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The Five Things We Learned About Health And Hygiene in Haiti

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Two Haitian Nurses Share the Five Things They’ve Learned About Health & Hygiene on Global Handwashing Day

In celebration of Global Handwashing Day, we asked two Hope for Haiti Public Health Nurses to share the things they’ve learned while administering public health programs in southern Haiti. 

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Dear Friends of Hope for Haiti:

We write to you today as two core members of Hope for Haiti’s Public Health team. For the past 30 years, Hope for Haiti has been working to improve the quality of life for the Haitian people, particularly children. Each year, we work in collaboration with Hope for Haiti’s healthcare team to help provide public health education to more than 10,000 children, parents, and grandparents in southern Haiti. Our work is rooted in the belief that the health of our nation and the future of our country depends on providing a public curriculum that addresses key health issues such as diabetes, hygiene and sanitation, hypertension, asthma, HIV/AIDS, proper nutrition, malaria, wound care, and many more important topics.

We know that there are challenges to our healthcare system, because we experience them on a daily basis. However, we are both inspired by what can be accomplished when we practice resilience, invite collaboration, and never give up hope. Here are five things we have both learned as two Haitian nurses focusing on Public Health Education in Southern Haiti:

  1. We’ve learned that children learn best through songs, visuals, and interactive activities. That’s why we’ve created a curriculum that makes learning fun and is child-centered! The pictures in this email are from one of our school demonstrations.
  2. We’ve learned that people lose their lives because they neglect the principles of hygiene because of the taboos that those principles carry. We raise awareness about the danger of not putting taboos aside because health is the greatest wealth a person can own.
  3. We’ve learned that the diet of the Haitian people can make them vulnerable, because they sometimes prefer to consume what can cause them serious illness. We encourage them to instead use natural products that are good for their health.
  4. Behavior change requires a lot of effort and patience, it does not happen in one stroke. For this reason, we have Community Health Workers who “help, educate and accompany” children and their community about their health problems.
  5. We’ve learned that many diseases become major illnesses due to lack of care in some areas, so we have first aid kits available in our various communities to help people avoid complications.

We invite all of you to join us today, October 15th as we celebrate Global Handwashing Day. Our personal goal for the day is to to help everyone truly understand the importance of hand washing for having a healthy life.

Thank you all for your support, your words of encouragement, and for sharing our belief that there is always hope for improving the quality of life in Haiti.

Sincerely,
Claudine Francois (Public Health Nurse, Hope for Haiti) and Evanie St. Paul (Infirmary St. Etienne and Public Health Nurse, Hope for Haiti)

Donate Today

Follow along with Hope for Haiti as we celebrate Global Handwashing Day in our communities on our Facebook and Instagram, and share your own stories with #GlobalHandwashingDay. 

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Sak Pase: Hope for Haiti Happenings
Hope for Haiti’s inaugural Leadership 360 class officially kicked off their program on October 10th! To learn more about the program and meet the members of the class, please click here.

Save the Date! Upcoming Events

World Diabetes Day 5k (Les Cayes, Haiti)
Join Hope for Haiti for the 1st Annual World Diabetes Day 5k in Les Cayes, Haiti on November 14, 2018! Organized by Hope for Haiti’s medical staff, this event is family-friendly and includes free diabetes screenings. To attend or sponsor, please email meg@hopeforhaiti.com.

#GivingTuesday Book Launch (Global)
“Oh, for the Love of Haiti!,”  a memoir by JoAnne M.  Keuhner, will officially launch on #GivingTuesday. Join us by pre-purchasing the book on AmazonSmile, or wait to buy it at a special #GivingTuesday price on November 28th. All proceeds benefit Hope for Haiti.

Food Packing Party (Naples, FL)
Volunteer to help pack 75,000 meals for Haiti in Naples, Florida on December 1, 2018. Any additional meals packed will benefit local Florida food banks. This is an event for all ages and is not to be missed. To register or view sponsorship opportunities, please click here.

Celebration Event (Naples, FL)
Join us in Naples, Florida for our Annual Gala on February 23rd, 2019 at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort. Click here for more information.

Partner Events

J. McLaughlin (Naples, FL)
Shop at the Venetian Villiage or Third Street South locations of J. McLaughlin on October 22 from 11am-3pm, and 15% of your purchase will support Hope for Haiti’s programs! For more information, please click here.

The University of Scranton (Scranton, PA)
Meet JoAnne Kuehner, founder of Hope for Haiti and author of “Oh, For the Love of Haiti!” on October 24 from 5-7pm at the University of Scranton. JoAnne will present a chapter reading and will be available for a book signing. This event is free and open to the public. For additional information, contact (570) 941-7401

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Join Us In Celebrating 30 Years of Impact in Haiti!

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Join Hope for Haiti as we Celebrate 30 Years of Impact

“If it was easy, anyone could do it.” These are the words Hope for Haiti’s founder, JoAnne Kuehner, uses to guide us when we are confronted with the diverse and nuanced challenges of implementing poverty alleviation programs in Haiti.

Over the course of the last 30 years, JoAnne’s words and her actions have inspired a movement of like-minded people from all over the world to serve and invest in improving the quality of life of the Haitian people, particularly children. Today, the Hope for Haiti network is more united than ever by five core values:  resilience, empowerment, accountability, collaboration, and hope. These values ground us, and help us remain relentlessly committed to our shared vision for Haiti: joyful children; healthy families; thriving communities; and the resources to make it so.

This year, as in years past, Hope for Haiti will work to improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of children, parents and grandparents in Haiti through comprehensive development programs focused in education, healthcare, infrastructure development, access to clean water, and economic opportunity.

As we celebrate our 30th anniversary of making an impact in Haiti, we invite you to join us at one or more of these upcoming events to help support our friends in-country:

  • Harvesting Hope Event: Join us in Stamford, Connecticut on October 18th for our Fall Event, when we will be celebrating our 30th Anniversary and honoring our founders, JoAnne and Carl Kuehner, Sr. To purchase tickets, please click here.

  • #GivingTuesday Book Launch: “Oh, for the Love of Haiti!,”  a memoir by JoAnne M.  Keuhner, will officially launch on #GivingTuesday. Join us by pre-purchasing the book on AmazonSmile, or wait to buy it at a special #GivingTuesday price on November 27th. All proceeds benefit Hope for Haiti.

  • Food Packing Event: Volunteer to help pack 75,000 meals for Haiti in Naples, Florida on December 1, 2018. Any additional meals packed will benefit local Florida food banks. This is an event for all ages and is not to be missed. To register or view sponsorship opportunities, please click here.

  • CEO Trip to Haiti: Join Hope for Haiti’s CEO, Skyler Badenoch, on a service learning trip to Haiti from January 28-31, 2019. For more details on how you can be one of the eight participants, contact Stephanie Jepsen at stephanie@hopeforhaiti.com.

  • Naples Celebration: Join us in Naples, Florida for our Annual Gala on February 23rd at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort. Click here for more information.

Donate Today

Sak Pase: Hope for Haiti Happenings

#InternInsights
Katie was an intern with our Development and Gift-In-Kind departments this summer through Collier County Public Schools Internship Program. Click here to read about her experience in the Naples office and to see clips of her #InternInsights videos, which were posted on Instagram and Facebook stories throughout the summer.

Save the Date! Upcoming Events

World Diabetes Day 5k (Les Cayes, Haiti)
Join Hope for Haiti for the 1st Annual World Diabetes Day 5k in Les Cayes, Haiti on November 14, 2018! Organized by Hope for Haiti’s medical staff, this event is family-friendly and includes free diabetes screenings. To attend or sponsor, please email meg@hopeforhaiti.com.

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Help Girls Like Jeunise Beat the Odds in Haiti!

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Spotlight on Education: Jeunise Guillaume

Jeunise Guillaume continues to defy enormous odds in Haiti, where the enrollment rate for primary school is 57%, and fewer than 30% of those students ever reach the sixth grade (UNICEF). According to the World Bank, more than 200,000 Haitian children are not in school as a result of long distances required to travel to the nearest school, a lack of quality-trained teachers, and the small but unaffordable cost of uniforms and school supplies. Read below to hear how Jeunise continues to beat the odds using her own intelligence, self-resilience, and just a little support from Hope for Haiti’s Education Program. This month, we are kick-starting our Jump Back to School Campaign by raising $10,000 to send students like Jeunise back to school with all the supplies needed for a successful year.  Read more →

 

Your THOUGHTS and ACTIONS for Haiti

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Dear Hope for Haiti Family,

Last Friday, the Haitian Government announced a 40%-50% increase in the price of fuel, which led to three days of civil unrest and widespread demonstrations throughout the country. Many people have reached out to us over the last few days with concern for the safety and security of our team in Haiti. Your concern and care mean a great deal to us, and I have shared these messages with our team.

We continue to monitor the situation very closely, and all of our 51 staff members in Haiti have been sheltering safely in place. Our hope is that the situation will calm down throughout the week, allowing our team to resume their daily lives and return to work.

Having worked in Haiti for the past 30 years, our organization understands the multitude of challenges that people face in Haiti on a daily basis. We’ve witnessed numerous man-made and natural disasters, and our stance will always be that the solution to these challenges rests in the hands of the Haitian people.

Hope for Haiti will continue to focus our efforts on supporting our Haitian staff members and partners who are instrumental in delivering programs designed to reduce poverty through investments in education, healthcare, water, infrastructure and economic opportunity.

Thank you for always supporting the people of Haiti with your THOUGHTS and your ACTIONS, and for helping make our work possible.

Kenbe Fem! (Hold Strong),

Skyler Badenoch
CEO, Hope for Haiti

 

June Spotlight: Healthcare is a Human Right

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At Hope for Haiti, we believe healthcare is a human right. Driven by this belief, we run an Infirmary that provides access to health and dental care for 15,000 patients every year, we hire and train local Community Health Workers who provide health education and treatment for children, parents and grandparents, and we run mobile clinics in rural communities throughout southern Haiti. For many patients, a Hope for Haiti Mobile Clinic is their only way to access medical care, either due to the difficulty in traveling to a government hospital in a major city, or more often, due to the insurmountable costs of seeing a doctor. Mrs. Soinette Gurville, a new patient at the Mobile Clinic in St. Michel on June 8, concurs: “I’m so thankful for this mobile clinic because I feel much too sick to travel to the government hospital in Aquin.”  Read more →

 

A Letter from our CEO: Let’s Get Transparent

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Dear Hope for Haiti Family,

I want to thank you for your unwavering dedication to Hope for Haiti, and your belief in the value of our mission. This is especially important in the wake of numerous stories about NGO corruption, misuse of donor funds, and unethical behavior in Haiti by international development organizations. For the past 29 years, a strong code of ethics, organizational transparency, and fiscal and programmatic accountability have ALWAYS been major contributors to the foundation upon which we strive for impact. This foundation is what we believe sets Hope for Haiti apart, and our ethical standards will continue to drive the way we operate in Haiti as we look to celebrate our 30th Anniversary of working to improve the quality of life for the Haitian people, particularly children.

In our commitment to be the best possible stewards of your financial and volunteer support, here are just a few ways Hope for Haiti is leading by example.

1. Mandate Fiscal Transparency and Accountability:  Each year, Hope for Haiti is externally audited by our audit firm, CapinCrouse. The team from CapinCrouse conduct audits of our work in Haiti and in the United States, and we post access to our Audited Financial Statements and our annual IRS Tax Filings on our website where everyone can view them.

   

2. Produce an Annual Report to Highlight Key Program and Financial Metrics: Our annual report is our way to share the impact that YOU helped make with your support. The report includes data on our key programmatic impact areas, as well as an overview of the previous year’s financial strength.

3. Collaborate with Independent Charity Reviewing Agencies: We always welcome the review of our work by third party charity watchdog organizations like Charity Navigator, GuideStar, and Excellence in Giving.  Below are links to reviews of Hope for Haiti by each of these organizations.

    

 

4. Maintain Best Practices in Organizational Governance, Policies, and Operations: We are continuously assessing and improving upon our approach to organizational management and governance. Below are a few things that we feel have served our mission well over the last 29 years.

  • Retain a diverse and talented Board of Directors to guide organizational standards.
  • Officially register with the Haitian Government and comply with all Haitian labor laws.
  • Uphold an open-door policy and protection policies for whistleblowing.
  • Ensure that 90% of our team in Haiti are Haitian citizens.
  • Conduct staff-wide trainings on safeguarding children.

In the name of full transparency, you are always welcome to come with us to Haiti to monitor our programs in action, meet our dedicated staff, and see the impact that you help make first-hand. Our team works hard to improve each and every day, and we welcome any questions, suggestions, or insight that you may have.

Thank you for your trust and investment in Hope for Haiti.

Ever forward,

Skyler Badenoch
CEO

Save the Date! Upcoming Events

Naples, FL
“Hops for Haiti” – the 8th Annual Hope for Haiti Pub Crawl will take place on August 4, 2018. Jump on board as we take a trolley brewery tour of popular SWFL locations. Ticket and location information coming soon!Stamford, CT
Join us October 18, 2018 in Stamford, CT for our annual Harvesting Hope Celebration. This year, we will celebrate 30 years of creating hope and opportunity in Haiti.

 

Partner Events

San Diego, CA
Support our clean water efforts while enjoying a cocktail! Grant Grill at the US Grant Hotel in San Diego debuts their latest seasonal cocktail menu today, 4/11, and $1 from each cocktail will be donated to our Water Program. This event will run through the end of August.
What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? #haiti #hopeforhaiti #powerofhope #joinus 

A Message About the Haiti WE Know – Letter from Skyler Badenoch, Hope for Haiti CEO

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Dear Hope for Haiti Friends and Family,

January 12th is a poignant day in Haiti’s history, and in solidarity with the Haitian people, I want to recognize our AMAZING colleagues in Haiti who are the heart and soul of Hope for Haiti. Our team is comprised of talented and hard working doctors, nurses, educators, accountants, technicians, drivers, cooks, engineers, masons, and administrators. Their work improves the quality of life for more than 500,000 people annually, and they are what sets Hope for Haiti apart. Read more →

 

December E-Gram: The Power of Hope in 2017

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THANK YOU for an inspiring and impactful 2017! Your trust and support helped Hope for Haiti make a positive impact in the lives of more than 500,000 children, parents, and grandparents living in southern Haiti through investments in education, healthcare, infrastructure, water, and economy.

I want to thank our loyal volunteers, donors, partners and friends for sharing our audacious belief that despite the numerous challenges people face in Haiti, there is always a pathway to a better life. It’s because of YOU that our work is possible.

Here are some highlights of the impact of your support in 2017: Read more →