GlobalGiving Relief Fund for Haiti Earthquake

GlobalGiving’s partner organizations continue to make a positive impact for the long term construction of the country by continuing to provide medical care, food, and shelter, as well as engaging in the construction of schools.  Below is a short update of the activities of some of the organizations that your donations have helped support:

Architecture for Humanity continues to progress in the building of schools and community centers.  The Santo Community Development Plan, with Habitat for Humanity International, moves into its third phase of planning a fully-serviced development for 500 families. The school, École La Dignité, has completed foundation; slabs and walls are now going up.  Meanwhile, builders are being trained in safer building practices as foundations are being dug.

Deep Springs International has partnered with local leaders and health agents, as well as large-scale actors like UNICEF and DINEPA (the Haitian government’s Directorate of Water and Sanitation). The partnership with DINEPA aims to provide 260,000 families, or over 1.2 million individuals, with Gadyen Dlo, DSI’s locally produced chlorine product. 

VIDA has supported a medical team (headed by Haitian born physician, Alix J.Magloire, Chief of Medicine at the Oakland Veterans Administration Clinic) working at a healthcare center in Cayes Jacmal. They are treating people for infectious diseases such as malaria, gastrointestinal disease, cardiac, metabolic diseases and orthopedic issues. Infectious diseases continue to be widespread due to poor infrastructure and clean water.

The Lambi Fund of Haiti is engaged in eight new projects are starting throughout the country that will strengthen communities and create important means for sustainable incomes. One project is a sheep breeding project for which 44 sheep will be purchased to start breeding and workshops for training in sheep farming will be provided.

Save the Children has more staff in place, with an estimate of 430 national and international staff present in Haiti at the end of the year. Save the Children aims to take advantage of this opportunity to better coordinate programs and support services provided as part of the earthquake relief effort.

Thank you again for your continued support to Haiti’s rebuilding efforts.

A year and a half after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the effects of the damage are still being felt.  Immediate relief emergency activities are winding down, and organizations supported through your donation to the GlobalGiving Haiti fund are investing more in their long-term rebuilding efforts in the country. From injury rehabilitation centers to infrastructure rebuilding, these organizations are working to improve conditions for all those affected in the country.  And they are having an impact of the lives of many.

Roselette Dupervil, 23, is one of those impacted by your donation.  Roselette had always dreamed of becoming a civil engineer, but never had the opportunity to pursue these studies.  After the earthquake she heard about a program that CHF International was running to train Haitians in earthquake-affected areas to operate heavy machinery.  Roselette joined the program and is now the only female operator on a construction team removing the rubble that still remains throughout the country.  

“I love being on my engine and working,” says Roselette. “What I love most is land boring to make roads, making the openings. I get a great feeling of satisfaction when they give me a plan to go bore a way through the foot of a mountain.  It is difficult work with a mountain that has a lot of cliffs, but one has to do it.”

From providing medical supplies to preparing for the upcoming hurricane season, the organizations that your donation helped support are working hard to rebuild Haiti.  Below is a short update about some of these activities:

Deep Springs International is currently serving over 40,000 families by giving chlorine to purify their water. Through this work they are providing jobs for over 260 Haitians and helping to curb the cholera outbreak.

International Medical Corps is preparing for the upcoming hurricane season by training doctors and nurses, holding disaster drills at local hospitals, employing the “train the trainer” to spread emergency response information to churches, schools, and community members. They are also fighting the cholera outbreak by operating cholera treatment centers.

The Lambi Fund of Haiti is implementing the use of the oxen plowing system with local Haitian peasant farmers to improve crop seasons.

Save the Children is constructing safer school for Haitian children that are more hurricane and earthquake resistant. These buildings are the first of their kind and will better protect the children who learn within their walls.

VIDA is planning a three-year program to annually ship medical supplies and equipment to hospitals in Haiti. They are also supporting Haitian physicians who are running a clinic that serves about 3,000 people.

MADRE is working with its local partner KOFAVIV, which runs a women’s center for rape victims. Sexual violence is on the rise in displacement camps where many earthquake survivors currently live.  The KOFAVIV center provides counseling to help these women recover.

More than seven months after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, rubble still fills the streets and 1 million people or more people are still homeless. GlobalGiving donors like you have supported close to 20 organizations working on the ground to provide food, shelter, medical equipment, and long-term reconstruction for Haiti’s earthquake survivors. Below is a short update the organizations your dollars have helped to support and the impact that have already had. Thank you!

- The Lambi Fund of Haiti has provided emergency cash disbursements to 43 grassroots organization throughout Haiti. These local organizations have used the emergency grants to purchase clothes, food, medical supplies and other necessary supplies for earthquake survivors.

- VIDA has already airlifted two containers carrying $2 million in medical emergency relief into Haiti. VIDA is sending only the highest quality medical equipment and supplies, from bandages to surgical suites, to get the hospitals up and running and will then resupply the hospital over a three year period to ensure that the clinics have the resources to serve people in need.

- RedR has trained 871 relief workers from 46 organizations in essential humanitarian and reconstruction skills and techniques - 92% of those trained are Haitian nationals

- Partners in Health’s local staff of nearly 5,000 people have provided emergency critical care and surgical services; helped seriously injured patients regain mobility; resettled abandoned and disabled children into a safe group home; and provided strategic planning assistance to Port-au-Prince’s General Hospital and the Haitian Ministry of Health.

- CHF has registered more than 2,200 shelter beneficiaries and is currently in the process of completing 600 shelters in Port-au-Prince and Leogane. Over 60 shelters have been constructed in Leogane as part of a pilot project using steel materials that are pre-fabricated by trained workers at the local CHF warehouse.

Thank you again for your support!