User:Jarettbeaudoin/Give Haiti Hope

Give Haiti Hope (GHH) or the Haiti Outreach Program is a Knoxville, Tennessee-based non-profit development organization. Founded in 1999, the organization partners with Sacred Heart Parish and Partners in Health in order to help provide food, clothing, housing, education, healthcare and more to various areas in the Centre department of Haiti. The organization's main focus is the town of Boucan-Carré, which is found in the region.

Education
There are over 1300 students in Boucan Carré that benefit from the efforts of GHH. Since 2001, the number of children attending school has grown from 350 to over 1300. Currently the program has helped place 1129 youngsters in the primary school, 177 students in the secondary school and 25 young women in the vocational school.

St. Michels Primary School

A primary school in Boucan-Carré. The school was originally under the supervision of a group of Catholic nuns, serving 350 children in a small cinderblock building. The school's number of primary school students has grown from 350 to 1129 since 1999, leading to the construction of a new building in 2004. The school contains six pre-school classes, and five 1st grade classes. The children of St. Michel’s primary school range in age from 3 – 25 yrs old in preschool to sixth grade. Funds raised through $100/yr student sponsorships have helped the school grow to 1129 students.

St. Michels Secondary School

Boucan-Carré's secondary school, there are currently 177 students in the secondary school ranging in age from 14 – 29 yrs. old. The school includes grades 7-9 and grades 10, 11,12. This year, a final “philo” level was created for students planning to attend colleges and universities while allowing them to stay in Boucan Carré with their families.

The 2009 hurricane season left considerable damage to the schools' roofs. Classes were conducted under a tarp until GHH made necessary repairs to the roof of the school's secondary building.

Sponser-A-Student

GHH's model for providing students with funds for school, the Sponser-A-Student program allows donors to commit $100/child/year to ensure that a St. Michels child receives both a hot meal and vitamin each day, along with the necessary uniform and educational supplies. GHH also subsidizes the local educational system by improving facilities and helping to pay the salaries of 17 teachers and 5 administrators and staff. The sponsorship provides the option of $100 per year for the younger students and $200 for high school and vocational school students.

Medical
Working with Partners In Health, Give Haiti Hope helps provide medical care to the people of central Haiti through work at its clinic in Boucan-Carré and mobile medical services. In 2004, construction was completed on a new 20,000 sq. ft. hospital and clinic that receives 40,000 visits per year.

History

In December 2000, the Haiti Outreach Program’s medical support efforts began with a small group of doctors, nurses, and laypeople working in Chambo, a village in the Central Plateau region. With the construction of a temporary clinic in the local school, the medical staff attended to over 500 patients in the span of one week. They helped to treat severe malnutrition, dehydration, and serious life threatening infections while also vaccinating the population against childhood diseases and taught hygiene. Consequently, GHH hired a full time nurse and established the first and only health care facility in Boucan-Carré, the St. Michel Clinic. As the number of patients seen at the clinic increased rapidly, the access to needed medical supplies and pharmaceuticals became a challenge to manage. Over the next two years, GHH visited the clinic three or more times and brought more supplies, while simultaneously hiring two additional nurses and a Haitian doctor to work 6 days a week.

In 2003, an international public health organization Partners in Health (or Zanmi Lasante in Creole) founded by Dr. Paul Farmer learned of our clinic in Boucan-Carré. After negotiations between Partners in Health (PIH), the Haitian Department of Ministry, and GHH, it was decided to operate the clinic jointly. The joint venture with PIH has enabled the St. Michel Clinic to acquire the necessary medicines and qualified personnel to expand its services each year. The collaborative effort of PIH and the medical and dental teams sponsored by GHH have brought dental care, optometry, ophthalmology, and the first surgery (including general, eye and gynecological surgery) to the region.

In 2003 and 2004, GHH raised funds at their annual Hope for Haiti Medical Mission Banquets that enabled the enlargement of the St. Michel clinic to include a 20,000 sq. ft. hospital. The hospital operating room was outfitted with funds raised by the 2005 Medical Mission Banquet. In 2006, GHH raised funds to build an additional 5,000 sq. ft. unit to house and separate HIV/TB patients from the general inpatients. The fundraiser of 2007 provided funds for ongoing operations and mobile clinics to reach out to those who could not travel to the clinic.

St. Michel Clinic

Today, the St. Michel Clinic functions as a mini hospital and is the primary source of health care for a desolate region of over 50,000 indigent Haitians. The clinic is equipped with ultrasound, a laboratory, X-ray equipment and an operating room. The clinic treats over 300 patients a day and maintains a daily inpatient census of 20 to 30 patients. Services include medicine, pediatrics, and cesarean section deliveries. Community health workers travel to all reaches of the area to see and educate patients about how to prevent and treat illnesses such as HIV, malnutrition, TB, and dehydration. GHH and Partners in Health operate a malnutrition program at the St. Michel Clinic and other sites.

Since 2003, GHH has sponsored 10 medical missions to Haiti and the surrounding area. including the village of Bouly. All donations to the St. Michel Clinic are matched dollar for dollar by Partners in Health.