Direct Relief has provided a $20,000 grant to Camejo Polyclinique in Leogane, Haiti, to fully equip the facility’s newly built operating room. At the epicenter of the January earthquake, Camejo is the only remaining hospital in Leogane, and it has 60,000 patients on its roster of the 400,000 people in the area.

Drs. Marie and Joseph Charles—a husband-and-wife physician team—run Camejo and have a dozen medical licenses between them. She is a pediatrician and traditional birth attendant, or midwife, and he is a surgeon. They had plans to open a new hospital which they had taken over in March, but had to continue operating out of the existing clinic because the new site was damaged in the quake.

The hospital is being repaired, and they hope to move in by the end of this year. Camejo’s on-site manager is overseeing the project, along with an electrician and biomedical technician who will purchase, install, and help maintain the new equipment.

Camejo’s services are widely sought. “When I visited the clinic in February,” said Andrew MacCalla, Direct Relief’s Haiti Operations Specialist, “there were dozens of mothers with their babies waiting to be seen by Dr. Marie Charles,” despite other tent hospitals being available nearby.

Being the only surgeon in the area, Dr. Joseph Charles sees practically every patient in Leogane who needs surgery. He provides emergency procedures for free to those who cannot afford it, and elective services are provided for a fee.

Direct Relief has delivered three shipments of medical aid to Camejo, valued at $850,000 (wholesale) to support their efforts, with another ocean-container consignment en route.