FROM BABY STEPS TO BIG STEPS, PEDIATRICIAN DETERMINED TO BUILD MEDICAL CLINIC IN HAITI

Gardner, MA, January 13, 2008 --- Dr. John Mulqueen, Gardner pediatrician, is a driven and determined man. He wants to build a medical clinic near Les Cayes, Haiti. He wants to provide a permanent medical presence in a community that has no available medical care, clean drinking water or preventive health education. But, he needs help. Corporate and individual donations will pave the way to change the lives for over 15,000 people living there. Dr. Mulqueen founded Forward in Health, a nonprofit organization, to help him help Haitians.

For seven years, Dr. Mulqueen, Paula Mulqueen and Forward in Health volunteers have conducted annual missions to Haiti. “When I returned from my first ten day trip to Haiti I was in shock. I was totally unprepared for the level of poverty and need that I found there. I discovered the sights, sounds and the smells of poverty. Emotionally spent, I wondered if I could ever return,” Dr. Mulqueen said. “I’m trained to heal and yet I quickly came to grips with my limitations as a physician helping in Haiti: Haiti was hemorrhaging and all I had was a band aid. So, I started my journey with baby steps-traveling there on medical missions and treating one patient at a time. Even if I could not cure, I could care.”

Today, Dr. Mulqueen is ready for the big step-to build a medical clinic near Les Cayes.

In fact, thanks to several lead corporate donors preliminary work is already in progress. That clinic will provide a much needed permanent medical presence.

The benefits, Dr. Mulqueen believes, will be dramatic. The clinic will provide much needed education on food preparation to prevent food-borne illnesses, it will provide clean water for residents; it will provide day-to-day medical services and improve the poverty level of residents. The clinic will eventually be staffed entirely by Haitians and is expected to bring commerce to the area thus improving economic conditions. Importantly, the medical services will interrupt the transmission of the HIV virus to newborns by providing prenatal care to expectant mothers that includes screening for the virus. This one program alone will protect a new generation from HIV and AIDS which is so prevalent in Haiti today.

Dr. Mulqueen often wonders if Forward in Health’s annual visits make a difference but he and volunteers have learned that curing a child’s ear pain, relieving nights of crying, pain and parental frustration with simple antibiotics and Tylenol has had a positive impact. Discovering a child with Tuberculosis or malaria and finding treatments for them has merit. Colleen Poulin, of Gardner, MA, a student intern, traveled to Haiti with Forward in Health in July. Talking about her experience she says “Not only did our team work in the medical clinic, the student interns sandpapered iron beds in a nursing home and painted them white. We visited an orphanage for disabled and terminally ill children. I held a severely disabled little boy in my arms and he just kept hugging me back. I held him and I rubbed his back; the bones in his back felt like mountains with deep valleys, he was that mangled and twisted. Yet, when I looked into his eyes I could see his smile from within. I think that what Forward in Health is doing in Haiti is extraordinary and any support people can give will most appreciated. Forward in Health offers a glimmer of hope for better living conditions and healthcare; I am lucky to have had a part in that.”

“I was profoundly impacted by the poverty in Haiti and the total lack of the most fundamental medical care and education. Such terrible poverty in a nation so closely situated to the U.S., the richest nation in the world, is unconscionable,” states Attorney John Altomare, of Fusaro, Altomare & Ermilio, a Worcester law firm. He now serves on Forward in Health’s Board of Directors and his firm has donated the land for the clinic.

Forward in Health is now in fundraising mode according to Dr. Mulqueen. They need $350,000 to build the clinic to help the 15,000 Haitians that so direly need our help. Naming rights for individual rooms in the clinic are available to those persons or businesses that donate $5,000 or more. To donate or to find out more about Forward in Health in Haiti please visit www.forwardinhealth.org or contact Dr .Mulqueen at 978-632-7846.

Forward in Health is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health conditions of people around Les Cayes, Haiti. Projects include annual medical visits and ongoing donations of medical supplies throughout the year. Forward in Health is currently gearing up to build a medical clinic in Haiti.

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