Five Years

Today marks a special day for Visitation Clinic.  It was five years ago that the clinic officially opened.   On 19 January 2008, a caravan of buses and cars carrying American visitors came to pack into the town's church with a huge contingent of  local residents for an opening day mass.  Yesterday we commemorated this event with a similar celebration under the clinic's arches.   The local pastor , Fr. Rebecca, told stories  

of the many times since then that people have told him of the life saving difference the clinic has been.  "My baby was about to die from cholera, but Visitation Clinic get her back to life" was one of the quotes he used from a mother.   

Our administrator, Killy, emailed, "... we could hear some patients praying for the clinic's sustainability and also for all its donors and leaders in the USA and Haiti who keep it running every day."  He want on to describe how afterwards, many of the day's 72 patients greeted and hugged the staff, thanking them for having saved or treated a particular member of their family from a certain disease during the past years.

That afternoon, there was a dinner for the staff, who had decided to give each other gifts for this special day.   These carefully wrapped presents to a randomly chosen co-worker expressed their appreciation for each other during sometimes trying times over the last five years.  It was a memorable day for all.