Guest Columnist Catholic school in Haiti leading fight against cholera

Nov 9, 2010

This has been a trying year for all Haitians.  The bulk of promised international aid has yet to arrive, buildings lie in rubble, children lack access to quality education, and Catholics are still awaiting the appointment of a new archbishop.  Then, on Oct. 19, another blow arrived in the form of an outbreak of cholera in the Artibonite department.  Over two weeks later, there have been upwards of 4,800 confirmed cases and more than 450 deaths.  One would think this nation’s struggling people would be close to the breaking point.

However, the reality is that Haitians are fighters and they exhibit great resilience in the face of adversity.  An excellent example of a Haitian who embodies this resilience is Dr. Jhonny Fequiere, the Medical Director of l’Hopital Claire Heureuse – one of the few hospitals in the Artibonite.  His hospital is located near the epicenter of the cholera outbreak and patients needing immediate medical care have flooded it since it began.  The hospital has treated over 450 members of the local community, while their external clinic has provided care to more than 1,200 people with cholera-like symptoms. 

Over the past two weeks, Fequiere has demonstrated that he is not fighting for himself but for the future of his hospital, his community, and his country – more than just fighting, he is winning.  New cholera cases have rapidly declined from 70-80 a day at the beginning of the outbreak to 20-25 today.  Much of this progress can be attributed to Fequiere’s hard work, the support of international organizations, and the efforts by other Haitians to provide medical care, promote good hygiene, and implement additional preventative methods in order to stop the spread of cholera.

But where did Dr. Fequiere learn to fight so tenaciously?

Fequiere’s work ethic and devotion to others stems directly from his education at Louverture Cleary School (LCS), a Catholic secondary school located just outside Port-au-Prince.  The Haitian Project, a U.S.-based NGO, operates LCS where it attempts to implement the words of Matthew 10:8 “What you receive as a gift, you must give as a gift.”  LCS gives its students a free education and expects them to give freely in return.  In particular, the concept of work is essential to daily life at the school.  Every student and staff member, including the president, participates in work projects, whether that means picking up trash, cleaning toilets, recycling, or transporting buckets of standing water following Haiti’s heavy rains. 

When news of the cholera danger reached LCS, students took it upon themselves to be proactive leaders in the fight against the disease.  Students went out into the surrounding neighborhood to hand out bottles of bleach and educate families on the proper hygiene necessary to prevent cholera. In addition, LCS students, nearly all of whom reside in the Port-au-Prince area, have been able to instruct their local communities on good methods for food and water hygiene.   
 
It remains clear that LCS students, both current and past, continue to fight in their communities against the cholera outbreak.  This shared dedication to serving and rebuilding Haiti is no coincidence – it is an essential component of their education at LCS.  “At LCS, emphasis on community service and work surpasses that of academics. This produces leaders like Jhonny who are proactive and confident they can make a difference,” states Deacon Patrick Moynihan, President of The Haitian Project and Head of Louverture Cleary School.  “We are very proud of Jhonny.”