30 Apr The Chaos Response
Dear Friends and Supporters:
So many are asking how The Good Shepherd Foundation (TGSF) is doing in this time of chaos in Haiti. The information below will help you see how we are not only managing but thriving. Most excitingly, our staff now reflects our faith. They start all staff meetings with prayer and work well together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to provide good care for our patients. Dr. Joseph’s goal for the team is discipline, mutual respect, and fraternity. We love this!
TGSF is persevering through the Haiti chaos and carnage that has been so vividly highlighted in the news recently. Our successes in serving patients in 20 communities continues to grow and we are essential to providing medical care services in Chevreau. In the countryside, Haitians are quietly going about the business of living and striving to maintain peace and stability in their respective communities where miracles are happening! Their resiliency is amazing.
First and foremost, our staff are safe as they have been taking different routes to get to the clinic each week. Staff are travelling on Sunday, which is a quieter less risky travel day, to the clinic which helps to ensure their safety. The people have personal resolve to live their lives and seek medical treatment – just last week we cared for 205 patients! And they are becoming much more aware of their own healthcare.
Medical Services: We are moving away from presumptive diagnosis battlefield medicine to more definitive diagnosis, based on lab-based evidence. We have a lab resource now and can provide better services to manage people’s health. The lab in St Marc is performing lab tests for us and the patient cost of lab work is $1000 gourdes (equal to $7USD) to do a complete blood count and chemistry profile tests. This is an essential service for us to provide better targeted care. Because of this new relationship, we were able to get a lab based medical diagnosis and get a child to the hospital where she is recovering from an illness, instead of her family planning her funeral!
Clinic Equipment: What we are investigating is lab equipment to do the lab work on site. The benefit would be two-fold: first, it would lower operating costs per patient over time. Secondly, is a significant improvement in timely care. The advantage would be immediate results so treatment could begin, or the patient can be sent to the hospital in St. Marc for more extensive care.
OUTBREAK: There is a Typhoid crisis!!! Typhoid is occurring more frequently, and we are the only local medical services provider. Cases are rising monthly, 50% of clinic patients are diagnosed with Typhoid.
Partnership in payments: The patient payments for care are steady and last week of the 205 patients seen, only 3 patients couldn’t pay, and 6 patients paid partially. We ask for $750 gourdes ($5 USD) per patient which includes their medications and procedures such as suturing as needed. This is only a fraction of the cost for the services provided per patient. If a patient is unable to pay, they still receive care.
Operating costs: The additional number of patients we are now treating has increased our operating expenses. For example, the staff has requested gatekeeper support 3 days a week to assist with patient control and flow, a cost of $40 US per month.
We are operating with fiscal responsibility in terms of managing expenses and services. We need your support to manage these cost increases. Please consider a donation to cover these additional expenses: a gift of $480 annually or setting up a monthly donation of $20 per month on our Website – www.thegoodshepherdfoundation.org – would enable us to serve our patients more effectively. Or consider sponsoring the lab equipment in the memory of a loved one.
Because of you, we continue to be light in a dark place where healthcare is uncertain and rarely available. We can do this because of the faithful compassion and financial support of all of you who have taken our mission to heart and made it your own. Financial support in any amount is greatly appreciated.
Please lend your strength by sending a check to The Good Shepherd Foundation, P.O. Box 752 Granby CT 06035 (saves us administrative fees) – yet if donating online works best please consider making TGSF your chosen charity and go to our website and select the donation button! We are so very grateful for your generosity.
I can think of no other place where each dollar goes so far to providing lifesaving medical care and hope to people who are working through incredibly painful times such as the people of Haiti are facing right now.
A blessing to each of you for your kind generosity.
Sharon Lundberg
Secretary & Board Member
The Good Shepherd Foundation
thegoodshepherdfoundation.org
P.O. Box 752
Granby, CT 06035