Health and Human Rights in Haiti
Health and Human Rights in Haiti
On a hot Sunday afternoon this past weekend, about 25 people gathered in the air conditioned Upper Room at St. Joan of Arc to learn more about Haiti; specifically, conditions in Cite Soleil, the poorest slum in all of Haiti and subsequently, the poorest slum in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest places in the world. Anne Sosin, Director of the human rights organization VIDWA in Haiti and Dr. Jacklin Saint-Fleur, founder and Medical Director for VIDWA and Director of St. Catherine’s Hospital, the only hospital in the poorest section of Port-au-Prince, spoke at our 9:00 and 11:00 o’clock liturgies and followed that up with an afternoon seminar on Health and Human Rights in Haiti.
At the seminar, Anne led us through a presentation about Vizyon Dwa Ayisyen (VIDWA), which is a Health and Human Rights organization that provides services to victims of human rights abuses. Citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, VIDWA asserts that access to health care is a basic human right. In Haiti, as well as many other developing countries, human rights abuses have created conditions of forced displacement of the population, hindering access to food and basic services. This in turn exacerbates the existing conditions of poverty. The goal of VIDWA is to empower grassroots organizations to advocate for their rights, to hold the government accountable for the needs of its citizens and to help encourage and support the public sector in putting health care services at the top of the priority list.
An offshoot of VIDWA is the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (acronym: KOFAVIV). This group was formed by women who were victims of rape during the 1991-94 coup d’etat to provide support for new victims of rape. Services that are provided by KOFAVIV include medical care, peer support, psychological care, health education and access to micro loans. Sadly, they have seen nearly 1000 victims since their inception, and we were told this is simply the tip of the iceberg. In times of war and unrest, rape is used as a powerful political tool, and today in Haiti, rape is an all too common occurrence. One of the goals of KOFAVIV is to empower poor women to become human rights advocates so they can petition for changes in the conditions that make women vulnerable to violations of their rights.
Dr. Saint-Fleur then took us through the challenges to health that the vast majority of Haitians face on a daily basis. He presented us with some sobering facts:
According to Dr. Saint-Fleur, one of the greatest problems in the Haitian Health System is the lack of investment in human resources. In the public health system, physicians make an average of $300 per month. Although the hospital has 14 doctors on staff, they are all part time since they must also work at private clinics to earn enough money to support themselves. The situation for support staff is even more dire, as they make less than $50 per month with no benefits such as health insurance for themselves or their families and no pension. Wages are frequently held up for months at a time and are often only paid after support staff go on strike. Many health workers live in poverty. In Cite Soleil, working conditions are extremely difficult. There is constant gang violence in the city which spills over into the hospital and affects the workers who must travel through Cite Soleil to get to their jobs. Add to that the irregularity of their pay schedules and the lack of resources they are forced to deal with in attempting to provide care to their patients, and the consequences are not surprising. Workers lack motivation and accountability, and along with the frequent strikes, the end result is poor health care for the most needy citizens.
This is where VIDWA comes in. VIDWA and St. Catherine’s Hospital have joined together in the Cite Soleil Partnership in an attempt to improve access to health care by promoting the rights of health care workers through advocacy for health policies and programs that address the problems of human resources in the system. Working with the health care worker’s union, they hope to develop a model that can be used in other public health institutions to help motivate and sustain public health care workers. One of the major initiatives being pursued at this time is an effort to establish a micro-credit lending program that can assist health care workers in creating small business opportunities that will help supplement their income, thereby raising them from poverty. The micro-credit program will be funded initially with private donations and some international funding, but it is hoped that eventually the credit interest paid into the program will allow it to become self-sustaining.
The presentation ended with a Q&A session during which the question was asked “how can we get involved?” Dr. Jacklin and Anne had the following suggestions:
 |
 |
 |
 |
