Community Grants Support Health Worker Training and Therapy Program

December 22, 2011  

To help the people of Haiti recover from the devastating effects of the earthquake in 2010, Direct Relief made targeted grants to several small, grassroots organizations assisting their communities, including these two organizations, Solidarite Haitienne and Bureau de Doleances Social.     

Solidarite Haitienne is a grassroots foundation created by a group of residents living in the Christ Roi neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.  After the earthquake, the founders wanted to help the devastated area to come back to life. Foundation President Jean Edy Gaston has done everything possible to assist his neighbors--including setting up a free medical clinic in the area.      

In June 2010, Solidarite Haitienne brought a mobile clinic to Saint Rock, a village two hours from Port-au-Prince, with a team of four nurses and a doctor. When they arrived, a line of over one hundred people were waiting to be seen by the doctor. That day, they vaccinated children and provided medicine to 147 patients. The mobile clinic program expanded to Duvier as well.      

To help increase access to healthcare services for these remote villages, Solidarite Haitienne began to train health agents to provide basic health services in the community. With Direct Relief’s support, Solidarite Haitienne trained 12 health agents who now serve these areas.     

The health agents are trained to look for signs of diabetes, high blood pressure, and malnutrition, which are common in these remote areas. Since they are members of the communities they serve, they have relationships with their patients and an existing level of trust. When the health agents are aware of their neighbors’ conditions, they can keep a close eye on them, making sure they take their medications and follow treatment plans prescribed by the doctor.     

The Direct Relief grant to Solidarite Hatienne has brought healthcare services to these remote villages in Haiti that previously did not have access to basic healthcare.    

The January 2010 earthquake caused a lot of damage in the area of Carrefour Feuilles in Port au Prince. An untold number of people and homes were lost. Bureau de Doleances stepped in to help its community overcome these traumas.   

In May 2010, the Bureau de Doleances Social established a program for children age 5 to 15. The program lasted for a year and was done in several sessions to have groups of same-age children intermingle. During the year, the younger children were taught songs and games under the watchful eye of a monitor. Some would find a quiet spot to draw a picture. Teaching awareness about cholera was done in a song. A different approach was used for the older children, since their education also included issues like children’s rights and cholera prevention. The psychosocial program was able to help 360 children, who will share their knowledge with even more children.     

Though the psychosocial program is complete, Bureau de Doleances is still collaborating with other organizations in the area and addressing the needs of the community, including a six-month education program that will focus on manual skills and games to stimulate the minds of the children. All the work will be done by a team of young leaders in the community.   

Direct Relief Community Grants Support Two Orphanages in Haiti

October 13, 2011

Melissa’s Hope is an orphanage located in the area of Lizon, where the director, Tony Manshino and Jean Pascal Bain, are taking care of 18 orphans of which 13 have special needs. Taking over the orphanage was a learning experience for both Tony and Pascal, but mostly for Tony, who is a music producer and entrepreneur. Pascal turned it into a family project; his wife teaches first grade and they also live on the premises.

Melissa’s Hope has hired eight caregivers, two cooks, and six teachers. The eight caregivers work around the clock taking care of the special-needs children. The cooks prepare three meals a day for all the children, including the day students, who get a hot lunch before they go home.

The staff keeps a constant eye on the children, most of which are handicapped and in wheelchairs. One child, who does use a walker, speeds around the grounds, playfully trying to run people over. The children deal with various challenges, but one who they call Michael Jackson, has encephalitis—a medical condition causing swelling of the brain due to acute inflammation. He had surgery, allowing him to attend school and even feed himself.

The orphanage also runs a school of 55 students, ranging in age from 3 to 13.  The six teachers are paid monthly and follow the state curriculum. To start the school, Melissa’s Hope had to purchase books, pencils, paper, and basically all the supplies the school needed, including uniforms. To keep the children entertained, Melissa’s Hope has a play room equipped with a flat-screen TV, a PlayStation, a bicycle, and a musical keyboard.

In addition to running the orphanage and school, Melissa’s Hope sends dry rations to eight elderly members of the community and holds camp every Saturday, where over 60 children are fed. Melissa’s Hope also holds free clinics with three doctors who come to the orphanage and tend to the children.

Direct Relief International support to Melissa’s Hope has allowed the facility to offer free school to people in their area who could not afford to send their children to school. Maintaining the orphanage, the school, the camp, and all the other support they are giving to people in need is keeping them busy and they have enjoyed the challenges they faced and have overcome. This resourceful team works to maintain the flow of aid for food and other items necessary for the children’s care.

After Mrs. Marie Jo Pouxspent several years supporting an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, she opened her own in 2009: Fondation Espoir pour les enfants, in the Delmas region of Haiti. It serves as an orphanage and free school for the local community. Mrs. Poux, a retired nurse, serves close to 90 children, 34 of whom are orphans. A staff of 15  helps care for the children and the two babies are cared for by four nannies, to which the babies are very attached. Since the earthquake, Mrs. Poux started a small school with four classrooms and has since added an extra three classes for the orphans and children from the neighborhood. Each child receives a snack and hot lunch every day. In the mornings the live-in children get chewable vitamins, and if the day students arrive early enough, they get a vitamin as well.

Fondation Espoir pour les enfants does have some challenges to overcome when it comes to caring for so many children. Mrs. Poux takes all the precautions necessary to prevent the children from catching communicable diseases. She makes sure her facility and the children are clean, teaching them important basic hygiene, and regularly takes the children for medical check-ups at the local clinic.

Some of the challenges are not as serious. Dealing with 11 girls is not easy, since they must have their hair combed frequently. Mrs. Poux solved that problem by having the nannies and the older girls help comb the younger girls’ hair. Keeping 23 boys under the age of 12 entertained is challenging, too; they create all sorts of games and play in small groups. The girls seem to be easier since they are not running up and down and around the house.

Direct Relief’s grant to Fondation Espoir pour les enfants has kept the children fed and the school functioning. Mrs. Poux was able to pay the school and orphanage staff, including the teachers, nannies, and cooks. She was also able to increase school enrollment with an additional 20 children. Direct Relief has also supported the orphanage by providing it with an ongoing supply of diapers, soap, vitamins, first-aid kits, and other basic personal care products for the children.

Three Community Grant Recipients Improve Education in Haiti and Help Students Regain a Sense of Normalcy

June 30, 2011

Grassroots community organizations in Haiti that received funding to help their neighborhoods recover from the January 2010 earthquake are reporting positive results from the grants they received last year. Three such groups focused on education have had a particularly valuable and positive impact on children.

Asanble Vwazen Solino (AVS), a free school in Solino, teaches children academics and trades. Immediately after the earthquake AVS retrieved survivors from under the rubble and provided moral support to the community. The dense populated neighborhood is home to mostly people of low means who are unable to pay to send their children to school, so the free education at AVS is crucial for these students to receive education.

When it was announced that school would resume on April 4, 2010, AVS faced a deadline to restore its own damaged facilities. Neighbors stepped in and helped get tarps to create classroom space so school could start, giving children and their parents a sense of return to normalcy. But in the high temperatures, children were getting sick and unable to attend class, so the tarps had to be quickly replaced. AVS had to find the funds to repair the school fast to move the children from under the sweltering tarps.

The $18,000 community grant from Direct Relief enabled AVS to immediately start repairs and quickly able to get the students back in the classrooms. Besides repairing the school and fence, AVS was able to add a much needed library/computer room, a better kitchen, and bathroom. When the students returned they were not only happy to see the school but were excited about the new additions. Repairing the free school also boosted enrollment from 125 students before the earthquake to 200.

Without the Direct Relief grant, over 80 percent of the parents in Solino would be unable to send their children to school due to the fact their situations worsened after the quake. The repairs were a relief for these parents, whose children are attending school, getting computer training, and even a meal.

Fondation Orchidée was created to help educate and emancipate children of lesser means. Using various methods to keep the students interested, the foundation hosts a book club on Saturdays as well as a summer camp.

It also supported an orphanage in Leogane that was destroyed during the earthquake, and was able to relocate the children in a safe shelter on Tabarre.

After the quake the foundation was facing so many challenges it did not think it would be possible to have camp that summer. With the Direct Relief grant, Fondation Orchidée was able to host the Saturday book club, where over 100 children from Obléon and environs came to read and tell stories, sing, and make crafts. The children enjoyed these clubs since they would be fed and receive dry rations to take home to their families.

With the community grant from Direct Relief, Fondation Orchidée was able to set up additional workshops during the summer under a tarp on the roof of their book club building. The workshops attracted even more students, who learned how to make objects in bamboo such as bracelet and vases, and were taught embroidery, crochet, and sewing to make purses, shirts, and baby bonnets. At the end of camp, the children’s wares are sold in an arts-and-crafts fair, with the proceeds going back to the children.

The Direct Relief grant allowed Fondation Orchidée to offer a much-needed summer session for the children, alleviating some of the stress the children experienced after the earthquake.

Asanble Vwazen Jacke (AVJ) was created to raise awareness on the overall needs of the people in a highly populated neighborhood in Delmas. AVJ founded an alternative school, where they created a system to enable their students to take the state exam in four years instead of the standard eight.  Enrollment for their first school year was nearly 200 students.

Immediately after the January 12 earthquake, AVJ focused on educating residents on earthquake awareness and how to deal with aftershocks.

Direct Relief’s grant to AVJ has helped the people of Jacket recover from the earthquake, and helped them have a better understanding of what to expect during and after an earthquake. Students also got the support they needed to overcome their fear of concrete buildings, return to classrooms, and feel a sense of normalcy. By getting the students comfortably back inside, AVJ was able to start academic and professional training, ranging from computer skills to arts and crafts and basic farming. The students create greeting cards, made with banana bark glued onto a design they draw, that are sold, with the proceeds reinvested in the school.

With the Direct Relief grant, AVJ was also able to lease a parcel of land that supports a small vegetable garden, a chicken coop, and small rabbit farm. The items from the farm fortify the students’ meals.

Providing Emergency Obstetric Care in Haiti

June 27, 2011

As part of an ongoing effort to strengthen emergency obstetric care in Haiti, Direct Relief International is providing funding to complete construction of the fourth and final building in the Maternity Health Unit at the Convention Baptist Hospital in Quartier Morin, Haiti.

Access to emergency obstetric care is severely limited in Haiti, which has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the western hemisphere - 527 maternal mortalities per one hundred thousand live births. The central causes behind this harrowing statistic are delays in seeking care, in reaching a health facility, and in receiving the appropriate treatment at a health facility.

Direct Relief International recently provided a $72,500 grant to Haiti Hospital Appeal (HHA), a U.K.-based organization working to improve the conditions at the Convention Baptist Hospital in Quartier Morin, Haiti. These funds will enable HHA to complete construction of the fourth and final building in the Maternity Health Unit that will contain an operating theater for obstetrical emergencies and two delivery rooms. The funds will also help purchase a suite of surgical, laboratory, and maternal equipment necessary to handle complicated deliveries and reduce maternal and infant mortality.

This final building will expand the existing Maternity Health Unit, which has public and private wards including 25 inpatient beds. The unit will provide the capacity to intervene and manage complications during delivery, including providing caesarean sections. The specialist skills of the health providers staffing this unit will also be vital in protecting the health of newborns in the existing neonatal unit. The unit will provide a range of crucial services for pregnant women before, during, and after delivery. 

“The funding Direct Relief is providing towards the Haiti Hospital Appeal's Maternity Unit will complete a four-year dream,” said Carwyn Hill, co-founder and president of Haiti Hospital Appeal. “Funding specialist equipment and completing the Unit's final ward and birthing suites, will enable us to provide life-saving support with natural births, cesarean sections, and other obstetrical emergencies.”

The Maternity Health Unit is HHA’s largest single project within its broader maternal and child health program to reduce maternal and infant mortality and the risk of long-term disability that can occur during childbirth.  HHA is providing a collaborative and comprehensive service that will improve awareness of, access to, and quality of maternity services in the region.

Direct Relief provides medical material support to over 100 hospitals and health projects in Haiti through an extensive distribution program that has provided over 700 tons of medical material valued at more than $60 million since the January 2010 earthquake. In addition, Direct Relief has spent $1.5 million of the $6.5 million it received for Haiti to provide financial support for locally run Haitian organizations providing services to the residents of their communities—including $500,000 to Healing Hands for Haiti to set up a rehabilitation center for those permanently injured by the quake.

Direct Relief’s work in Haiti to provide emergency obstetric care reflects the organization’s worldwide commitment to reducing maternal mortality rates. Learn more about Direct Relief's emergency obstetric care programs.

Direct Relief Reaches out to Healthcare Partners after Severe Rain Storms Sweep Through Haiti

June 9, 2011

Severe rain storms throughout Haiti and the Caribbean during the first weeks of June kicked off what is anticipated to be an extremely active hurricane season. The heavy rains caused flash flooding and mudslides killing 23 people and served as a reminder how fragile Haiti’s healthcare system remains 18 months after the powerful earthquake devastated its capital.  

This is the first major rainfall of the Atlantic hurricane season and there is concern about the country’s ability to respond as the people of Haiti continue their fight against an eight-month-old cholera outbreak that has taxed an already over burdened healthcare system and taken the lives of 5,400 people. Since 2007, Direct Relief has worked to strengthen Haiti’s major hospital referral centers each hurricane season by providing prepositioned modules of medications and supplies in three strategic locations across the country that can be used to treat 5,000 people for one month. This program gives healthcare providers the ability to immediately respond to people’s medical needs created by storms and flooding by having the right medications and supplies on hand and ready to use, thereby eliminating the lag time associated with transporting aid into the country after a storm has struck.

Since rainy season began in the beginning of May, the numbers of cholera cases in Haiti have been steadily increasing. The number of weekly hospitalizations nationwide has increased from an average of 1,700 to 2,600 people. In Port-au-Prince  alone, there have  been nearly 2,000 cases and 13 deaths reported in the last six weeks. This is in part due to the fact that a large number of the cholera treatment centers that were temporarily set up to treat these patients in isolation shut down earlier this year. However, the centers are now beginning to reopen, and as of June 3 there are a reported 250 treatment centers open throughout the country.

Direct Relief has reached out to healthcare partners in affected areas that may have a potential need for emergency support and has already provided over $250,000 worth of medications, IV fluids, and oral rehydration therapy to partners such as GHESKIO, Partners in Health, and Hospital Albert Schweitzer. Additionally, seven pallets of life-saving IV therapy are currently en route to Haiti, traveling on board the USS Comfort—a Navy vessel carrying emergency medical supplies to Haiti in partnership with Project Handclasp. Additional medicine and supplies in California- and Haiti-based warehouses have been made available and Direct Relief stands ready and able to respond.

Since the earthquake in January 2010, Direct Relief has dispatched over 700 tons in aid consignments to Haiti and $57 million (wholesale) in aid has been sent to care for people affected by the disaster.

Direct Relief Reaches out to Healthcare Partners after Severe Rain Storms Sweep Through Haiti  

 See updates on our response to the Haiti Cholera Outbreak 

Direct Relief Grants $75,000 to Three Grassroots Groups in Haiti

Total reaches over $632,000 with new grants

February 2, 2011

Direct Relief International has recently granted an additional $75,000 to three new grassroots groups in Haiti who are instrumental in helping their communities recover from the effects of the devastating earthquake in January 2010. The total granted to similar groups now tops $632,000. For a complete list of grantees, click here. The recent grantees are:

Association of the Peasants of Fondwa The Association of Peasants Fondwa (APF) is a grassroots organization that works to promote healthy communities that promote the civil and human rights of the poor. Together, APF and its communities have created basic infrastructure for the residents of Fondwa, including healthcare services; financial services; agricultural training; and primary, secondary, and university-level education. These opportunities improve the quality of life in Fondwa and strengthen community relationships. APF’s facilities built over the past 22 years were destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake. With the loss of housing and high levels of poverty among the peasant population, healthcare needs in the community dramatically increased.

Direct Relief has awarded a $25,000 grant to fund APF’s basic medical healthcare, screening, and prevention for the roughly 50,000 local residents. These funds pay the wages of three community health workers, two nurses, two physicians, training, and transport for medical supplies and food for six months. By providing health education, nutritional supplements, and basic immunizations, Direct Relief and APF hope to improve the overall health outcomes of the vulnerable residents of this community.

Foyer Espoir pour les Enfants
Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants, or Hope for Children Orphanage, supports orphans and homeless families in the Delmas community of Port-au-Prince, where the number of families who needed help increased dramatically after the earthquake.

The orphanage provides shelter and food for about 50 resident children and also provides education for more than 200 children whose parents cannot afford to send them to a private school. Its goal is to educate more children to become productive citizens in the community. The facility also provides skills training to parents, operates a free canteen for the children and community, and helps locals find employment.

Direct Relief’s $20,000 enables Foyer Espoir pour les Enfants to hire more teachers, purchase desks and school supplies, establish a sustainable canteen, and accept more orphans into their home and more students into their school.

Konbit Sante
Founded by a group of U.S. healthcare professionals, Konbit Sante works to create effective healthcare systems in developing countries. Through its professional connections, the group was introduced to leaders in the public health system in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second-largest city, approximately 85 miles north of Port-au-Prince, where Konbit Sante now supports various health facilities. The population of Cap-Haitien has grown tremendously as people displaced by the earthquake have sought refuge and a new start.

One of Haiti’s ongoing health issues is its very high maternal mortality rate - 670 deaths for every 100,000 live births - mostly caused by delays in care. Direct Relief’s grant of $25,000 to Konbit Sante is targeted to address two of the three most common delays to obstetric emergency care: delay in recognition of an emergency and delay in seeking care. With the funds, Konbit Sante is providing monthly training and supervision to 40 traditional birth attendants on the danger signs of obstetric emergencies, as well as establishing a dispatch and transportation system so that mothers facing an obstetric emergency get to the hospital.

In the region, an estimated 500 to 750 pregnant women at any given time, 15 percent of which will likely experience some level of obstetric emergency and require timely, skilled intervention. This grant is anticipated to serve at least 80 pregnant women facing an obstetric emergency over the two-year grant period. This simple, low-cost approach is scalable, and has the potential to significantly reduce maternal mortality in the region.

One Year Later

January 7, 2011 

The numbers are staggering: more than 230,000 people killed, hundreds of thousands injured, and 1.3 million left homeless in just minutes on January 12, 2010. In response to this devastation, Direct Relief has provided the largest emergency response in its history, delivering $57 million (wholesale) in medical aid for people injured in and displaced by the earthquake.

That equates to more than 700 tons of aid provided to our partners, who have been treating patients in more than 100 health facilities - from tent camps to large hospitals – many since the first days after the quake struck. These deliveries have been tailored exactly to the needs of healthcare providers and their patients, and were processed through the warehouse we established in Port-au-Prince so that precious time wasn’t wasted sorting through shipments. We’ve tracked every donation, which you can see on an interactive map here. 

To help the many Haitian people suffering devastating injuries and amputations, Direct Relief committed $2 million to support long term rehabilitation including prosthetic and orthotic services. A portion of these funds have helped establish a new rehabilitation center for Healing Hands for Haiti International so that people needing specialized care can regain their mobility. The new two-story clinic provides physical therapy and medical services, houses training rooms for staff, examination rooms, a pharmacy, and administration offices.

Direct Relief has granted more than $500,000 to 22 grassroots groups so they can continue to support and rebuild their communities. These groups include orphanages caring for special needs children to clinics in areas where no other medical care is available. One $20,000 grant has fully outfitted a new operating room for Camejo Polyclinique in Leogane, which was at the epicenter of the quake. The facility’s husband-and-wife physician team treats 60,000 people, about 15 percent of the population.

An extraordinary event has required an extraordinary response, which has been possible thanks to Direct Relief’s relationships with healthcare facilities in Haiti that stretch back 40 years, as well as support from donor corporations, foundations, and individuals. (All Haiti-specified donations are being allocated to Haiti, including interest on accrued funds.)

Together, we have helped tens of thousands of people in Haiti who have faced extremely challenging circumstances over the past year, suffering the loss of their homes and loved ones, living in temporary camps, and facing the threat of cholera.

Much remains to be done. In addition to providing medical aid, Direct Relief is working in collaboration with nongovernmental and governmental agencies in Haiti, including the Ministry of Health, to help support the ongoing recovery effort. While the headlines may have faded, our support continues.

Archives

November 2010 

September 2010 

August 2010 

July 2010 - Six-Month Update 

June 2010 

May 2010 

April 2010 

March 2010 

February 2010 

January 2010