• Kara Langford

The Salvation Army In Port-au-prince Plans Next Steps

Photo: Architects from Habiterra meet with Major Lucien Lamartiniere, Haiti divisional commander, HRD director, Major Ron Busroe, HRD construction manager, Major Jean Volet, College Verena administrator, Major Sylvaine Maegli, Clinic administrator, Dr. Danielle Prosper, KNH Haiti director, Alinx Jean-Baptiste, and primary and secondary school directors from College Verena.  Additional photographs, including photos of the site plans, may be found here.

Port-au-prince, HAITI – In the wake of Haiti's catastrophic earthquake, The Salvation Army continues to assist survivors and rebuild its own damaged infrastructure, building a better, stronger Army to serve the Haitian people.  One important step in this recover process is the rebuilding of The Salvation Army's divisional headquarters and updating to The Salvation Army's primary health care clinic.

Salvation Army Moving Forward With Plans To Rebuild Delmas 2 Headquarters

As the end of planning phase two draws near, Chilean architects from Habiterra have presented a scale model and plans for the reconstruction of The Salvation Army’s Delmas 2 compound.

Key players from The Salvation Army, including the Divisional Commander and directors from the HRD office, College Verena and the clinic, and the director of KNH Haiti, who is funding a large part of the project, assembled for the presentation.

“It’s a very modern and practical school,” said Major Sylvaine Maegli, College Verena Administrator.

The plan, now more developed, includes separate buildings for kindergarten, primary and secondary students, a centrally located administration building for control and accessibility and doors and hallways designed to provide access to handicapped children and adults.  There are also plans for a small soccer field, storage for sports equipment, a library and cafeteria.

Dr. Danielle Prosper was present to provide input on the plans for the clinic. According to Dr. Danielle, the new clinic will be a definitive place for loyal patients who have followed the clinic from one location to the next after the earthquake. “They deserve this,” she said of the patients and families who have come to the Army’s clinic in Delmas 2 for generations.

Over the course of the meeting, a number of minor, but critical, adjustments were proposed; including relocating the living quarters to a more central location, eliminating the ground-level pedestrian walkway between the two compounds and the entrance by the public park to minimize security risk.

Habiterra will now revise the plans and present them, along with a new model, to the Army and KNH for final approval. “Everything has been positive to this point,” said Major Lucien Lamartinière, Divisional Commander. He awaits the new plans that include a church that can seat nearly 3,000 people.

Moving into the next phases, Habiterra will put a price tag on the project, provide more details on the internal layout of the buildings and make recommendations on Haitian firms equipped to take on the construction.  Habiterra will also explore how to provide water for restrooms to accommodate some 1,500 students in addition to water for drinking and food preparation; no small task.

The Delmas 2 compound has marked the presence of The Salvation Army in Port-au-prince for 60 years. The fate of the structures on both sides of the compound has been a critical issue following the 2010 earthquake that damaged the buildings beyond repair.

Stakeholders Meet to Plan Future of Port-au-prince Clinic

Stakeholders also met last week to discuss the future of The Salvation Army’s primary healthcare clinic.

Representatives from donor territories met with HRD, divisional and territorial staff, including Major Lucien Lamartinière, Haiti Divisional Commander, and Dr. Danielle Prosper to determine programming needs moving forward. After a week of site visits and productive discussions, the formal project writing process will begin.

Dr. Danielle Prosper, clinic administrator, looks forward to more updated facilities to serve clients and hopes to expand the clinic’s community outreach to include health workers who can assess needs and educate residents on health issues in their daily lives.

“The clinic is one of my favorite programs in the division,” said Major Lamartinière. It is a financially self-sustaining program that benefits the immediate community and many who come from outside the city for services.

The Salvation Army’s primary healthcare clinic has been in operation for 40 years. It began as a community clinic for nearby residents but now serves people from all over Port-au-prince and surrounding areas. The clinic currently provides infant care, pre- and postnatal care, vaccinations for children and pregnant women, family planning, treatment for malnutrition, HIV testing and open consultation for adults in addition to an on-site pharmacy.

The most common illnesses treated at the clinic include adult hypertension, diabetes and ulcers, gynecological infections, and respiratory infections and malnutrition in children. The clinic also regularly treats endemic illnesses including malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis and now cholera.

The primary health care clinic is unique in that it operates solely from the fees collected from its patients.  As the Army looks to expand the capacity of the clinic and upgrade the facilities, maintaining the sustainability of the clinic is an integral component of planning.