Jennifer Lang, Program Assistant, July 6th 2011
Baradéres is a rural farming community 30 miles outside of Hope for Haiti’s operations base in Les Cayes. Still, visiting Baradères requires a 3-hour drive over mountain ranges and boulder slides. Despite this intense topography, the residents of Baradères remain committed to their community – walking hours to the nearest market, farming wheat over rocky slopes, and taking ownership over their health and education.
Even when other organizations have lost interest in this small community, Hope for Haiti has proudly continued its support for the past 11 years, supporting the Little Sisters of Saint Therese as they run a primary school, healthcare facility, and nutrition program. They aid new mothers in a maternity ward, providing both pre-natal and post-natal care. For those women who cannot make it down from the mountains to give birth, they support a network of local midwives with regular trainings and birthing kits assembled by Hope for Haiti volunteers.
Perhaps most impressively, the community of Baradères has persevered despite continued setbacks. Since December 2010, cholera has become an enormous plague that the area’s sole doctor continues to combat. Trained Community Health Workers were left to fend for themselves as previous international aid turned to more visible, accessible recipients. Yet their valuable work continued.
 Repairs to roof of Baraderes healthcare facility |
 Child holding her health records as part of follow-up care |
 Community Health Worker taking notes at the Baraderes Clinic monthly meeting |
 Community Health Workers look over June reporting data |
In the past year alone, Sister Denise and her team have distributed pre-natal vitamins and Vitamin A to over 600 mothers and their children by using supplies from Hope for Haiti’s partner, Vitamin Angels. The Community Health Workers continue monthly meetings where they compare strategies for reaching rural children despite limited stipends and long travel times. Programs have even expanded to include building improvements, a cooking school, and a recuperation program for follow-up care.
I found the real lesson in Baradères is the potential of a community. Through cooperation, hard work, and unfaltering resolve, the leaders of Baradères continue to lift up the future for themselves and their children. As a Hope for Haiti staff member, they provide an example to emulate – to touch another’s life, it is necessary to first dedicate your own.
 Baraderes Cholera Treatment Center (CTC) |
 Family members in maternity ward celebrate a new birth |
 HFH Program Director Patrick Eucalitto speaking to Community Health Workers |