The extensive devastation caused by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the south of Haiti last week, compounded by extensive flooding from Tropical Storm Grace, has turned out to be much worse than originally feared. At least 2,200 people were killed and more than 12,000 injured in the quake, a number expected to rise as more communities are reached. In an area that is home to about 1.5 million people, nearly 53,000 houses have been reduced to rubble, roads are blocked or washed away, farmlands destroyed, and water sources are at high risk of contamination. Hospitals and clinics, which themselves sustained massive damage, are still receiving large numbers of injured. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced.

Thankful that our clinics and staff in the north were spared, HUFH’s response to the devastation caused to Haiti’s south by the quake is two-pronged and simple:
1. provide direct help to organizations in the affected areas in the south, and
2. prepare for increased need in the north where HUFH works.

Providing Direct Help to the South: Using funds raised through our emergency Disaster Relief Appeal, Hands Up for Haiti is providing direct financial aid to Second Mile Haiti and the Afya Foundation, and we continue to explore opportunities to support trusted partners in the south who share our mission and vision.

Second Mile Haiti, based in the north of Haiti, is an organization with whom we have worked for years to address childhood malnutrition. We are supporting Second Mile as they send thousands of dollars worth of desperately needed supplies and medical equipment to organizations based in the earthquake zone, all purchased in Haiti. 

Based in the US, AFYA is committed to supporting Haiti’s healthcare infrastructure and for over a decade has partnered with HUFH to secure medical supplies and help transport them to Haiti. Medical providers throughout the affected region sent AFYA their growing list of medical supply needs and they have responded with flights filled with everything from gloves and PPE to IV fluids and equipment.

Samson Desamour, one of HUFH’s original in-country leaders and an AFYA volunteer, picked up the shipment in Haiti and brought the supplies to Les Cayes, one of the most damaged cities, earlier this week. Samson remains there to help, because, as he says, “It’s hard to see my brothers and sisters are suffering. There are so many people that are helping on the ground, but the need is enormous.”

To view more on-the-ground reporting from Samson on TV news, click here.

Our in-country staff is also joining the relief effort. Fritznel Jean, HUFH’s in-country Assistant Executive Director, and a member of the Cap Haitien chapter of Rotary International, is working with the Rotary to coordinate direct relief to those suffering in the south. Fritznel explains: "The population of Les Cayes is in great difficulty. Hospitals are overflowing, many deaths not yet counted, dozens of houses completely collapsed. The survivors still roam the streets in fear of going back inside the houses that are still standing."

Next steps: As a member of the Haiti Health Network of medical organizations and hospitals, we are informed in real time where acute medical support is needed, and we will continue to choose as our partners those who are most experienced and best placed to make sure aid gets to the right places in the right way.

Fortifying our programs in the North: Disasters have as many aftershocks as an earthquake and this one is no different. Today, our team on the ground is beginning to see people arrive seeking shelter and help from family members. Our staff is prepared to expand our programs to meet those needs in the communities that we serve. We are also ready to help with our partner hospitals in the north.

The severe food shortage has worsened: According to UNICEF, severe acute childhood malnutrition in Haiti is expected to more than double this year from the already high rate of 1 in 5 children. There has been extensive loss of crops, supply chain disruptions, and difficulty transporting food. This is adding to the ongoing problem with food insecurity which is affecting every area of Haiti. Our team is prepared and our malnutrition program - for children and pregnant women - remains up and running despite all the recent challenges.

THANKS TO YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT, OUR WORK CONTINUES UNINTERRUPTED.

We will ensure that your donation dollars go directly to trusted partners to provide direct aid to victims of the earthquake and to our programs for those who are seeking our help in the north.

TO DONATE TO OUR DISASTER RELIEF FUND, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

For more information on what we do and how you can help, please visit our website at: www.handsupforhaiti.org

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This blog is written by Samson Desamour, who has been on the ground in Les Cayes, the epicenter of the 2021 earthquake, helping to deliver supplies since early last week. Samson is one of HUFH’s original in-country leaders and an Afya Foundation volunteer. The Afya Foundation is a New York based nonprofit that provides an environmentally responsible solution to dire shortages of healthcare supplies around the globe by facilitating customized shipments of rescued surplus medical supplies to regions in need. Samson is in Haiti to assist with deliveries of supplies throughout Les Cayes and surrounding areas. HUFH is providing direct financial aid to Afya’s efforts in Haiti. You can read more about the Afya Foundation here.

In Samson's words:
It is sad to say that while 11 years have passed, Haiti still hasn’t recovered from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the country in 2010 and killed approximatively 100,000 to 316,000 people. We can talk forever about how the government hasn’t done much to help the Haitian people to get out of such a dire situation although they have received a lot of money to do so. My point is the people of Haiti can’t take it anymore. As Haitian, I am tired…

I am tired of seeing my brothers and sisters suffering.

I am tired because we need a break.

I am tired because we don’t have a government that cares.

I am tired because living in fear is norm for us.

When political unrest is a natural disaster.

And so, when the latest earthquake struck, I knew I was going down there to help. A volunteer with Hands Up for Haiti, I volunteered with HUFH’s partner, AFYA Foundation, to help them bring tens of thousands of dollars of essential medical supplies from the US and deliver the supplies to the earthquake zone.

When I got off the plane from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes I wasn’t ready for what I was about to see. Just to get out of the airport it was so emotional. There were a crowd of people waiting outside of the fence to see who brings humanitarian supplies to help them, whether food or medical supplies. I drove two hours the next day to get to Aquin, a town in Les Cayes where we were going to distribute some of the supplies we brought with us. By then it was already dark. Lewis, our driver, took me for a ride in Aquin. While on our drive I noticed a few cement blocks in the middle of the street and thought that was normal because of how the roads in Haiti usually are.  I asked Lewis, “What are those for?”  He replied, “Those mean it is bedtime, no more traffic on that road.” I was confused and asked him to tell me more. He said: “Everyone is very wary of sleeping inside. Almost every night there are multiple aftershocks and therefore they sleep in the street and 95% of them don’t even have a tent or a tarp.”

One night I camped out and listened to the aftershocks jangle to the building.

Being in Haiti at ground zero and helping distribute medical supplies is very important to me because no matter how bad the situation is, I will forever be Haitian and be able to give back the very little that can mean so much to me, and to the people I help.

It’s hard to see my brothers and sisters are suffering. There are so many people that are helping on the ground, but the need is still enormous.

To view more on-the-ground reporting from Samson on TV news, click here.

To help with relief efforts, please click here. 

HUFH already runs prenatal care programs at three sites, providing medical care, nutrition and education to expectant moms, and postnatal checkups where we informally check on the newborns. We also run malnutrition programs in five communities which, in accordance with international protocols, treat children only between the ages of six months and five years.

But we asked ourselves: “Why wait till 6 months to screen for malnutrition and other illnesses?” 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 newborns, we can ensure they will never need to enroll in our malnutrition program.

Our new Well-Baby initiative started this week, with Nurse Verline at the helm. Babies born to mothers in our prenatal care program will be seen on a regular basis. In addition, our TSKs will scour the communities that we serve and invite all infants to be assessed regularly as well. Infants with health problems will be referred for examination and treatment by our doctors.

This new initiative is building a health care bridge for our communities: providing care during pregnancy, right through childbirth into infancy, and then into childhood.

People ask if we are making a difference in Haiti. With programs like this, we can emphatically say yes.

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

The problem: HUFH runs lifesaving health care programs that treat malnutrition in children and in expectant and nursing mothers, 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. OS 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, together with Thermitus, HUFH’s in-country executive director, and HUFH’s malnutrition program staff, met with the families enrolled in our malnutrition program in Limonade, the site of the pilot program. In an effort to empower families facing the challenges of hunger, OS and HUFH are providing the seeds, tools, and skills education to enable our families to turn their small plots into farms to cultivate and grow nutritious foods.

Accompanied by our TSKs (community health workers), Hovard has been visiting the families’ homes 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 choosing the crops they want to raise. The weekly skills training sessions include lessons 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.

The future: 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. We expect to implement the program in all of the communities that we serve, and invite people in all of our programs to participate: an empowering and inclusive approach to wholesome nutrition for the whole 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!

As people are unable to travel and are fearful of being exposed to COVID, they often stay home and do not get the lifesaving care they need to combat other illnesses. One mother, however, bravely sought care from our staff when her 18 month old baby girl, Nacius Djoulie, became very ill. HUFH had successfully treated her toddler for severe malnutrition, and now she was very sick with fever and a rash. Her mother brought the child back, because she trusted Hands Up for Haiti, where Nacius had received such good care. Once again HUFH came to her aide. Recognizing how seriously ill the toddler was, our staff immediately referred her to HCBH, one of our partner hospitals, where she was admitted for life saving antibiotics. Nacius remained in the hospital for one week, and will continue to receive follow-up care, supported by HUFH's emergency hospitalization fund for children. Read more about the Emergency Medical and Surgical Fund here.

The ability to navigate medical care in Haiti is always a challenge. In the midst of COVID-19 when transportation and movement is limited, the challenges are even more difficult. This mother was able to get quality care for her child through the efforts of Hands Up for Haiti. Her mother trusted HUFH, and this trust overcame fear and saved her little girl’s life.