A $50,000 grant from the Major League Baseball Players Trust (MLBPT) will support Physicians for Peace in its ongoing efforts to provide prostheses and rehabilitation to amputee victims in Haiti. The money will also help fund long-term, distance-learning opportunities for Haitian technicians working with disabled populations, and will promote information-sharing and best practices across the island of Hispaniola, which includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic, according to a Physicians for Peace press release.
A locally-hired Haitian technician working in the lab of the Hanger Clinic in Haiti. Photograph courtesy of Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics.
Through the Haitian Amputee Coalition, of which it is a founding member, Physicians for Peace sends volunteer physical therapists to work with patients and technicians at the Hanger prosthetics clinic at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS), Deschapelles, Haiti.
“The grant will assist us as we continue to deliver immediate patient care in Haiti, which is an invaluable gift to the many people waiting for a prosthetic leg and those who need on-going physical therapy and services to maintain or replace a prosthesis,” Brig. Gen. Ron Sconyers (U.S. Air Force, Ret.), president and CEO of Physicians for Peace, said. “Perhaps even more importantly, the money will help fund a training and certification program for local healthcare professionals, so that Haitian prosthetic experts can one day meet the needs of amputee patients in their own communities.”
Last year, Physicians for Peace worked with Don Bosco University in El Salvador to launch a national training and certification program for the Dominican prosthetic community; 13 Hatian technicians are currently enrolled in that program, which provides students with distance-learning courses and regular, side-by-side training from U.S. professionals. Physicians for Peace is now working with Don Bosco University, other partners, and Haiti’s Ministry of Health to launch a parallel track in Haiti later this year. The MLBPT grant will help support the Haitian efforts.
