wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Haiti school graduates first professional nurse leaders

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This story and photo available online:
www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09099<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09099>

Haiti school graduates first professional nurse leaders

13 young men and women complete PC(USA)-backed
education/training

by Jerry L. Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE ― Graduation ceremonies were held Jan. 10 in
Port-au-Prince for the charter class of a new professional
nursing program supported in part by the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.).

Thirteen young Haitian men and women are the first
four-year baccalaureate graduates of theFaculté des
Sciences Infirmières de l'Université Episcopale d'Haïti
(Faculty of Nursing Science of the Episcopal University of
Haiti, or FSIL).

“This is one of the most hopeful, long-range solutions to
devastating problems in Haiti,” said FSIL Dean Hilda
Alcindor.

The school was built in 2003-2004 with funding from the
Medical Benevolence Foundation [www.mbfoundation.org] (MBF)
of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in partnership with the
International Health Ministries program
[www.pcusa.org/health/international] of the General
Assembly Council’s World Mission, and the American Schools
and Hospitals Abroad program of USAID.

FSIL opened in January 2005 with the mission “to prepare
its graduates for effective service as clinicians, leaders,
and agents of change.” Today 127 young Haitian men and
women are enrolled at FSIL.

Three Ph.D. nurse educators in the U.S. developed the
school’s curriculum according to international
standards. The FSIL Governing Board comprised of fifteen
Americans, Haitian-Americans, and Haitian citizens was
formed in 2004.

“From the beginning this school has been a partnership
empowering Haitians to address a critical need in their own
country,” Alcindor said.

Funding obtained to build FSIL did not include operating
costs, and few Haitians can afford even the modest tuition
at FSIL. Therefore, the Ann Arbor-based Haiti Nursing
Foundation [www.haitinursing.org] (HNF) was formed to raise
money for its continued operation.

MBF and other donors continue to support the school.

“Haiti urgently needs qualified nurses. Grim statistics
illustrating this abound,” notes the HNF. “Most Haitians
will die before reaching their early fifties from such
preventable or treatable causes as malaria, dysentery,
malnutrition, measles, hypertension, HIV/AIDS, diabetes,
and cervical cancer. The unnecessary suffering caused by
these diseases and conditions particularly affects women
and children.”

Information for this story furnished by Pat Cole,
Communications Associate for World Mission and Marcia Lane
of the Haiti Nursing Foundation.