NOVA’s building project in Martineau (outskirts of Cavaillon) will commence in late Spring 2012 and be conducted in several phases reflecting growing needs, expansion of programs and increasing funding sources as the positive results of our work are published and promoted. NOVA’s initial goals include preventative care and well health programs for pregnant women and their children. We will continue to treat acquired disease on a needs basis but concentrate on health education and community involvement in the promotion of sound health principles and practices.
As such, our initial construction concentrates on refurbishment and enlargement of NOVA’s free-standing two-story Duverseau House that will serve as both a clinic for the ill and an education center for the frail but healthy. This house will provide examination, procedure and treatment rooms on the first floor as well as a fully stocked pharmacy and a laboratory facility. The second floor will house full-time staff quarters and administrative offices.
The second phase of construction will provide a Staff and Volunteer Residence as well as free-standing kitchen with attached large, dual-purpose dining pavilion that will also serve as a meeting center for seminars and community outreach gatherings. NOVA Hope for Haïti, Inc. travels bi-annually to Haïti with over 25 volunteers per trip and to date, satisfactory housing has been a challenge in logistics. Currently, teams reside at the Hôtel Aldy in Aquin, over an hour away from the clinic, Thus, we face a daily two-hour commute in two crowded, sweltering, smoke belching private Tap Tap taxi trucks that are engaged for the week. The new residence will resolve this fatiguing waste of time and provide medical teams the opportunity to socialize and build relationships with local townspeople and outlying communities. Not only will this residence save NOVA the cost of lodging and dining on each mission trip – on average US$8,000.00 for a team of 25 over six days – but it will provide a revenue stream from other philanthropic groups coming to work in Southwest Haïti and requiring living quarters for their own volunteers.
The third phase of construction will take place when the present clinic facility (Duverseau House) no longer capacitates either the daily volume of patients or the extent of disease that is being evaluated for treatment. The new dedicated NOVA clinic building has already been designed by an architect specializing in medical facilities, Dominick Taranto, who has volunteered his expertise to create a small one-story medical center that can be expanded with incremental additions over time, reflecting incremental services offered by NOVA. Initially this will include reception areas, a nursing station, an extended pharmacy and exam and procedure rooms. Eventually, additions off a common hallway will include a dental suite, x-ray facilities and finally, delivery rooms and a full operating suite.
The very first component in this planned construction sequence – refurbishment of the Duverseau House – will allow us to begin providing care to children and adults in Haiti who currently have little, if any, access to medical care. The eventual residence/dining pavilion will allow NOVA to easily, safely and comfortably host volunteers from the the US and abroad with greater frequency and with new additional participation by partnering medial teams from other sources, a benefit that has not been possible in the past during NOVA’s own limited one-week medical missions. The structures will also allow us to develop more fully the educational components of our health program that have become all the more vital since Haïti’s cholera outbreak on October 19, 2010.
Building this complex will mean a quantum leap in the depth and reach of the care NOVA can provide and it will make a profound difference in the quality of life for whole communities in south west Haiti, representing over 150,000 children and adults, some much more rural and isolated than others.
It is an exiting time for NOVA, and we need your help! We are waiting for final budgeting on these buildings but we expect the entire project to approximate the $700-$800,000.00 range. We have already raised most of the money required to remodel and expand the Duverseau House in Phase 1, and we will begin construction sometime in April 2012
We need your help to build the rest. Please consider donating toward the building project. Together we can make a long-lasting and significant difference for people who live the most difficult of lives, and whose difficulties are compounded by their lack of any medical care. Do what you can, and if you can, please help us make this vision a reality.
