Dessalines Rural Health Program

“To evangelize, heal and educate the community to keep them from getting sick.” 
(DRHP Mission Statement)

The Dessalines Rural Health Program (DRHP) was a project born from the heart and vision of a North American doctor back in the early 1980’s after he visited this impoverished nation and saw the lack of healthcare, especially throughout the rural regions of the country.  After sharing his thoughts and vision for developing a Free Methodist healthcare facility in the rural village of Marchand Dessalines, the Free Methodist Department of World Missions, friends and other benefactors came along side to support this project and thus the vision for the DRHP became a reality.  The hospital officially opened in September, 1986 and has been serving the community of Dessalines and its neighboring communities for over 20 years.  This ministry serves a population of over 200,000 people.

The scope of this project includes a 30-bed inpatient facility, an outpatient clinic, a community health program and 17 satellite dispensaries located in mountain and valley communities throughout the Lower Artibonite Valley.  Inpatient services include OB-GYN, surgery, general medicine and pediatric services.  Ancillary services, such as laboratory, radiology, ultrasound, EKG, endoscopy, pharmacy and dental are also available.  The DRHP’s community health program focuses on programs such as family planning, nutrition, maternal and child wellness, water projects and HIV/AIDS education and counseling.

Each morning, our staff chaplain has devotions and a time of prayer with people waiting to enter the gates of the hospital and makes daily rounds to pray with those patients who have been hospitalized.  It is the institution’s intent, not only to heal the person physically but foremost to heal them spiritually.

This project has had a powerful impact on the Free Methodist Church in Haiti and lends itself to fulfilling the mandate of Christ in caring for the poor.  We must consider its intrinsic value, not just in the healing of the body but also of the souls who come to us looking for help and wholeness (Luke 9:2).

The DRHP depends on your financial support to help it continue meeting the healthcare needs of the Haitian people.  There is no dollar value that can be placed on the worthiness of this project.  This project has touched the lives of thousands of people throughout the years, both physically and spiritually, and continues to satisfy the medical needs of the Haitian people yet today.

If you are interested in financially supporting this project, please click here.

If you are interested in serving at the Dessalines Rural Health Program hospital, please click here.