Disaster Response Haiti Project #53409

Earthquake Solidarity Project 4 Haiti by Haitians

by Economic Stimulus Projects for Work and Action (ESPWA)

Project Report | Dec 5, 2022
Supporting Haiti's Communities -Always!

By Marie-Rose Romain Murphy | Servant Leader

Dear Friend,

Mèsi anpil, anpil, thank you very much for your support for Haiti.

We won’t lie to you. Things are bad in Haiti. It’s not easy to get things done because of the current chaotic socio-political situation where violent gangs are keeping Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, hostage.

Given that most economic activities of Haiti are centralized in Port-au-Prince, this crisis has a terrible impact on the country and its communities. Inflation keeps climbing and over $4 million of Haitians are experiencing extreme food insecurity and daily hunger and malnutrition. The resurgence of cholera exacerbated with the lack of access to potable and purified water is making matters worse.

Are we giving up? NO. We are continuing to support communities and making them more resilient through financial support, emergency health supplies and training.

In Pestel, we worked with the town to set up a second community cistern that will serve thousands of residents. We also helped them ( thanks to the intervention of Caroline Hudicourt, the Haiti Community Foundation’s Board Vice President) to get some health supplies for community residents affected by cholera.
In Marfranc and Chambellan, we provided business and marketing plan workshops to two of our community partners, APWOLEMAF and RAVAC.
We are working on a new GlobalGiving campaign more focused on supporting communities during this deeper crisis. Please support it.

Thank you again for your unfailing solidarity and support!

ESPWA and the Haiti Community Foundation Network on behalf of the communities that we serve.

Pestel Community Water Cistern Inauguaration

Links:

BBC Article on Current Situation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

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Aug 8, 2022
Rebuilding Communities with Communities-Bon Bagay!

By Marie-Rose Romain Murphy | Servant Leader

Dear Friends,

"Bon bagay" means good thing/stuff/actions in Haitian Creole. It's a compliment and a badge of accomplishment.

The situation in Haiti is still not 'good news', but we haven't given up. We don't plan on giving up and despite challenging logistics, we continue to move forward and to work with our communities to support themselves. Should we mention again that we are very grateful for your support? Yes, we should. There are so many good causes in the world and we appreciate your support and your commitment. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Did you know that « espwa » means hope in Haitian Creole? When community leaders had to select a specific name for The Haiti Community Foundation in 2014, they insisted that espwa was part of it, thus Fondation Communautaire Haïtienne-Espwa, also known as the Haiti Community Foundation. Through years of community led planning with ESPWA, Inc being the agency coordinating the Haiti Community Foundation Initiative, “espwa” had been the rallying cry and brought to Haitian communities the hope that they could lead their communities and reach out for their dreams…

This update and photos will (we think) bring some hope and “lespwa” to Haitians and the many people around the world whose hearts belong to our island:-)

In Latibolière, working with the community, we are finishing up the reconstruction of the Latibolière Community Health Center thanks to the support of MedGlobal and Inter-American Foundation .

In Gran Vensan, Community Partner/grantee KPGV coordinated the transfer of goat offsprings from first community members who had benefited from the program to the second group of community program participants. What you have to know is that these farm animals are assets that help farmers to manage their key life events better. “Bèt se kanè bank peyizan” Animals are farmers’ bank account. Our thanks to GlobalGiving and their constant support for Haiti’s communities through thick and thin!

In Pestel, we’re finishing up the installation of a second community cistern that will go a long way in helping community residents to access potable water. They had lost all of their water infrastructure with the 2021 earthquake… We’re also going to work with them on the repair of their grand cistern that serve over 20,000 in Pestel and its surrounding communities. This work wouldn’t have been possible without the commitment of community organizers like Jackson who’d been at it relentlessly for over a decade. It wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Ocean Reef Community Foundation and Yurianna Mikolay who fully embraced our community-led approach.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the support and commitment of our Board of Directors, our hundreds of Community Network Leaders, our amazing staff, our institutional partners such as Fondation Sogebank and (you!!) our many loyal individual donors.

Mèsi anpil, anpil! Thank you so very much everyone!

#work #health #community #share #network #leaders #help #water #planning #infrastructure #nevergiveup

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Apr 11, 2022
Moving Haitian Communities Forward!

By Marie-Rose Romain Murphy | Servant Leader

Bonjou zanmi nou, bonjour notre ami, good morning friend!

It’s time to thank you again for your support and tell you how your support is helping us work with Haitian communities to move them forward. Thank you friend! Mèsi anpil as we say in Creole. Things are challenging and worrisome in Haiti but we continue to move things forward. Life goes on and families still need to send their children to school and seek to secure a better future for them.

What have we done after the first response to the 2021 Earthquake? We did what we usually do, we worked with communities to figure out what their priorities were. We worked with community partners and local and global funders and partners like the Inter-American Foundation, Fondation Sogebank, Ocean Reef Community Foundation and GlobalGiving among others to help us support our communities.

As part of the community, we think long-term. We are here to stay. After we responded to emergency calls from communities like Pestel and Corail that had no water and lost 95% of their housing, we worked with our community leaders network to assess damages and put together a list of the most impacted communities. We then sat with these communities’ stakeholders to establish their priorities:

Support for school fees to families that were most in needs? In partnership with Fondation Sogebank, we helped 14 schools by providing them for scholarships for children whose families were unable to cover their tuition.

Water cisterns to help communities like Pestel get long-term access to water as many residents were desperate enough to have to get dirty and polluted water to meet their basic needs. We started the installation of two community water cisterns to serve the city. One cistern’s installation was finished last week. The second cistern’s installation is about to get done. We are also planning to repair the city’s central cistern that serves the city as well as its neighboring communities. It will serve over 25,000 community residents and their families.

The reconstruction of a health center in Latibolière. Jérémie that had been destroyed beyond redemption in on the way! Yay! Our thanks go to our partner MedGlobal working with us on this project. Please note that the community is contributing 10% of the costs of the project. Community residents were involved in every step of the project’s design and planning. This is what we call “community-led” reconstruction and development. This is what “Building Back Better” is supposed to look like!

There is much going on, and we are doing a lot with our limited resources. If you can, please, do give again, because many communities are left to fend for themselves and have no chance of recovery if we don’t lend them our support for their journey back to self-sufficiency. Do know that your support will go towards meeting the needs of the communities as they have identified them (not to what we think their needs are). Thank you again!

In solidarity,

The Haiti Community Foundation Network (ESPWA and Fondation Communautaire Haitienne-Espwa/The Haiti Community Foundation)

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