MADISON — Haiti Medical Mission of Wisconsin (HMMW) is responding to the top health care priority for Thiotte, Haiti.
HMMW is raising funds to hire a midwife to care for pregnant women and infants — so mothers and babies can get a healthy start.
Strengthening families and communities by providing quality and dignified care for pregnant women and children is the current focus of the Haiti Medical Mission of Wisconsin (HMMW).
Through HMMW’s partnership with the Sacred Heart Health Care Center-Centre de Santé Sacré-Coeur de Thiotte (CSST), care is extended to all people; however, the majority of patients are women and children.
Support for these efforts is even more critical during the pandemic and the ongoing instability throughout Haiti.
The CSST medical director, Dr. Jean Judeson, is often the only doctor accessible to families throughout the region. Dr. Judeson can be tending to scheduled patients at CSST while simultaneously assisting up to three mothers in labor.
Thiotte parish priest, Fr. Phanel Chéry, and Diocese of Jacmel Bishop Glandas Toussaint have affirmed the Sacred Heart Health Care Center’s top priority, that a well qualified and locally based midwife is an urgent need to serve pregnant women in Thiotte and surrounding communities.
People from throughout the Diocese of Madison have had a connection to the remote and rural region of Thiotte, Haiti, for nearly 25 years.
The HMMW-CSST health care partnership was founded by SSM Health family medicine physician, Dr. Maureen Murphy. Dr. Murphy served as a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary for 13 years.
In 1997, Dr. Murphy was introduced to Thiotte through twinning of the Thiotte parish, located in the remote and mountainous region of rural southeast Haiti, with the parishes of St. Cecilia in Wisconsin Dells and St. Joseph in Baraboo.
The HMMW-CSST partnership is authorized through a memorandum of understanding agreement between HMMW and the Diocese of Jacmel, Haiti.
With support from St. Joseph Parish in Baraboo, other faith-based communities, past medical mission volunteers, and individual donors, HMMW works to empower their Haitian health care partners in Thiotte.
Donors and volunteers serve in solidarity to build greater capacity in Thiotte for health care services that are rooted in local priorities.
The strong relationship between HMMW and the Sacred Heart Health Care Center yields powerful results for people in the remote region of Haiti.
Learn more about how people throughout the Diocese of Madison can help the Sacred Heart Health Care Center to provide healthy outcomes for mothers and babies in the Thiotte region by contacting Carole at [email protected] or HMMW P.O. Box 6282 Monona, WI 53716.
More information can be found at haitimedicalmission.com or https://www.facebook.com/haitimedicalmission