Health through Walls volunteers together with medical staff of Haiti's national prison
Our primary focus has been the National Penitentiary, Haiti's largest prison facility located in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. The National Penitentiary holds approximately 2,000 prisoners. Since 2001 Health through Walls has visited the prison approximately every two months bringing donations of medications and other equipment. Responding to a request from the medical director of prisons, one of the first projects was the establishment of a laboratory in the prison for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Training on specimen collection, analysis, and diagnosis was provided to the dedicated prison health care staff. Other health care needs have been identified and addressed with the local staff. During the years, hundreds of prisoners have been evaluated and treated. Health through Walls is warmly welcomed by the hard-working and professional security and medical staff of the prison. Health through Walls also collaborates with Alternative Chance, or Chans Altenativ, a non-profit program that assists "criminal deportees" with their transition to productive lives after they have been deported to Haiti from the United States following serving time for criminal convictions.