By Emily Pedano | Program Team Intern
The earthquake may have passed and structures have been rebuilt, but our amazing partner organizations for this GlobalGiving disaster fund appreciate the need for a sustainable haitian future. The flow of recovery has shifted to a need to develop! Our partners recognize this disaster not only as a horrific event but also an opportunity to build a better tomorrow for the Haitian people.
International Medical Corps (IMC) is tackling Haiti’s ongoing cholera outbreaks. They were also there in October 2010 when the outbreaks began right after the quake. Since the earthquake they have been actively seeking out individuals with cholera in Haiti via their mobile medical units. When IMC discovers a patient in need they promptly deploy their mobile units along with their professional medical staff. The northern, rural areas have been most affected by cholera, so logically IMC focuses on this region. Once staff reach the patient they immediately provide care to the ill. Since cholera causes severe dehydration the treatments include Oral Rehydration Salts, aquatabs, and general hygiene improvement. Once the patient is stable, International Medical Corps turns to the individual’s household. They provide sanitation tools to clean the house and they teach proper clean water practices. After the house has been sanitized, IMC turns their attention to the entire community! They rally advocacy networks to spread awareness about cholera and spread campaigns of clean water practices. Obviously IMC is dedicated to providing not just life-saving care but also lasting and sustainable care throughout the entire community!
Big things are happening at Volunteers for Interamerican Development Assistance (VIDA)! Quite literally! Recently, thanks to your awesome donations through this GlobalGiving fund, VIDA has been able to ship massive amounts of medical supplies to St. Damien Pediatric Hospital! This children’s hospital in Port-au-Prince provides free health services to the most impoverished youth of the tiny island nation. This hospital gives children life-saving care that their family would otherwise not have been able to afford, this includes surgery costs and cancer treatments. Thanks to your generous donations VIDA could send 12 pallets worth of medical supply! A special thanks to their shipping partner Otis McAllister! Things that your donations directly funded: patient gowns, surgical gowns, exam gloves, diapers, Stanford Hospital donated exam tables, and CVS donated 50,000 face masks! Like I said, they are doing big things and creating lasting impact! Thanks for making that possible!
While our first two partners focused on healthcare, our third partner, Lambi Fund of Haiti, is making sure citizens stay fed, employed, and sustainable! Lambi has a wide breadth of organizational focus, they span many fields in their work and overall promote social and economic empowerment of the Haitian people. The end of 2013 brought five nursery management trainings, three capacity building and accounting trainings, and two credit fund management trainings. This means that by the end of 2013 at least 150 community members will have participated in a Lambi training or presentation. These people now have skills in community organization, democratic principles, gender equity, reforestation techniques, animal husbandry and many more beneficial practices. These small steps forward are measured in leaps and bounds for the community! This empowerment and teaching strategy will create a brave and lasting Haiti!
While Haiti is still rebuilding, there has been a conscious shift from recovery to sustainable future. Our partners for this fund, with obvious different strategies, all have the same goal of creating a future for the haitian people. These organizations are standout because of their utter dedication to regrowth and forward strides. Once again we thank you for your amazing donations, you are adding to a better world!
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When a disaster strikes, recovery efforts led by people who live and work in affected communities are often overlooked and underfunded. GlobalGiving is changing this reality. Since 2004, we've been shifting decision-making power to crises-affected communities through trust-based grantmaking and support.
We make it easy, quick, and safe to support people on the ground who understand needs in their communities better than anyone else.
They were there long before the news cameras arrived, and they’ll be there long after the cameras leave. They know how to make their communities more resilient to future disasters, and they’re already hard at work. GlobalGiving puts donations and grants directly into their hands. Because the status quo—which gives the vast majority of funding to a few large organizations—doesn’t make sense.
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