It has been
just one year since my friend and colleague Hilda Alcindor and I agreed that we
wanted to coordinate a symposium to discuss best practices standards for US-based
medical missions to Haiti. A date and meeting site were determined, emails to
over 30 mission team leaders currently active in Haiti were sent out, Presiding
Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori and Bishop Jean Zache Duracin were invited, as
were many other key members of the Haiti Partnership Program. Prayers ascended.
We were on our way!
On September
6-7, 2013, the first Best Practices for Haiti Medical Missions symposium was
held in Miami, FL. There were 45 Haitian and American missionaries in attendance
for this two-day event that produced many wonderful ideas and seeds for the
development of a formalized ministry that ultimately would be supported by the
Domestic and Foreign Mission Society (DFMS) and the National Church.
On May 1,
2013, after many hours of discussion and planning, I was appointed as the
Coordinator of the Best Practices for Haiti Medical Missions initiative. A
$25,000 grant was issued by DFMS to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray
Beach, FL, my home parish, to support my work as coordinator of this initiative.
The ensuing
two months have been quite active. A website greydoveinc.org has been developed, a monthly
Constant Contact email newsletter is reaching over 850 individuals each month, review by Haitian and American medical
personnel of a standardized formulary of prescription and over the counter
medications best suited for medical missions in Haiti is underway and will be
published this fall, a protocol for best practices of ophthalmology in Haiti
has been adopted and published on the Grey Dove website, new partners with
experience and multiple medical and surgical resources for missionaries have
surfaced and joined out initiative, a rapid response to the Chikungunya virus
outbreak among the Best Practices network partners has resulted in sending
160,000 500 mg Tylenol tablets to the Haiti Partnership Program for
distribution, and a Second Annual Best Practices Symposium is in the planning
stages. It will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on October 4, 2014.
Needless to
say, there is much work left to be done as the Best Practices initiative moves
forward in its goal to encourage US-based medical missionaries working in Haiti
to adopt agreed upon and published Best Practices standards and to move quickly
toward the development of sustainable programs in their mission communities.
Programs that will function without ceasing once the mission team is no longer
there.
God Bless for all you do
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