Loune Viaud: “Now, We Have a Family”

Voices of Haiti – Loune Viaud: “Now, We Have a Family”

 

[Voices of Haiti intro begins]

 

Patrick: It was kind of surreal

Loune: I was there just after the earthquake. You have all the aftershocks…

Dimitri: And I could see all the chaos and destruction.

Anany: Why I should continue to live if all this have to happen to me?

 

[Intro fades out]

Leslie:  Byenvini or welcome. I’m your host, Leslie Friday. Thank you for listening to Voices of Haiti, a Partners In Health podcast that shares the stories of our Haitian colleagues as they reflect on the January 12th 2010 earthquake.

Before we start, I want to give a quick update on some exciting news that happened since our last broadcast. Zanmi Lasante, as Partners In Health is known in Haiti, recently learned that University Hospital in Mirebalais earned accreditation as a teaching institution.

[insert applause]

 

Since the hospital opened in 2013, more than 120 residents have graduated from its medical education programs, and another 116 are currently enrolled.

Among the graduates is Dr. Filip Demetri Enris, an emergency medicine physician featured in our second episode. A key champion of all this work is someone who has been with Zanmi Lasante since its founding more than three decades ago.

 

Loune: My name is Loune Viaud, and I'm the executive director of Zanmi Lasante, Partners in Health in Haiti.

Leslie: Loune has received a number of honors and awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Last year, she was the first Haitian civilian to address the United Nations Security Council, urging members to pay greater attention to the rights of women and girls in Haiti. But if you ask Loune about her proudest accomplishment, it’s safe to say she’d name Zanmi Beni. 

 

[Slight Pause]

Zanmi Beni, which is Creole for “Blessed friends,” is a children’s home built in the wake of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake. Loune was in Haiti when the earthquake struck--more specifically Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital…and the epicenter of the disaster. 

 

Loune:  I was there, during the earthquake. And, um, first of all, we're not familiar with earthquakes in Haiti, so most of, uh, including myself, and, um, we didn't know it was an earthquake. When we realized it- it was, okay, then you have all the aftershocks, I was in Port au Prince, the first thing I did, I said, let me go to the general hospital, see if we can help people.

And then when I get there, I saw the executive director, uh, of the hospital, and I said, how can I help? And he said, go find the kids. Go to the pediatric, uh, ward, and find what happened to the kids. And I did. I went there, and I... and I found 38 kids abandoned.

 

Leslie:  38 children. Many of them were disabled, and all were orphaned or abandoned. Luckily, they had not been injured. But they were hungry, thirsty, and terribly alone.

Loune: The kids like so scared. And- and I went back to- to find the director, and said, I- I found the kids, they were... they- they're scared, and I said, take them out. And he was like, okay. And I took them out. 38 of them.

 

[Pause]

When he said to me, take the kids, I don't even know that if you know what he meant by that, you know? And, uh, but for me, was like, my responsibility to take care of these kids, which I did. Now I feel responsibility for them.

 

 

Leslie: Over time, Loune took more children into Zanmi Beni so that the home has since doubled in size. For convenience’s sake, they all share a last name, Beni, as in Blessed and Loune’s birthday, March 17th.

 

 

Loune: I'm the legal guardian of 64, um, kids and young adults ages from, um, seven to twenty-six. And- and we have like, um, a home for them. Now we have a family, Zanmi Beni, where they feel safe, and they get everything they need. Uh, education, food, and- and the social... the support, um, that they need. I like to think that I'm raising the next generation of citizens, (laughs) know? Like making sure that they're kind to each other, they have everything they need to succeed.

 

Leslie: Some children attend the on-site school, while others are driven by bus to schools in the neighboring community. A number of the children live with severe disabilities, so Loune has planned a variety of activities for them throughout the week and adapted the home to meet their needs.

Loune: We have a music lesson for them, we have some musicians in there. We have a workshop, so they go to do furniture, and bakery. Oh, yes. We have, um, some cooks, some chefs, uh, some, um,  and we have a little restaurant there, so we have some of the kids, they work at the restaurant.

 

Leslie: Zanmi Beni also has ample space for the kids to run free. There’s a playground, petting zoo, and library. And most importantly for some of the kids, there are soccer fields, where at least one future World Cup star is practicing daily.

 

Loune:  So, the soccer... Micah, she's- she's only nine, so she's still has a long way to go. And, uh, but we have Peter, who's a photographer, and, uh, he was just two weeks ago, he was just, uh, enrolled in medical school in Haiti. So we have, um, Neftali. She's 14. So she does, uh, jewelry, bracelets. But we know that... I know that there's a group that they're not gonna... because they're so disabled, they'll always be with us. So they're not going anywhere. So we- we're trying to accompany them as much... as much as we can, with like, physical therapy, and- and making sure they- they know that they're loved.

And often I ask the kids, what- what they want to be when they grow up. Oh, we have a... everything from everybody, you know, from medical, from, uh, um, teachers, from engineer, from pilot, and... (laughs). So they all want to be something, you know? And, uh, I can't wait. I can't wait for them to have this opportunity to be what they want to be.

 

[Pause. Change in Tone.]

 

Leslie: Zanmi Beni is one among a long list of responsibilities Loune shoulders on a daily basis. She leads a dynamic team that works tirelessly every day to bring health care to some of the most marginalized people. They are miracle workers, creatively addressing old problems with new solutions—and doing so on a shoestring budget.

Loune:  One of our big challenge is we don’t have enough money to do all the things we have to do. People are getting poorer where we work, you know? So I feel like we need to do more and more every year. We have to rethink how we... how we do fundraising because we understand that people, it's not like they have to give…spend their life giving to-to PIH. But at the same times, the needs are greatest at where we work, and, um, so, we need to find a way to be able to accompany, the- the- the people, the communities where we work.

[Pause]

I believe the mission, that we said that we need to save lives. So, any, if, um, I'm just thinking that how many lives we're not gonna save if we don't get the oxygen, if we don't get the fuel. And so that's motivating me. That's my motivation.

I'll say Haiti, or, uh, as part of the globe, we should care about each other. What's happening in Haiti, the- the, um, disaster, the climate, and it will... it will have an impact on- on the globe, so we need to think global.

We realize that there's some people who will never touch, you know, like, with our history, with our stories. But, um, but there- there are a lot of people, there are generous people out there. They're looking for a way to help.

I want to, um, send a special thanks to all our donors and supporters, because we couldn't do it. We couldn't do- do what we're doing in- in Haiti, Africa, and, um, Peru, we couldn't do it without our supporters. So, they, uh, part of our lives, because every day, we wake up, and I wake up, and be able to do this, it's thanks to you here, and thanks to our supporters.

 

 

Leslie: Continue to learn and explore more stories about Zanmi Lasante and PIH by visiting pih-dot-o-r-g-backslash-haiti.  You can also join the supporters Loune just mentioned by donating today. Follow Voices of Haiti on Spotify, or subscribe on Apple Podcast. As always, thank you for listening and talk to you again on the next episode.

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