You can help communities in Haiti get the critical resources they need in the fight against the coronavirus. This project will provide hygiene kits, emergency cash assistance, mask-making supplies, and critical virus-prevention awareness raising materials and radio programming to isolated communities in Haiti. We are working with grassroots, religious, and civic leaders to implement measures designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 -- just as we did during the deadly cholera outbreak in 2010.
While COVID-19 can infect anyone regardless of their wealth, race, or national origin, people in Haiti face extra risks. Widespread hunger leaves the poorest more vulnerable to infection, and health systems - where they do exist - are already stretched extremely thin. In much of rural Haiti there is essentially no health system at all. Those with symptoms are rarely able to find a place where they could be tested. Haiti - with a population of some 11 million - has tested just 257 people to date.
Communities we work with are extremely vulnerable and in urgent need of supplies to help protect themselves and their families and limit the spread of the virus. In the immediate, we are distributing hygiene kits composed of buckets, soap, and bleach, supplies to make homemade masks, emergency cash assistance to families living in extreme poverty, and awareness-raising print materials and radio programming to reach isolated communities in rural Haiti with messages to help prevent COVID-19.
At Beyond Borders, we organize communities to leverage their collective strength to empower those on the margins and to protect the most vulnerable. We know from experience that investing in the capacity of grassroots, religious, and local leaders is the most effective way to create lasting change. By working with local leaders with whom we have deep, long-standing relationships, we can empower them and their communities to organize themselves to limit the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.
