In November 2013, NOVA Hope for Haiti sent out 16th Medical Mission team to Haiti to provide medical care in Cavaillon, Haiti. Since 2005 NOVA has been providing medical care to the population in and around Cavaillon. Barring natural disasters like hurricanes which have prevented our mission one year, we have been a consistent presence in the community for the past 8 years. Some of our pediatric patients are growing up with NOVA as their primary medical care. The care we provide has been greatly increased since February of 2013 when NOVA hired a medical staff including a physician, nurses, pharmacists and lab technician to provide medical care in the area year round. Our staff is working out of a rented space in Boileau, a village about a mile from the town center of Cavaillon.
This mission ran smoothly. The team arrived on a Saturday and returned to the US on the following Sunday. We followed our typical schedule of clinic days, with one exception: The members of NOVA’s board of directors, who were on this mission, took time out for a groundbreaking ceremony at our property in Cavaillon. NOVA has finally begun construction of our own permanent clinic! This is great news and an exciting new venture for NOVA.
Our next medical mission is scheduled for April 2014. This is two missions in about 6 months. It has been a while since NOVA has sent multiple missions in less than 12 months, and this is keeping our volunteers busy. The team is almost together, but we still need Haitian Creole translators to work with our doctors. If anyone would like to volunteer and is fluent in Creole please contact Joseph Nuzzi at joseph.nuzzi@novahope.org.
