Haiti Rehabilitation Centre

We are incredibly grateful for all the support you have given to this project over the last 13 years, enabling us to support the Disability Rehabilitation Unit at our partner hospital in Haiti, HCBH. Your generosity has helped us to provide holistic disability rehabilitation for hundreds of spinal cord injury and stroke patients, as well as outpatient services for thounsands more who would otherwise struggle to find care of this type in Hati. This has transformed countless lives.

Our commitment to Haiti is unwavering, however, we write with a heavy heart to share an update regarding a difficult decision we have recently had to make about HHA’s work in Haiti.

A CHANGE TO THE WAY WE WORK

In April, we withdrew from HCBH, and officially ended our partnership with the organisation we founded it with, Convention Baptiste d’Haiti (CBH). This has been an incredibly difficult decision, and comes as a result of recent behaviour by CBH leadership, which is not in line with HHA’s values and which we are not able to condone as an organisation. Full details are in our statement.

This decision means that the location of our rehabilitation centre will be changing very soon and we will be pursuing our mission to support disability rehabilitation in Haiti in new ways. Our commitment to improving outcomes for adults and children with disabilities in Haiti remains – especially at a time of such turmoil in the country, when the most vulnerable need our support more than ever. 

A NEW CHAPTER

This decision takes nothing away from the incredible impact we have all made through HCBH, and nor does it diminish our passion and commitment to continue our mission in Haiti. Building on our years of experience, and learning from the exciting new models of care we have successfully implemented in East Africa, this summer we are starting a new chapter in our Haiti mission. In the coming months our key projects will transition into a new ‘HHA Haiti Hub’ where we are confident they will flourish. The new hub will be located at a local Medical University site with whom HHA already has close connections. This new site not only provides the infrastructure to reestablish the unit quickly, but also house other services like our wheelchair distribution centre and be a base for our Community Outreach work. There is also the opportunity to partner closely with the university offering preactical placements for students.

LOOKING FORWARD

We are committed to keeping you, our supporters, updated and we will share more details of our exciting plans with you very soon. You can continue to support our work in Haiti and in East Africa by donating towards other HHA projects like our Respite Home for Children with Disabilities or our new Health and Disability Clinic in South Sudan.

Thank you once again for your support and please visit our news page for full details of the changes coming to our work in Haiti. 

Links:

• Full details about the changes in Haiti

When the Disability Rehabilitation Unit opened in 2011, in response to the many spinal injuries caused by the 2010 earthquake, it was a pioneering centre for Haiti. Accessing this level of specialised spinal rehabilitation was almost impossible in Haiti. 13 years later, it is still one of the few places where people with spinal injuries can receive rehabilitation. Kendley's story shows how impartant this centre still is.

Kendley is 20 years old, and from Cap Haitien. Two years ago, while walking down a side street near his house one evening, he was hit by a stray bullet. He still doesn’t know where the bullet came from - but it left him paralysed from the waist down.

Following his injury, Kendley spent more than a year searching for a hospital where he could receive treatment. He was turned away from every facility he went to, told that they were not able to offer care for spinal cord injuries (SCIs). He even travelled all the way to the Dominican Republic, but was sent home. 

For over a year, Kendley had no access to care. Without therapy, he could not even sit up, and spent all his time lying down inside his home. He was isolated, lonely, and vulnerable.

In 2022, Kendley heard about our partner hospital, HCBH, and their rehabilitation centre – the only facility offering SCI rehab in the north of the country. It changed everything.

Kendley started physical therapy, and regained the ability to sit up - a huge step. He was given a wheelchair, which provided him with mobility and independence, and started occupational therapy, which taught him how to use his chair and adjust to this new way of living life. He met and spent time with other in-patients with SCIs, and started vocational training, learning how to make shoes in the workshop at the hospital. All of this gave him hope for the future, helping him to see opportunities beyond his injury.

Kendley’s story is a heartbreaking illustration of the reality in Haiti. SCIs are all too common, but specialist care is scarce. Your support enables us to offer dignity, independence and hope to people like Kendley, and for that we could not be more grateful.