Standing with Haiti

An update of PIH's work in Haiti, two years following a massive earthquake.

Two years ago, a massive earthquake struck Haiti, killing over 250,000 people and leaving 1.5 million homeless. PIH’s staff in Haiti and around the world immediately launched into action, bringing emergency medical care and supplies to survivors. Over the past 24 months, PIH and its Haitian sister organization Zanmi Lasante (ZL) have continued to provide health care to hundreds of thousands of people, including earthquake survivors and nearly 80,000 cholera patients, and have nearly completed construction of a new national teaching hospital in central Haiti. The team has also expanded agriculture, nutrition, education, and income-generation programs to help survivors feed and support their families.

Once the scope of need in Haiti became apparent, PIH/ZL designed and began implementing the Stand With Haiti Fund, a 2.5-year, $125-million plan to help the country rebuild. By June 2012, PIH will have spent the entirety of that fund, fulfilling the promises made in the weeks after the earthquake.

The Stand With Haiti Fund allowed PIH to expand and strengthen healthcare services, with an emphasis on specialties like rehabilitative medicine and mental health that had been weak before the earthquake and were even more desperately needed after it. PIH increased its Haitian staff by over 30 percent, from 4,400 to nearly 6,000 people, and strengthened the country’s health infrastructure.

But much remains to be done. Working in partnership with Haiti's Ministry of Public Health and Population and the Port-au-Prince-based organization GHESKIO, PIH and Zanmi Lasante are preparing to implement a cholera vaccine demonstration campaign. And within months, the doors to the new 320-bed Mirebalais National Teaching Hospital will open. 

Program updates

		Rehabilitation Over the past two years, a team of clinicians, nurses, technicians, and community health workers has delivered care to hundreds of patients throughout central Haiti recovering from amputations and debilitating physical conditions, including injuries sustained during the earthquake. The team accommodates 600 inpatient visits and 1,000 outpatient visits annually. In addition, 400 community health workers have been trained to provide services to disabled patients and identify new patients.
		Mental Health Since January 2010, PIH’s mental health and psychosocial support team has provided services to more than 25,000 adults and children in Port-au-Prince and throughout the Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite regions of Haiti. A 64-member team — comprised of psychologists, social workers, and community mental health workers — provides care to people affected by the earthquake and the cholera outbreak. More
		Cholera Since a deadly cholera epidemic broke out just eight months after the earthquake, PIH has treated more than 80,000 patients and trained over 1,000 health workers to identify and treat cholera in the community. Plans are now being finalized for a cholera vaccination demonstration project that will provide a proven oral cholera vaccine to 100,000 people in Port-au-Prince and in a rural community in the Artibonite region where the epidemic first broke out. More
		Mirebalais For the past 18 months, construction crews have been working tirelessly to build the new Mirebalais National Teaching Hospital, a state-of-the-art complex that will soon become the country's largest public teaching and referral hospital. At a time when Haiti desperately needs skilled professionals, Mirebalais Hospital will provide high-quality education for the next generation of Haitian nurses and physicians. More