Community Health Initiative
In the fall of 2007, CHP launched a new Community Health Care Initiative for Petit trou de Nippes, introducing health and hygiene programs through a network of volunteer women health educators. Beginning with a group of 33 volunteer women, the one-year project is designed to reach women in each of the town's 2,700 homes. Three major training missions are planned, with a two person mission team of Dr. Warren Berggren of the CHP Board of Directors and Erin Snyder. At the core of the program is training in the use and maintenance of a home water filter, and our goal is to see a water filter in every home by the time the system of wells, pipelines and fountains comes online. As the Water Project for drilling wells begins, the women of the community will be teaching every household how to filter well water and how to use good health and hygiene practices to maintain the water in a clean condition.
Creating the "Training Cascade"
In September 2007, Dr. Warren Berggren identified 33 women volunteers from the Petit trou de Nippes community to become the first "master teachers" in a network of community health educators. Using a project design Dr. Berggren has used many times before in Haiti, training sessions began in early March 2008 when Dr. Berggren and Erin Snyder spent two weeks teaching these 33 master teachers to practice and then teach the use of household water filters and basic personal and household hygiene skills.
The strength of the approach lies in enabling the master teachers to teach the skills to other women, to practice appropriate health behaviors, despite water scarcity and the inconvenience of their tiny, earthen-floored houses. In turn, those women teach other women. The "one teaches two" model creates a training cascade, building a network of newly skilled and inter-connected women health volunteers throughout the community. Every educator who joins the training cascade fills out a health profile on her own family, creating an invaluable database to guide the future direction of the Community Health Care Initiative.
In the summer of 2008 Dr. Berggren and Erin Snyder returned to Petit trou, this time to plan and begin teaching the women master trainers in issues surrounding home-based life saving skills and maternal health. During the final 3 weeks of training Miss Fabien, a Haitian nurse and Pam Chandler, a midwife with International Midwives Assistance joined the team. By the end of these training sessions and practicum's, 6 women were identified as being at the "top of the class". These women will attend a more comprehensive training in Jeremie conducted by the Haitian Health Foundation. Once completed, they will return to their communities and continue to train the other women in the community in what they have learned.
How You Can Help: Funding for one year is approximately S15,000 for the two member team's expenses, with an additional amount of $10,000 in funding required to subsidize the continuing education of the master trainers through the Haitian Health Foundation. A considerable portion of the project cost is airfare, which you could help support by donating your frequent flyer miles (American Airlines only).
Contact Colorado Haiti Project