Haiti's Healthy Child Project
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VillageMED launched its Haiti’s Healthy Child Project with the goal of aiding Haitian citizens and healthcare providers in the delivery of sustained quality pediatric and maternal healthcare to children living in unsafe and unsanitary environments.
NEED: 681 miles and 1.5 hours by plane from US shores -- lay Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Long before the devastating earthquake that ravaged its landscape and systems in 2010, Haiti and its people struggled through a complex history riddled with political and economic instability. The effects of which are evident in the slums of Port-au-Prince; among the worst in the Western Hemisphere. Characterized by narrow streets and unpaved alleys, Haiti’s urban slums are compounded by dire poverty and a breakdown of systems. Common is the sight of livestock feasting on the sewage and waste of a neglected environment. It is in these desperate and unsanitary conditions that some of Haiti’s children are expected to survive. Following the massive earthquake in which an estimated 300,000 people died and scores seriously injured, thousands of children were orphaned or abandoned by their parents. In the shadow of US prosperity Haiti deals with the highest maternal, infant, and under-five child mortality in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti’s children are struggling against conditions easily preventable and treatable such as malnutrition, respiratory infection, diarrhea and malaria. Because most hospitals and clinics were either destroyed by the earthquake or remain poorly equipped, access to healthcare is often nonexistent. |
For the 1st phase, VillageMED in collaboration with our local partner, is holding a series of temporary clinics to provide pediatric healthcare to children living in distressed communities of Carrefour, Haiti.
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