Mission Statement
The Advantage Program was created to meet the physical and spiritual needs of persons with disabilities in the name of Christ through education, service provision, training, and disability awareness.
Sponsoring Organization
The Advantage Program is sponsored by Lumière Medical Ministries (LMM) working in partnership with the local Haitian church organization, MEBLH (Evangelical Baptist Mission Lighting Haiti). LMM provides financial assistance, full-time missionary personnel, procurement of supplies and equipment, and short-term rehabilitation professionals as available.
History of the Advantage Program
The Advantage Program encompasses services started in the late 1940s by Bernice Johnson, one of the first nurses at Centre de Santé Lumière (CSL) who had a special interest in handicapped children. Trained in a technical program and by Ms. Johnson, Franckel Jeannot continued the work in a rehabilitation clinic and brace shop. In the year 2001, ongoing short term missionary and physical therapist, June Hanks, organized the programs and services of CSL for persons with physically disabling conditions under the umbrella of the Advantage Program. Information about how June is presently involved may be found by visiting her website. The Advantage Program office is located in the Rehabilitation Clinic & Brace Shop at CSL in Cité Lumière near Les Cayes, Haiti.
Components of the Advantage Program
1. The Rehabilitation Clinic and Brace Shop operate within CSL, serving both inpatient and outpatient populations. Medical clinics and rehabilitation screenings are periodically held in rural areas providing medical care and referral for appropriate services, including surgery with orthopedic specialists. Rehabilitation services include therapeutic exercise, mobility training, and provision of equipment such as crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, and supportive braces. Equipment donated through LMM and other organizations is provided to patients at little or no cost. The Rehabilitation Brace Shop is equipped to fabricate custom orthotics (shoe inserts, plastic and metal braces). Braces are currently made by two Haitian rehabilitation technicians and visiting professionals.
2. The Bernice Johnson Center, a residential vocational training program for women with motor disabilities, is modeled after and works in conjunction with an established successful domestic training program for women without disabilities. The curriculum includes embroidery, crochet, cooking, floral arranging, health, and hygiene. Some instruction in reading and math is provided for those who have not had previous school experience. The physical disabilities of the women include spinal cord injury, orthopedic problems, amputation, congenital abnormalities, and neurological and orthopedic dysfunction. The goal is to train women to participate in a self-help production program by which the women to earn money for themselves and their families. The first group of students was comprised of nine women who graduated in 2004. A second group of women began training in October, 2006 with plans to graduate in June 2009. |
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3. The School Sponsorship Program assists children with physical disabilities, including deafness and blindness, in attending schools that can meet their educational needs. Over the years this has been primarily at St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince. The Advantage Program provides financial sponsorship, coordination of enrollment, and transportation for children from southern Haiti. The Advantage Program works with organizations such as the Haitian Society for the Blind and the Center for Special Education to provide accommodations and teacher training for the successful inclusion of appropriate children into regular classrooms.
4. Blindness and Low Vision Rehabilitation Services include orientation and mobility instruction, transcription of Braille materials, adaptive visual aids, Scriptures on cassettes, and referral to other organizations with services for people with disabilities. Goals of this component include training of health care providers, educators, and family members so they can help people who are blind participate more fully in family and community life.
Currently the Advantage Program:
• Sponsors 17 students to attend St. Vincent’s School in Port-au-Prince and one student to attend school near her home
• Provides vocational training in the Bernice Johnson Center for 12 women with motor disabilities
• Works on an ongoing basis with approximately 30 individuals who are blind or visually impaired
• Provides outpatient rehabilitation services and equipment to persons with a variety of conditions to include congenital deformities, cerebral palsy, stroke, club foot deformity, and musculoskeletal injury
• Provides inpatient rehabilitation services for 8-12 patients each month in the CSL Hospital - stroke is the most common diagnosis of persons receiving inpatient rehabilitation services
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