Hearts 4 Haiti’s first gala raises funds for clinic
PROSPECT — Some patients walk five or six hours to the village of Mombin-Crochu in northeast Haiti to seek medical treatment. Dr. Maudelin Mesadieu, the director of a clinic that opened in 2020 as part of the charitable organization Hearts 4 Haiti, sees them daily.
Hearts 4 Haiti held its first ever gala at The Atrium in Prospect to raise funds for the clinic on Friday, Sept. 8. The event sold 168 tickets, organization president the Rev. Jim Lewis said, raising $16,800 toward the construction of a second floor for the 40-by-100-foot clinic.
Hearts 4 Haiti became a nonprofit around four years ago, Lewis said, but the organization goes back further than that — it was sparked by a mission trip he took in the early 2000s with the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
The gala highlights 20 years since Lewis met Mesadieu, and 10 years of mission trips.
Mesadieu’s time in medical school was funded by Hearts 4 Haiti, Lewis said. After graduating, Mesadieu chose to treat people in the same village that was his home.
“(The gala) is kind of a celebration of 20 years that we started when we met (Mesadieu) 20 years ago,” lewis said. “We put him through secondary education and then through medical school.”
When he was 9 years old, Mesadieu’s father died because he could not afford to go to the hospital. Later, his uncle died, being unable to pay for medicine. Mesadieu then decided to pursue medicine and make a difference in his community.
The clinic in Mombin-Crochu has 13 medical personnel, Mesadieu said. It sees patients suffering from malnutrition, pneumonia and a range of diseases. 800 patients visit the clinic monthly, he said, some of them walking for hours to seek affordable medical treatment.
To make medicine more accessible for people outside of the village, Mesadieu said he also operates a mobile clinic and often visits patients in their respective communities. The clinic offers general checkups, prenatal care, postnatal care, children’s health care, dental care and more.
The goal of the clinic, alongside Hearts 4 Haiti’s other programs, is to support the community as it becomes self-sufficient, he said.
In the future, Mesadieu said he hopes the clinic will be able to offer a wider range of health care options, and add a surgeon and OBGYN.
There have been many requests for the clinic to stay open every day, but there is not enough staff or money for that to be possible at this time, Mesadieu said.
The need for medical treatment is great in Haiti, Lewis said.
The gala was sponsored by the Gilliland Foundation, which has a twofold mission to support children battling cancer and address poverty. Steve Gilliland, a renowned public speaker and Butler High School graduate, was master of ceremonies.
After learning about Hearts 4 Haiti’s mission, Gilliland said he was immediately interested in getting involved.
“My mom used to say, ‘Give more than you take,’” Gilliland said. “I always prayed, you know, if I ever was blessed, that I would not just give back, that I would try to bless other people. And then seeing some of the things that are going on in the world today, you know, whether it’s locally, regionally or all over the world … I just want to make (the world) a better place.”
