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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Written portrait of the doctor leaf Elise Valdor by the words of her son Tham Luckner
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Jacmel, section Cayes - Haiti.
Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer) Paul treats people since she was 15. After our first meeting, Mrs. Paul unfortunately told us that she had lost her gift "lafrik" and therefore was no longer able to meet us ...
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Jacmel, section Cayes - Haiti.
Convalescence room at Doctor Feuille (common name for the Haitian traditional healer) Paul.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Jacmel, section Cayes - Haiti.
Ronald,15, fell from a coconut tree and broke his wrists. He has been treated at Madam Paul's place for a month.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Jacmel, section Cayes - Haiti.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
« Pwa Pian » (stinky peas) - Cassia occidentalis.
For what diseases and how can we use « pwa pian » ?
Against skin conditions: clean the lesion with boiled water and soap. Carefully wash a good handful of leaves, crush them and lay on the affected area. Cover with a clean compress or cloth and change 3 to 4 times a day. Do this for 7 days;
Against sore throat: take a few leaves, suck them; Do it twice a day for 2 to 3 days;
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Elise Valdor, 72, is a Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer) in Martissant, popular area of Port-au-Prince, for the past fifteen years. However, she began to develop this gift only after the death of her mother who was an important Mambo (female Voodoo priest). As a child, Elise had visions and could foresee certain things but this gift frightened her and she pushed it back until her mother's death. On the heights of Port-au-Prince, Elise often comes to fetch her leaves.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
On the roof of the house of Elise Valdor in Martissant (Haiti), a certain number of plants and trees provide the necessary ingredients to prepare the basic remedies.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Richardson James Fritz, 24, has been knocked down by a car since then he has a regular headache. This is the first time he sees a Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer). Elise gives her a special care of the head, based on Trumpet, Cachiman, Guava and Tibon sheets as well as a massage.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Richardson James Fritz, 24, has been knocked down by a car since then he has a regular headache. This is the first time he sees a Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer). Elise gives her a special care of the head, based on Trumpet, Cachiman, Guava and Tibon sheets as well as a massage.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Syrup made by the Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer) Elise Valdor based on leaves and roots.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Richardson James Fritz, 24, has been knocked down by a car since then he has a regular headache. This is the first time he sees a Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer). Elise gives her a special care of the head, based on Trumpet, Cachiman, Guava and Tibon sheets as well as a massage.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
« Casser sec » - Samyda dodecandra.
Against which diseases use « Casser sec » and how?
Against flu and cough: take three leaves to break dry, boil them in two cups of clean water for ten minutes in a covered pan; Drink a cup three times a day
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Elise Valdor, 72, is a Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer) in Martissant, popular area of Port-au-Prince, for the past fifteen years. However, she began to develop this gift only after the death of her mother who was an important Mambo (female Voodoo priest). Elise Vador was born in Jérémie (South of Haiti) of a middle-class family, however, she did not attend school. Every night, when she was asleep, a canoe came to pick her up and take her to a large boat where a white man (a foreigner) was sitting to teach her to read.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Basket of ingredients necessary for the classic remedies that most Haitians frequently use.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Preparation of castor oil with seeds and leaves collected on Elise Valdor’s garden-roof.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
In Haiti, the implementation of sustainable development programs appears to be particularly challenging so far and, regardless of the areas in question and the organizations involved, few activities from these types of projects continue to perform satisfactorily and provide A real well-being to the target populations.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Reception room for patients of Elise Valdor. Before, in her dreams, Elise could foresee the solutions to the problems that would come to her, however, she preferred to put this gift aside
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Elise Valdor, Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer), massages a patient using an oil prepared according to the patient's ills. Sometimes patients pay for her medical opinion or they offer a service in exchange but sometimes they simply have nothing to offer.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Lemongrass, large thyme and other leaves of the garden are plants frequently used to cure the small ailments of everyday life.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Elise Valdor, Dokté Fey (common name for the Haitian traditional healer), massages a patient using an oil prepared according to the patient's ills. Sometimes patients pay for her medical opinion or they offer a service in exchange but sometimes they simply have nothing to offer.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Grain mill with which Elise Valdor grinds the seeds harvested on her roof, in the mountains and at the market.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Her grandfather, Saint Louis Maret Joseph, was also a big Hougan (Voodoo priest) of the South Est area then. Jealous of Elise and her predilections, one day he took her into the woods, took a steel nail, measured with a wire the height of Elise standing before a Hourglass tree ( Shrub) and nailed it to him by pronouncing these words after chanting an incantation in Latin;
"I do this for your sake so that you may continue to live, for you see too many things that can cost you life. « Since then, even when Elise sees things in dreams, she can no longer remember them ...
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Following a car accident, Ms. Joseph suffered a cranial trauma. Since then, she has recurring headaches though Western medicine can do nothing. As a result, she regularly comes to see the doctor Elise Valdor. Here, she has just been bathed by a treatment based on castor oil. According to legend, the castor seeds are adorned with many magical virtues. Castor oil would, for example, after an incantation, push the hair back on the most receding skull.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Preparation of castor oil with seeds and leaves collected on Elise Valdor’s garden-roof.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Following a car accident, Ms. Joseph suffered a cranial trauma. Since then, she has recurring headaches though Western medicine can do nothing. As a result, she regularly comes to see the doctor Elise Valdor. Here, she has just been bathed by a treatment based on castor oil. According to legend, the castor seeds are adorned with many magical virtues. Castor oil would, for example, after an incantation, push the hair back on the most receding skull.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
The World Health Organization is currently encouraging countries where official medicine, failing financial and technical means, is unable to take charge of the health of its population and to update their traditional medicine. According to this institution, adequate updating of traditional therapies practiced in these countries can significantly increase the health coverage offered.
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Despite the precariousness and scarcity of formal medical facilities, the population still has access to certain types of care. Studies carried out in Haiti have indicated the important role played by traditional medicine "which represents on a constant basis of 70% the population's first resort to seeking medical care"
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© 2021 Thomas Freteur
Commune of Port-au-Prince, section Martissant - Haiti.
Elise, as a person of faith, is a serious Protestant while her son, Tham Luckner practices Voodoo. Between them, they avoid talking about certain subjects related to Voodoo. Tham often helps his mother in the preparation of remedies.
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3 fey 3 rasin
thomas freteur
Aug 10, 2017
Work in progress
Twa fèy, twa rasin o Three leaves, three roots
Jété bliyé, ranmasé sonjé Throw to forget, pick up to remember
Mwen genyen basen mwen I have my basin, my source
Twa fèy tonbé ladann, Three leaves fell in it
Jété bliyé, ranmasé sonjé Throw to forget, pick up to remember
Over the past twenty years, Haiti has experienced chronic political and institutional instability that does not favor its development and produces a deterioration of living conditions in general. The economic situation is deteriorating year by year, increasingly limiting the buying power of the population and even pushing a part of the population considered above the poverty line to impoverishment. In this context, for the vast majority of households, very strict budgeting of expenditure becomes necessary and certain items such as health are increasingly neglected. Households currently devote on average less than 4% of their income to their health, which is more than insignificant in view of the low level of wages. "It is virtually a luxury property, in terms of price of services, doctors' fees or the price of medicines, in the absence of any public system of medical care "(UNDP report), while factors generally unfavorable to health are multiplying and intensifying: insalubrity of the environment, lack of water, contamination of the main sources of drinking water, food insecurity, growing promiscuity in the slums in extension, to mention only those there.
Despite these realities, at the level of the Global Budget, less than 2% of the National Revenue is allocated to the health sector, whose precarious state is alarming and which in no way meets the needs of the population. The latter therefore tends to turn away from the formal health care system, especially since even when she makes the effort to go to a health center, if the medication she needs is not provided, It rarely succeeds in executing the order received, which usually only involves imported and costly synthetic remedies.
Under these conditions, in the event of illness, the population often opts for the traditional medicine to which it still confers confidence and which often succeeds in repairing it. Indeed, in this field, Haiti has still a great resource: that of an empirical medicine that is rich, diversified and accessible. Thanks to this ancestral knowledge, despite the precariousness and the rarity of the official medical structures, the population has still access to certain types of care. Studies carried out in the country have indicated the important role played by traditional medicine "which represents on a constant basis of 70% the first recourse of the population in the search for medical care". With more than limited means, certain weaknesses but an incontestable basis, this ancestral practice takes valiantly the responsibility of the majority of the population for affections as numerous as varied.