel engine is almost a must and maintenance costs will be high even on relatively low mileage units.
• A house that our family and temporary workers could effectively live in, and again, solar panels and a UV water purification system.  Being  “Haitian” and rubbing shoulders with the common man is what we want, nevertheless, living costs in Haiti are surprisingly high. We have drawn up a list of expected expenses for the first year.

What we have…

• We have our family who is willing to go to Haiti and live for an open ended length of time.
•  I (Keith) have a good head start on the Creole language and culture, because I was raised in it for 6 yrs.
• We have 2 teenage boys who will be kept busy as much as possible with productive, helpful things, looking for new ways to serve the community.
• We have some American nurses who are already volunteering to work in this clinic, and a volunteer teacher from Alberta wanting to teach our children.
• We have suitable buildings in the area and available to rent.
• We have some people who are concerned and ready to help with some of the costs of such a project.

What are we waiting for?

January 2010 - First Call To Go

When the earthquake hit in Jan 2010, I saw the news on the internet 20 min after it happened.  I read that it was a 7 plus magnitude in Port-au-Prince and that a handful of people were killed. I was at work and left for home completely shaken and trembling because I KNEW that this was going to be catastrophic. (Haiti is very close to me because I spent 6 yrs there as a child of missionary parents)  I wept all the way home. I prayed and prayed for the injured and the survivors and the huge trauma that was going on at that very minute. Next day we started hearing that my worst fears were very real.  I was so incredibly moved in my heart for the Haitian people that it surprised me. I felt like my own family was dying and then I realised how much I loved Haiti.

My brother in law and my sis Anthony and Darla have been in Haiti for a couple years by this time so I didn’t hesitate long. I bought a ticket and went to Haiti to see what could be done.. After a few days,  Anthony and Darla told me that they had an idea for me. Their thought was that our family should move to Haiti and start a medical clinic in the mountain area, not even connected to the earthquake damaged area. I had already seen some of the daily mountain needs…. the burn victims, malnutrition, the maternity needs, and the lack of medical attention in the whole Southeast Haiti area. So this idea hit me in an incredibly warm, solid way. I prayed and called upon God for direction like I have never done for something before. I called my wife Candace in Ontario and explained what I was experiencing. She said this was an answer to our prayers and she was ready to go.

That evening I went down the hill and talked to our Haitian church brother Enil Henry, to ask him a few questions about what he thought of such a thing. We had a great talk till late at night. I asked him what he would think if we started some kind of clinic project and he got VERY excited. He told me that “by all means you really need to do this thing”, “in fact I will say it this way, think of all the people who will suffer if you do NOT do it.” He went on and told me the needs of that mountain community and they were the very same things that I had been thinking of. Nutrition, expectant mother’s needs, children’s medical problems and deworming, and also helping the people learn how to grow crops that will produce enough that they can feed their families.  I staggered back to the house, crawled into my sleeping bag, and hardly slept that night. It seemed God was so close, and I spent the night praying, sleeping, waking, and praying some more. Everything seemed clear and solid that this was the thing for our family to pursue.

Many questions still unanswered about how this could work, but I had no doubts about the call that I felt.