Written by Caitliln N Caldwell
Leigh Counts, a senior at Harding University, traveled with a medical team to Haiti during spring break to help the Haitians’ medical needs.
Counts, a nursing major, spent eight days assisting three clinics located around Gonaives, a city north of Port au Prince. The clinics saw between 2,700 and 2,800 Haitians throughout the week, she said.
“I had talked to several of my friends in the nursing program at Harding who had gone before, and I never understood why all they could say about the trip was what a neat experience it was,” Counts said, “Now I know why.”
While in Haiti, Counts worked with Haiti Christian Development Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to help refugees in Haiti.
“After spending over a week with the founder and other people who work with HCDP, I have nothing but excellent things to say about the organization,” Counts said.
According to a recent article published by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, HCDP is currently supporting Pacius, a Haitian preacher, and the refugees that he has taken in after the earthquake.
“The money that was donated for my trip went directly to these people after the transportation costs were accounted for,” Counts said.”When I first got there and began to walk around, I could not fathom how these people were living. I just felt like I was flipping through a magazine. There was no way what I was seeing was a reality…just an hour-and-40-minute plane ride from Miami.”
Counts’ medical team consisted of family physicians, medical students, dentists, an optometrist, nursing students, registered nurses and nurse practitioners.
“What was so neat about our team was that everyone — from a 10-year-old doctor’s son to a 65-year-old farmer, doctors from Alaska to Arkansas — all came together by the second day and bonded so much more than I could imagine,” Counts said.
The team was planning to go before the magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti in January. Members decided to continue with the trip regardless of the dangers after the earthquake.
“As soon as we started talking about what we were going to be doing in Haiti, the excited feeling took over the scared feeling from the earthquake,” Counts said.
According to Counts, malnutrition and over-all infection, especially in kids, were some of the most common medical symptoms among the Haitians.
“They were just normal kids, who had suffered so much,” Counts said.”The Haitians are just good people, holding on. One of my goals in my personal walk with God is to someday have the kind of faith that I saw the Haitians have.”
Donations can be given to HCDP at theirWeb site. All donations go directly to feeding and supporting families in Haiti who are supporting refugees who have fled from Port au Prince.
