This is a particularly difficult letter to write this year. Last year at this time when I wrote to you, I was optimistic that we would be able to return to Haiti and to our beloved clinic to resume our work since the end of the pandemic seemed to be in sight. However, this was not to be.
Instead, this past year has been the most difficult year for Haitians that I have witnessed in my 25 years of working in the country. The details of this situation are far too much to explain in this brief letter, but just in the past few months Haitians have had to endure gang battles in their streets, children being recruited into gangs, the risk of kidnapping, difficulty finding food, limited access to clean water, fuel at up to $50/gallon (if they can find it at all), soaring unemployment rates, the return of cholera, nationwide lockdowns, closed hospitals, closed banks, and closed schools.
What’s left of the Haitian government is doing very little to remedy this situation. The everyday Haitian is on their own.
The worst moment of this year for Healing Art Missions was shuttering our clinic in Dumay due to escalating gang activity and the fact that our patients were moving away in droves to flee the violence. This was devastating to me, personally, and to the many HAM volunteers and donors who have put so much of their time, resources, and love into helping us build that clinic over the past 20 years.
The situation in Haiti feels very hopeless at the moment, but this is precisely why we cannot give up. So many organizations are pulling out of Haiti now because of the instability, but there is no one to fill the gap. The government will not do it. The international aid community is scrambling, but many of these organizations are big bureaucratic machines and their aid will take time.
This is where groups like Healing Art Missions come in. We are small and nimble enough to adapt programming to help a targeted community. So, we are adapting!
Since the earthquake of August, 2021, HAM has been working in the Nippes Department, a rural district in the southern peninsula that has not experienced gang violence or the turmoil that has plagued the rest of the country. What the region is experiencing, however, is a concerning lack of access to basic healthcare.
For the past year, HAM has helped to fill that gap and we have developed a reputation as a reliable partner. Incredibly, we are currently providing 100% of all orthopedic care in the region. We are also providing safe birthing services, hiring anesthesiologists and nurses, and performing additional surgical procedures at the region’s hospital, Hôpital Ste. Therese de Miragoâne. Thanks to HAM’s reputation as a trusted NGO in Haiti and to Dr. Jacques’ reputation as a top surgeon, we have been able to seamlessly transition our operations to this new area.
Dr. Jacques’ steady leadership is to be credited for our success in keeping HAM operational. Many of our partner NGOs in the country have had to cease operations during the recent turmoil. We are fortunate to have Dr. Jacques at the helm in Haiti.
We are also fortunate to have you in our corner. HAM truly could not have made it through this year without your support—both financially and emotionally! Truth be told, there were moments when all seemed lost, but the thought of turning away from the people of Haiti now, when they perhaps need support from the outside world more than ever, also seemed unfathomable. Knowing that we could count on the HAM community’s support made it possible for us to envision a path forward and to seize opportunities that came our way. Thank you.
As 2022 comes to a close and we look toward the New Year, I can only imagine that the turmoil gripping Haiti must somehow come to an end. What that future looks like, though, I do not know.
I do know, however, that the people of Haiti are going to need us—potentially even more than they have ever needed us in the past.
Most sincerely yours,
Tracee Laing, M.D. Founding Director