Employ 100 Rural Women: Create a sustainable Haiti

Unfortunately during the period covered by this project report, Haiti has continued to experience massive challenges.

On July 7th, the country awoke to find that the president, Jovenel Moise, had been brutally assassinated overnight. This has caused massive political disruption, particularly as it was very unclear as to who should assume power in his place.

On August 14th at 8.30 am Haiti was hit by a massive earthquake that registered 7.2 on the richter scale - larger than the one that occurred in 2010. The area hit was much more sparsely populated than Port-au-Prince, however the earthquake killed over 2,200 people. Many more were injured or lost their homes. This disaster occurred at a time when the country is experiencing a complete vaccuum in leadership. The earthquake took place in the south of the country, which is where Fonds des Blancs is located. Damage to Fonds des Blancs was minimal, however the indirect effects of this earthquake, coupled with the political instability and violence that are occurring will be substantial. The population was badly frightened by the initial quake and the many aftershocks that followed. 

Haiti Projects was able to respond to the earthquake by making sanitary pads for hygiene kits to be distributed in the south. We also provided some emergency loans to staff who needed to repair their homes. Our clinic was slightly damaged and we have temporarily moved into a different location.

In spite of all these difficulties, Haiti Projects is continuing to do our best to provide stable employment for women alongside healthcare, education, livelihoods and sports. 

In addition to our emergency response, we have recently fulfilled an order for sanitary pads for a local organization and hope to expand on this iand other nitiatives in the future through further partnerships. 

Links:

• Donate to Haiti Projects

As the United States covid-19 statistics trend down, Haiti continues to have low death and confirmed covid-19 cases, although the country has now entered a second wave. As of May 24th, Haiti has had a confirmed 14,037 cases, with 292 deaths. In response to the second wave, Haiti Project has installed more handwashing stations, reinstituted temperature checks on arrival and we held a refresher sensitization session with all staff. We also continue to practice safe social distancing practices in order to protect our employees. 

Our Artisan Cooperative continues to produce our most popular products, our hand-embroidered Garland Nightowns made from 100% cotton batiste, and our sachets filled with organic, open-bud lavender grown in San Francisco, California. The women who work in our Artisan Cooperative rely on their full-time work to provide essential support for them and their families. 

There is still a high demand in the Fond-des-Blancs community for reusable pads. We hope to be able to fund our pad project in the near future. Like Haiti Projects, many of our wholesale and retail contacts have been affected by the global pandemic. They provide essential raw materials for our Artisan Cooperative, and lack of necessary funding bars us from supporting our contacts, and maintaining necessary supplies to produce our most important and demanded products. 

Any support and help in these challenging times is greatly appreciated.