Medical Supplies Fund

Pope Francis said: “I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” In our humble, very limited way, the Santa Chiara Children’s Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti is a kind of field hospital for kids.

Our kids come to us weary from their battle with extreme poverty, constant hunger, emotional neglect, and often physical abuse. They come wounded in many ways. The 2nd youngest member of our community of the weak was only two days old when we found him in a garbage dump where his distressed mother had left him. Often the kids who are brought to us have stories of unthinkable abuse at the hands of their parents, and they have the physical and emotional scars that come from brutal beatings. One child was brought to us on the verge of starvation; she was virtually skin and bones; and to further complicate her recovery, she was also HIV+.

We cover all the medical costs associated with keeping the kids healthy, this includes needed surgeries and hospitalization for pneumonia and tuberculosis. When there is no room in the public hospitals in our area, we send the children to an expensive private hospital.

During our first three years, we had a pediatrician who treated the children for free in her office, which was about a 40-minute drive from our home. It was not enough to handle the onslaught of daily cuts and bruises and minor illnesses.

Thanks to a generous gift from a supporter, in early in 2018, we opened a small medical clinic staffed by a part-time nurse. In time we added a second nurse and an assistant nurse, as well as a doctor who comes one day a week. We recently add a second part-time doctor.

The cost of operating the Sean O’Flynn Medical Clinic at the Santa Chiara Children’s Center is $25,000 a year. This includes the cost of all medications, hospital visits, surgeries, lab tests, and x-rays.

Beyond caring for the medical needs of the children We also cover all the medical expenses for our staff. One staff member required life-saving, emergency surgery. Two women on our staff gave birth to babies, one requiring a c-section.

Because of our medical clinic, we are able to treat illnesses before they become major problems. The children are vaccinated and treated for a wide range of skin problems that are common among children who lived in slums.

Our clinic went unfunded in 2019 and 2020. We cannot afford to shut it down. Please help us keep it open.