Delightful ocean breezes and rhythmic calypso music gave a decided Caribbean feel to a dinner party at the stunning oceanfront home of Mike and Beverly Swatt to benefit Haiti Clinic, which is seeking to raise funds to open a second clinic in Haiti.
As guests gathered poolside overlooking the ocean and dined on delicious Haitian dishes, they heard from Dr. Kobel Dubique, who began work as medical director of Haiti Clinic six months ago after obtaining his master’s degree in medicine from Harvard University Medical School.
“I moved back to Haiti to help my country,” said Dubique. “I grew up in Cité Soleil and I presented my thesis on humanitarian aid after the earthquakes, specifically to Cité Soleil, which was labeled a red zone.”
Where others saw danger, Dubique saw immeasurable need. He set up his own rudimentary clinic in the tent city where he tended to more than 35,000 people. It was there that Vero Beach physician Dirk Parvus first encountered him, and soon enlisted the help of other medical professionals to found Haiti Clinic.
Haiti Clinic eventually moved out of the densely populated Cité Soleil, moving to the campus of Haiti Partners in the more rural town of Baocia. There, patients receive a wide range of services, including primary, prenatal, pediatric and preventive health care, vaccinations and immunizations, medicines and nutritional supplements, and much-needed dental care.
The hope now is to reopen a clinic in Cité Soleil.
“They need help,” said the earnest, soft-spoken doctor. “Now I am a doctor. Twenty years ago, if I didn’t have access to school, to food, to a place to live, what would happen to me? They need food, education, health care and jobs.”
Dubique raised himself out of the slums thanks to a scholarship to attend medical school in Cuba where he met his wife. She, too, will soon graduate from Harvard, specializing in the treatment of breast cancer. While the rate of cancer is lower in Haiti than in the U.S., the mortality rate is much higher because of limited access to diagnostics, medical care and surgery. The couple has a 5-year old daughter.
“The most amazing part to me is he comes back to the slum where he grew up. He could go anywhere in the world,” said Haiti Clinic board member Dr. Neil Heskel, who foresees a future for Dubique as Haiti’s Minister of Health. “He speaks four languages and is just a wonderful, caring person. These are his people; he grew up with them.”
Swatt said he was introduced to Haiti Clinic by Heskel and, having worked with many Haitians in his property management business in South Florida, thought it was a good way to give back.
“It’s a wonderful organization,” said Swatt. “Haitians are wonderful people and one of the reasons for the success I had in business. The more you get to know about Haiti Clinic, the more you appreciate what they do.”
The people of Haiti are creative, hardworking and capable, but years of dictatorial oppression, poverty, a lack of education and medical care, and some devastating wallops from Mother Nature have all taken their toll. Groups of volunteers from the U.S. fly to the clinic to help out for several days every two months or so, including Vero Beach dermatologist Dr. Neil Haskel who has visited roughly 19 times over the past eight years.