Direct Relief Awards Five New Community Grants in Haiti
Grassroots groups get support through targeted funding
June 25, 2010
Direct Relief is awarding five new Community Grants to support the work grassroots groups are doing in Haiti to help their communities recover from the affects of January’s devastating earthquake. The new recipients are:
Foundation Hope for Haiti
Foundation Hope for Haiti, a nonprofit organization founded in 2002, promotes community sustainable development, decentralization, education, civic involvement, and health. Its core philosophy is to encourage collaborative endeavors with other credible organization in Haiti so that aid can be maximized and sustainable.
A $25,000 grant from Direct Relief goes to the Clinic of the Community of Thomassin, a town in the hills an hour from Port-au-Prince. The one hospital in the region has limited capacity, limited yet many destitute people have sought refuge in Thomassin and beyond. The clinic provides basic care to a population of over 15,000. Direct Relief and Foundation Hope for Haiti will improve the healthcare facility and develop clinical psychological services to help children and adults deal with the emotional trauma of the earthquake and learn coping skills to achieve true recovery.
Melissa’s Hope Orphanage
Melissa’s Hope Orphanage has cared for hundreds of children since it was founded in 2003 as a home for special-needs children. After the earthquake, the small facility has became the site where families in the area to receive medical care, education, and food. Additionally, there are more children who need schooling than are currently can be accommodated. A separate school must be built apart from the orphanage to provide the children with a proper education.
With a $25,000 grant from Direct Relief, the orphanage will expand and revamp its operations so that it can provide not only care for special-needs orphans but also schooling, free medical care, and food distribution that this impoverished community outside Port-au-Prince desperately needs.
La Fondation Orchidee
La Fondation Orchidee, founded in 2008, provides free education to children and young people in the less privileged sections of Haitian society. It operates though orphanages, clubs, homes, and shelters to provide cultural, social, and educational programs. The foundation targets children who would not otherwise have access to education and pays for their education and food; assists with intellectual development; and coordinates social activities such as excursions, contests, and debates.
In the quake, many schools were destroyed. The foundation’s reading room is a panacea for parents who have no schools for their children to attend; the lack of vocational schools promotes idleness and contributes to unemployment. Direct Relief is providing a grant of $25,000 to the foundation to repair its facility; conduct reading, hygiene, and etiquette workshops for first- through ninth-graders; provide hot lunches; and distribute food, hygiene and clothing to the surrounding community. The program intends to bolster the community in the aftermath of the earthquake, but also return the children back to a sense of normalcy and teach them reading, health, good citizenship, and etiquette.
Asanble Vwazen Solino
Asanble Vwazen Solino (AVS), Creole for Assembly of Solino Neighbors, was formed by a group of young adults in 2005 to help deal with the violence and robberies in the neighborhood of Solino. They created a school to educate the socially marginalized children of Solino free of charge as well as give them one hot meal a day.
After the earthquake, AVS began holding its classes and programs in tents on its property so that children could talk about their fears and engage in activities and games to help them cope. Major renovation is needed to make the school functional and provide students with educational materials, toys, clothes, water, food, and first aid. Direct Relief’s $7,300 grant will help the school’s students get an education in an updated building, a hot meal each day, and post-quake trauma counseling.
Asanble Vwazen Jake
AVJ was founded in 2005 to improve the social foundation of the neighborhood of Jacquet and create an alternative school for disadvantaged young people, providing a superior elementary education. The program teaches children and adults to read, which gives them the tools to improve their socioeconomic status.
Before the earthquake, most of Jacquet’s 88,000 inhabitants were living in inhumane conditions without health care, education, or adequate food and housing. AVJ is responding to these conditions, providing 200 children a daily education and running a vocational school and computer school for adults, which helps attendees generate incomes. Direct Relief’s $11,000 grant allows AVJ to purchase school supplies; train and pay teachers; fund the workshops; provide electricity in classrooms; and feed students one hot meal a day.
Direct Relief Hosts Haiti’s Director of Pharmacy and Key Leader from Management Sciences for Health
Collaboration intended to strengthen pharmaceutical management in country
June 15, 2010
Last week, Direct Relief hosted two visitors from Haiti who are instrumental in re-establishing and redesigning Haiti’s healthcare system: Mrs. Flaurine Joseph, Haiti’s Director of Pharmacy, and Dr. Georges Dubuche, of Management Sciences for Health (MSH).
Mrs. Joseph emphasized during her visit that tracking and identification of pharmaceuticals has long challenged health administrators in Haiti. Since the earthquake, the volume of unidentified and improperly imported drugs has increased exponentially. During a trip to Haiti last month, Direct Relief invited Dr. Debouch and Mrs. Joseph to come to our headquarters to learn about how to implement controls to improve Haiti’s pharmaceutical inventory management.
Responsible for overseeing the receiving, storage, and distribution of all pharmaceuticals coming into Haiti, Mrs. Joseph must ensure that medical materials are safely and appropriately manufactured, transported, and ultimately administered to patients throughout the country.
Mrs. Joseph and Dr. Debouch emphasized Haiti’s lack of sufficient systems and human resources to manage the volume and variety of pharmaceuticals entering the country. “There is little to no way to know if the pharmaceuticals that are available to Haitians are counterfeit, improperly handled, and distributed without a proper medical prescription,” Mrs. Joseph reported. As a result, the Ministry of Health cannot ensure the proper distribution, use, or recall of drugs.
“We have to start again,” said Dr. Dubuche, “to build Haiti back better.”
During the three-day visit, Direct Relief staff members shared with Mrs. Joseph and Dr. Dubuche the organization’s systems for securely processing pharmaceuticals and materials through the entire chain of custody, from the licensed manufacturer with Good Manufacturing Practices, to the proper transportation of medical material and pedigree, and finally on to the recipient healthcare provider. Direct Relief also shared its experience using the SAP information platform, the premier supply-chain management software system used in the pharmaceutical industry.
At the end of the visit, Dr. Dubuche said of the collaboration with Direct Relief, “This is such a hopeful moment for the country—it is a model to be followed.” Indeed, this collaboration with Haiti’s Ministry of Health and other key partners reflects Direct Relief’s commitment to helping Haiti rebuild for the long-term, by sharing its expertise built over 62 years of emergency response.
$150,000 in Grants Awarded to Local Groups in Haiti
June 3, 2010
As part of its initiative to help fund grassroots organizations helping their communities recover from January’s earthquake, Direct Relief International has awarded $150,000 in grants to six local groups working in Haiti.
Batey Relief Alliance
Founded in 1997, the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) addresses the socioeconomic and health needs of children and families severely affected by poverty, disease, and hunger in economically at-risk areas, including the Haiti/Dominican Republic border. BRA provides access to basic healthcare to disadvantaged populations to foster economic self-sufficiency better health.
BRA is working in the southeast border region of Haiti in the communities of Belle Anse and Grand Gosier to build a medical center to provide health services to 25,000 people annually. Direct Relief has been supporting the BRA with medical supplies in the Dominican Republic for several years, and is providing this partner with a $30,000 grant to purchase new laboratory equipment for patient tests to detect, prevent, and cure diseases.
Gawou Ginou Foundation
The Gawou Ginou Foundation supports the Gawou Ginou Elementary School in Mirebalais, which opened in 2000 with nine pupils. That number has expanded to more than 200 students, an increase of greater than 30 percent in recent months. The school’s approach is to promote self-help through the philosophy of “humanocentrism,” or ethical behavior as the as the foundation for human action.
A $25,000 grant will provide six months of funding for a feeding center and meal program for impoverished students, many of whose parents are seasonal workers living in precarious conditions. The feeding center’s educational programs will include seedling and crop plantings to encourage sustainable development. The school will also offer cultural programming and courses in health and preventive care.
Angel Wings International
Led by a native of Jacmel, Angel Wings International, Inc., brings sorely needed medical services to the extremely impoverished children and families served by a local mission. Most--if not all--patients have never been exposed to modern medicine and rely on home remedies to treat illnesses. Angel Wings works to improve the health and well-being of underserved individuals in this community. The health facility is committed to maintaining the highest standards of care, rooted in utmost integrity and moral practice.
A $25,000 grant to Angel Wings will help build a new medical clinic out of shipping containers, hire and train local medical personnel to manage the clinic, and pay for the transport of overseas medical personnel who will work in the clinic for two weeks every month. By providing access to health care where there is none, the rate of disease will decrease, basic social needs will be met, and Jacmel’s residents will enjoy better health and well-being overall.
Friends of Petit-Goave
Friends of Petit-Goave (FPG) has been conducting medical fairs in Petit-Goave and the surrounding communities for almost 10 years. It provides medical care to men, women, and underprivileged children who wouldn’t otherwise receive care. In 2004, FPG founded Ecole Decilus Monice, a school to educate underprivileged children and orphans between the ages of 5 and 14. It holds classes five days a week, morning and afternoon, teaching math, Creole, French, reading, social studies, writing, science, and hygiene.
After the earthquake, FPG identified an even greater need for medical care in Petit-Goave. Its school building has collapsed and the students have not been able to attend school for over four months. A grant for $25,000 will enable FPG to provide free medical clinics every two- to three weeks serving 150 to 200 people per clinic. It will also rebuild the schoolhouse and host a large medical fair to provide medical screenings, treatment, and medications to the entire Petit-Goave community.
Haitian Education and Leadership Program
The Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP) began in 1997 when Executive Director Conor Bohan, an American teaching in Haiti, provided his own funds to send one of his top students to medical school. Bohan continued to match high-achieving students with sponsors, and in 2002, HELP was officially granted nonprofit status. A total of 108 students are now on scholarship at five internationally recognized institutions in Haiti. The need for an educated population in Haiti is essential, as 85 percent of Haiti’s university graduates have emigrated and the university enrollment rate is 1 percent. HELP supports students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds more likely to remain in Haiti and provide for their families. Students have a graduation rate of higher than 80 percent and a 100 percent employment rate, compared to the 60 percent national employment rate countrywide.
HELP has established a scholarship fund in the memory of Marc-Erline Dezulma and Evenson Jean, two students who died in the earthquake, and has placed more than 80 students in relief work as medical interns in hospitals around the country, as civil engineering interns, translators, and work-crew supervisors. Teams of HELP students have conducted focus groups and human-rights investigations for Former President Bill Clinton’s United Nations Office of the Special Envoy, The Lamp for Haiti Foundation, and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. HELP is also housing and feeding all of its students working in the recovery effort in Port-au-Prince and providing English- and Spanish-language classes so the students can assist more effectively in the effort.
Because the country’s universities are closed, HELP is incurring at least six months of unbudgeted and unfunded costs while their students are employing their education and training to help their communities. Direct Relief is providing $25,000 to cover these costs so that HELP can continue to send high-achieving students to school.
Fondation J’Aime Haiti
An estimated 800,000 people are living with special needs in Haiti, which represents about 10 percent of the population. After the earthquake, those numbers have risen significantly. In Haiti, people with disabilities are marginalized and lack adequate access to such basic services as health care, education, and work-placement programs. Fondation J’Aime Haïti works to sensitize the general population about the living condition of people with disabilities to help remove negative stereotypes and cultural barriers that prevent social inclusion.
Direct Relief is providing J’Aime Haïti with $30,000 to launch the radio program “Vwa Moun Andikape En Action,” or “The Voice of People with Disabilities in Action,” to spread positive messages about the capacity of people with disabilities and the need for solidarity and respect. The radio program will accompany disability-awareness campaigns in communities through schools, churches, and other institutions. The informational program will promote inclusive practices and give people with disabilities and their families the tools and motivation they need to face the challenges of everyday life.