Lamp nurses: Ms Saillant, Ms Astrude and Ms Saint-Fleur
The Lamp “campus” in Bwa Nèf, Cité Soleil has come a long way since 2008, when we first moved to our current location. The first Lamp clinic was established in three small residential buildings in the middle of a maze of tiny cement block and corrugated tin houses. Now the clinic boasts a new two-room building (for women’s clinic and x-ray), a public toilet, two covered seating areas, various store-rooms and a surrounding wall. Those three original buildings, however, remain the core of the clinic – they house the primary exam rooms, the lab and now, the pharmacy.
The pharmacy you see pictured was once a leaky tin-roofed house, where we originally conducted initial triage and public education sessions. The building has been expanded and the tin roof replaced with concrete. Tile floors and new cupboards complete the picture.
The pharmacy represents something of the philosophy of Lamp itself: starting with local resources and gradually, organically, building strengths in response to local needs.
The cement roof, by the way, is already showing its value. Hurricane Matthew did not strike Port-au-Prince directly, as it passed this week, but even relatively high winds and rain can cause dramatic damage to flimsy tin roofs. Although our clinic was spared any damage, we know that thousands of homes have been destroyed in the worst hit areas. Please keep Haiti in your thoughts!
