Haiti » Opaal Clinic Leogane

Sustainable Aid from Bayer Cares Foundation

Léogâne. Aid that makes a real difference: Following the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, Bayer employees donated more than EUR 250,000 for the victims in the company's first global call for donations. The Group supplemented this with its own donation of EUR 100,000.
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Alongside the treatment of acute diseases, preventive care is also offered at the center. » Open image collection
The Bayer foundation used this money to support Caritas in building a health center in Léogâne, a city severely affected by the earthquake. The previously makeshift outpatients unit was turned into the "Marie Jean" health center in which around 50,000 patients were treated last year alone.

The new refurbished health center is to be officially opened on February 22. "The new center makes an important contribution to significantly improving the standard of medical care for the population in the long term," says Dr. Richard Pott, member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and of the Executive Committee of the Bayer Cares Foundation. Together with the donation of medicines, Bayer's contribution in Haiti after the earthquake totaled more than one million euros.

Model for the region
Alongside the treatment of acute diseases, preventive care is also offered at the center. It provides services above all to pregnant women and children and also offers vaccination, health care and hygiene programs to the general population. This should help to prevent epidemics in the area. The center already serves as a model for the entire region.

The Bayer Cares Foundation's project is not finished with the completion of the building. The center is now to be integrated into the Haitian health system. In addition, a support group for the center is to be set up locally. Caritas transferred responsibility for the health project in Léogâne to the Medical Mission Institute Würzburg (MI) and its partner "Pharmacists without Borders" back in 2011. The local partner in Haiti is the Organisation Plaidoire pour l’Advancement d’Arrondissement de Léogâne (OPAAL). The diocese in Port-au-Prince is also to be a long-term partner of the health center.