Cite Soleil—April 8, 2019

 

Porteur in Soleil (Photo by John Carroll–December 19, 2017)

I went into Cite Soleil today for the first time in a while.

Soleil has been “closed for business” the last couple of weeks. Two gangs have been shooting it out and innocent people have been caught in the middle.

Why gangs in two parts of the slum have been unhappy with each other is not for me to say. I have heard different reasons but have no first-hand knowledge. I do know the gangs get their guns and ammo from somewhere. I will let others speculate why fighting happens between neighbors.

When gangs are shooting in Soleil, several hundred thousand people are held hostage. For good reason they fear to venture out of their shacks. Market women don’t want to set up shop and sell their vegetables. The pediatric clinic run by the Daughters of Charity has been closed because their employees can’t safely get through the bullets and neither can moms with their sick kids. The Daughters also shut their kindergarten and grade school the last two weeks.

Today we heard that Soleil would be calm and so my moto driver (who was born and raised in Soleil) and I ventured in from the Bois Neuf area instead of entering off of Route National One. We did this so we would not have to pass through the area in the slum where much of the fighting has taken place.

Soleil really looks extra horrible—very bleak and filled with sun and dust. Stagnant canals are belching green sewage and plastic garbage is everywhere. The stench is really bad.

Clinic in the back of Soleil was open for the first time today. There were three Haitian doctors and me. Many infants under one month of age were being checked for the first time. Most had been born at home.

Malnutrition clinic was open also with fortified peanut butter being given to the smallest of the small.

The kids had the usual–scabies, impetigo, ringworm, URIs, ear infections, vomiting, and diarrhea. Also, there were many underweight babies.

Overall, hundreds of babies were evaluated today. When the clinic was mercifully over at around 3:30 PM, my driver got a call from his wife that a “bandit had killed another bandit” just south of the bridge on Route 9. We had gone through this area on the way to Soleil this morning. Route 9 was blocked off due to the killing. When people get upset they block the roads and Route 9 is one of two very big roads which lead north out of Port-au-Prince. So we rerouted to stay clear of this area on the way home.

Soleil is a nightmare in slow motion. The faces I see are filled with such hope and life. But many futures are lost here. Little fuel, little food, little water, little security, little employment, little health care, little education—all of this guarantees a real live look at what living in the Middle Ages must have been.

Soleil makes Venezuela look like a warm and inviting place. Soleil is not “open for business”.  After almost 40 years of this, I realize that medical doctors only offer a bandaid for places like this. It has taken me decades to understand the medical diseases of children. However, the answer for the children of Soleil will NOT be the correct doses of albendazole for roundworms or the doses of ampicillin and gentamycin for sepsis.

The elephant is in the room and we know what it is.  The misery in Soleil will continue until the powers that be say enough is enough.

 

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org