Dr. Jean-Eliott Pierre

Dr. Jean-Eliott Pierre, MDProgram Manager (Petit Goave, Haiti, Child Survival initiative)

Dr. Jean-Eliot Pierre, GHA Program Manager (Child Survival Project) will work in conjunction with the Haitian Ministry of Health and COD-EMH to distribute the medical supplies to the clinics when the road blocks to Petit Goave are removed after the post-Presidential election chaos subsides.

Dr. Jean-Eliott Pierre
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Dr. Jean-Eliott Pierre is a 2002 graduate of the International Health Management Course (IHMC), and the medical director of the Bill Rice Community Health Center on the island of La Gonave, Haiti.La Gonave is 20 miles wide, 60 miles long and 16 miles by water from mainland Haiti, quality health care on this island with its rough and mountainous terrain is virtually nonexistent.The Center serves a population of nearly 25,000.Dr. Pierre is addressing the issue of the exorbitant maternal mortality rate, which is as high as 600 deaths per 10,000 births.

According to the Untied Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 1 in 17 women die each year from complications due to childbirth in Haiti.For every 100,000 births between 500 and 1,000 will result in death, putting Haiti as having one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.Factors attributing to this high rate have been linked to inadequate access to health care facilities, high birth rates, early age of pregnancy, Malaria, Tuberculosis and lack of skilled birth attendants.It is estimated that 80 percent of all deliveries are unattended on La Gonave.Seeking to address this issue, Dr. Pierre developed a program that involves training Community Health Workers on La Gonave to be Traditional Birth Attendants.Currently, the program involves training members of the local community in basic midwife duties and setting up a system of monitoring births on the island to ensure that 80 percent of births are attended as opposed to the current 20 percent.In so doing, Dr. Pierre will become a partner of Global Health Action and the leader of the Safe Motherhood Project.

In addition to those initiatives, Dr. Pierre is interested in curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) through education and family planning.He initially attended IHMC to learn the requisite managerial and development skills to implement his family planning and STI prevention action plan.

Dr. Pierre maintains that he would have been unable to implement such initiatives if it had not been for the information he gained during IHMC.The course changed his way of thinking to one of hope instead of despair, and taught him managerial skills that have been invaluable in enabling him to organize his program and raise the necessary funds.

By 2007, Dr. Pierre hopes his efforts on the Island will have reduced the maternal mortality rate by 50 percent.