Is there a doctor in the house?

If you follow us on FaceBook, you know that our travel dates for our first trip to Haiti in 2011 are February 7 - 14.

But we are missing one important person for this trip.

And it might be you!

We are looking for a doctor (ER, general practice or pediatrician) to accompany us for our first visit to St. Vincent's Center for Handicapped Children. All students at St. Vincent's have physical handicaps of some sort. The majority are hearing impaired, sight impaired and physically disabled, needing wheelchairs, canes, crutches and prosthetics. Their ages range from 5 - 16.

We feel that a doctor would bring a valuable comprehensive medical perspective to the table. We have specialists waiting in the wings for future trips, but at this time, we need someone with a broad scope of knowledge to help us access St. Vincent's so that we can plan accordingly for future mission trips.

The trip is scheduled for February 7 - 14th. We will visit St. Vincent's, Rivers of Hope orphanage and other areas around Port-au-Prince. Tentatively, we are planning to be onsite at St. Vincent's from February 9th - 11th.

Specifically, this trip would entail onsite research into the following areas:

• how does St. Vincent's provide medical services for their students?
• what are their facilities like in terms of clinical areas / equipment / supplies available?
• what would we need to bring along: staff, supplies, medication, etc?
• what types of doctors are most needed at this time?

Here are some links to our blog posts that discuss St. Vincent's past, present and future:

• History of St. Vincent's
• St. Vincent's before the earthquake
• St. Vincent's after the quake
• The initial plan to rebuild

If time allows, we would also like to hold an informal clinic for the children, doing basic well-checkups. It is our understanding that the children's medical records survived. We plan to photograph the entire facility and do a loose inventory of the clinic(s) and supplies. This information will be critical as we organize future trips to work in St. Vincent's clinic and school.

We have a beautiful, safe place to stay in Haiti with wifi and phone service. It is dormitory style with a shared bathroom and includes 2 meals per day. We will travel together on the ground via taxi with a Haitian guide. The approximate cost for the entire week is $1500 (including airfare), but of course this depends on your city of origin. Travelers may stay the entire week or part. All volunteers are responsible for their own expenses.

If you, or someone you know, would like to join us for the trip or would like more information, please contact Kathy at kathy@redthreadpromise.org or call 817.320.6522.

We promise that it will be a life-changing experience to work with these exceptional children!