We support several projects throughout rural Haiti, including health clinics, schools, access to clean water, and various medical outreach programs.
Providing healthcare providers with access to medication in the Southern Peninsula
Due to the current crisis in Haiti there are critical drug shortages and a rise in counterfeit medications. There are currently not enough pharmacies to serve the health system and, due to the lack of border controls, counterfeit medications are being smuggled across the border and distributed in the country.
Haiti relies on imported medications for nearly 70% of its needs, and this situation is not only putting a strain on hospitals and other healthcare providers, but also costing innocent Haitian people their lives. There are shortages for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as surgical needs, such as anesthesia and sterile medical supplies.
Healing Art Missions is working to address this issue. We partner with hospitals in Haiti’s southern peninsula and the Ministry of Health to increase access to safe drugs and safe medical supplies. We accomplish this by importing medications and medical supplies from trusted international distributors, transporting them by truck to reliable healthcare providers in the region, and selling them at cost to ensure as many Haitians have access to safe healthcare as possible.
Safe Birthing AND WELL-WOMEN CARE
HAM has ben providing safe birthing in Haiti since 2017. Presently, our work is housed in Hôpital Ste. Thérèse de Mirogoâne where our midwife, Joël Saint-Cyr, works as the only permanent midwife serving 11 communes. Joel has assisted in over 300 deliveries and provides pre- and post-natal services to the women in his care.
Additionally, HAM’s nursing team provides access to well-woman care, including Pap smears and biopsies. We partner with trusted labs to help ensure as many women as possible have access to important annual screenings. Haiti has the highest recorded death rate from cervical cancer in the world, and early detection can save lives.
Clean water program
A primary building block for the health of any community is access to clean water. HAM employs two water technicians in Demier who monitor the point-of-use filtrations systems provided by our partner, Gift of Water. These simple systems involve two 5-gallon buckets and use charcoal and chlorine filtration to purify the water. Our water technicians visit homes where the systems are installed to make sure they are being used properly and to maintain and service the systems.
LEARN MORE
charles salomon primary school
The Charles Salomon Primary School (CSP) is a cement block building located on the North coast of Haiti in the Port-de-Paix neighborhood of Baudin-Gros Sable. Healing Art Missions provides financial support of the staff of 35 teachers that are employed through the school where more than 300 children attend class from preschool through 9th grade. Most of the children in attendance live in impoverished area of the neighborhood and would not attend school otherwise. All teachers are certified and the curriculum follows that set by the Haitian government and includes math and science as well as reading and writing French. Classes are based on the grade level, not the age of the students, as many teenagers in the neighborhood are illiterate and are attending school for the first time. The CSP School also supports an adult literacy program serving local adults.
LEARN MORE
demier: supporting health care in rural haiti
Demier is a small farming community made up of 400 families living in a remote mountainous area west of Dumay. There is no formal infrastructure in the hamlet accessed only by a 3 hour hike into the mountains. Healing Art Missions employs 2 community health and water technicians that help administer vaccinations and basic public health services within the Demier community that consists of only a church, school and homes. HAM has installed 125 water filtration systems which are maintained by the water technicians who also provide education about clean water and disease prevention. We also try to send a medical team to Demier once a year to hold mobile clinic. However, we were unable to go to Demeir in 2019 due to the political crisis in Haiti, but programs continue to thrive under the management of Ferdinand.
LEARN MORE
medical missions
Medical missions trips generally take place when it is safe to travel. Missions are composed entirely of volunteers who pay for their own expenses, including travel. While medical professionals often make up much of the teams, others with specific skills, knowledge and expertise are often involved to help share and develop their talents through the challenges and perspective-changing environment of Haiti. Our philosophy for working in Haiti is to provide employment for Haitians in a country where the unemployment is 80%, so our volunteers work along-side Haitians. Volunteers do not constitute cheap labor, they are partners with the community working, sharing and learning with people from a very different background and perspective. Through such experiences, HAM volunteers often discover a deep connection with the complex world that is Haiti and become ambassadors advocating for Haitians and HAM. Teams to Haiti are composed of volunteers who go not to do-for but to do-with the community, to supplement the Haitian medical professionals working at HAM’s Centre de Santé Communautaire de Dumay and to share their knowledge and experience with the population, as well as to learn.
Past HAM missions have involved the creation and development of our medical clinic in Dumay, as well as mobile medical clinics to various other communities in Haiti including Cite Soliel, Croix-des-Bouquets , Delmas 33, Demier, Gran Ravine, Jacmel, Leogane, Penier, Petionville, Port-au-Paix, Port-au-Prince, St. Marc, and Warf Jeremie. Non-medical teams have been involved in a variety of projects including the installation of solar collection and storage systems, IT installation, clean water projects, various building projects, organizational systems, and education.