A History of Christian Community Clinic

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Summarized from the clinic history at Coastal Connection.

Origins and Early Years

The Christian Community Clinic — originally known as the Onaville Clinic — began as a mobile health effort and opened a permanent site in September 2015, about an hour north of Port-au-Prince. From the beginning, founder James Kurdiff established it to serve a broad and underserved population across multiple townships: Onaville, Canaan, Jerusalem, Corail, and the surrounding communities.

The clinic was the only private charitable clinic in the area, providing primary care, preventive programs, and specialty outpatient services to the entire Croix des Bouquets county — a region estimated at around 200,000 people. Over the years it cared for more than 40,000 patients. Before the worst of the security crises, typical daily patient volumes reached seventy patients per day, served by two physicians and supporting staff. In 2017, Dr. Garry Thomas took over as head physician.

Services and Care

Core primary care offerings included prenatal and pediatric care, family planning, chronic disease management, and wound care. Dedicated programs for hypertension and diabetes emphasized prevention, education, treatment, and follow-up. The clinic also distributed food — notably rice and beans — to patients facing food insecurity.

Diagnostics expanded significantly over the years. Basic laboratory services began with pregnancy and malaria tests and simple hemoglobin checks; by 2017–2021 these grew to include CBCs, malaria, Widal, urine testing, sickle testing, cross-matching, blood glucose, and STD testing. The facility also supported EKGs and ultrasound through partnerships with visiting specialists and sonographers.

Partners and Operations

Partnerships and logistics were central to the clinic's ability to operate. Coastal Connection emerged as a primary financial supporter and logistics partner, helping to pay operating expenses and payroll, arranging regular shipments of medical supplies from the United States, and supplying PPE during the pandemic. Other groups, including CAM and individual donors, provided medications and intermittent support.

After founder James Kurdiff's death in late 2021, assets were transferred to Vision4Word, founded by Kendra Luna. Coastal Connection also agreed to assume financial responsibility for continued operations.

Crisis, Violence, and Displacement

Despite these operational advances, the clinic's work was repeatedly disrupted — and ultimately uprooted — by worsening insecurity and gang violence across the Port-au-Prince area. Beginning around 2021 and accelerating through 2022–2023, gang activity became pervasive in the region. Well-armed groups such as the 400 Marozo and a Canaan-based gang known as "5 Seconds" extended control over major transportation routes and neighborhoods.

Violence, kidnappings, and armed robberies rose. The clinic — which treated patients from all sides of the conflict, including gang members and their families — faced direct threats. After the founder's death, gang members sought assurances that the clinic would remain open. Dr. Garry Thomas negotiated with the gangs and secured safe passage for clinic staff through gang roadblocks. Still, periodic closures were necessary for staff safety, and the operations team endured unrest, high fuel costs, and a growing burden of trauma patients including gunshot wounds.

In 2022 the situation deteriorated significantly. Large-scale thefts and loss of equipment followed. The clinic campus was attacked and immediately abandoned, with the loss of all supplies and equipment. One staff member, Yodi, stayed behind and was shot four times — but survived after extensive surgery.

Relocation to Lizon — and a Second Displacement

A building in Lizon in the Bon Repos area, a few miles from the original site, was rented, supplied, and staffed — opening a second clinic that allowed services to continue and preserved staff safety. The relocation succeeded for less than a year. As gang fronts shifted and expanded, patient numbers fluctuated and many community members migrated farther south to escape the violence. By May 2023, in-person services at the relocated site effectively ceased amid continued insecurity.

The second site was abandoned in a more orderly manner than the first. Blood pressure, diabetes, and other medications were staged in selected community leaders' homes to maintain care for chronic patients. Delivery trucks periodically came, but not to deliver. Supplies, equipment, and a solar power system were quietly loaded and relocated. This foresight proved wise: in May 2024, two young missionaries from Montana and their Haitian orphanage supervisor were killed by gangs close by our clinic in Lizon.

A New Home in Paillant

Faced with ongoing instability and the collapse of broader health infrastructure nationally — by April 2024 an estimated 4.7 million Haitians required humanitarian health assistance and most state facilities were nonfunctional — clinic leadership selected Paillant, in the mountainous southern peninsula of Haiti, as a secure permanent site. A property was rented, dependable solar power and Starlink satellite internet installed, and the Paillant clinic opened in June 2024.

The facility has three consultation rooms, a lab, a pharmacy, triage and waiting areas, offices, a stockroom, and several indoor and outdoor waiting areas. In its first full year of operation it served 30,000 patients, averaging 115 per day. Within months of opening, additional doctors and nurses joined the staff to ensure no one was turned away. Weekend mobile clinics were added to serve the prison, schools, and small villages in the surrounding area.

Expansion to Les Cayes

In October 2025, under the continued leadership of Dr. Garry Thomas and the support of Vision4Word and Coastal Connection, the newest Christian Community Clinic opened in Les Cayes — forty miles west of Paillant. Its patient load and operations are rapidly approaching those of the Paillant clinic. Like Paillant, the Les Cayes clinic operates entirely off the grid, using solar power with extensive battery storage and a backup generator.

Looking Forward

Throughout its history, Christian Community Clinic has expanded services and diagnostics, maintained patient support during crises, negotiated community safety amid violent actors, and relocated twice to protect staff and preserve access to care.

Major ongoing needs include funding for medicines and operations, secure supply chains (including cold storage for vaccines), and technical and logistical support to scale telemedicine and medical record systems. With its Paillant and Les Cayes locations and a planned telemedicine expansion, the clinic aims to rebuild stable, sustainable services for a region facing severe unmet health needs.

Key Milestones