Currently, I am focusing on the population of Bastien. Bastien has a large rural population of 17,680 members. Most of which are without any job or any day-to-day activity. Often times they are left with nothing to do and no place to go. My job is to input data from a survey that is taken after a 2-5 day government mandated window after the mother deliver her child. The community health workers often take these surveys into their respective communities and fill them within this two 2-5 government-mandated period of time.
The community health works are truly the back-bone of the their communities. They are often responsible for different zones throughout the community. They are responsible for visiting each pregnant woman each month and make follow her throughout her delivery. They are to encourage the community to get vaccinated, to take care of their nutrition throughout community education sessions. These agents are trained to give encouragement to the mothers to practice family planning, to practice proper breastfeeding practice (providing breast-milk only for six-months), and to practice proper hygiene, etc. However, amongst all the education and hard work that they are doing, the important documentation is often left uncared for (A crucial piece to my research). Some of the registries are often ripped, dirtied. I can imagine traveling from home to home filing out these registers. Often times these questions will not even be filled completely. Although we understand the difficulty of the job they do for their respective communities, they have a responsibility to uphold the work that they are doing to maintain its efficacy. I always wondered what these Community Health Workers looked like, where they tall, skinny, short? Did they wear glasses? Were they all women? I have seen their handwriting, and read it page after page, but who were these people?
It was not until I entered House 7, where annual reunions are held that I witnessed the diversity of individuals in the room. One may ask: "how can a bunch of Haitian people in a room represent diversity?" I’d say simple: "they represent different communities, different pathways, socioeconomic statuses, different ages, and different histories." These community agents were dressed in their own unique styles, asked questions in their unique voices, sang songs, and lifted up prayers. To my surprise, there were a lot of men who stepped up to the plate for their communities. They work tirelessly as community health workers to insure that the pregnant women in their community are receiving the care that they need. This is a rarity amongst my community back home. I rarely see men stepping up, leading movements, and mobilizing their respective communities. We have to step up for our . The idea of “our” is important because it signifies the erasure of lines between him, her, his, or mine. We must step over the threshold that allows us to embrace the “We." Overall, there was no way to package and describe these community agents because when they gathered together, they crossed the threshold. When they ate together after their meeting, they communed.
Up until now, with my presence, they see that the work they are doing has value. The work that they are doing can be inputted, tabulated, calculated, and analyzed. There is something powerful when your work has meaning. After a while of observing during their monthly “Reunion,” and seeing the agents complete their calendaring, I felt like an outsider looking in. I wanted to connect immensely with these Community Health workers. However, I was introduced as more or less as the “Error finder,” the one who finds all of their mistakes and reports them. In the Haitian culture, these people are referred to as “Chef.” Chef has multiple meanings; it can mean head of household, boss, CEO. I guess, I am “Chef.” However, I did not want to come off this way. I spoke to Ms. Rolene about what I can do to make the community health-care workers more comfortable with me, she practically told me: nothing. However, I plan to visit with these local community health care workers throughout my time here at HAS.
