ICC & the 40th Anniversary Celebration: what someone can do without leaving their home

I want to mention our hosts of this little sejours - "International Child Care" or ICC (see http://www.intlchildcare.org/) is an NGO focusing on Haiti & the DR for the last 40 years. One of the best parts of this week was getting to know members of the American board - ordinary Americans who have been touched in one way or another by Haiti & the challenges there. They are salesmen, nurses, physiotherapists, from all over the US and many had never thought of the world outside their borders before they got involved with Haiti. The American & Canadian members donate a great deal of time and effort to fundraising, while the local organisation and board focus more on programming - with dedicated Haitian staff throughout the country. At the two 40th anniversary celebration, many spoke of their pride in the organization and the lives that it impacted.

ICC has both the Grace Children's Hospital in Port-au-Prince, and community health centers and activities throughout Haiti, with activities like primary care, vaccination, and income generation / microcredit schemes.

Chuck Phelps & Jeannine Hatt acted as our hosts - they've been to Haiti at least twice a year for a number of years, and are very dedicated to the cause. They were incredibly warm and welcoming and put a lot of effort into ensuring that the two 'newbies' - myself and Sarah Kim (another former Pediatrics AIDS Corps doctor) - had a chance to see more of Haiti. (Photo, left to right - Sarah Kim, Jeannine Hatt, Claudy St Juste, Tyler Bloom, Chuck Phelps, Mesa, our driver - lunch stop on our medical tourism day).

Claudy St Juste was the master organizer - what a headache he had to organize 30 North Americans, the details for the congress, all the transport, etc. And yet he was consistently welcoming, friendly and gracious - and clearly dedicated to the organization.


Friday night was the formal celebration, with speeches, a video and excellent Haitian dancing by a group of young adults at least of some of which were former patients at ICC. This photo is the North Americans who came to speak in the conference.