A Security Guard In Haiti

Remembering six years after the devastating 2010 earthquake

Jean Dorat is a 56-year-old guard for the St Raphael Health Facility in Haiti, the hospital where he was born.

After spending seven years in the Haitian military, he became a day security guard at the health facility, and is working there to this day.

Jean was in Haiti in September 2010 when the cholera epidemic began. At the height of the outbreak, the St Raphael Health Facility was receiving up to 20 cholera patients a day and only had two nurses working both in the health facility and the cholera treatment unit.

“Our services were not very good”, Jean recalls. “The facility only had six beds so we were laying patients on the ground outside. People were dying every week.

“I really didn’t feel good and I was very tired until International Medical Corps came”, Jean adds.

Thirty-four years into his job, Jean now has many roles. As well as his role as a security guard, he also trains and supervises a team of 17 hygienists and cleaners, logistician for nutritional medical supplies and technician for the facility’s water.

“International Medical Corps came here many months ago and provided cholera beds, handwashing stations, mops, ORS (oral rehydration solutions) and IV drips and holder”, Jean explains. “They also provided support staff for when we had a high number of cases.

“Since International Medical Corps came here we started seeing less and less cases of cholera outbreaks almost immediately. Now we have seen no new cholera cases in over three months”.

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