Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
La Plaine (Agenzia Fides) - Before the earthquake that devastated Haiti on 12 January, 2010, the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation had two communities: one in the capital, Port au Prince (the house called “Maison Marie Poussepin”) and one in La Plaine, the home of “Notre Dame de la Présentation”. After the earthquake, the community of Port au Prince had to join that of La Plaine, because the house was completely destroyed and, because of bureaucratic delays and other tragic events that followed the earthquake, has not yet been able to start reconstruction.
According to information sent to Fides by the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation, the clinic run by five sisters from the Order based in La Plaine, a town on the outskirts of the capital, in the Choix de Bouquet, provides primary care services free of charge, and takes 180 to 200 patients a day, a number that has increased since October, because of the cholera epidemic that began in the region of Bibal and spread rapidly to other provinces. The heavy rains caused by Cyclone Thomas contributed to the rapid spread of the disease. Today 2,359 deaths and 52,033 hospitalizations have been recorded, of whom 50,420 have already been discharged.
The clinical situation is not alarming because the region in which it is, was not affected by the epidemic. “We recorded 35 cases, unconfirmed,” communicate the religious to Fides, “who were treated according to national protocol: provide initial care and then send them to the centres stated by the Ministry of Health. All staff at the clinic are very committed to giving people a thorough education on hygiene to prevent the epidemic from spreading further and cause many more victims in this country so devastated by natural phenomena and tried, by poverty, violence and political instability.” The community of Dominican nuns also work in the field of education along with the Scalabrini Missionaries. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 28/12/2010)
