Project Medishare: Haiti

“Merrimack is not only the newest member of Project Medishare’s family, but we don’t have another university that can duplicate your work and efforts.”           

 ~  Marie Cherie,
In-Country Director
Project Medishare

Haiti Service Learning Initiative

• Project Medishare for Haiti is a medical non-profit organization that was co-founded by Merrimack Alumnus Dr. Art Fournier and works together with the people of Haiti to provide quality healthcare and development services.
• In the summer of 2011, Marc Veletzos (Civil Engineering), Brian Suehs-Vassel (Campus Ministry) and Kevin Melanson (Health Sciences/Athletic Training) all participated in a fact finding trip to Haiti, sponsored by the Office of Mission and Ministry.
• The students and staff from Merrimack College have the talents and expertise to sustainably collaborate with Project Medishare to save lives and improve the health and well being of the Haitian people.
• In June of 2012, seven members of the Merrimack community traveled to rural Haiti as part of the inaugural student trip to Haiti.  The traveling participants included Marc, Brian and Kevin, along students Mollie Fitzgerald and Chelsea Jacoby (Athletic Training); and Dan Borges and Maggie Jacques (Civil Engineering).
• In January of 2013, Merrimack continued it’s work in rural Haiti.  The week-long trip gave the 10 trip participants the opportunity to improve access to clean water and provide health care for musculoskeletal injuries.

 

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(Video from fall 2011)

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Merrimack’s partnership with Project Medishare currently focuses on one Civil Engineering and one Athletic Training goal:

1. Provide the town of Casse with clean water. Currently the residents of Casse are required to draw all its water from the local, cholera-contaminated river (Civil Engineering in Haiti).
2. Provide health care and education for those who suffer from activity-related injuries. Currently, Haitians who suffer an injury while working have no access to this type of health care and risk losing their livelihood (Athletic Training in Haiti).

 

Our efforts in Haiti focus on three steps:

1. Study and observe the problems facing the Haitian people.
2. Develop projects and programs that are able to answer these needs in an ongoing, sustainable manner.
3. Implement these programs and projects with the help of Project Medishare and the Haitian people.

 

As Merrimack continues to develop its partnership with Project Medishare, we hope to find other ways that the college can collaborate to help the people of Haiti.  We welcome people who are interested in helping develop or support this project to contact any member of the initiative.