Port-au-Prince, Haiti --- 165 women - whose shelters were set on fire by armed gangs in Tabarre Issa, Galette Greffin, a locality in the commune of Pétion-Ville - participated in a mobile clinic organized by the Foundation for Reproductive Health and Family Education (FOSREF), with the support of UNFPA, the United Nations agency in charge of sexual and reproductive health, on Friday, June 11, 2021, in Grand Gavier, a locality located in the Bourdon area.

96 people were seen, including 42 in gyneco-obstetrical consultations and 54 in general consultations. Hygiene kits, mother kits and kits for breastfeeding women were distributed to the participants.

Josette, 28, and her husband are among those who have fled Tabarre Issa since March, having lost everything. She is a seamstress while her husband is a blacksmith. "I am 8 months pregnant and I had a prenatal consultation," Josette says with a touch of satisfaction.

Another displaced person from Tabarre Issa, Anita, 36, lives with her husband and 12-year-old daughter in a residence that has a total of 14 people. She is delighted with the good faith of her sister who received them and other displaced people. No longer working as her husband and facing the high cost of living, Anita adopted a method of family planning. "If I had 2 children, what would I do," she wonders, adding that "contraceptive methods save us poverty."

The participants in this mobile clinic received various services: prenatal consultation, post-natal consultation, family planning, gynecological consultation, screening for cervical cancer by the method of visual inspection by acetic acid (VIA), HIV and RPR screening - test for the presence of syphilis, sexually transmitted infection (STI), or another STI, sexually transmitted and blood-borne infection - free distribution of drugs after consultations, and awareness of COVID -19.

Syphilis can cause lesions on or in the genitals, anus, rectum and / or lips and mouth and can cause other health complications.

This mobile clinic is funded by the CERF humanitarian program. The latter aims to restore dignity to vulnerable people and those living with disabilities through reproductive health and protection services in the West Department. In the coming weeks, FOSREF will organize 29 similar mobile clinics in several other localities in Port-au-Prince.

This first mobile clinic chose a site plagued by conflicts between landowners and the presence of armed gangs which created an alarming humanitarian situation. 508 households, or 2496 people, including 1305 women, including 10 pregnant and 159 breastfeeding women, 824 children, 67 people living with a disability and 102 elderly people live on the site, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in March 2021.

Nota bene: Loan names have been assigned to the two women who testified.

Story : Vario Sérant and Sergine Farrah Denis

Photos : Samuel Laméry Pierre