A team walks to a home to check on a water filtration system provided by Healing Art Missions. Photo Credit: Jessica Phelps
Dearest Friends,
We write today with important news about Healing Art Missions’ programming in Haiti.
As you know, HAM has served communities in Haiti for 25 years and, over those years, the focus and nature of our work has shifted due to circumstances in the country and their impact on our staff and operations.
As we begin 2024, HAM finds itself at an inflection point. Although we were able to successfully implement new programs, and even grow, in 2023, we recognize that, due to ongoing challenges in Haiti, our growth trajectory is not sustainable and we need to right-size the organization now in order to meet our upcoming financial obligations.
Accordingly, HAM’s U.S. leadership team is working closely with our Medical Director in Haiti, Dr. Jean Fritz Jacques, to hibernate our medical programming by June 30, 2024. We are so proud of the work of the Mobile Medical Team over the past year but, as a small organization, we will not be able to continue to fund the air transport, supplies, salaries, and housing costs to keep this program operational for all of 2024. Please note, Dr. Jacques will remain on staff as HAM’s Country Director for Haiti, and will use this time to try to identify additional partnerships for HAM’s medical programming in the future.
HAM is, unfortunately, not alone in these challenges. Many small Haitian NGOs, like HAM, have already shuttered medical programs or scaled back other initiatives due to the many challenges in the country. It is becoming increasingly difficult to purchase supplies, transport staff safely, and find the financial resources needed to keep programs running.
These difficulties are due to the chokehold rivaling gangs have on 80% of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, and the fact that there is no functioning government to help organizations like ours. For the past year, HAM has been navigating these challenges by bearing the high cost of flying our medical team out of gang territory into the Southern peninsula to do their work. We did this under the assumption that this would be a temporary need and that we would be able to resume ground transport of personnel sometime in 2023. Unfortunately, it has become apparent that it will not be safe to transport our staff on Haitian roads anytime in the near future. The gangs control all roads in and out of Port-au-Prince, and kidnappings and extortion are common.
In 2023, HAM’s Mobile Medical Team worked out of two Haitian hospitals—Ste. Therese in Miragoâne, and the Community Hospital in Port Salut. Dr. Jacques is in communication with the leadership teams at these facilities and with the Haitian Ministry of Health to build a transition plan for patients.
HAM’s supporters have been incredibly generous in supporting the work of the Mobile Medical Team, but as Haiti’s situation has deteriorated, we have also seen a corresponding reduction in donations from foundations and other entities which have previously been open to funding Haitian causes. We no longer can finance this program with individual donations alone. Thus, HAM has made the difficult, but necessary decision to phase out medical programming in 2024 and to focus on our two other partner communities:
School in Port-de-Paix: The Charles Salomon Primary School in Haiti’s North West department provides a high-quality education to children in an impoverished community. If it weren’t for HAM’s support, the children in the community would likely not attend school otherwise. HAM remains committed to ensuring that the children of Port-de-Paix have access to educational opportunities.
Clean water and basic healthcare in Demier: HAM is the only NGO which supports the rural mountainous community of Demier. With our support, the community has access to water filtration systems and basic healthcare. HAM will remain a partner to the hundreds of families in Demier to ensure they have access to these basic human needs.
The situation in Haiti is very perilous right now—more so than any living Haitian can recall. Healing Art Missions remains grateful for the support of our loyal community as we continue to help the everyday people of Haiti the best we can. Right now, in order for us to continue to help, it requires us to reduce our programming in order to preserve the organization for the long-term. By phasing out our medical programming, HAM will be able to continue to support two communities in Haiti which have no other partners.
We recognize that this change may come as a surprise for some who have followed and supported our organization over these many years, but we ask for your patience and understanding as we continue to navigate the challenges we face due to the unrest in Haiti.
Our goal has always been, and still remains, to help the Haitian people to the best of our ability with the resources we have available to us. At this time, focusing our financial and staff resources on the communities of Port-de-Paix and Demier will enable us to continue to achieve that objective.
Thank you for your continued support and for your commitment to the people of Haiti.
We are both available to answer questions or provide additional information; our email addresses are below and we welcome your outreach.
In gratitude,
Tracee Laing Connie Skingel
Founding Director Executive Director