Dr. Guy Theodore - Promise for Haiti “Bio”

Proposed Guy Theodore/Hospital Bienfaisance Book Project

Matt Clark – Executive Director

HospitalBienfaisance Awards and Accomplishments:

-One of three NGOs chosen to pilot performance-based payment of USAID grant money in Haiti in 1999

-Hospital visited by Hillary Clinton while First Lady – she mentioned her visit in a speech given to the Inter-American Development Bank in 2009 as Secretary of State

  • “Now, we know from empirical data that small investments go a long way, and I’ve seen this for myself in Haiti. In addition to traveling there as a newlywed, I traveled as First Lady. I traveled out into the country to meet a doctor who had emigrated to the United States, joined the United States Air Force, had become a colonel, but then wanted to give back to the country of his birth – return to Haiti to his hometown in Pignon, to run a center for health, women’s literacy and microcredit. They had few resources, but they offered a comprehensive range of services to thousands of clients.

-World Health Award from the World Health Organization and Haiti Ministry of Health in 2010

-USAID inaugurated Hospital Bienfaisance as a Center of Excellence and Reference forObstetric and Neonatal Emergencies in 2012

-HAITIANHEALTH MINISTRY AWARD in 2007

-2007 nominee for the Gates Foundation Award for Global Health.

-New York Times feature article in 2010

Dr. Guy Theodore Awards and Accomplishments:

-U.S Air Force Colonel from 1977 to 1983

-Digicel Haitian Entrepreneur of the Year 2010

-Peter Jennings of ABC News as "Person of the Week" in September of 1994

-INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SUMMIT HUMANITARIAN AWARD by the Tampa International Business Summit in 2007

-Inaugural recipient of American College of Surgeons Humanitarian Award in 2008

-United Nations Foundation Awardfor achievements in Health Improvement in 2002

-Dr. Leon Audin Award from Haitian Medical Associationfor the advancement of Science and Medicine in Haiti in 1999

-Medal of Honor,United States Air force (U.S.A) in 1983

-Rotary International

  • GuyTheodore joined Rotary Club of Jacksonville - Arkansas U.S.A in 1982 where he was serving in the medical corps in the US Air force.He is a Charter President and Founder of Rotary Club of Pignon - Haiti in 1999 – 2000; Assistant District Governor 2001 – 2004; District Water Chair 2007 – 2008; Haiti Task Force Chair 2007 – 2011.Graduate of Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI); He has assisted to numerous District Conferences & Assemblies and over half a dozen of Rotary International Conventions. He is Paul Harris Fellow.
  • Caribbean District Governor 2011-2012

-Haitian Presidential Candidate 2010

-Haitian Ministry of Health Award for commitment to the advancement of the medical profession in Haiti

Dr. Guy Theodore’s History:

Guy Theodore was born in the remote village of Pignon, Haiti; the seventh of nine children of a Baptist lay minister. As a child, young Guy frequently accompanied his father on donkey-ride visitations to the sick and dying people of the remote countryside, where his father would pray with the sick and their family, often times dispensing some basic pills or other available medicines that he could acquire with his own money.

Guy often saw children his age dying from starvation and older people afflicted with diseases caused by contaminated drinking water. Because Pignon had no doctor to treat the sick and dying, many people that Guy encountered on one visit, would be dead the next -- causalities of malnutrition, poor sanitation and lack of medical attention. He knew that these people were perishing not only unnecessarily, but often hopelessly.

At the age of twelve, on a trip with his father to one of his friends, Guy asked his father why he didn't give him any pills. He was told that his friend was dying, there was not a doctor in the area and most people could not afford to travel to Cap-Haitian or Port-au-Prince to seek help. With both a child's innocence and a maturity beyond his years, young Guy asked if the could become a doctor and care for his people. His father told him that it was possible with the Lord's help and blessings. There, in the mountains, they got down off the donkey and Guy prayed aloud, "Lord there is so much need all around me. As a Christian, I feel it is my duty to try to help people. Give me the wisdom and intelligence to become a doctor. Wherever I am, I will come back to Pignon and do Your work." Within him burned a determination to cultivate his God-given intelligence to attend medical school, and share his faith and knowledge with Pignon's residents.

God answered young Guy's prayers and enabled him to complete high school and medical school in Port-au-Prince after his community helped send him to school. After medical school and a residency in urology, he came to the United States to perform his internship in New Jersey and his surgical residency in New York City from 1970 to 1975. After passing his New York State Board and his surgery board, he entered private practice.

For a Haitian boy reared in a remote village of Haiti, Dr. Theodore found himself in unimaginably pleasant circumstances while in the United States. He had friends, comfort, possessions and prestige--until one night in 1976 when he had a dream and his life passed before his eyes. He remembered himself as a twelve year old boy and heard his father probing, "Guy have you forgotten your commitment to the Lord?" He saw again the hollow eyes of dying children and awoke knowing he mustreturn to Pignon. He had to honor his promise to the Lord.

At the time of his dream, Dr. Theodore was about to invest in a new home in York City. Instead he took his money and sent it to Pignon to begin building the Hospital de Bienfaisance on the site where he was born. With the help of the community (people of all walks of life helping with construction of the initial building by carrying water or rocks from the surrounding area), Hospital Bienfaisance was constructed. The hospital has since grown to be a 65-bed hospital with two operating rooms, multiple clinics, and community development projects. Dr. Theodore and HosptialBienfaisance have garnished awards and accolades for global health for their work in Pignon by organizations like the United Nations, World Health Organization, and USAID.

Under Dr. Theodore's leadership and with the help of thousands of volunteers, his vision has become a reality. The Comite de Bienfaisance, a locally elected Haitian committee, presides over the entire mission effort, its programs and projects. Guy also founded Promise for Haiti as a stateside nonprofit organization in 1981 to support the work in Haiti.