We Run for the Women of Simone Pele

As we've shared, each week 20 women come to the Women's Program in Tabarre (an area right next to Port au Prince) to receive care and education. More wait on a list to get into the Thursday Prenatal program. We keep our numbers smaller to offer a high quality of care and to have an opportunity to get to know each woman. We want to build strong relationships and really have a chance to be love to each and every woman we serve.

Because we've made this conscious choice to structure our program this way we wanted to offer a second level of care that would still be beneficial to pregnant women, but would not be exactly what we're able to offer the ladies who get into the program in Tabarre.

That idea/desire led to the program that started in September in Simone Pele. The first Wednesday of every month we pack up our gear and as many helpers and midwives as we're able to bring, and we head to an area just outside of Cite Soleil. We have a contact there that helps us get in and out without too much trouble and helps us secure a place each month to do a teaching, hand out a month supply of vitamins and do prenatal checks. The ladies in Simon Pele are living in tougher and rougher conditions and seem to have even less access to the money it would take to receive minimal prenatal care.During our time this month one of the midwives taught on the importance of water and drinking enough while you're pregnant and nursing. That may seem like a simple concept to you, but these ladies often don't know some of the most basic ways to stay healthy and feel good. Stephanie taught the ladies WHY drinking water is important, HOW much water they should be drinking, WHAT sorts of things it will prevent, and WHERE they could get clean and safe drinking water.After the teaching the ladies wait to be called while three or four stations are set up to do a condensed but thorough check on them. Blood pressure is taken, weight, fundal measurements, and problems are discussed. Many times after these interviews and exams we can treat them for common problems such as yeast infections, UTI's, and dangerous STD's. We may see a spike in Blood Pressure and be able to catch early warning signs of pre-eclampsia. We are also able to spend that time doing quick bits of education.Most of all, we are taking ten to twenty minutes offering the ladies our attention and our love. Many of them are quite young, all of them are quite poor, most of them are a little afraid. While we are only able to do this program for them once monthly, we can tell by the way it has grown in the three months we've been going to Simone Pele, that it is something they need and enjoy.

In January we will run for the women of Simone Pele. Will you help us?

Please sponsor a runner today.