 September/October 2001 (XXXIX 4) |
he Haiti Working Group of PYM is looking for Quaker families to host this year's visiting Haitian pediatrician, who will be training in Philadelphia in October and November.
Each Friends family provides housing for one or two weeks. We ask that they provide breakfast and some evening meals. Those interested should contact Dr. Ronald Coburn of Swarthmore Meeting (PA) at 215-474-0791 or 215-898-8069, or Mark Bradley of Concord Meeting (PA) at 610-352-2163.
The Visiting Haitian Pediatrician Project, which is supported by the PYM Peace and Concerns Standing Committee, has the primary goal of offering training in non-technological pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for young Haitian physicians who are in the second year of their residency at Haiti's Port-au-Prince General Hospital. Haitian medicine has been isolated and another goal of the project is to develop on-going relationships between physicians from Haiti and Americans who work at Children’s Hospital. Other goals are to sensitize American physicians, hospital staff people, students and others to medical problems in Third World countries.
The planning of this program is driven by the fact that Haiti has a 50% infant mortality rate, the highest in the Western Hemisphere, and its medical system has great needs. We believe the effect of our program is amplified because the visiting Haitian pediatrician is in a position to teach and influence other medical personnel in Haiti. The program is coordinated by physicians in Haiti and the United States, and by the Haiti Working Group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The program has already “trained” four physicians who are now working in hospitals and clinics in Haiti. One of our trainees, Dr. Marcel Severe, is working with a PYM-supported medical and school program in Port-au-Prince. Last year's trainee, Dr. Pierre Richard Feguire, obtained training in Neurology, Cardiology, Infectious Disease and Emergency Room, and presented several different conferences to medical staff and people interested in Haiti. He was hosted by four different Friends families.
Ronald Coburn, M.D.
Swarthmore Meeting (PA)
PYM Haiti Working Group
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM