Dr.
Charles Rene, born in Haiti, is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist.
He has had a private practice in New Orleans since 1986, and was
the former Chief of OB/GYN at Pendleton Methodist Hospital.
Dr.
Rene attended medical school and completed his internship at the
State University Medical School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He also
studied in Lille, France. His ob/gyn residency training was done
at the Hospital Justinien in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. After emigrating
to the US, Dr. Rene followed the law of this country and repeated
his internship at Mercy Catholic Medical Center in Philadelphia
and another ob/gyn residency at the Jersey City Medical Center
in New Jersey. He then started a private practice in New Jersey,
while serving as a Clinical Instructor, Assistant Director and
Director of the OB/GYN Diagnostic Center.
As
a youngster growing up in Port-au-Prince, Dr. Rene became keenly
aware of the discrepancy in healthcare access between the privileged
upper class and the destitute majority of Haitian people. He vowed
to one day to help remedy this tragic situation.
After
a self-imposed exile during the last decade of the Duvalier reign
of terror in Haiti, Dr. Rene returned home in 1986 to start work
on his adolescent dreams of building a better future for his country.
Since 1986, Dr. Rene has returned three to four times a year on
charitable visits to the St. Joseph Hospital in La Vallee de Jacmel.
His team provides free medical treatment to the peasants, an underprivileged
group for whom he has the deepest respect for carrying the under-compensated
burden of Haitian national production. He and his team bring much-needed
supplies from the US, provide outpatient care, minor surgery and major surgery, including emergency C-sections.
Dr.
Rene’s first return visit in 1986 was the beginning of a
movement to fill the great need for healthcare and education for
the less fortunate in Haiti in general, and the Commune of La
Vallée de Jacmel in the Department of South-East, his mother's
birthplace, in particular. Dr. Rene was the catalyst for the formation
of the following humanitarian organizations that provide health,
education, financial aid and human rights assistance:
1.
The "Association Haitienne de Développement Humain,
Inc." (Haitian Association for Human Development - A.H.D.H.),
in New Orleans, LA, 1986
2.
The "Comité de Support pour la Restoration de la Démocratie"
(Support Committee to Restore Democracy - COSURED), New Orleans,
LA, 1991
3.
The "Haitian Organization for Health Services, Inc."
(H.O.H.S.), in Washington, DC, 1993, which offered a blueprint
to the government in exile for a modern healthcare system in Haiti
after the restoration of the democratic order
4.
The "Fondation Ertha Pascal Trouillot” (FONDEPT), in
Haiti, 1996, in collaboration with former Haitian Provisional
President, Her Excellency, Mme. Ertha Pascal Trouillot, dedicated
to changing the unequal socio-economic conditions of Haitian women.
Dr. Rene is the medical director of the Hospital St. Joseph. His
humanitarian trips have increased in frequency to four times a
year and his core team includes his wife Sandra Birdsall-Rene,
RN, plus Critty Hymes, MD, Nicole Vincent, MD, Arshi Michael,
MD, Carolle Jean-Murat, MD; Anika Michael, MD; Michael Beauford, and many other volunteers.
