ABF Mobile Clinic Project

THE NETWORK

The Network

The St. Luc Foundation is a Haitian organisation, providing education, medical care and dignified life to more than 1 million people each year through its projects, employing more than 900 Haitians. Father Rick Frechette, an American priest and doctor, founded and directs this institution in collaboration with a group of young Haitian leaders, who, together, have the will to lead their country towards a new future in which every man can live outside extreme poverty that takes away their dignity. Founded in 2001, St. Luc programmes provide:

• Training and food to 10,000 students every year;
• Medical care to more than 200,000 people each year;
• Work for more than 1,800 permanent staff.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND CONTEXT

Physical and mental health and well-being bring significant improvements to the overall quality of our lives. Childhood is a very important factor in the life of each one of us: good health at an early stage of life has a positive effect on children’s productivity. Being healthy is vital for the adequate growth and development of body and mind. Students should be able to have enough energy to spend the whole day at school and this is the main reason why ABF and St Luc started this project in their schools, a project that includes a health insurance program for students.

The project involves all students aged 2-24 years old, divided by categories based on age and classes, besides teachers and staff of ABF schools and all the people living in the involved communities. This program was created for the purpose of offering the opportunity to provide free medical assistance to staff, free medical treatment to children in schools and to the communities where ABF schools are located. Furthermore, the project envisages that mobile clinic spend more days in those communities where access to facilities and medical care is more difficult. For each community, the mobile clinic is scheduled to operate every 3 months. In addition, the project includes a seminar focused on the prevention and care of personal hygiene, together with a sex education program for children, adolescents and adults in the community.

OBJECTIVES

• General counselling for each child, in order to strengthen their skills and their performance abilities in the academic field;
• To screen any child abuse that could affect their learning ability;
• Detecting any medical conditions that may affect them and giving them adequate support;
• Long-term health care aimed at preventing any possible infectious disease in ABF schools and in the related communities;
• Early screening of any type of disability or disease, such as blindness or low vision, mental problems, deafness, sickle cell anaemia, epilepsy, inadequate nutrition, asthma and others, within the schools;
• Reduction of the risk of long-term illnesses and mental deficiencies;
• Early prevention of learning difficulties;
• Offering better living conditions, education and health to the population.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Stage 1: Identification on the basis of the needs analysis carried out by the local partner and verified by the study of the relevant legislation*

Stage 2: Design carried out directly by the local partner and verified through ABF team missions carried out over time;

Stage 3: Execution carried out by the local partner;

Stage 4: Four-monthly narrative and financial reporting.

* The context analysis required to identify the needs of potential beneficiaries and the actions to be undertaken includes a preliminary study and in-depth analysis on:

• The United Nations Development Programme Report
• UNESCO.

IMPACTS ON THE COMMUNITIES

Providing basic necessities, such as access to health care, improves the living conditions of people who do not normally have access to it and, consequently, reduces exposure to infectious or other diseases. The effects generated are, firstly, the physical and psychological well-being of the people receiving the care and, secondly, the improvement of public health management, which lacks the necessary resources to support the entire population, not least because of the political instability in the country, and is relieved of some of the needs to be met.