Why Haiti…why Health?

Haiti is the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere. It is the 21^st poorest nation in the world. Rural communities, comprising almost 70% of the nation, are considered chronically poor. In those communities, workers make roughly $2 a day. At the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2021, Haitians had a per capita Gross Domestic Product of $1,815 per year, with annual income slightly below that. Available data suggest that figure has fallen even further.

Poverty is generally a driver of poor health. Weak infrastructure is also an accomplice to poverty. In 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake toppled the Caribbean nation, killing an estimated 300,000 Haitians. Many government and non-profit organizations responded. Unfortunately, massive funding and many good intentions were lost to disorganization and corruption in the already impoverished nation.

It was then that Haiti Health Initiative (HHI) was founded. The U.S. 501(c)(3) Non-Government Organization (NGO) formed with the intent of rescuing and raising the livelihoods of rural Haitians, so many of whom were being missed by the larger efforts. . HHI’s first goal was to uncover the root causes contributing to poor health outcomes in Haiti. The next goal was to use that knowledge to work alongside the Haitian community and implement projects that communities needed the most.

Those included healthcare, sustainable water projects, improving nutritional opportunities through agricultural expansion, and training local medical and dental providers to provide sustainable care. The goals were intense. Haiti had the worst anemia rates in the western hemisphere, impacting prenatal, maternal, childhood and elderly lives across the nation, but particularly in outlying and rural communities. 

Volunteer physicians, dentists, nurses and others from the US and Canada joined dental and medical teams that each went to Haiti twice per year. The visits continued into the fall of 2018 when civil unrest made in-person medical missions impossible. But by then, a community center had been constructed and locals joined nearby clinicians in sustaining a growing number of those health programs. HHI is hoping a newly installed Internet system will help develop a telehealth program to support local and area clinicians.

Improving education quickly joined the early goals, together with engendering desire and skills among local citizens to, over time, independently sustain these programs for themselves. Please consider joining us in this ongoing project.