Laundry

Sometimes photos of kids from Petite Rivierre can be misleading.  Like this little girl, they usually are well dressed, clean and cared for.  But close-up photos like this don't show the context of their lives and don't convey the reality of the poverty that many families live in.  For example, very few rural Haitian families have homes with running water, electricity, kitchens or any of the features that many consider essential.  Consequently, many ordinary chores require more work than most of us imagine.  For example, the picture below shows how this mother washes clothers. 

Our clients live in a poverty that one just doesn't see anymore in the US.  This is why our clinic only charges a token amount for the healthcare we provide.  We don't charge for lab tests.  Prescriptions are also free.  So we have to raise well over 90% of the cost of providing this care.  We get help of course.  Groups like Direct Relief International provide us with many of the common pharmauciticals that we dispense.  This helps keep our cost below $20 per patient.  But we treat over 1000 patients per month, so groups like ours are constantly in a fund-raising mode.  Our biggest expense is just paying our Haitian staff's salaries.  We have over 30 employees which makes us the biggest employer in the region.  And even though Haitian medical profesionals make far less than their US peers, their combined cost is substantial.

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