Nursing Student Volunteers in Haiti

CRWRC News | September 17, 2009

Letting your light shine sometimes means going beyond your usual neighborhood, to participate in something entirely new.  For Kristin Vanderwell a nursing student from Jenison, Michigan the challenge to make a difference in the face of AIDS brought her to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  There, the 20 year old spent six weeks volunteering with a local orphanage and Sous Espwa (Source of Hope), a CRWRC program, serving orphans and children who were suffering from AIDS.

“For the average Haitian, life can be very challenging,” said Vanderwell about the reason for her service.  “It can be a constant struggle to survive: to find enough food to eat, to find clean drinking water, to find a job and to find a place to live.  For a Haitian with HIV, life can be even more difficult.  The stigma attached to living with HIV and AIDS can be nearly impossible to overcome.”

Kristen used her summer vacation to help combat this by working alongside Sous Espwa as they ran two AIDS programs.  The first program is called, Abstinence Be Faithful Youth (ABY).  It focuses on prevention among young people.

“They encourage young people to remain abstinent until marriage, and then remain faithful once they are married,” explained Vanderwell.  “Sous Espwa uses a networking approach that seems really cool.  They identify teens who are leaders among their peers, and then train them to be able to share the message of faithfulness and abstinence to their peers.”

The second program, called Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), focuses on children who have lost a parent to AIDS, are infected with HIV, or are vulnerable to contracting the virus.  Sous Espwa ministers to them by assisting with education, health care, recreation, and income generation. 

“Education is vital to ensuring a future for a child in Haiti.  Sous Espwa helps the children in their program be able to attend school by helping with the costs and providing school supplies.  Sous Espwa helps the parents find a job, a source of income, so that those who are infected can afford food and those who are vulnerable can avoid risky behaviors” said Vanderwell.

Kristin’s nursing background enabled her to participate in health clinics where orphans and vulnerable children were assessed and given vitamins and other essentials to help them live positively even when infected with HIV.  

“I was very impressed to see how healthy many of the children in the program seemed. I was also impressed by the many staff workers who care deeply about helping to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS in Haiti,” concluded Vanderwell.  “There is definitely a long way to go yet [to fight AIDS in Haiti], but I was encouraged to observe the transformational work that is occurring through Sous Espwa’s AIDS program.”

For more information about volunteer opportunities with CRWRC, click here.