Haitian Health Foundation

Lisbon, CT Ruby Tuesday Restaurant to host Community GiveBack Program April 20-22, 2013. Procedes to Benefit HHF.

Think about dining at Ruby Tuesday at 160 River Road in Lisbon, CT on April 20-22, 2012 to help raise funds for HHF. Present the Ruby Tuesday GiveBack event flyer to your server and Ruby Tuesday will GiveBack 20% of your purchase price to the Haitian Health Foundation. For directions to the restaurant or to view the menu, go to rubytuesday.com

Stay tuned for our next Container Loading date. Join us!

Aug. 22nd date set for the 10th Annual Haitian Health Foundation/Dr. Jerry Lowney Golf Tournament.

Mark your calendars and stay tuned for details! The Tournament will again be at the Norwich Golf Course, with an 11 a.m. start. Last year’s tournament raised over $11,000 for Haiti!

The Haitian Health Foundation Pauses to Remember the Devastating Earthquake of January 12, 2010.

As 2013 begins, we at The Haitian Health Foundation pause to remember the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010.

On that terrible day, over 300,000 people were killed in an avalanche of concrete, 300,000 more were injured, and over a million were left homeless.  Thousands fled the horrors of Port-au-Prince, seeking relief in our region of Haiti, the Grand’Anse.   We witnessed the survivors coming off the boat from Port-au-Prince with dazed looks on their faces, most wearing only the clothes on their backs, gratefully clutching children and babies who had survived.

Three years later, much of the devastation remains in Port-au-Prince.   We know that some donors have experienced “Haiti Fatigue”: They are disappointed at the lack of progress, and feel like the donations they gave were wasted.

HHF expanded distribution of food.

Be assured that any donations given to the Haitian Health Foundation were well spent. 

Our 5-tiered approach to the disaster included:

• Providing medical care to many of the displaced people (including many pregnant women who had never had prenatal care).

• Expanded distribution of  food, especially to those villagers who took in many of the displaced.

• Providing over 700 displaced women with the tools to start their own small businesses and become self-sufficient.

• Educating several hundred displaced children in our St. Pierre School.

• Constructing hundreds of houses to replace those destroyed by the earthquake.

Haitian women receiving tools to start their own small businesses.

Less than a year after the earthquake, Haiti was struck by a deadly cholera epidemic. 

Again, HHF immediately jumped into action.

We educated our health staff about the disease and dispatched them to the mountain villages to provide health education and medical care.  Thanks to this outreach, which was made possible by our donors’ generous gifts, cholera deaths were cut in half the first month, then reduced further over the next few months until they accounted for less than 1% of those stricken.  With your help, thousands of lives were saved.

Your donations have brought health care,
relief, and survival to thousands of traumatized and impoverished
people.

This past fall, Hurricane Sandy made a direct and devastating hit on the HHF catchment area, destroying subsistence crops and inciting a real fear of famine.  HHF is busy responding.  Our new nursery is growing fruit trees to distribute to many who lost their crops, and we are providing food to the many thousands who suffer from hunger.

This work will continue through 2013.

Please rest assured that your generosity has provided both immediate and lasting relief to the poor of Haiti.

On their behalf, “merci” for your continued support.

But To Serve — Available Now

Join Dr. Jeremiah Lowney on the remarkable journey that took him from his childhood in an Irish-American ghetto to the brutally impoverished rural mountains of Jérémie. Enjoy the history of HHF as it has grown from a rural outpost to the primary healthcare provider to over 225,000 people in over 100 villages.

His is a story of healing, compassion, and advocacy that will both inspire and renew our faith in the capacity of one man to accept an invitation to change one corner of the world.

But to Serve: Changing Lives One at a Time is available for $25, plus $5 shipping & handling. Click here to e-mail HHF for details about purchasing the book.

Update: A Renaissance in Makandal.

The Miracle of Makandal

Makandal, a section of Jérémie, is one of the poorest areas in Haiti. 

Over 3,000 people live in approximately 400 appalling hovels, which are crowded into about 1 acre of muddy, garbage-strewn land, with no sanitary facilities.

Families of up to 12 people huddle inside dirt-floor structures made from pieces of concrete, thatch, scraps of tin, and even rags.  Roofs are often nothing more than bed sheets, tarps, political posters, or pieces of rusted metal.  There is no protection from unwanted invasions of insects, rats and other vermin, and when it rains, run off from the streets and surrounding areas carry garbage and human waste through Makandal, resulting in the dirt floors becoming septic pools of mud.

Forcing people to live in these conditions would be considered criminal in the United States.

 Responding to the Need. 

The recipient family of a new home is shown above with HHF Executive Director Marilyn Lowney. Their “house” before this new structure was the appalling hovel shown at the very top of the page.

In November 2010, at the request of the sad souls living in Makandal, the Haitian Health Foundation began a major reconstruction project to improve the housing.  Our plan was to replace the worst housing first.  An appeal to our generous donors resulted in enough funding to replace 53 of the hovels.  Each new house cost $5,000 U.S.  Phase I, 53 new houses, was completed in Fall 2011.

Phase II began in February 2012, with an additional 48 houses constructed between February and June 1^st.  Of the 400 total hovels in Makandal, HHF has now re-built over 100 of them.  Not only are the recipients living in more humane, sanitary and secure conditions, a “renaissance” is occurring:

Garbage no longer litters the streets – Makandal volunteers have been regularly cleaning it up;

The area by the ocean, which once served as an outdoor toilet for the residents, now has cement benches and is used for fishing;

Pit latrines were built near some of the houses, so the residents can have privacy instead of having to perform their bodily functions in a humiliating display out in the open;

Children are smiling and joyful, young men no longer glare at visitors, and women no longer beg, weep and keen for a gift;

New industry is developing and new jobs have been created in construction and security;

A small school for grades K-4 has opened at the entrance of the village, for Makandal’s children.

A family of 5 huddle in a makeshift structure ( above left) until it was replaced with this new home (right).

The renaissance taking place is something that I have never seen in my 20 years of visiting Makandal.  As the lives of these broken people have improved, their behavior has become more positive and their outlook has become more hopeful.  There is a renewed pride in the people of Makandal.

Eight human beings lived in the above shack; they now reside in a home they never dreamed of owning (below).

The Haitian Health Foundation looks forward to improving the lives of more families in Makandal in 2013.  At least 100 more houses are desperately in need of replacing.  You can help replace another house in Makandal with a donation of $5,000.  As you can see from the photographs, $5,000 buys a wonderful structure that is secure, sanitary and a source of hope for a better future.

Jeremiah J. Lowney, DDS, MS, MPH

Messenger of The Poor of Haiti

Founder and President

Give the Gift of Hope this Holiday Season.

This holiday season, in honor of someone on your holiday gift list, give the gift of a goat,  house,  or latrine to a family in need in Haiti.  Make the donation/gift request to HHF by Thanksgiving to receive a photo in time for Christmas and the season’s other holidays. HHF needs your gift donation and information before November 26 so that a photo can be taken in time for your December holiday gift giving.

We will be happy to send a “gift card” to your family or friend(s) to indicate that a present has been purchased in their name – or we can send it to you, and you can save it for the holidays.

What a great way to share your love – by bringing joy to a poor Haitian family. Give the gift of hope this holiday season!

HHF Receives CharityNavigator 4 Stars for 6th Consecutive Year!

The Haitian Health Foundation has been awarded the highest designation, 4 Stars, on CharityNavigator  for the 6th consecutive year. Only 3% of the charities CharityNavigator analyzes have earned the 4 Star award for the same consecutive year run. The CharityNavigator honor recognized HHF for low overhead, transparency, and excellent financial accountability.

“Only 3% of the charities we rate have received at least 6 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that Haitian Health Foundation outperforms most other charities in America.”  – Ken Berger, President & Chief Executive Officer, Charity Navigator.

Thank you to all of our donors and volunteers for helping us to achieve this prestigious status!

Dr. Jerry Lowney Golf Tournament raises over $11,000 for Haiti.

80 golfers participated in the 9th annual Haitian Health Foundation-Jerry Lowney Golf Tournament at the Norwich Golf Course this past August and almost $12,000 was raised for Haiti. We want to thank the players and the sponsors including Hap Redgate (Andover Equities) the tournament sponsor. And a congratulations to The McAullife Foursome, the Tournament winner, coming in at 9 under par 62!

HHF Volunteer Honored for His Work in Haiti.

HHF Volunteer Robert Harris Receives the Rotary International Service Award.

Robert Harris, a Rotarian from White Rock, BC, and HHF volunteer since 2001, has received the Rotary International Service Award  for his work developing a computerized healthcare system for remote regions of Haiti. Thank you and congratulations Robert! Read the news article here.