As well as offering medical support, the Haiti Hospital Appeal also provides health education, food distribution and vaccination programmes throughout the country.
Our Health Centre
Our Health Centre!
In 2007 the Haiti Hospital Appeal opened its first Health Centre to provide urgently needed primary health care to a number of communities in North Haiti. Since being founded the centre has supported well over 8,000 individuals, including many victims from the earthquake. The centre is staffed with Haitian medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, and pharmacists. Each week it provides an urgent service, providing health care to some of the poorest people in the world.
Around 60% of Haitians had no access to health care even before the earthquake, so the need for this level of community support is great across the country. As well as offering general medical support, we also offer a specialist paediatric clinic and gynaecological service each week. The centre also provides health education, a vaccination program through the Haitian Government, a food distribution program, and a nutritional program.
Community ownership
At the heart of our work is a desire to see the Haitian health system empowered and developed through Haitian staff. We seek to achieve this in different ways, but primarily through focusing on Haitian employment. About 75% of Haitians are unemployed, including many medical professionals. HHA employs through our partners, The Baptist Convention of Haiti, over 40 full time Haitian staff, having a huge impact on their families and the economic situation of their communities. Foreign volunteers often come to Haiti to assist this Health Centre and help train and educate the staff. We also have a Haitian medical director and board who oversee the daily running of the centre in partnership with our UK board.
Our services
A popular vaccination programme
We have a strong heart for preventative care at our centre, which is why we place a large emphasis on health education. Each day patients are offered education on a range of topics like nutrition, sanitation, sexually transmitted diseases, and malaria. Our nurses have also worked in schools offering education for children. As part of this work we are seeking to establish a large HIV prevention program across the North, which will help empower and educate community leaders.
Haiti has the highest rate of infant, under five and maternal mortality in the Western Hemisphere. Paediatric care in Haiti is a rare service, and one we are passionate about offering. Every week the centre supports a range of children, including those from our children’s home. Central to this work is our vaccination program through the Haitian Ministry of Health, which provides life saving vaccines from a number of key illnesses/diseases in Haiti.
We also provide a Women’s Health clinic, and continue to strive towards offering new services to support North Haiti’s health system. In 2010 we hope to provide a weekly dental service, as well as establishing a family planning program as part of our Maternity project.
It is a privilege for HHA to work alongside a number of other great NGO’s who have a huge impact on our work. Through our relationship with Meds and Food for Kids we have provided life saving nutritional support to many children. We also provide around 150 families with food provisions each month through the World Food Program. Malnutrition is a huge issue across Haiti, and another key area of injustice our centre seeks to stand against.