Haiti
Situation Report
Haiti is a chronically unstable country in economic decline, ranked by the United Nations as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Haitian families are poorer now than they were 40 years ago. The United Nations Development Program estimates that nearly 80% of Haitians live on less than $2 a day. Additionally, Haiti suffers the highest HIV and AIDS prevalence in the Americas at 2.2%. The average life expectancy in Haiti is just 61 years. The land is severely degraded and deforested, and civil conflicts have caused persistent political instability for decades.
Our Work
Medical Teams International first sent volunteers to Haiti in 1994 to assist the victims of a civil conflict. During 2004-05, we deployed 6 disaster response teams to provide health care services for those wounded in Hurricane Jeanne. In 2006, Medical Teams International funded a safer home-birth program through Catholic Relief Services and sent 1 midwifery team to train traditional birth attendants on effective ways to oversee delivery. Since 2004, we have deployed 1 primary care teams to work with Haiti Foundation of Hope.
2010 Earthquake
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Haiti on January 12. One of the hardest hit areas is Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital. With a death toll in the thousands and millions of Haitians left homeless, injured and struggling to survive, the January 12 earthquake is considered by many to be the worst disaster to hit the country in 200 years.
In the first two weeks, Medical Teams International sent 8 teams with more than 35 doctors, nurses and other health professionals. In partnership with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), World Relief, Surgical Implant Generation Network (SIGN), Haiti Foundation of Hope, HaitiOne and the Wesleyan Church in Haiti, our teams provided disaster relief aid through medicines, supplies and medical services in local hospitals and in the tent cities all around Port-au-Prince.
For the next several months, Medical Teams International will provide hospital care with surgical capacity, establish support to local health centers and operate mobile medical units to aid in the transition from relief to rehabilitation. Through its new local office in Port-au-Prince, Medical Teams International will work to meet immediate to medium-term orthopedic and medical care needs and help re-establish a functioning health care system.
Our Partners
Haiti Foundation of Hope (HFH) is an international non-governmental organization that focuses on health care services in Terre Blanche, Haiti. The founders of HFH have lived and worked in Haiti for more than a decade and opened a permanent health clinic in February 2007 that serves approximately 10,000 people a year. The clinic launched a community health program in 2009 and plans to serve people living in Terre Blanche, Dube Dou and Finnel.
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