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Melissa Osmond: A campus connection to Haiti

March 12, 2010

by Megan Quint

For Lewis & Clark’s Associate Director of Health and Wellness Melissa Osmond, the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti and its subsequent, tragic aftermath hits especially close to home.

Osmond, who has a masters degree in Public Health with a focus in International Health, spent over a year in Haiti from 2002 to 2003, just before coming to LC, as a requirement for her degree program. 

Part of her year spent in Haiti included a three-month internship at the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. According to the organization’s website, HAS is an “integrated rural health system, [providing] medical care and community health and development programs for more than 300,000 impoverished people in the Artibonite Valley of central Haiti.”

“It’s located in the bread-basket, or I should say rice-basket, of Haiti,” said Osmond.

The organization itself has three components: a full service hospital; a community health division, which operates two health centers and five dispensaries; and a community development element, which does microenterprise work and manages water projects.

Osmond worked in the community health division, specifically managing a women’s health program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where her duties included encouraging pregnant women to get pre- and post-natal check-ups, promoting modern, long-term methods of family planning, and working to prevent the spread of HIV from mother to child.

At LC Osmond’s job description is not too different. She works as “the public health arm of the wellness services.” This means that she pinpoints and addresses the pressing health issues we need to examine at a population level.

“This semester that included a lot of messaging and prevention around H1N1,” said Osmond. “I was surrounded by H1N1 all the time. Literally.”

On an individual level, Osmond coordinates programs for advocates of sexual assault victims and helps students with drug and alcohol problems make smarter and healthier choices. Those who make frequent visits to the PRA are familiar with the threat of “visiting Melissa” upon their next infraction, and we are all familiar with her monthly emails, or “WellNotes,” covering all sorts of college health concerns.

The hospital did not sustain damage during the earthquake. However, starting within six to eight hours afterwards, patients were rushed in from surrounding areas, including nearby Port-au-Prince, the country’s largest population center.

Though the hospital has only the capacity for about 200 patients at a time, they saw over 800 in the several days following the quake.

“The staff had no relief for three or four days. They worked nonstop,” said Osmond, who regularly reads the organization’s status blog.

“There’s been a sustained population shift to the outlying areas,” said Osmond. “These rural areas won’t have resources for education, but at least some displaced people will have shelter. The organizations are already feeling the stress of a larger population, and different organizations are starting to work together to strategically plan for the years down the line.”

Osmond is hoping to return soon to Haiti to see what she can do to help.

Learn more about the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti at www.hashaiti.org