Name: Marie Agathe Jean Baptiste

Country of Origin: Haiti

WLS Award: 2007-2008

Graduate Program:   Masters program in Public Health at the University of Washington, Seattle, U.S.A.

Goal: Marie Agathe Jean Baptiste works on public health issues in her community using popular education and community organizing methods. Baptiste started the Integrated Health Program, a health clinic for rural communities, at the request of the Mouvman Peyizan Papay (Peasant Movement of Papay, MPP) a peasant popular education organization of which she has been a member since she was a teenager. The Integrated Health program, based on the models of popular education and community organizing, has been run by Baptiste for two years, and has trained hundreds of female health promoters and traditional birth attendants as well as educated local rural communities through it's innovative programming. After her studies, she wishes to return to Haiti and continue her work at the Integrated Health Program incorporating the public health principals that she has learned.  

Current Projects: Baptiste conducted her practicum research on barriers faced by traditional birth attendants in rural Haiti focusing specifically on the issue of reducing maternal mortality in two Central Plateau communities. She returned to Haiti in April to distribute the results of her research. She recently graduated from her MPH program and plans to return to Haiti to further distribute the results of her research and to continue her work in public health. Her thesis is entitled, “Can Haiti deliver on its promise to offer everyone a basic package of health services?  An analysis of health workforce needs.”

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