As our relationships with clinics and hospitals on the ground in Haiti grow, so does the number of families we are able to reach.
In fact, the need for basic medical care in Haiti is so great that we usually have a waiting list! Medical care is such a big part of how HFF is able to keep families together. I think we all know how important it is to keep healthy and this will be a big focus for us in 2014.
Check out what we’re doing.
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While it is true that children often come to HFF at a crisis point—severely malnourished, suffering from sickness or disease—we work hard to continue to provide basic support to keep each child healthy even after holding their hands through the crisis period.
One simple way we are able to help make a child’s life better?
Yes, vitamins! With a basic diet that often lacks a daily supply of all the recommended vitamins and nutrients, a daily vitamin supplement is key for a child in Haiti.
Our friend Dr. Dan Lattanzi is a local Pittsburgher who built a medical and maternity clinic in La Croix, Haiti and has worked in Haiti for more than 15 years. He recently helped to ensure that all children currently enrolled in our programs have vitamins for all of 2014!
Prenatal vitamins help to ensure a newborn baby is born as healthy as possible! They are a luxury that most Haitian women cannot afford.
We are thankful for partners like Dr. Lattanzi who are able to use their resources to support HFF and our families in Haiti.
With their support, we can better serve our families’ most basic needs, and provide them with items that will make a world of difference in their child’s development and growth.
For just $25, you can provide one child or one expectant mother with a month’s worth of vitamins, enabling us to do more.
Keeping children healthy is one of the foundations to keeping a family together and making them stronger.
We do this every day thanks to your generous donations.
Every dollar you give provides families with the opportunity to remain together, to grow strong, and to create a better Haiti. Your gift this year is growing a nation.
Thank you for being part of this global movement.
Please consider an end of the year tax-deductible donation at a level that is meaningful to you. It will give for years to come.
Wishing you a healthy and happy holiday season!
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Earlier this year, HFF received a call from our friends at Steel City Mission Group in Pittsburgh who had a desire to help us in our work in Haiti.
Marie Winter, Esther Kanfoush, and the rest of the SCMG team visited us recently to provide medical services to hundreds of children in our communities and many families in our programs. Additionally, their team of medical professionals provided our staff in Haiti with supplies and training so that we can improve and continue the medical support services we’ve been providing for years.
What a fantastic effort from all involved, which just goes to show how much of an impact we can make together.
Whether you can travel to Haiti to provide medical services or donate $10 from the comfort of your own home in the US, your effort does not go unnoticed and it really makes a difference in the lives of the families we serve. Marie Winter explains how in the interview below.
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Vivian Lee Croft: What did you do with HFF in Haiti?
Marie Winter: We put together medical bags for families filled with over-the-counter medications and toiletries for children and adults [so that HFF can provide a family with quick care, as needed]. We also brought medications to administer.
VLC: You’ve followed HFF for years. What surprised you about the work?
MW: What HFF is trying to do [keeping families together] is amazing. Haitians have a very strong sense of family. We served about 800 families while we were there, and they all have a very strong sense of family. I was amazed by how many kids we served. HFF’s work is really amazing.
VLC: Is there a story that particularly affected you or your team?
MW: I saw a young women, 30 maybe, with two little kids, and she had heart failure. It’s stuff like that that strikes you – these are common things to get care for in the Unites Stated but there, they can’t get it. And kids are in crowded spaces and living in poor conditions so many of them have skin problems. They are easy to treat. That’s another thing about Jamie [and HFF]. She said, ‘Tell me what this is and how to treat it, and I can take care of 20 more kids after you leave.’ We were all really impressed by that.
VLC: The hundreds of children and adults in our programs were very grateful. HFF still has a lot of work to do though, because families approach us every day and we have to turn many away due to lack of funding to serve them. Are you interested in coming back?
MW: We’re already talking about coming back next year.
