Haiti Update: February 11

Admits/Discharges

• None since the last update!

Medical

• A visiting American dentist saw several of our kids and staff this past week.  We are coordinating some follow up for a few of the children, but overall we had a pretty positive check-up.

• A visiting American doctor saw several of our kids this week as well.

• Paco is our newest admit and was already able to see a specialist for his congenital malformations. He is diagnosed to have arthrogryposis and there will be another specialist here at the end of February who can make more specific recommendations for him. He will probably need either progressive casting or surgery. He is otherwise a very healthy, happy boy who is on target developmentally.

Preschool

• We started preschool again with Manno, Fred, and Addy in the morning preschool five days a week as before and Jeremiah, Dahelson, and Natalie moved up to fill places of children who have gone home to adoptive families.

• We are learning about creation and have talked about days 1-3 using many hands on activities and are also working on waiting/taking turns as well as using words to communicate. This week their favorite activities were water play, a dark box with a flashlight, and making binoculars out of toilet paper rolls before we went on a nature walk to find things that God created. They’ve also started learning Genesis 1:1 as a new verse.

• Our afternoon class meets three days a week with Isaiah, Rose Merline, Jerry, Adlin, and Wilson. We started on Wednesday so we have only had one class thus far. We are also learning about creation in this class too, but do not go into quite as much detail and have talked about days 1 and 2. They loved the water play when talking about God creating water.

Nutrition Program: 

Formula 

• Of the 17 kids in our formula program right now, 8 of them are reunited children who we are monitoring and helping transition back into their family’s care.

• Enoc Charles has been in the formula program for just over a month. He has hydrocephalus and a heart murmur. We are working on trying to get him to Port-au-Prince this month to see a visiting team of neurosurgeons who may be able to place a shunt for him.

Mamba

• We currently have 7 kids enrolled in the mamba program, including a set of 15 month old triplets.

• For five of the seven kids, their parents initially wanted them to be admitted to COTP, either temporarily or for adoption. However, we felt that each family situation was such that the parents/family could continue to care for the child.

• Twin girls, Naika and Nashka, graduated today. They both reached their goal weights and are doing really well!

Haitian Staff

• New room changes happened this past Monday for many nannies as well as children as we sought to integrate many of the older Bato’s into some of the other rooms. The result is that we have four rooms- Bato, Zandolite, Elephant, and Lyon that all look similar while the Jiraf room has strictly remained for special needs kids.

• Nadege, a long-time nanny, was promoted the last week of January to the role of activities coordinator and has since spent one week cleaning the play room and toys.  This past week she began bringing in small groups of kids, 3-4 at a time, with their nanny for guided and directed play. This week they have been enjoying and interacting with Play-Doh. Nannies are also able to come to the play room and check out toys or supplies to use for their group of 3-4 children.