Haiti Hurricane Relief Appeal

It has now been 5 months since Hurricane Matthew struck the western parts of Haiti, devastating communities and crops, and leaving over 1 million displaced. With large areas of standing water, and the high risk of contamination of community water sources, a dangerous surge in cholera cases was expected. As primary healthcare providers in Haiti, we were in a position to respond to this crisis and play our part in minimising the long term effects of the hurricane.

Thanks to your support, and that of other friends and partners, we were able to raise the funds to implement a large scale cholera response programme focussing on reducing risk and providing quick and effective treatment for those affected. Through our partners at St Boniface Hospital, located in the worst hit area of Haiti, our programme has been in full swing for 4 months and has been even more successful than we'd expected.

One of the first priorities was to implement a wide scale vaccination programme, protecting whole communities from cholera. Over 25,000 people were vaccinated in November. We also equipped and staffed a 24/7 cholera treatment centre at St Boniface Hospital to treat the worst cases. This centre took cases for the first few months but thankfully at a lower rate than we'd feared. And we are delighted to report that there have been no new serious cases in the last month.

The reducing number of serious cholera cases is proof that the community prevention work is successful so far and evidence suggests that cholera in the region has been largely contained.

The work in the community that has contributed to this success is ongoing and includes the regular distribution of water purification tablets, which remove pathogens from water making it safe to drink. These continue to be distributed by a 70 strong team of community health agents at rally posts, weekly health meetings and through home visits. 

In addition to the above, thorough water source testing has been carried out at multiple key locations to identify areas most at risk where water filtration systems need to be installed. 4 locations have been identified for these systems, 2 of which are schools. These installations will happen in the final two months of the project - March and April. 

Despite the clear success of the cholera prevention work, recent reports from the UN suggest that the international community has failed to provide enough funds to effectively respond to all Haiti's needs following the hurricane. So although organisations like HHA have been having a big impact in certain areas, much is still needed especially to help repair key buildings like schools and health centres, but also restore food supplies. HHA are now looking at other ways we can support the rebuilding process and meet the current needs within Haiti following the hurricane.

Thank you so much for your support.

Links:

• HHA emergency response work