http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Port-au-Prince) en-us Mon, 11 Jun 2012 08:04:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-health-show-container-hospital Jermain Romeize is suffering complications during childbirth in post-earthquake Haiti. Fortunately, she is being looked after in a maternity hospital, which was built entirely out of shipping containers as a rapid response to the earthquake. Mon, 11 Jun 2012 08:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-health-show-container-hospital Health, Haiti, Médecins Sans Frontières, Maternal health, Hospital, Maternal death, Hypertension, Blood bank, Cold chain, Head of Mission >> VOICEOVER: Jermain Romeize has been in labor for six hours. She has preeclampsia -- high blood pressure, dangerous for both mother and baby. >> DOCTOR: Breathe, breathe. Now push, push. >> JERMAIN ROMEIZE: Wow, mercy, mercy. >> VOICEOVER: Fortunately, she safely delivers a healthy baby boy: Stanley. Giving birth in Haiti is risky. It has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. Skilled medics supervise only a quarter of births. But Jermain and her baby are lucky. She's being looked after in a specialist maternity hospital. It's built entirely out of shipping containers. It was created as a rapid response to the devastation caused by the earthquake, which put many health centers out of action. >> SYLVAIN GROULX [Head of Mission, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Haiti]: There was a need; the hospital in which we were in prior to the earthquake, unfortunately the structure was no longer safe. >> VOICEOVER: This one hundred and twenty bed facility is one of four container hospitals built by Medecins Sans Frontieres in Haiti for local doctors and nurses. A container hospital like this can be set up in five or six months. >> SYLVAIN GROULX: All of the electrical furnishings that you see, the air conditioning units for example, all of the plumbing as well, this all came as part of the package. >> VOICEOVER: These services create safe, hygienic workspaces for the Haitian staff. >> SYLVAIN GROULX: It's very, very important for us to have proper working conditions for our lab techs. It has cold chain, so fridges, and freezers, for example here we have our blood bank. >> VOICEOVER: The hospital specializes in caring for mothers whose lives, or those of their babies, are in danger. This woman has complications in her pregnancy, so her baby is being carefully monitored using ultrasound. >> NURSE: Your baby is normal. He looks okay on the scan. When he is born, we'll have to take him for tests, to check that he doesn't have any respiratory problems. >> VOICEOVER: Over three hundred babies are born here every month. Many of them are small and weak, so this neonatal ward is designed to give them the special care they need. >> SYLVAIN GROULX: These children are all born premature. They really need intensive care 24 hours a day. >> VOICEOVER: Basic incubators have replaced the more sophisticated ones that were lost in the earthquake. Life remains extremely challenging in Haiti. But for today at least, Jermain is able to just enjoy her first moments with her baby. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-health-show-spinal-rehab Leon suffered a devastating spinal injury when his house collapsed on him in during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. But thanks to the Haiti Hospital Appeal, which helps rehabilitate patients with spinal cord injuries, he is beginning to stand on his own feet again. Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:03:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-health-show-spinal-rehab Haiti, Health, Spinal cord injury, Disability, Cap-Haïtien, Earthquake, Port-au-Prince, Rockhopper, The Health Show >> TITLE: The Health Show >> VOICEOVER: Leon Ginsly works tirelessly. He won't stop. >> HANNA: Keep going, okay? >> VOICEOVER: He has energy and determination. Leon wants to get stronger. >> HANNA: You're okay? Fatigue? >> LEON GINSLY: No, no, I'm not tired. >> VOICEOVER: Leon is disabled. He suffered a serious spinal cord injury when his house collapsed during the earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people in Haiti in January 2010. >> LEON GINSLY: The house started shaking. It collapsed. Everyone died, including my wife and eight children. I was the only one that survived. >> VOICEOVER: Leon was left unable to stand up or walk, his wounds infected. Homeless and disabled, the staff at the Haiti Hospital Appeal has looked after Leon. >> DR. PAUL TOUSSAINT [Medical Director, Haiti Hospital, Cap-Haitien]: Most of our patients were depressed when they arrived here. The first step was to rebuild their confidence, the second step was to heal their wounds, to get them back on their feet, through rehabilitation. >> VOICEOVER: Now, Leon can stand up. He can even take small steps by himself. But when he stumbles, it's a reminder that his injury is still holding him back. It's the intensive physiotherapy that has helped Leon make so much progress. >> NURSE: Leon, you have to lift your foot to touch my hand. Hold it, hold it, lift it, and lift it even more. >> VOICEOVER: Leon completes a demanding session every day. >> NURSE: Since you arrived, do you think you have made progress? >> LEON GINSLY: When I came here, I was almost dead, I couldn't move. But the hard work that I have done here has made me very strong. I am getting stronger every day. >> VOICEOVER: His progress, and that of his fellow patients, has surpassed everyone's expectations. This hospital was originally designed as a maternity hospital. Now it's known locally as the Haiti Hospital Appeal, after the British charity that supports it. After the earthquake, it took in twenty-five survivors with severe spinal cord injuries. >> CARWYN HILL [Chief Executive, Haiti Hospital Appeal]: Specialists from abroad and people within Haiti thought that at least 50 percent would pass away. 24 of them have been successfully rehabilitated, of them 19 have returned to their communities and we've been able to re-house about 80 percent of them. >> VOICEOVER: Inclusion is encouraged through sports and games, regardless of the level of a patient's disability. Relatives and staff take part too. These activities keep them strong, motivated, and entertained. As for Leon, the strength he has found through his rehabilitation has turned his life around. He has begun a new journey, to become a disabled athlete and fulfill a dream for himself and his fellow Haitians. >> LEON GINSLY: I want to participate in the Olympic games in England. I would like to be part of the games. I am getting ready and working hard so that the world realizes where I come from and what I have been through. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/house-call-in-hell Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and a general lack of funding in Haiti's National Penitentiary have caused it to become one of the worst in the Western Hemisphere. Reporter Antigone Barton and videographer Stephen Sapienza take a first-hand look at these conditions and an American doctor working to correct them. Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/house-call-in-hell Haiti, Health, Port-au-Prince, HIV, Physician, Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Education, Sexually transmitted disease, Beriberi, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting >> TITLE: Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Port-au-Prince, Haiti>> DR. JOHN MAY [PHYSICIAN]: My name is John May; I'm a physician in internal medicine. I've been practicing for more than 15 years in the field of correctional healthcare. I'm the chief medical officer for a company in Miami, that's my full-time job. My other life is volunteer service. I'm looking at how we can bring some of the skills and systems that we have in place, that are effective and functional in the United States, to developing countries. >> TITLE: In the wake of a massive crackdown on organized crime and urban gangs, Haiti's National Penitentiary is a dangerously overcrowded powder keg. Poor physical conditions contribute to cases of physical and sexual abuse, and the rates of tuberculosis and HIV are far higher than the national norm. >> DR. JOHN MAY: We flew into Haiti this morning to continue our work at the prison. I go to the National Penitentiary every two months or so, sometimes more frequently than that, to follow up on some patients and try to deliver care and make steady improvements in the system there. The prison is officially designed for about 1,050 persons; today's population is 3,054 inmates. >> DR. JOHN MAY: This is the Titanic Building, it was built just a few years ago with international funding, but it never had any provision for plumbing. The thought at the time was that people could leave their cell areas and go out and use the toilets, but it's so crowded now they have to keep it locked down almost all the time. So you'll see the waste all over the floor and the water as they hose down the areas, but the smell will be obvious. To urinate you have to go through the bars, to defecate you have to put it in a plastic bag and toss it out. This will be the focus of the intervention now. >> DR. JOHN MAY: Ask him how many are in here now. >> MAN 1: Forty-seven. >> DR. JOHN MAY: The intention was that the inmates would be able to leave the cell areas and go to the latrines, go to an outdoor area where they've got some pits and access water that way. But because of the crowding and the fact that there are very few staff persons to maintain a safe environment, they're locked down in these rooms and the rooms are mostly all small, different sizes maybe, 20 by 20 room designed for twelve people and some have 50, and 60 and 70 persons all crowded into them. >> DR. JOHN MAY: These rooms -- ask how many people are in this one.>> MAN 1: Sixty-seven. >> DR. JOHN MAY: There's no running water, no plumbing, they're allowed out maybe an hour a day to shower or maybe get some exercise. >> DR. JOHN MAY: Soap is very important; it's a commodity that the inmates really need and appreciate. Unfortunately soap is heavy but we at least bring one suitcase full of soap. I always, before the trips, run to the flea market or a discount store and fill a suitcase with soap that we can distribute. Walking into the prison with the soap can be really overwhelming, and at first it threw me back, I was afraid we were going to start little riots because everyone clambers for it. It's a sad thing to see the frustration and the intensity with which they want just a simple bar of soap. I don't think we'll cause riots with the soap, and we haven't, and I've come to appreciate that somehow this place has not blown up. It seems like it's really on the teeter to explode. How all these people can be cramped in such a space under such conditions, and still there's stability there, it's a fascinating thing to study and figure out. They're still clinging on to hope. When you can provide something as small as a bar of soap, it gives someone some hope. >> DR. JOHN MAY: We're not sure what he has. He started with Beriberi. You can find it in the literature in World War II, in the camps prisoners would get Beriberi. It started emerging here a few years ago, and a simple thiamine pill or injection could cure it, but I don't think he got the replacement quickly enough, that's why he has the swelling in his feet now. I think the opportunity was missed to reverse it. It could have been cured easily with just a vitamin, a thiamine. >> DR. JOHN MAY: Infectious diseases are a huge concern in the prison. Many come in with infectious diseases, and then crowded in these tight areas the diseases can flourish. Mostly we're talking about tuberculosis, scabies. We had an enormous problem with scabies. Certainly sexually transmitted infections and HIV are prevalent throughout the prison. >> DR. JOHN MAY: When was your last test, when did you say you had it? A year ago? Here, or in the States? What was the result then? It was negative? Okay. These are rapid tests, they are preliminary, it's not a final, but it's concerning me that the preliminary test is positive. But we have to do more tests with the samples that I took. >> DR. JOHN MAY: Tuberculosis, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, are things that if not properly managed within a medical setting can develop drug resistance, they certainly will spread to others, and most of these inmates are going to go out into the community. If we're not addressing the problems, then we're actually incubating and creating a worse problem, and it will flourish and we'll spread this to the community. >> TITLE: In August 2007, a private donor gave $25,000 to Dr. May's organization to launch a cleanliness initiative at the prison called "Titanic Plus." http://www.viewchange.org/videos/haiti-obstacles-to-education-reform Haiti faces the enormous challenge of recruiting qualified teachers and providing adequate infrastructure to students. The country has never had a strong tradition of universal public education. Meet the people who are fighting to create a new culture of education. Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:37:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/haiti-obstacles-to-education-reform Haiti, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Education, Teacher, Sustainable development, Millennium Development Goals, Port-au-Prince, Caribbean >> MARYSE KEDAR [Director, Prodev Haiti]: Something went wrong in this country. Something is wrong, that today when you turn around you see what you see. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT [School Teacher, Educational Consultant]: Haiti has remained such an isolated country; and has grown a people that have come out of nothing, slavery and isolation, totally without any frame for the past 200 years. Education is one of the most important factors in the future development of Haiti. >> CHARLES TARDIEU [National Education Minister, 1990-?91]: Now, post January twelfth, things are getting worse. We Haitians have to decide that we are going to rebuild our country, and then we can look for help from other countries. >> PIERRE BONY [Chief Inspector of Schools, Kenscoff District]: There is no sustaining development in Haiti without education. Our government does not have the means to properly address education, even though it?s definitely a need. In the case of January twelfth, it?s not the earthquake that kills people. It?s not the concrete that kills you; it?s the lack of education. Young people didn?t know what to do. >> MARYSE KEDAR [Director, Prodev Haiti]: The education sector in Haiti is in a very bad situation. >> CHARLES TARDIEU: Teacher training and teacher qualification is one of the major problems in the system. The teacher force is about 65-70,000, and out of that, you have 35-40,000 who are not trained to do the job they are doing right now. They are just there because there are no other people to do it, and because you need somebody to be standing in front of the class. >> PHIDLITO DIEUDONNE: My name is Phidlito Dieudonné. I?m studying at teacher?s college. This kind of education is very important for teachers because, hopefully, we?re going to be armed with the tools to do the job correctly and professionally. >> CHARLES TARDIEU: So we cannot divide within political lines, within ideological lines. I think we definitely have to bring everybody together, whatever the position you?re coming from. Are you interested in rebuilding Haiti? Yes? Let?s go for it. Let?s do it. >> SIGN: ?School?>> MARYSE KEDAR: If we want things to really happen and to be sustainable, the decision has to be made with Haitians, and in the most part, by Haitians. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/education-in-haiti-a-teachers-passion-and-vision-for-change A former private school headmaster in Haiti, Alzire Rocourt was deeply affected by the earthquake. Her school was destroyed in the disaster, but now, she tackles the challenges of working in a tent city. The educator now teaches music classes in efforts to bring hope to Haitian youth. Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:37:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/education-in-haiti-a-teachers-passion-and-vision-for-change Haiti, Education, Sustainable development, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Developing country, Port-au-Prince, Primary school, Millennium Development Goals, Birth certificate >> ALZIRE ROCOURT [Teacher]: Our children are extremely eager to learn. They seem to have, even though they are small, an intuition that this might be a way out of misery and poverty and isolation. My name is Alzire Rocourt. I am a teacher but mostly a musician, really. Our first concern after the earthquake was to provide some frame for these kids that had gone through such a trauma. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: Every parent must have a birth certificate. If you don't have your child's birth certificate, we won't grant admission. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: Even now, eight months after the earthquake, I believe our authorities are talking too much. Just talking too much, just planning too much. There are times in life when you have to stop planning and act, do something. >> MAN 1: We can only take five people at a time.>> ALZIRE ROCOURT: And they are not even providing a chance for the Haitian people who would like to act to do so. We feel paralyzed. The way we have been dealing with education for the past fifteen years, we are ending up with a nation where everyone is a child. They are just at first grade level, second grade level, and no one can move beyond. Is that an aim for a nation? Integrate everybody so everyone learns. We have seventy-five years to make it; if we don't make it we are going to disappear. And I'm not one that believes that countries don't disappear. If they say, for those that still say it, that our independence was a great deed, what have we done of it? Eight million people that are swimming in poverty in no way proves that we are a nation. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: So these are the kinds of things you will learn in high school music classes. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: I love my people. I want them to become a normal people; I want them to become a respected people. For me it is a matter of national survival. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: Now when you listen to the radio you can understand classical music. Do you understand? Thank you for listening today. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-divine-mission Deacon Patrick Moynihan is a missionary in Haiti who runs the Louverture Cleary School, offering a free secondary education to youth in this Port-au-Prince suburb. He believes that the way to rebuild Haiti is through providing education everywhere, no matter how bad the conditions may be. Fri, 03 Jun 2011 08:37:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-divine-mission Haiti, Education, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Port-au-Prince, Foreign Assistance, Non-governmental organization, Teacher, LinkTV Picks >> DEACON PATRICK MOYNIHAN [Director, Louverture Cleary School]: Education really works this way: a teacher, a blackboard to write on, and somewhere for kids to sit. And if all the community can provide at this point is a shady tree, get teaching under a shady tree. We don't need any expert ideas in Haiti. We need work - hard, basic work - and a lot of funding. My name is Deacon Patrick Moynihan and I am the president of The Haitian Project as well as the head of Louverture Cleary School just outside of Port-au-Prince in Santo. They opened the school in 1987 and I came in 1996, and since then we took the school from being 175 students to 350. I decided to leave trading in 1995; I was working for Louis Dreyfus as a commodities and options trader. My faith is at the base of everything I do, and theology and how the church looks at social teachings and the gospels underline everything that we do here and everything that I do. And so from day one, I've always called myself a missionary. It literally changed my life. From trading and working for my own success and making sure my family was successful to changing to working for other people's success and giving my life back. What you receive for free you must give for free. I received a lot of education in my life and so it just made sense to be part of giving education to people who had no chance for it. >> JEAN EMMANUEL ZAMY [LCS Alumni]: To have a good education in Haiti you have to pay a lot, at Louverture Cleary it's totally free. We try to take people who cannot pay for school, people who need the school. I have a good education with nothing. You don't pay for it. >> DEACON PATRICK MOYNIHAN: This school is all about the country of Haiti and rebuilding the country. And this was before the earthquake, of course. Before the earthquake we said, "Nous pret a rebatir Haiti," which means, "We are ready to rebuild Haiti." We come in and work at the level, and move from the level up. We don't come in and say the level is so deplorable you can't work at it. And that sets you apart from the NGO and the other strategies; the missionary is a very specific strategy and it works very well in Haiti. >> TITLE: Video by Paul Franz, Lara Petusky Coger. Produced in association with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting as part of Project:Report, a YouTube/Pulitzer Center contest. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-radio-links-haitian-families-to-life-saving-aid A cacophony of songs and radio reports drift from the tented camp; thousands of radios are providing entertainment and, more importantly, information. A UNICEF Public Service Announcement on nutrition blares out of several radios tuned into Port-au-Prince's Radio One. The station is one of many that work with Internews, an organization that is distributing information to earthquake victims. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-radio-links-haitian-families-to-life-saving-aid Haiti, Earthquake, Internews, Technology, Media, Foreign Assistance, Port-au-Prince, Radio broadcasting, UNICEF >> VOICEOVER: You're watching UNICEF Television. Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, lies hidden under a cloud of dust. A massive relief effort is underway, but without information, the aid is useless to many of those most in need. But UNICEF and other aid organizations have been working with Internews to distribute valuable information to the country's devastated population.>> JACOBO QUINTANILLA [Humanitarian Coordinator, Internews Emergency Response]: In any emergency, the first priority is the delivery of critical aid. But communities need more than that: they also need information. It's critical for them to know where they can get water, where they can get certain facilities, how to access those medical centers. Is it safe to go home? Where is my family? How can I get in touch with the people I love? That's why information is critical and why information can save lives. >> VOICEOVER: Working with local journalists, the organization produces daily radio programs relevant to the disaster-affected communities. Johnny is one of these journalists. Each day he takes to the streets and in this case, the camps of displaced, to find out what the challenges are and whether people are getting the help they need.>> JOHNNY CESAR [Journalist, Internews]: Today I went to one of the biggest camps in Port-au-Prince. We're trying to find out how these people are living, are they able to get food, and are they able to get water. That was the story here for today. >> VOICEOVER: Internews works with 23 radio stations in Port-au-Prince that together cover the entire country. The daily radio show is packaged alongside public service announcements from UNICEF and other organizations. >> ELIZABETH AUGUSTIN [UNICEF Communications for Development, Haiti]: This is an opportunity for us to gather information on health, mostly for hygiene, also HIV/AIDS, to remind people about HIV/AIDS prevention and what they can do to get their medication and also nutrition, especially for breastfeeding. So we've been sharing our messages that we prepared with the Ministry of Health, and they broadcast them for us freely.>> VOICEOVER: CDs are printed and the programs delivered by hand to radio stations and hit the airwaves within minutes. To ensure the information is received, Internews is distributing thousands of handheld radios to the same radio stations that broadcast their show. The stations in turn sign an agreement to distribute the radios to those most in need; women-headed households and people displaced by the quake. The radios are wind up, solar powered, can be tuned in to multiple frequencies, and double as a torch, which means those living in the camps, those that have lost everything, will always be able to tune in. >> JOHNNY CESAR: We see that in many camps, around the tents, people are using the small radio now to get the show.>> VOICEOVER: As clearing and reconstruction efforts begin, it is vital that those who have survived the quake get the information and thus the help they need to survive the next step. This is Guy Hubbard reporting for UNICEF Television. Unite for children.