"The purpose of the event is to raise funds to maintain the Visitation Clinic and its community health and outreach programs in southwest Haiti," said Fran Rajotte, director of development and communications.
Speakers include Tish Shea, M.D, Fr. Tom Metzger, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, in Noblesville, IN, who will offer the invocation, Visitation Hospital Foundation Executive Director Theresa Patterson of Nashville, TN, and Joseph Zelenka of Indianapolis and Board Secretary for VHF. There will also be a 7-minute video presentation. Each of these speakers has experienced first hand the tremendous need for good medical care in the country.
“Our Lady of Grace has been linked with a sister parish in St. Louis du Sud, Haiti, for over twenty years, and our parishioners, who have visited there over the years, can attest to the dire need for the kind of medical care that Visitation Clinic is now offering to residents of southwest Haiti. The funds we raise on September 12 will make it possible for that care to continue to be offered, and to be steadily improved in the months and years to come. I’m delighted that Our Lady of Grace Church will be able to host this event for the Visitation Hospital Foundation,” said Fr. Metzger.
During the one-hour fundraiser, guests will enjoy a free Haitian lunch, hear from speakers, view a video presentation, and be asked to make a pledge or one-time gift.
“We are extremely grateful to Fr. Tom Metzger for allowing us to use his church facility, and to Joe Zelenka, as well as our wonderful team of people, who are helping us with this event,” exclaimed Patterson.
VHF was founded in 1999 by the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas (PTPA), under the direction of Patterson, who has traveled to Haiti over 80 times in the past 31 years matching churches between the U.S./Canada and Haiti. To date there are over 350 “twinnings” of parishes and projects in Haiti, including many twinnings in the Indianapolis diocese.
“When medical teams traveled to their sister parishes over the years, we realized the need to construct a full-service hospital in Haiti, where these teams could refer patients,” said Patterson. She added it takes months and even years in some cases to obtain visas to send children and adults to the U.S. for treatment, and it is getting harder and harder to find hospitals to take these patients. To date there are 68 medical teams traveling to Haiti each year through PTPA.
“All the physicians who travel to Haiti strongly support the hospital. It is badly needed,” stated Patterson.
VHF sponsored a Hope and Healing for Haiti event in Indianapolis in 2005, two in Nashville, TN, one in Sarasota, FL, one in Memphis, TN, and one in Chattanooga, TN, over the past four years. The total raised by these events was $917,000. The Foundation earmarked these funds to construct and operate the Visitation Clinic, which was dedicated Jan. 2008. The Clinic opened its doors to receive patients on January 30, and to date we are treating approximately 90 patients per day. The Clinic, and later a full-service hospital, is located in southwest Haiti, an underserved area of 266,000, living within a seven-region area.
Ninety percent of funds raised from the Noblesville event will go directly to Haiti, but will be managed in the U.S.
Zelenka cites statistics stating the number of deaths among children and adults.
“Approximately 99 out of every 1,000 babies die before reaching age five,” he said.
“In Haiti, adults’ life expectancy is only 48 for men and 51 for women. While adults die primarily from TB and AIDS, children often die from treatable diseases such as malnutrition and dysentery.”
The unemployment rate in Haiti is 70% in the cities, but much higher in rural areas such as Petite Rivière de Nippes. The Clinic currently provides a source of employment for the local people in the area, creating economic growth there, including mirco-enterprise opportunities, roads, and agriculture.
“During the building process, we employed over 45 Haitians, and we now employee 28 at the Clinic,” cited Zelenka.
VHF offers a community health and outreach program as an important component of the services provided at the Clinic. Among these programs are vaccinations, Vitamin A capsule distribution to children (since lack of Vitamin A is the leading cause of blindness in children), nutrition counseling and supplements for malnourished children, HIV AIDS testing and education, breastfeeding classes, a training program for clinical staff, and water purification, since nonpotable water is the root cause of many illnesses and deaths in Haiti. To date, 2,400 families (16,800 individuals) already receive water purification systems through VHF.
“Visitation Hospital will be built as “a hospital of American standards,” where specialists from all over the U.S. can practice their individual specialty,” stated Zelenka. “This will be a huge accomplishment and will save thousands of lives.”
Guests and table captains are needed for the September event. Table captains are asked to invite 10 guests to sit at their respective tables. Those interested in helping in any way are asked to contact Joe Zelenka at (317) 213-9094, or email him at jze@att.net
Visitation Hospital Foundation, based in Nashville, TN, is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit missionary organization providing health care and health education for the poor of Haiti. For more information, find them on the web at www.visitationhospital.org
