Heartline Ministries

Today I went with Jake and Becky (who I met at the guest house) to visit a clinic run by Heartline ministries. The organization is run by a man named John and his wife. Before the earthquake they ran a children's home and a women's home. After the earthquake the need for immediate medical care became urgent and they turned the children's home into a temporary clinic. The clinic part was basically a bunch of beds with a tarp above held up by PVC.They had about 15 beds all with injured kids or people in them. The patients usually are treated at a hospital and then there after care is done at this clinic. They had many nurses and PA's working there all volunteers. When we got their we gave our selves a little tour and then a lady came in holding a baby. The baby wasn't hers but her friends. The baby had accidentally fallen into a boiling pot of rice and beans and had very bad burns on it's butt. Pretty much all of the skin was burned off. The clinic is no longer taking patients as it was not meant to be a permanent clinic but rather an emergency clinic after the earthquake. Since it was a baby they treated the baby and the sent then drove them to a nearby burn unit. The rest of the day I worked with a physical therapist who is volunteering there. I got to do a lot of work with one boy who had his arm smushed in some rubble for a long time and so the circulation to his arm stopped and tissue began to die. The physical therapist has done a lot of work with him and he can now actually bend his fingers reasonably well which is a big improvement. Then we helped a lady who had her femur broken in the earthquake and is very scared to bend her leg now. The bone is healed enough that she can walk on it she is just scared. We did some exercises with her with some resistance bands and got her to bend her leg 90 degrees which was a big improvement. The physical therapist said that it is different in Haiti in that you can't just tell them what to do you have to get to know the patient and find out what they want to do and works for them and so he decided to offer the lady some sandals. However she had to take 5 steps in order to get the sandals. After a few hours of convincing she stood up with some help and walked those five steps which was amazing to see, it was her first time walking since the earthquake. The rest of the day we went on a tour of the whole operation with John the man who runs it. Heartline also has a womens home were they help women that have no jobs. They have a sewing program where they teach women how to sew purses and after practice they can sell the purses. Heartline provides them the material most of the time and the women put together amazing bags and purses and they are sold online and in their store in Haiti. Each woman has their own code attached to the bag label and when they are sold they receive a certain portion of the profit. It is a really great way to provide women with income to pay for housing and food and support their families. Heartline is a really great group doing so many good things for the community here. I haven't decided what I will be doing for the next two weeks but I may go live at Heartline and help them out we will see!

Physical Therapy for the lady that broke her femur