Illinois Senator helps rebuild Haiti hospital

By Nykeya Woods From the Chicago Crusader
Originally posted 11/10/2011

Illinois State Senator Kwame Raoul (D) launched a $20 million campaign last month to raise money for Haiti's Grace Children's Hospital (GCH), which was demolished in 2010.

This mission is personal for Raoul and he has called on International Child Care (ICC), Children's Memorial Hospital (CMH) and Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine's Global Health Initiative to help resurrect GCH.

"I have been involved with this [hospital] all my life because my parents were involved," Raoul said. Raoul's parents were Haitians, who immigrated to the United States. His father was a physician, and was also on the board at ICC. The elder Raoul felt that healthcare was not a privilege, "it was a human right." Raoul said while serving low-income areas in Chicago, the elder Raoul continued to reach out to Haiti. Nearly two years ago a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince and thousands of people were killed and tons of buildings were leveled.

Grace Children's Hospital was one of the buildings, with the inpatient facility eventually being condemned and later demolished. The country's construction was already questionable. In 2008, a school in a Haitian suburb collapsed and killed several people. It was reported then that shoddy construction may have contributed to the deaths of the children. "No earthquake had hit. There was just poor construction," Raoul said. "Haiti was in great need before January 12, 2010. You could have gone there on January 11th and thought in some areas that an earthquake had just hit."

Raoul, who became an ICC board member after his father's death, said that a month after the earthquake, Children's Memorial Hospital CEO Patrick Magoon approached him about contributing to rebuilding in Haiti. The two brainstormed and then reached to other teams who had worked in Haiti. "From there a decision was made to take a trip, and we called it Team Haiti," Raoul said Team Haiti began to talk with people at ICC and decided rebuilding GHC was going to be their priority. Grace Children's Hospital is funded by ICC and is seen as their flagship which also serves the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, ICC officials said that 60 tent cities have been erected near the hospital for easier access.

"Grace Children's Hospital was devastated by the earthquake in January 2010 when over 80 percent of the hospital campus was irreparably damaged. Since that time the hospital has been operating out of transitional facilities," said ICC spokesman Anne Witherspoon. Witherspoon added that the hospital treats thousands of children each year who are suffering from tuberculosis, HIV and other diseases. Tuberculosis and HIV are wreaking havoc on Haiti. According to US Aid, "Haiti has the highest per capita tuberculosis (TB) burden in the Latin America and Caribbean region. After HIV/AIDS, TB is the country's greatest infectious cause of mortality in both youth and adults." Compared to the United States where 4.4 for every 100,000 people acquire TB, 307 people in Haiti out of 100,000 suffer.

"The rebuilding of Grace Children's Hospital is imperative to the ongoing health needs of the Haitian people living in the lower Delmas neighborhoods," Witherspoon said. The Delmas neighborhood is a poorer area and home to the hospital. Witherspoon added that rebuilding the hospital, which is recognized as the top children's hospital in the country, is incredibly essential. Mary Gomez, who works at Children's Memorial Hospital and led Team Haiti, agreed.

"The hospital is crucial to the future generations of Haiti. It is located in a very populated part of Port-au-Prince and serves many HIV and tuberculosis infected families. Grace also offers various other medical services.," said Gomez, who has traveled to Haiti on medical missions before and after the earthquake. "By establishing a cornerstone for pediatric care, the foundation for nurse and medical training, health education and well-being for families of Haiti can take root." Gomez, who often educates and is a nurse practitioner, also said that she plans to take a team of doctors and nurses to Haiti to teach and learn from Haitian doctors and nurses because they have a lot of knowledge about infectious diseases, gastrointestinal parasites and other maladies.

This collaboration is a work in progress with other companies like Power Construction becoming involved. "It takes a village, literally. It takes many entities, people, groups to share their talents and expertise," Gomez said. "My hope and dream is that Haiti will be independent of any assistance and able to nurture and care for their people."

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere with families living on less than $1 a day. While the rest of the world has moved on after the earthquake, people there are still living in tents waiting for the billions of dollars raised. If interested in contributing to Grace Children's Hospital rebuilding, call the state senator's office at 773.363.1996. Or visit kwameraoul.com.