Two dispensaries are run in Plassac and Valheureux for basic out-patient care of the rural population:
- Treatments: illnesses, basic injuries, first aid
- Care: vaccinations, worming treatment, dispensation of vitamins
- Advice: family, pregnancy/birth, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, hygiene
- Referrals to the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles
There are around 50,000 residents in the valley, and the patients are mainly mothers and their children. They depend on dispensaries because apart from that they have no access to any other medical facilities.
Life-expectancy in Haïti is one of the lowest in the world. Almost nowhere else in the world is the mortality rate for babies and children so high. Almost nowhere else do so many mothers die during childbirth. Infectious diseases, malnutrition, malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis are the omnipresent blights that threaten the health of people on a daily basis once more.
In Haïti, there are practically no medical practices, since almost nobody can afford to pay the doctor's bill. In Haiti, these dispensaries fulfil similar functions to those of medical practices in Switzerland: Every day, lots of patients seek advice and help at these dispensaries.
The serious earthquake 2010 and hurricane Irma in 2017 have once more severly aggravated the misery of the Haïtian people. What's more, the rural areas, including the Artibonite Valley, have been confronted with large numbers of people flooding in from the region around Port-au-Prince. Basic medical care must also be provided for this population. Since, however, neither the state nor other institutions can provide such care, people rely heavily on these dispensaries for basic medical care.
The association, Suisse-Santé-Haïti, has been working for many years in Haïti and knows the population and the difficult conditions very well, which is why it is able to provide this all so important assistance for the population very effectively and at a reasonable cost.
