HUFH March Newsletter: What We’re Doing, Where We’re Going

March 2021 Newsletter
handsupforhaiti.org

Dear ,

Despite the challenges this year,
Hands Up for Haiti
- with YOU by our side -
is hard at work on the ground in Haiti:
BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE

To meet the need, HUFH:

added a 5th site to our malnutrition program, in the rural village of Gede;
launched a well-baby initiative, offering preventative care from birth to 6 months;
welcomes Dr. Saintilme Onil, a Haitian OB/GYN, to our prenatal program;
built a 14th water well in the Cap Haitien neighborhood of Petit-Anse;
is expanding Mobile Santè, our in-country led mobile pop-up clinics to communities in need;
added vision screening to our Mobile Santè protocol;
is embarking on a project to create an in-house lab to better serve our patients;
is partnering with OneSparrowDC, a nonprofit that plants and operates farms, to launch a home-farming project to address the food insecurity our families face.

And we've been able to do it because of YOU. Here are some thumbnails of the success you've helped create.

HELPING CHILDREN: PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY MEDICAL AND SURGICAL FUND

Dalles Kerry was born with a cleft lip and palate, making it difficult for him to eat.

After we screened him for malnutrition and other health issues, HUFH arranged for essential surgeries at a collaborating hospital hours away, and even accompanied him and his mother to his consultation. His mother brought him back to show how big and strong he’s grown after surgery, and to express her “feelings of thanks to us for all we do.”

HELPING BABIES: NEW WELL-BABY INITIATIVE, PREVENTATIVE CARE FROM BIRTH TO 6 MONTHS

HUFH is constantly looking for new ways to expand and enhance our programs. We have historically begun to treat children when they come to our malnutrition program, which, in accordance with international protocols, treats children only between the age of 6 months and 5 years. But we asked ourselves: "Why wait until 6 months to care for babies?" At HUFH we believe that babies deserve good preventative care, much the same as in countries where resources are not limited. By promoting good nutritional and health practices for infants, we can ensure they will never need to enroll in our malnutrition program.

For every child a chance to grow and thrive, a true, and truly lifesaving, success story!

NEW HOME FARMING PROJECT

Sometimes, a partnership opportunity comes along that is the exact right thing at the right time: a collaboration to address food insecurity.

The problem: HUFH’s runs lifesaving health care programs that treat malnutrition in children and in expectant and nursing mothers and others, and that promote breast feeding and other healthy behaviors. When children and mothers graduate from our programs, however, they are faced with the same issue that put them in the programs in the first place: food insecurity. Haiti has long had the highest level of food insecurity in the Western Hemisphere, with over 40% of the population living in daily hunger, putting them at risk of malnutrition, stunting, infection and death.

The solution: A serendipitous introduction led us to OneSparrowDC ("OS"), a nonprofit organization that focuses on two pillars, agriculture and community health education, and that already runs a community farm in the Cap Haitien area where children and their families learn how to farm and how to take their produce to market. Together, HUFH and OS are bringing farming to the families in the communities we serve.

Our collaboration has already begun: Hovard, OS's chief agronomist, has been visiting our families' homes in Limonade to pick garden sites and make sure there is water nearby for irrigation (thankfully, HUFH has built multiple clean water wells that will help in this effort). Families are receiving seeds for nutritious crops and will attend weekly educational sessions on how to plant, cultivate, use, and sell their crops. This instruction will supplement the education sessions we already run at our healthcare program sites, which address the basics of good nutrition, the importance of breastfeeding, meal planning, and the importance of water sanitation and proper hygiene. Eventually, our individual family farms will combine to form co-ops which will share the harvest, with the goal of creating a CSA (community supported agriculture), increasing access to healthy food, combating malnutrition, and creating new opportunities for job development, all leading towards better health for the entire community.

This exciting new partnership between HUFH and OS is aspirational: to create an environment where children and their families can do more than just survive, but can truly thrive!

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Hands Up for Haiti

PO Box 913
Mount Kisco, NY 10549