Our History

1998

• First rehabilitation team travels to Haiti
• 14 members divide into two teams, one to Port-au-Prince and one to Les Cayes
• 300 patients evaluated and treated in 10 days in 5 clinics

1999

• Second rehabilitation team travels to Haiti
• 42 members divide into three teams
• Over 1000 patients evaluated and treated
• First class set up to teach Haitian clinicians about rehabilitation
• Healing Hands is incorporated into a 501(c)3 non-profit organization

2000

• Three rehabilitation teams travel to Haiti
• We open our own clinic, Kay Kapab, in a leased facility, which includes a PT/OT gym, 2 medical exam rooms, a small pharmacy, administrative offices, and 2 classrooms
• Guesthouse includes dining room , kitchen, and five bedrooms to accommodate 22
• Caregiver School revised
• Food For The Poor donates shipping and clinic supplies

2001

• 4 rehabilitation teams evaluate and treat over 3000 patients at Kay Kapab
• Prosthetic shop opens
• Kay Kapab Rehabilitation Technician I school opens. Curriculum consists of basics of nursing, physical therapy and occupational therapy. Classes taught by the medical teams
• First class of Rehabilitation Techs graduate December 2001

2002

• Six rehabilitation teams plus 2 teams not affiliated with Healing Hands evaluate and treat over 5000 patients. Included are 1600 sessions of therapy, 78 patients receive prostheses, 129 patients receive orthotics, and 3 patients receive surgical intervention
• Caregiver school taught by the medical teams
• 17,900 pounds of medical and household supplies are shipped. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Humanitarian Services provided the trucking and shipping, plus donated 13 pallets of medical supplies
• Sonia B. Green Center for Education and Rehabilitation opens. This home provides living quarters for students from the provinces and patients needing extended therapy or prosthetic fitting. Dr. Barth Green and his family agree to provide operational costs for 3 years
• Research project conducted by J K Bigelow, M Korth, J Jacobs, N Anger and M Riddle of the University of Utah. The project examined the amputee population of Haiti and the need and use of prosthetic devices
• Dean Byrd, Ph.D. of the Thrasher Foundation completed an evaluation report in May 2002. This report focused on programs in Haiti to include clinic and patient functions, administrative functions, and the Tech I Education program
• Second Tech I program graduates September 2002
• Partnership with Health Volunteers Overseas begins to find teachers for Tech I program
• Preventive and Public Health Education Program provided preventive and public health education to patients in the medical waiting area of Kay Kapab. Included information on burns, infections, wound care, cerebral palsy, diabetes, polio, nutrition, hygiene, hypertension, brain injury, stroke, and all major causes of amputation
• School Reintegration Program initiated. Scholarships enabled 11 students to attend school

2003

• Nine rehabilitation teams travel to Haiti from Utah, Oregon, California, Michigan, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Canada. A total of 4818 patients were evaluated and treated at Kay Kapab
• Teams work with local orphanages to treat children and train staff
• Graduate students of the Tech I program provided 3890 therapy treatments at Kay Kapab
• Sonia B. Green Center is well established, providing housing for 35 patients and 14 students
• 37 students enrolled in school through the School Reintegration Program
• 22 surgeries performed by Dr. Bernard Nau, Dr. Valsant and Dr. Barth Green. 85 patients were seen for post op follow up care after surgery
• Clifford Cadet, a graduate of the Tech I program was brought to the United States for two months of intensive orthotic training with Matt Bracken of Salt Lake City, Utah and then four months of training in prosthetics with Tom Bremmer in Flint, Michigan
• Tony Barr and the Barr Foundation donated 10 boxes of prosthetic supplies
• Shipped 20 pallets of medical and household supplies, weighing 11,270 lbs. Shipping costs were donated by Pierre Barbeau of Aide Aux Aine (Help The Aged), a Canadian non-profit organization
• Teresa Matejovsky from Johns Hopkins University conducted research regarding clinical services at Kay Kapab clinic from May 2002-2003
• Amputee research project published in Disability and Rehabilitation, a multidisciplinary journal based in the United Kingdom and published by Taylor and Francis Health Services. The title of the article is “a Picture of Amputees and the Prosthetic Situation in Haiti”
• Barry M. Smith generously purchases and donated for our use a 6 acre parcel of land with 7 buildings, including an unfinished 4 story concrete building which will someday become Haiti’s and the Caribbean’s first Rehabilitation hospital
• Construction begins to remodel the guesthouse
• Weeklong fundraising and Disability Awareness events held in November in Port-au-Prince. The focus was on supporting families of people with disabilities. This included a party for over 300 children from several orphanages
• Third group of Tech I students graduate in November

2004

• 4000 patients seen in clinic
• Construction begins on a new clinic at the new property. Guesthouse is remodeled.
• Teams stay at the guesthouse on the new property and continue to work in the clinic at the old property in January and February
• Remaining programs moved to the new property in March
• Clinic and school construction completed July 2004 with the help of the Canadian military, part of the multi-national UN forces
• Clinic dedicated the Julia P. Smith Centre for Rehabilitation and Education
• Nine rehabilitation teams from Utah, Canada, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Oregon work in Haiti despite multiple events related to political unrest
• Patients and students continue to live at the Sonia B. Green Home
• Fourth group of Tech I students graduate. Class name changed to Aide I
• Aide I curriculum continues to be revised
• Caregiver School revised
• Public Health Program continues for patients waiting to be seen in the clinic
• School Reintegration Program continues. 33 children were able to attend school in different levels of education: Primary, High School and Vocational
• 20 pallets of medical and household supplies shipped. Costs donated by Aide Aux Aine in Canada
• 500 wheelchairs donated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Humanitarian Services and The Wheelchair Foundation. The first day of the presentation of the wheelchairs to needy patients attended by Barry Smith, Healing Hands for Haiti board members, President Giles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Haiti Mission, Team Canada with Colleen O’Connel and many others affiliated with Healing Hands. Eighty wheelchairs were fitted and donated to patients that day
• Flaveen Coriolan travels to Utah for 3 months for training in orthotics with Matt Bracken and Shriner’s Hospital, then trained for 3 months in prosthestics with Tom Bremmer and Al Ingersol in Wisconsin and Minnesota

2005

• 4934 patients seen in clinic, 15% are children
• Therapy staff treated 2612 patients, or 55.51% of the total patients treated at the Clinic this year
• The Orthotics and Prosthetics Department at Kay Kapab Clinic evaluated 496 patients, manufactured 220 devices, including 29 lower extremity prostheses and 6 upper extremity prostheses. There were 133 orthoses and 52 other types of devices made
• We now have 4 volunteer Haitian physicians at Kay Kapab Clinic. Specialties include physiatry (physical medicine and rehabilitation), orthopedic surgery, and internal medicine. The physicians treated 25% of the patients seen at the clinic. While our focus remains on rehabilitation, physicians of varying specialties help us treat secondary medical problems that may affect physical function
• Healing Hands for Haiti and Medishare partnered in sponsoring surgeries for hydrocephalic babies. This year 17 surgeries, one orthopedic corrective surgery and 16 shunt surgeries for hydrocephalic children were performed
• Psychology services provided 557 sessions in 2004-5, the majority of patients seen by the psychologist were adults and children who needed to be assessed for surgery or for the school reintegration program
• Unfortunately, due to the political turmoil, we were only able to interact with 21 schools in a Disability Awareness campaign, instead of the 40 we had planned on
• Began a meal program to ensure that students in the School Integration Program have at least one hot meal a day
• Provided school supplies to students in School Reintegration Program who were unable to afford to purchase the supplies
• The pilot First Aid / Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation course was initiated this year in two schools. The 38 hour course allows students to learn vital survival skills as well as prevention of increased incidents of disability
• 120 Micro Credit grants of $100 each given through the Trickle UP Program
• Offered a seminar on sign language in order to enable our staff to communicate with deaf patients and one of our employees who is deaf
• Orphanage Assistance Program has been developed, but due to the political unrest , we have been unable to implement this new process. When teams return in 2006, we hope to finalize this new process
• 20 candidates selected to enroll in the Rehabilitation Aide I Program. 15 actually began the course which was taught by 4 foreign teachers (physical therapists) and 9 Haitian teachers ( 7 doctors and 2 teachers from the Department of Linguistics). Classes had to be suspended in August due to the deteriorating political status and the growing incidences of kidnappings. Foreign teachers could not be recruited due to security issues. We hope to resume classes in Spring of 2006. In order for the students to continue their studies without the benefit of teachers, seminars were sponsored. These seminars included instruction in diabetes, arterial blood pressure, the psychiatric approach in Haiti, skin care and wounds, the disability awareness campaign, and CPR. The students also have access to our library that contains English and French reference books on rehabilitation therapy treatment
• Instruction given on how to make furniture from cardboard, and several items have been successfully made
• CME courses were prepared and offered on the prevention and treatment of cerebrovascular accidents or strokes. Another CME course on stroke was organized for the graduated Rehabilitation Aide I technicians
• The Public Health Education Program is designed to provide preventive and public health education in the areas of burns, infection, wound care, Cerebral Palsy, Diabetes Mellitus, hypertension, major causes of amputations, in addition to stroke and traumatic brain injury education. Our nurse educator taught small groups of people while they were waiting for therapy or the physicians. We educated 3338 parents and patients
• 56 persons benefited from the Caregiver Education Program. This program is designed to assist the orphanages by providing their care providers with the necessary education in order to take care of their disabled children
• The Guest House housed 168 persons of various specialties from visiting teams
• 8 medical teams visited Kay Kapab from New Brunswick Canada, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Illinois and Utah
• The housing capacity of the Sonia B. Green Center has increased to 20 people. 32 men and 39 women were sheltered at the Center this year
• Wheelchair distribution completes. Grassroot organizations throughout Haiti were contacted to determine needs. 399 chairs were distributed in Les Cayes, Jacmel, Gonaive, Port a Paix and Cap Haitian
• Generous anonymous donation received to be used toward planning and construction of first rehabilitation hospital in Haiti

2006

• Teams return to Haiti after 6 months hiatus due to security awareness
• Preliminary planning begins for moving the Sonia B. Green Center to our property
• Preliminary planning begins for building the Healing Hands for Haiti Rehabilitation Hospital