Maternal and Infant Care in Borgne, Haiti

GlobalGiving Report May 2022. For full annual report, please visit: https://www.hopehaiti.org/ H.O.P.E. Haiti Outreach Pwoje Espwa

Our Executive Committee team spent a week in Borgne in March 2022, our first visit in two years owing to COVID-19. The staff has never seemed stronger or more committed to the holistic approach to health H.O.P.E. promotes.

COVID

• Employing the indigenous model of “vaccination in the streets,” the staff at Alyans Sante Borgne have vaccinated over 9,800 community members of Borgne. This is the highest vaccination rate of any area in Haiti. Along with the benefits if vaccination come opportunities to educate families about health initiatives and the importance of preventative health.  

GRANTS

• In April 2022, Caridad Partners warded H.O.P.E. $20,000 in unrestricted funds to support our work with women and children. Central to this work are programs that support “wind in the sails” of women’s economic vitality and independence. We also partner with women to support maternal and infant health, family nutrition, and general wellbeing. We featured a story on our web-site in April about how H.O.P.E. builds capacity for women, as seen through the story of Veronie, the head cook at the hospital in Borgne.
• H.O.P.E. continues to make progress on the RIT Sustainable Livelihoods Project (a $24,000 grant to HOPE to conduct a research project in partnership with RIT. The team will gather in Borgne the second week of June 2022 to assess progress.
• Our “Statement of Work” has been approved for the USAID/Haiti Renewal Alliance grant we wone in fall 2021 for $150,000. The funds will expand health access by allowing ASB to expand the number and geographic scope of mobile clinics; expand the number and geographic scoped of mobile health screenings, and greatly increase the number of health education programs offered throughout the commune. Oral health outreach and education are included in the health education programming.
• Orphaned and Vulnerable Children - In October, the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation awarded H.O.P.E./ASB a grant of $37,000 to support orphaned and vulnerable children. The grant will be used primarily to help children in the 11–17-year-old age group to improve their literacy and numeracy and connect this very vulnerable group with community health and education resources.

HEALTH INITIATIVES

• We launched the first post-COVID-19 mobile health clinic in March 2022. The clinic served 320 people in Basin Kayman, an area that is difficult ro reach by road and several hours away from the hospital. These clinics are open-access and include visits with doctors, vaccinations, testing for STDs, emergent care, and access to medicine/prescriptions.
• The Pan American Health Organization UAS - H.O.P.E/ASB are currently leading regional health system leadership and coordination effort in the Northern Department of Haiti. The project, “Unite’ d’arrondissement de sante’” (District Health Units) is a novel approach to health care administration that was advocated for by the Haiti Ministry of Health (MSPP) and implemented with the financial support and expertise of the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization. The project bring together a network of health institutions at the district level. The North Department, of Haiti is in the process of implementing two such projects. The project in Borgne is the most advanced because of the leadership, the know-how and the framework of ASB. The main goals of this initiative is to create synergy and networking among regional health institutions with a view to providing better quality health care to the population, facilitating decentralization, promoting local decision-making for the solution of problems and increasing the leadership of actors at the district level. ASB is the only institution among the 8 of the two communes to bring together the necessary assets to ensure the lead of the project. This is due to the long years of experience of ASB in the community and the various programs carried out with many partners.