Pazapa

The program traces its origins to a group of volunteers from the San Francisco area, who worked with the Sisters of Charity in Port-au- Prince in 1982. Inspired by that experience, the Siloe Project was started in Jacmel to assist a clinic there. The Siloe Project Foundation was incorporated in 1984 in California by Peter Cunningham, who is its current President. Siloe ("See-loh-ay") is the Creole form of the name Siloam, as in the healing waters of Siloam (John 9:7).

When the Jacmel clinic's physician died in 1989, the Siloe Foundation founded the Pazapa program, and has continued as the only agency in the area serving children with special developmental needs. Jane MacRae, a Canadian who has lived in Jacmel for 15 years, is the Director of the Center.

For several years, Pazapa has had an informal cooperative relationship with St. Vincent's School for the Handicapped in Port- au-Prince. In response to the Siloe Foundation's request of February 1996, official ties have now been established between the Pazapa program and The Episcopal Church of Haiti and the Children's Medical Missions of Haiti, Inc.

The Pazapa Program

The Pazapa staff includes a registered nurse, a physical therapist, three health educators, a cook, an assistant to the director, and a part-time bookkeeper - office manager. Visiting physicians hold periodic patient evaluation clinics.

Pazapa places major emphasis on strengthening family coping systems, sign-language instruction, special education, and arranging special care, transportation, and treatment (including surgery) at various special facilities elsewhere. (These cooperating agencies include the school for deaf children at Bon Repos, and St. Vincent's School in Port-au-Prince).

The program currently (Feb 96) serves about 27 deaf children and 40 children with mental retardation (primarily nutritional in origin).

For more information

Jane MacRae, Pazapa, BP 86, Jacmel, Haiti, West Indies Telephone: [011-509] 88-2551

The Siloe Project Foundation
82 Rodeo Avenue
Sausalito, CA 94965
Telephone: 415-331-1639, Fax: 415-331-7767
peterc@siloe.org

Children's Medical Missions of Haiti
c/o Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee
401 Cumberland Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37902-2302
Telephone: 423-521-2900, Fax: 423-521-2905

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Children's Medical Missions of Haiti
Ecole Saint Vincent, Port-au-Prince
Hopital Sainte Croix, Leogane