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The goal of our Haiti Enrichment Week is to expand our understanding of healthcare delivery in a rural, under-served population of another country. We intend to learn the differences in resource utilization as well as the process of triage medical services in areas of limited resources and limited access. During phase one of our curriculum, we have acquired a great deal of knowledge regarding infectious diseases as well as the pharmaceutical therapies to treat these diseases. Many diseases are rare in the US but seen often in other countries. We will use our classroom knowledge to work through patient cases, create differential diagnoses and apply it to presenting patients. We will also gain a rich cultural experience, practice using a translator, and gather lifelong skills of working alongside and caring for individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
The Haiti Enrichment Week will be in Thoman, a small town in the mountains of Eastern Haiti. One of our classmates has traveled to this location several times and spent the summer of 2018 there completing a Clendening Fellowship. Our class will be accompanied by Dr. Vance Lassey, a volunteer KU-SOM faculty member, who has also traveled to Haiti in the past. Our group would stay at the Thoman Hope Center, a facility operated by But God Ministries (BGM), a non-governmental organization. Each morning part of group will leave the Thoman Hope Center, walk to a village, set-up a temporary screening clinic and see patients. The rest of the group will see patients in the Thoman Hope Center Clinic.
The funds raised from donations will be used for student travel expenses, medication, clinic meals during screening clinics, and to provide Lucky Iron Fish for each family visiting the screening clinics. The Luck Iron Fish is used to treat iron deficiency anemia which is prevalent in the area.
The following second year medical students from the KU SOM Salina Campus are participating in this trip: