Meet Wilda
Wilda has bright and smiling eyes. Her kind and gentle touch is well-known to her family, neighbors, and visitors. Wilda began her work with Petit Trou’s community health aides (CHA) in 2006. She wanted to attend the initial CHA meeting but was unable due to family responsibilities and young children. About a month later, one of her neighbors. a community health aide, visited her to share that they needed another representative from their small village, Carrefou Bourjin. She asked Wilda if she would like to join. Wilda immediately said yes and has been a leader in the group ever since.
Wilda now has three children, Eliezer Delima, a junior in high school, Othniel Gedeon, a 7th grader at St. Paul’s, and Anne Wilda, a 1st grader also at St. Paul’s. She is especially dedicated to supporting her kids and furthering their education. Wilda’s husband, Jacob, runs his ironwork business from home. He takes old pieces of rebar and other iron and creates beautiful and useful furniture. You can always find him in the yard, talking with friends and clients, and shaping chairs and tables.
As a CHA, Wilda participates in immunization clinics, helps gather data, and provides essential education. She helps explain why immunization is important and speaks to children’s health and nutrition. Wilda has attended every training offered for the community health aides and aspires to become a nurse one day. She once shared that even if it takes her until she is 80, she will be a nurse. Of the many aspects of CHA work, her favorite is the work of triage. Being a rural farming community where machetes are one of the main tools and motorcycles are the primary forms of transportation, there are many injuries. Although she does not provide clinical care, she is the first one called when someone in her community is injured. She helps manage and monitor the patient while getting medical help.
Recently the community health aides began a survey of their community. Wilda has visited 80 homes so far. Putting together a detailed assessment of the population will allow the health agents to provide better support and will enable CHP to understand the real needs of the community. During the survey, the community was introduced to moringa, a tree of extremely high nutritional value that grows well in Haiti. Some families are already familiar with it; for others, it is a new plant. To encourage the introduction, the CHA’s gave out a card to each participant offering two free moringa starter trees.
After Hurricane Matthew, Wilda went right back to work on her own little farm. She enthusiastically supported the work of the community seed bank started in partnership with the local community, Colorado Haiti Project, and the Episcopal church. She not only replanted her entire farm but was also able to dig a family well to allow her to enlarge her garden and save time from daily water collection.
Wilda is now a founding member of a new community association formed to support the families and farmers of the Petit Trou commune. She shares that her role is to listen to the people, her friends, and neighbors and those whom she sees as a community health aide. She hears and knows the real needs of her community and shares it with the association.