All last week, businesses were closed and major roads were blocked. The gas shortage and subsequent protests had effectively shut down commerce, transportation, and even many health centers.
Yet each morning we awake to check-in with our contacts at banks and supply depots. We call shop owners to ask them if they will be opening their stores. And if yes, we asked "when?"
Next we call various contacts along the route. "Are the roads clear? Have you heard about any planned protests?"
Then if the owner plans to open her shop, if the roads are clear, and if temperature of the zone has cooled, we move, trying to accomplish as many tasks as we can in a short period of time. No wasted fuel. No wasted minutes. No one in danger.
Getting the “all clear” = go time.
All week we’d been waiting for the “all clear” for two different categories of supplies. Family Planning supplies, like IUDs and contraceptive pills, and vaccines—the ones you give to babies in their first and second year of life. We typically get the Family Planning supplies from a nearby hospital and vaccines come from the regional office of the ministry of Health in the city of Cap-Haitien.
Both are critical and essential. But very hard to come by in today's climate in Haiti.
By Thursday night, we had word that the nurse who supplies our birth control would be making an attempt to reach the hospital the following day.
While the hospital wouldn’t be open to patients (no fuel), she had plenty of supplies to offer.
We could meet her there.
At 10 AM on Friday, she sends a message: “Roads blocked near my home. Can’t get through. Let’s try Monday.”
Monday? Not a single person on our team wanted to wait that long. Monday, things could be worse.
Andy, our Operations Manager at the Cap Haitien Maternity Center, had another idea. What about the back way?
He offered to pick her up at home, drive her (by motorcycle) to the hospital using the back roads, and to take her home again once we had what we needed.
She agreed. And that’s what happened.
90-minutes later, we were back at our center with a box full of pristine birth control (unused from all the weeks the hospital had been shuttered). Pure "gold."
Meanwhile, another Second Mile Haiti employee, Jos, was offering the same service for the Vaccine Manager who was desperately seeking a way into his office at the regional bureau of Ministry of Health. Because of our own fuel reserves, we were able to pick him up en route to the office. Without him there, no one would have been able to receive vaccines that day. Since we had the fuel, we were able to leave with a cooler full of vaccine “gold” for the children of our community.
***
The weekend that followed was windy and rainy as Hurricane Ian moved North. No damage was done to Haiti. Thankfully.
On Monday and Tuesday, the sun was shining and our Maternity Centers were full of women, despite ongoing protests and the closures of other health centers. And what a relief it was to have the supplies to serve them.
Women who wanted them, received IUDs, birth control pills, and other contraceptives. Thanks to a quick thinking staff member and the determination of the nurse who opened up the hospital to get us supplies, pregnant women got the care they needed, and so did the women who wanted to avoid pregnancy or delay it.
And then came Wednesday.
Yesterday was Vaccine Day—held every second Wednesday at our Cap Haitien Maternity Center.
One by one, parents trickled in. 68 parents in total. Our biggest vaccine day to-date. Some came cradling newborns and arrived holding the hands of their toddlers.
Maybe—despite the turmoil all around us—they assumed we'd have vaccines on this particular day, because we haven’t let them down yet.
It’s been a tough few weeks. Still, its a privilege to stand with Haitien parents and the healthcare workers that support them—as they risk the streets and walk long distances just so their children can have the best possible shot at this one, wild and precious, life.
We need your help.
If you can, consider a donation to help us continue to serve the most vulnerable in Haiti during these challenging times.
❤️ from Haiti