Building healthier communities

Topics: National, Emergencies and Disasters Worldwide
January 14, 2014

Lecienne Beausejour became a volunteer for the Haiti Red Cross Society after seeing the society’s cholera prevention work in her community.

In October 2010, ten months after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti, the country was once again hit with another catastrophe: cholera. A disease not seen in the area for over 100 years quickly spread to all ten departments of Haiti.

The response, both locally and internationally, was massive. Cholera treatment centres and units were set up across the country, awareness and hygiene prevention messages were posted and broadcast in the media in an effort to stem the alarming number of new cases.

More than 250,000 individuals received oral rehydration solution in the framework of hygiene promotion activities. Haiti Red Cross Society volunteers and staff were trained on disinfection, good hygiene behaviours and cholera patient management. A long-term strategy to tackle the disease through community-based health and first aid and epidemiologic control programs was devised ensuring volunteers were well-trained and confident in their skills.

In June 2012, the Ministry of Public Health, with the support of the Red Cross, launched a cholera vaccination campaign in the Artibonite region of the country. Approximately 50,000 people were vaccinated.

Lecienne Beausejour, 40, was among those in the area that received the cholera vaccine.

“The whole family was vaccinated,” she says. “I just want to make sure that we are safe from the disease.”

Lecienne has lived in the community of Frecyneau, 10 miles away from Saint Marc, for the past 17 years and remembers how it was when cholera appeared in the area.

“People were confused because they didn’t know what was happening. All we knew was that people were dying,” she says.

Luckily, no one in Lecienne’s family contracted the disease. She thanks the Red Cross and the hygiene promotion messages received through the volunteers working in the area for giving her  the life-saving information she needed to keep her four children and husband safe.

Unable to work due to an intestinal operation last year, Lecienne has become a Red Cross volunteer herself and spends her days educating people on sanitation and hygiene safety measures. She also conducts door-to-door visits in her community to make sure that people are following the sanitation guidelines that they have been taught.

“I think it is important to remind people what they have to do in order to prevent cholera and that the disease is still present even if it isn’t as bad as it was before.”
 

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