Français    |    Contact

A brief history of Hospital of Hope

In 1952 Father Joffre Duchesne, the parish priest of Pilate from the Congregation of Holy Cross, built a dispensary. Fifteen years later Haitian-born Father Pollux Byas, who was from the same congregation, started a small hospital with the help of two doctors — Dr. Brisson and Dr. Langlois from Montreal (Quebec), Canada. Subsequently, a sanatorium, a maternal-child health clinic and an autonomous community health facility were added to this very modest hospital. By 1975 Hospital of Hope was able to provide the community of Pilate with basic health care and hygiene education.

Today three Sisters of Holy Cross Congregation direct this 90 bed hospital. Sisters Madeleine Giroux, Lucie Laquerre and Louisa Bélanger are from the Province of Quebec in Canada. An emergency health service, day-care clinic, maternity clinic, pediatric wing and department of medicine were gradually added to the hospital. Foreign doctors from Doctors of The World come on surgical missions twice a year. Thanks to the dedicated work of 36 local health agents and midwives, the community health services provided by Hospital of Hope offer highly efficient care for the entire Valley of Pilate. Although it is not government sustain, the Community Health Services Department also supports economic and social development efforts through a credit union, coffee growers' cooperative and consumers' cooperative.

In 2009, the Hospital of Hope is designated “Hospital Site of the Year” in Haiti, which shows how the institution has evolved since its inception. And how the assistance provided by the Byas Foundation and other NGOs of different countries is important and beneficial.