Fourth Round of Community Grants Awarded to Small Haitian Nonprofits

August 17, 2010

As part of its $500,000 commitment to fund small, grassroots Haitian nonprofits who are helping their communities recover from January's earthquake, Direct Relief International has recently awarded a fourth round of specifically targeted grants. The groups receiving the latest grants are:

Mouvement Paysan de l’Acul du Nord (Movement of Peasasnts to Acul du Nord)
Despite the lack of earthquake damage in the northern departments of Haiti, many families are directly or indirectly facing serious consequences from this catastrophe. The migration of affected people from the devastated metropolitan area have begun to exert greater pressures on  the social services that were already underfunded and unprepared to support more people. An investigation by the City Hall of Acul du North found that 18,000 migrants are now living in the municipality, in addition to the 70,000 residents who were already lacking adequate medical services.

The Peasant Movement of Acul du Nord (MPA) works to improve the lives of farmers in the north. Direct Relief is supporting MPA with a grant of $25,000 to provide much needed medical services in the area. The goal is to reduce the high prevalence of malaria and typhoid fever by improving sanitation; bringing awareness to the people through education campaigns; and establishing a medical clinic staffed by a doctor, nurse, and lab technician to help treat patients.

La Via Campesina
Close to 70 percent of Haiti’s workforce is in farming. The earthquake has complicated the farming situation throughout the country; the migration of a million people to rural towns and provinces is putting a strain on the local farmers. Donations of foreign food and seeds are affecting local production and long-term sustainability. Peasant families, demonstrating their hospitality, are feeding the refugees with the little grain reserves they possessed.

Direct Relief has granted $28,250 to La Via Campesina, a community organization dedicated to promoting food sovereignty in Haiti, to distribute seeds to 650 rural families around the country; build and maintain seed banks to ensure long-term food security; and fight the hunger of migrants. Within 45 days of the donation, families who planted spinach and okra seeds are expected to begin to harvest. Within 60 days, beans will be harvested. And within 75 days, corn seeds will begin to reap. This grant will not only provide short-term assistance but also ensure long-term food production in farming communities throughout Haiti.

Solidarite Haitienne
Immediately after the earthquake, Solidarite Haitienne sent a team of four nurses and a doctor to the village of St. Rock in the mountains above Port-au-Prince, where 5,000 residents were not receiving any medical services. Based on the number of patients in the area, the team decided to send weekly mobile medical clinics to treat this underserved population.

Direct Relief is providing Solidarite Haitienne, a grassroots organization committed to healthcare, education, and economic development, with a grant of $20,000 to enable it to provide weekly mobile medical clinics in St. Rock for a year. It will treat 200 patients per week and implement a nurse training program so residents will continue to receive basic medical care when the clinic is not operating and into the future. During a Direct Relief site visit to the clinic nearly 500 people, mostly the elderly and children, were waiting to see the doctor; clearly, the need is great. The community’s water source is contaminated, and nearly every child had a cough and fever. Direct Relief will also support this clinic with an ongoing supply of medicines and supplies.

Haiti Hospital Appeal
Haiti has the highest mortality rate among infants, children under five, and women in the Western Hemisphere. A mother is 50 times more likely to die during childbirth in Haiti than in the U.S. In Haiti it is estimated that 75 percent of births take place at home without any form of medical support, placing both mother and child at great risk. This includes an absence in pre- and postnatal care. Due to limited maternity support, a large number of children are also left brain-damaged. 

A mobile health unit to reach the slums and rural areas not receiving health support is urgently needed.  The earthquake has severely strained the health system in the north, with hundreds of thousands of people now accessing services. The main hospital is severely under-resourced and often mothers cannot afford to pay for services nor do they have the transportation needed to get there.

The Haiti Hospital Appeal (HHA) was founded in 2006 in response to this desperate health situation in the north of Haiti. It works to empower, encourage, and equip the Haitian healthcare system, and to develop the skills of the Haitian medical workforce. 

Direct Relief is funding HHA with $25,000 to establish a mobile maternity and pediatric unit. The mobile health unit will provide free pre- and postnatal consultations for pregnant women; a referral system for women at risk; monitor growth of newborns; and provide vaccines and nutritional support; free family planning and health education classes; and support for traditional birth attendants through hands-on training and education. This project will strive to decrease the risk of maternal and infant mortality and birth-related disabilities.

Haiti Earthquake: A Six-Month Update

July 9, 2010

Since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital on January 12, 2010, Direct Relief International has provided over 400 tons of emergency medical assistance worth more than $45.4 million to 53 Haitian healthcare facilities, international medical teams, mobile medical clinics, tent-based hospitals, and medical units at camps for displaced people across the country.

This response has been the largest, most comprehensive, emergency response in our 62-year history. It has been possible because of the outpouring of private financial support and extraordinary engagement from corporate partners with which Direct Relief has long worked. Six months later, the response continues at full force and will require a sustained effort for an extended period.

Direct Relief has provided support in Haiti since 1964 to health facilities in need of medicines, supplies, and equipment to treat patients who lack the financial means to cover the costs of care. These longstanding ties enabled Direct Relief to respond rapidly in the aftermath of the quake and to furnish specifically requested medical materials where they were most needed.

The earthquake exacerbated a chronic problem of limited resources and access to care. The quake left tens of thousands of people injured and scrambling for access to not only medical care but to food, water, and shelter. Because of the infrastructure damage and overwhelming workloads at healthcare facilities, Direct Relief established its own storage and distribution mechanisms in the country to ensure secure delivery of essential medicines and supplies. Direct Relief also deployed information systems to manage, track, and report the flow of resources into Haiti and helped develop a comprehensive inventory and mapping of the country’s health infrastructure.

We have received $6.3 million in cash contributions for Haiti and more than $52 million of product contributions intended for Haiti. The cost of delivering this material aid has been over $880,000. In addition, $2 million in cash has been allocated to support disability services, such as prosthetics, orthotics, assistive devices such as wheelchairs, and to support rehabilitative services. Another $500,000 has been devoted to a Community Grant Fund for local Haitian organizations that themselves suffered tremendous losses, undertaken extraordinary efforts, and will play an essential role in the ongoing efforts to recover, rebuild, and serve affected people.

Our goals are to continue emergency assistance needed to care for survivors who have been displaced or disabled by this catastrophic event; infuse resources to support and strengthen the damaged health system as it rebuilds; and assist community-based groups that do essential work but have not had access to resources that have become available.

The Next Six Months

Providing Essential Medicines and Medical Supplies
The earthquake has destroyed many hospitals and clinics across Haiti’s capital, leaving more people in need of medical attention and fewer facilities to go to. The remaining medical facilities are seeing additional patients and require more medicines and supplies to keep their doors open. This increase in demand is felt throughout the country, as large numbers of people have moved out of Port-au-Prince looking for services in other cities.

Community Grants Program
Direct Relief International has created a $500,000 Community Grant Fund to provide Haitian nongovernmental organizations and community groups access to cash grants. These local groups have incurred exceptional costs responding to the earthquake’s aftermath and are essential in delivering services, providing support, and representing the interests of the communities they serve. But because they are not widely known outside of Haiti, they don’t have access to the large amount of international monies raised to assist the Haitian people.

Hurricane Preparedness in a Disaster Zone
For the third year, Direct Relief has prepositioned specially designed Hurricane Preparedness Modules throughout the Caribbean, including eight in Haiti this year. Each module is designed to combat the most common illnesses that occur following a hurricane and will treat approximately 5,000 people for one month. Hurricanes often disrupt water and sanitation systems and interrupt delivery of supplies to healthcare facilities. With hundreds of thousands of people now living in temporary shelters, this year will be especially devastating should a storm make landfall near Port-au-Prince.

Prosthetic and Orthotic Rehabilitative Services
With tens of thousands of people injured, the need for rehabilitative services is at an all-time high. Direct Relief has committed $2 million in cash for long-term rehabilitative services with an emphasis on prosthetic services. Partnering with Healing Hands for Haiti, the country’s premier physical medicine and rehabilitation institution, Direct Relief is funding an additional rehabilitation center to provide recent amputees with a place to do physical therapy and have their newly fitted prosthesis adjusted. This facility allows Healing Hands for Haiti to treat the enormous number of earthquake-affected patients as well as maintain treatment regiments for the pre-earthquake patients.

The Long Term: Investment in Infrastructure

Consistent with our mission to increase access to health services and support permanent healthcare facilities, Direct Relief will invest in permanent facilities and the creation of more robust rehabilitation and prosthetic services to treat not only earthquake victims but the estimated 800,000 Haitian people who were already disabled.

Train the Future Rehabilitation Specialists of Haiti
Before the earthquake struck, Haiti lacked trained prosthetic technicians and physical therapists. To handle the long-term needs of the newly disabled, a cadre of prosthetic technicians and physical therapists must be trained. Working with Healing Hands for Haiti and the Ministry of Health, Direct Relief will fund the training of Haitian healthcare workers in prosthetic and rehabilitative care to ensure that services are available for years to come.

Build an Orthopedic Wing at Haiti’s Second-Largest Hospital
The Justinian University Hospital (JUH) in Cap-Haitian is the country’s second-largest hospital but lacks an orthopedic department. When hospitals still standing in Port-au-Prince were overwhelmed with patients after the earthquake, Justinian University Hospital couldn’t accommodate complicated trauma causes, despite a three-year-old plan to build an orthopedic department. Direct Relief and longtime partner Konbit Sante, which supports JUH and whose mission is to strengthen the public health system through training and capacity-building, will collaborate with the Ministry of Health to establish key trauma services at JUH.

Archives

June 2010 

May 2010 

April 2010 

March 2010 

February 2010 

January 2010