Help Rebuild a Healthy Haiti

Since the earthquake, health aid has left out the poorest Haitians. To change this, ATD Fourth World Movement is asking for donations so a young Haitian team member can attend a two-year community health training. Your contribution will go directly to covering the costs of her tuition and ensuring that competent health care is available for people living in the most extreme poverty in Haiti. It will heal hundreds of bodies and souls through the future community health work of this team member and the rest of the Fourth World team and its local partners. Your solidarity and the team’s commitment will contribute to a long-term transformation of international donors’ approach and help lead to a greater inclusion of stakeholders in the country.

From the beginning, the international response to the 2010 earthquake has planned aid from the top down, and this approach has negative implications on accountability and the capacity of national structures to react. Today, some local healthcare structures have also been seriously weakened by foreign aid. A long-time ATD Fourth World partner always struggles to retain experienced staff to make home visits, while midwives are lured away by higher NGO salaries. Now they work in a health structure which is beyond the reach of the most disadvantaged communities. Moreover, a long-term European funder of the clinic has changed its priorities and is now funding primarily emergency care. These changes are to be implemented by a European staff-member based in Haiti who has not consulted hospital staff on their priorities and the realities of their situation. This new approach doesn’t taken into account the fact that the long-term care the clinic offers has always been in the context of repeated and ongoing emergencies

The fight against cholera is another particularly tragic example of just what this can mean. An ATD Fourth World ally, who is also a member of the Haitian national commission for the coordination of first aid, testifies that when the disease first struck the country, the commission proposed a community-based approach to fighting it by spreading health information and primary care from one neighborhood to another. International donors rejected this idea in favor of higher-profile, short-term campaigns. The projects will end the moment cholera disappears from the headlines, even though the disease has now taken root in the country and will require continuing prevention efforts that are long term and community based.

It is in this context, fighting newly entrenched illnesses in the face of a broken healthcare system, that the ATD Fourth World team in Haiti has prioritized a community health training in Port-au-Prince for one of its members. This Haitian woman, a member of the Volunteer Corps for three years, was trained as a nurse. This allowed her to participate actively in ATD Fourth World projects in the field of health, prevention campaigns, and the response to recent outbreaks initiated at the national level. Two years of additional training will allow her to master the field of community health work. Her family has long been committed to supporting neighbors in difficult situations in the community now being left behind by the midwives leaving the clinic.

All donations are tax-deductible. If you cannot donate, please pass on this appeal to friends and family. If you would like to learn more about other ways to help the poorest, please do not hesitate to get in touch, at nationalcenter@4thworldmovement.org.

“Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.”
-Joseph Wresinski