ROTARY SPEAKS

Basseterre, St Kitts

District Governor (DG) for Rotary International (RI) District 7020, which covers the Northern Caribbean, Dr. Guy Theodore, owner of Hospital Bienfaisance de Pignon (HBP), Pignon, Haiti, made a one day visit to St Kitts on Monday, 15 August 2011. He was accompanied by Assistant District Governor (AG) James (Jim) Ferris who is the AG for St Maarten, St Martin, St Barths and Anguilla.

DG (RI) , Dr. Guy Theodore and Welcome party

After much delay in their flight arrival time from 8.05am to about 11.25am, the gentlemen were met at the RLB Airport by representatives of the Rotary Club of Liamuiga (Past President Eustace Warner, and Past Secretary and Director of International Service Projects, Carol Phillips) and the Rotary Club of St Kitts (Secretary Patricia Mourillon).

A much delayed meeting with the Dean of Windsor University School of Medicine, Dr Briginder Gupta, and an informative tour of that University’s campus in Brighton’s Estate, Ottley’s was followed by lunch at the newly restored Nirvana Restaurant at the old Fairview Inn property.

DG Guy (Dr Theodore) was most elated to discover that there are more than twenty (20) young Haitians, including one who had been treated at Hospital Bienfaisance some years ago, pursuing their medical training at Windsor and presently deployed throughout the medical network in St Kitts to complete their medical rotation practicums, a few of whom were on location at the Joseph N. France Hospital when he was taken on a tour of that Facility by Nurse Merle Hodge.

This tour was arranged by Dr Cameron Wilkinson, Past President of the Rotary Club of Liamuiga, and facilitated by Mrs Sonia Daly, Director of Institutional Nursing Service at the JNF Hospital.

AG for St Kitts & Nevis (SKN), Percival Hanley, was on hand to conduct a much truncated island tour as a fitting climax to a pleasant and informative day (or half day) before the visitors had to head to the airport in order to get back to St Maarten for a Rotary Club Meeting scheduled there on that evening.

Hospital Bienfaisance de Pignon (HBP) is a 100-bed modern hospital with major and minor operating rooms, a telemedicine service, a laparoscopic surgery training centre, an outpatient clinic, clinical laboratory, pharmacy, dental clinic, dental laboratory, eye clinic, eye surgery, family planning centre, vaccination centre, and two (2) satellite clinics in towns nearby.

In addition to being a Director of HBP, Dr Theodore, a recipient of the Medal of Honor from the United States of America Air Force, is the Founder and Field Director of Promise For Haiti (PFH). PFH is a non-profit organization based in Nashville, Tennessee which co-ordinates short and long term mission trips for Americans seeking to aid the people of the Central Plateau of Haiti. Approximately three hundred (300) medical, construction, and logistics missionaries serve each year.

The Governor for RI District 7030, which covers the Southern Caribbean and part of South America, in which SKN falls, Mrs Lara Quentrall-Thomas, will visit SKN during the period 24-27 August 2011.

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