COVID-19 Haiti Project #46975

Fighting COVID-19 In Haiti 4 Community Justice!

by Economic Stimulus Projects for Work and Action (ESPWA)

Project Report | Jan 4, 2021
Beyond Covid-19- Fight 4 Haiti's Communities

By Marie-Rose Romain Murphy | Servant Leader

Dear Friend,

On behalf of Haiti's communities that we serve, THANK YOU for your support. We are not kidding when we say that we could NOT have done it without your support. We also want to let you know what's next for us as (unfortunately!) our work with Haiti's communities is not done.

In March 2020, Covid-19 brought the world to its knees. In Haiti, where public health systems are grossly inadequate and water is only accessible to a minority, fear spread like a wildfire. Soon thereafter, ESPWA and the Haiti Community Foundation led a community mobilization and health education campaign that reached over 60,000 community residents in rural communities in the Grand’Anse in Haiti (key for food security and the environment) by providing critical information, masks, soap, disinfectants and helping to control fear and mitigating the impact on people suspected to carry the virus.

Fortunately, the coronavirus was not as devastating as most had feared. Unfortunately, its impact on the economy of the country and its local communities was staggering, as a vast majority of workers depending on daily wages had to curtail their activities. In a country whose economy was already weakened by political instability and the resulting divestment, Covid’s economic impact outweighed its infection rate’s impact. Extreme hunger, adult and children’s malnutrition were the debilitating results.

OUR FOCUS AND PLAN

Fight for community WITH community to support farmers and community residents regain their footing and continue to reach self-sufficiency.

OUR ACTIONS WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS:

Invest in agricultureby providing seeds, training related to climate change and land/crop management to small farmers
Invest in economic growthby supporting Local Mutuelles Solidaritésthat are community cooperative financing platforms providing both participants ownership and affordable interest rates (with interest rates of 36% a year or thereabout, most microloan programs are prohibitive to farmers and micro-business owners).
Develop with women’s organizations a soap making small business initiative and a community storethat can support income generation, promote good hygiene practices and create long-term sustainable revenues for community members and their families.
Work with local universities such as L’Université de Jérémie to involve college students in our community work and develop their leadership potential.

As is our practice, we will put a special emphasis on the most vulnerable members of our communities (single mothers, pregnant women, the disabled and the elderly). We will also favor collaborations with women groups that are well anchored in their “sections communales”/villages and communities.

Our goal for 2020-2021 is to raise $50,000 from local and international friends and supporters. Every dollar we raise will provide a match to a grant from the Inter-American Foundation to the Haiti Community Foundation. What is at stake? A fight to go beyond hunger, beyond survival, beyond resilience. Our commitment: to support community families’ modest dreams of food security and hopes for self-sufficiency and a better future to their children.

JOIN US! Donate to our FIGHT 4 HAITI'S COMMUNITIES- KONBA POU KOMINOTE GlobalGiving Campaign!

THANK YOU!!!

Permalink

Sep 11, 2020
In Haiti, Justice=Education + Access 2 Services!

By Marie-Rose Romain Murphy | Servant Leader

Training Community Health Workers

The Power of Together- on May 14, we took a leap of faith & decided that, together, we would raise the $5,000 we need to support our Covid-19 Haiti Campaign by May 29! By May 17, we’d raised $2,000 thanks to the support of #Haitians & friends of #Haiti. We have raised most of our funds for our community outreach and education campaign THANKS TO YOU!!! Mèsi anpil, anpil! Thank you very very much! The donations that you made helped us to complement the grant that we had received from the Global Fund for Community Foundations to address our communities’ needs. We couldn’t have made it without you!

We had 62 #community organizers deployed in places that are truly left behind. People were incredulous and thankful that someone actually cares. However, some photos we can’t post. Too much misery! We took note and promised ourselves that we’ll be back to help,

Before sending out our community organizers on the field, we trained them in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health. Members of our network also provided additional training in data collection and community outreach. Because of social distancing requirements, we ended up having several training sessions- a subtantial commitment of time from our network.

Dozens of volunteers put together health kits to distribute to what ended up tens of thousands of community residents. There are days when volunteers worked overnight. What was in the kits? Supplies like masks, soap, disinfectant that are often inaccessible to residents of remote communities. We also made sure to tell them that they should make their own masks as our message is consistent about our people's ability to "help themselves"...Perhaps the most precious resource that we offered was information about the virus and simple ways of preventing them.

“Bon Dye a beni w” community residents said to our community health outreach members... “God will bless you” As more Haitians died from Covid-19, our Campaign 4 Community Justice was more critical to prevention than ever! #HaitiansHelpingHaitians. When we asked community residents if they had heard from government or other organizations about the Coronavirus, they said no.

We worked with a network of community representatives on our outreach. One representative/a member of the Council of Administration of the Communal Section (CASEC) gave our Health Outreach Leader 32 masks to distribute to community residents. For us, it wasn’t just an act of support, it was a symbol of the trust that we had managed to build with local government representatives. A badge of honor!

We set up a WhatsApp chat for our community organizers that many members of our network supported. The kind of questions we received daily differed. Examples of questions to Dr.Lafortune, Regional VP one morning : “Was a lactating mother who had ben sick with Covid but had recovered supposed to continue breastfeeding her child? Should she get tested?” No easy questions... doing thngs well is never easy. No quick fix! And commitment is required.

What’s next? Addressing the harmful economic crisis that Covid-19 has created ias well as solidifying public health practices that will help prevent other health crises. Our next campaign is coming soon! We hope that you will continue to join us in supporting Haiti and Haitian communities!

Thank you again on behalf of the Haitian communities that we serve!

ESPWA and The Haiti Community Foundation/Fondatin Communautaire Haitienne-Espwa

Volunteers Putting Hygiene Kits Together

Outreach to Communities

More Outreach To Communities

Field Tracking

Reaching Out To Families

Links:

Permalink

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.