Hurricane Matthew: Recovery Efforts

Our town of Jeremie has been badly hit by the hurricane and as far as our reports, every building has sustained damage including the regional hospital.  Most houses had tin roofs, and these were blown away leaving people’s possessions exposed, and allowing their homes to become completely flooded. Phone service was cut at 6:30 am on Monday, and we are still trying to locate our students to know everyone is safe.

We’ve been contacted by many people looking for trusted places to send donations. A substantial amount of money after the earthquake never reached the intended recipients (notably, NPR covered the failure of the American Red Cross) and it was the subject of the film, Haiti: Where Did the Money Go?  Please find out the details of any project before contributing, and in particular their geographic area -- relatively few programs were operating in the Grand Anse department due to how difficult it is to reach the region.

We have worked with all of the following organizations in the past and can vouch for them as having responsible financial practices, a devotion to their missions, and a real presence in the Grand Anse and Sud communities affected by the hurricane.

The Caris Foundation introduced infant HIV testing in nearly every major public hospital, health center, and dispensary across the country. The organization provides training and support to the National Laboratory and works in close coordination with the Ministry for Public Health and Population and has partnered with the CDC.  Caris along with the Haitian Health foundation, Medishare, Hopital Bernard Mevs, and other partners ran a field hospital from Oct 11-29 that provided medical services while the regional hospital is in recovery. 100% of donations go directly towards relief for the Grand Anse.
(Co-founder Michelle Therrien worked for Caris from June 2011 until December 2014).

No Time for Poverty opened a high quality pediatric clinic in 2012 and has served over 2000 children per year since opening.  This facility has filled a critical gap in medical care and provides high quality services, to patients coming from neighboring towns down the coast from the nearby mountains.  Their neighboring public hospitals have sustained significant damage, but the pediatric clinic was build to survive such hurricanes… as such it will be handling a higher patient load, and it is short of supplies. 

Operation Blessing distributes surplus medicine and medical supplies across Haiti, and has partnered with the Caris Foundation to aid in relief efforts.

​To learn more about Jeremie, you can read Michelle's stories here.