Haiti and Partners in Health

I have talked about Partners in Health in health previously (Haitian Inspiration), I think they are my favorite organization working in Haiti and one of my favorite charities overall. One of the reasons, is that they seem to actually engage with the communities they are helping, not dictate, and truly understand their needs. They have been in Haiti helping for decades and really stepped it up after the earthquake to provide even more help to the people of Haiti. Here is a video of talking about the current situation in haiti and what needs to be done.



Their Stand With Haiti page is full of information on the work they are doing in Haiti and the work that still needs to be done. They have released a one year later report and in their summary they discuss their “Stand with Haiti” plan to help "Haiti recover and rebuild over the long term (...). Key elements of the plan include:

• providing comprehensive primary health care to more than 100,000 people living in four of the spontaneous settlements of tarps, tents, and makeshift shanties that have sprung up in Port-au-Prince;
• expanding clinical and social support services at our network of hospitals and health centers in the Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite to meet the needs of tens of thousands of people displaced by the earthquake and the communities that have taken them in;
• strengthening specialized medical services for which the earthquake had greatly increased a widespread, long-standing, and frequently unmet need, including surgery, rehabilitative medicine, and mental health;
• rebuilding and reinforcing the public health and health professional education systems in Haiti."

These are all very important issues to address and fix, they have always been focused on health and the country has to have a health system to combat illnesses so that people are able to rebuild their country. Also Haiti had one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean and it is very important that those people receive their medication in a timely manner and from good facilities, and the previous clinincs run by Partners in Health were some of the best in the country, to my knowledge.

Another factor which is really important in their success, and one of the reasons I like this organization, is that they try to engage with the local community through employing the Haitian people, it "strengthens public institutions and governance, and works not just to repair the damage caused by the earthquake, but also to address the extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure that greatly worsened the disaster’s impact and weakened the country’s ability to respond." By giving Haitian's paid employment in their hospitals and building their hospitals, not only are they rebuilding school and infrastructure, but also the countries economy. Giving a person a job might be one of the best, and simplest, humanitarian approaches to rebuilding the country, because it allows peoples to care for themselves and their families and gives them a sense of self worth again. I imagine, it must be very disheartening to have so little one can do to change your circumstances and to rely on others for everything, being able to work again must be very rewarding and helps the economy of the country recover.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about the work of Partners in Health in Haiti and that you will consider helping them as well. Real quick, I wanted to point out the fact that they are a four star charity from Charity Navigator and 94.7% of their expenses goes to program expenses, which is just amazing for a charity whose headquarters are located in the USA, so they really focus on getting their money to the programs that are on the ground helping people around the world.