February 2007 - Austin College

community. Grace has new equipment, like pulse oximeters, whichmeasure blood-oxygen levels, and information exchanges have increasedthe staff’s medical knowledge.“It’s little by little,” Hatt said. “I wish we could point to somethingdramatic, but just to say that the hospital is still there, stable andrunning, says something. What we are doing, I hope, is the beginning ofsomething big.”HopeHaiti is still a volatile country. Political turmoil and a lack of securityhave led to gang violence, illegal roadblocks, and kidnappings. Sometimesthe staff at Grace has trouble even getting to work. In 2004, an AustinCollege January Term trip to Haiti had to be cancelled because thesituation in the country was too risky. Hatt said the child mortality ratehas actually increased in recent years.Phelps described the unstable situation as a Catch-22. The solutionto many problems — tons of waste in Port-au-Prince, the lack ofinfrastructure, a lack of clean water, the broken education system —begins with public safety, he said. “The country needs money, but no onewants to send money to Haiti until they know it’s safe.”Outside Port-au-Prince, in the poor but peaceful villages, Hatt said itis easy to see how Haiti was once considered the jewel of the Caribbean:majestic mountains, crystal blue waters, warm breezes, tropical vegetation,warm and friendly people. It is almost enough to give one hope.Across the street from Grace is another slice of hope: the site wherethe new Grace Children’s Hospital is being built. One of the ninebuildings for the new hospital is already finished, Hatt said, and is used asan out-patient pediatric and reproductive health clinic. Construction ofthe second building, an eye clinic, has already begun.All three of Hatt and Phelps’ children have been to Haiti and all areinterested in returning, Hatt said. All have pursued internationalvolunteer work on their own, so hope hides there, too, in the hands of thenext generation.Hatt dreams that one day Grace will become a medical education andtraining center in Haiti, partnering with both National Medical School inPort-au-Prince and with a children’s hospital in the United States whereexchanges can take place between students, residents, and staff.“It’s only right to at least learn what’s going on outside ourcomfortable backyard,” Hatt said. “There’s a lot of pain and need outthere, but it’s not too hard to play some part in being the solution.”AUSTIN COLLEGE MAGAZINE 29