Over the past few weeks, Zanmi Lasante’s budgetary reality has come home to roost. Cuts here, adjustments there, postponements elsewhere. Every department, every site, every team has been affected in one way or another. And yet, we must continue the fight, with fewer resources, fewer means, but never with less commitment.
The temporary closure of Mirebalais University Hospital has only increased the pressure on our entire network. Sites in Belladères, Saint-Marc, Hinche, Cange, La Colline, Boucan Carré (among others) had to cope with a sudden influx of patients, under already strained conditions. Our logistics teams redoubled their efforts to reorganize the flow of patients. Doctors, nurses and other clinical and support staff adapted, sometimes at the cost of their own exhaustion. Services held out, because they had to.
I won’t hide from you that the situation is difficult. What we’re going through is not simply a period of tension. It’s a real test of our model. But we are responding to this test in our own way: through action, through solidarity, through courage and through collective intelligence.
Doing more with less with quality does not mean accepting the unacceptable. It means refocusing on what’s essential, what heals, what supports, what saves. It means improving what can be improved, with the means at hand. It means innovating without betraying our mission. It means standing firm, even without certainty about tomorrow.
Once again this month, I’ve seen colleagues improvising solutions in the face of equipment shortages. I’ve seen teams exhausted, but still on their feet. I’ve also sensed a deeper kind of fatigue: that caused by uncertainty, the weight of responsibility, concern for the future. And in all this, I saw the strength of our mission: to be there, whatever the cost. But I also understood something essential: if we are to continue to carry out this mission, our teams must also be supported. Their well-being counts. Their mental health is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.
To all those who continue to serve behind the scenes, to those who keep services open in spite of everything, I want to say this: what you do has deep meaning. You are living proof that the mission does not end when resources dwindle.
The struggle continues. It’s tougher, more uncertain, but it goes on. Because the lives of those we serve cannot wait.
Wesler Lambert
Executive Director, Zanmi Lasante
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