Congratulations on your renewal, Konbit Sante! And more news...

Vital Haiti franchise renewed for another year Agreement allows Konbit Sante to import medical supplies and equipment duty-free for healthcare partners COVID-19 materials and other supplies are loaded onto a shipping container at Konbit Sante's Maine warehouse last spring. Konbit Sante has renewed its franchise with the Haiti government to continue importing goods duty-free to our partner facilities for another year.        We are pleased to announce that we recently renewed our franchise with the Haitian government for the 11th year. The franchise, which is renewed annually, permits Konbit Sante to legally import medical supplies and equipment duty-free to support the provision of quality health care by our partners and other facilities in the Grand North of Haiti.       The renewal process requires us to submit a detailed program plan, import list, and report every year to be reviewed and approved by the government of Haiti. We applaud our very capable staff in Cap-Haitien, who have guided us through the sometimes complicated process of meeting all our legal obligations in order to maintain good standing with the health and governmental authorities of the country.       The franchise has become an important part of our work. Already this year, we have consigned 14 containers (and have two pending). In addition to our usual annual container of donated medical supplies and equipment that is shipped from our Maine warehouse, we work with partners such as Direct Relief, The Dalton Foundation, Hope Health Action, Citizens of the World, Walkabout Foundation, Rise Against Hunger, Humanitarian Radiology Development Corps, HOPE International Development Agency, and others to meet the specific needs of our partners and their patients.     Over the years, we have brought essential medications, medical equipment, wheelchairs, emergency food rations, and general health facility supplies to our partners. Of course, this year there has been an emphasis on COVID-19-related equipment and supplies such as Personal Protective Equipment and oxygen concentrators, tanks, and analyzers.       However, the work does not stop with the delivery of supplies. Our staff continues to work closely with our facility partners to effectively use equipment, train and supervise those using the equipment, manage their depot of supplies and parts, regularly maintain and repair equipment, and assess the quality of care received by patients. Your continued support helps ensure that all of this occurs on a regular basis, which is turn helps increase the quality of healthcare services to our partners’ communities. We Walk with Haiti funds having direct impact on communities Photos from top: Konbit Sante Assistant Project Manager Saminetha Joseph displays some of the buckets used for handwashing stations; an agent de santé distributes COVID-19 prevention materials to the public; a worker sorts masks purchased by Konbit Sante from local seamstresses; an agent de santé administers a vaccine to a child at a community outreach post.        Money raised from June's We Walk with Haiti fundraising campaign is being put to good use by agents de santé (community health workers) and our healthcare partner facilities in North Haiti. Thanks to your generosity, they are able to continue distributing masks, maintain hand-washing stations, educate the public about COVID-19 prevention and detection, and provide healthcare outreach in a safe manner.    This is just one example of how funds raised from We Walk with Haiti are having an immediate impact on communities served by our partner facilities in Haiti. We will continue to keep you apprised of the many ways your donation is helping to improve health care and build a sustainable health system in Greater Cap-Haitien. Mesi anpil! (Many thanks!) Repairs complete on ULS retaining wall damaged by storm    Last December, a torrential rainstorm destroyed one of four exterior retaining walls at the ULS health center, one of our healthcare partner facilities in Greater Cap-Haitien. The clinic is located on the side of a mountain, where dry ravines can quickly turn into forceful rivers and cause extensive damage to the residential neighborhood located below. Therefore, it was imperative that the wall be rebuilt, and Konbit Sante provided funds and expertise to help ULS replace it.    The project was beset by construction delays, but we are happy to report that the wall reconstruction is now complete. The new wall has deeper and wider footings to help ensure it will not fail like the previous one. The photos below show the wall following the December storm and after repairs were completed. Donate

Copyright © 2020 Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you are a valued supporter of Konbit Sante's work in Haiti. You may change your communication preferences at any time. Our mailing address is: Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership 362 U.S. Route 1 Falmouth, ME 04105

THANK YOU For Donating to KONBIT SANTE!

THANK YOU More than $60,000 raised through We Walk with Haiti virtual fundraiser An agent de santé (community health worker) helps an elderly woman adjust a mask provided by Konbit Sante to help communities reduce exposure to COVID-19 in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Dear Konbit Sante Community, I want to thank you all for making We Walk with Haiti a very successful fundraising event in which so many of you shared your kindness and solidarity with the people of Haiti. We didn’t know what to expect when we transformed this year’s Maine Walks with Haiti into a virtual fundraiser. We understand this has been a challenging time for many people in our own home communities. In the end, you helped us raise over $60,000 to continue Konbit Sante’s support for our partners’ healthcare facilities in Haiti!  Thanks to you and your personal campaigns, as ambassadors of this work, we built more partnerships with those who generously donated funds and supported this effort. Like much of the world, our focus over the past several months has been on decreasing the transmission of COVID-19 in the communities in which we work in Haiti and strengthening their healthcare facilities’ capacity to treat patients. During the cholera epidemic that raged through Haiti almost 10 years ago, as a small and flexible organization, we were able to step up quickly and develop an action plan without a lot of red tape. At the onset of the current pandemic, we responded similarly, swiftly, and compassionately to deliver messages, masks, and hand-washing stations to communities so their residents could protect themselves and those around them. We have coordinated with our collaborators to deliver supplies, equipment, and personal protective equipment to treatment facilities and with subject matter experts to provide COVID-19 trainings to frontline healthcare workers. We knew that we had to move ahead and spend funds in ways that were unplanned and unbudgeted for this response, because the situation demanded it. We also believe that if our work demonstrates that it is worth supporting, people will endorse it. Thank you for proving that to be true. Your support is a great help and encouragement to us during this difficult time of confronting the pandemic and for the continuation of the important work of strengthening healthcare systems that can respond to the needs of the community. I hope that you have been well-informed about our activities through this newsletter. We are happy to talk with you personally if you would like to know more details or have further questions. Thank you! With deep gratitude, Nate Nickerson Executive Director Konbit Sante

Copyright © 2020 Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership, All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Resources in Haiti

https://www.haitione.org/covid-19?fbclid=IwAR1yYzIUNKMqJM200-vSymLSzWfmnR6AbLfM7kiSmxbvMo9tZULI3Wes0BQ

Hope these will be a help and resource to you, dear ones, in Haiti.

Update on Haiti and COVID-19 - Good things are happening! (Update from Konbit Sante)

UPDATE: CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE IN HAITI Konbit Sante gathers supplies for shipping container while health workers educate communities The ULS health clinic in Bande du Nord holds a community education forum on preventive and treatment measures for COVID-19. Note how the meeting is being held outside, and that participants are observing 1-meter social distancing. Dear Friends, Returning to the U.S. last week on one of the final flights from Haiti before they were halted for the indefinite future really brought home to me once again how supporting and protecting each other as a global family is in our “enlightened self-interest.” An epidemic of the type we are all facing can only be successfully eradicated collectively. Members of our Maine staff are working from home, and meetings by our Board of Directors, advisers, and others are being held remotely, all in the interest of disrupting and slowing the transmission of COVID-19 in the states. In Haiti, our staff and partners are working tirelessly to inform and encourage people in their communities to slow transmission and to prepare for treating the cases that will require hospitalization. As difficult as those things are proving to be in the U.S., there are even greater challenges in Haiti, where the virus is just getting a foothold (as of today, there are 16 confirmed cases in Haiti, up from 2 confirmed cases reported on March 20). I am moved by the spirit of “konbit”—working together for a common purpose—by which our team and partners are approaching the tasks at hand. Josaime Clotilde St Jean, RN, our community health program manager, has been training and equipping the community health workers (called agents de santé in Haiti) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to spread important information and advice about how to stay safe using local communication strategies. In Haiti, that means things such as hiring a “mobile”—a pickup truck with large speakers in the bed that moves slowly through neighborhoods projecting a taped message—or walking around neighborhoods with megaphones and handing out pamphlets in Creole. To extend our reach, Miss St Jean is also coordinating with our longtime partner health facilities (Haitian Baptist Convention Hospital, Fort St. Michel health center, ULS) as well as with the staff at C2C (Care to Communities), which supports several health centers in Northern Haiti. Of course, it is a challenge for people to “shelter in place” when the only way many of them can feed their children is to go to the crowded market to sell their few wares every day, or to “wash their hands frequently” when water and soap are not readily accessible. "Social distancing" is difficult for someone who must live with 6 or more others in a single room. We can look for ways to promote social cohesion at the same time as promoting physical distancing. People can and do invent new ways to greet each other while avoiding shaking hands and kissing on the cheek (which is the customary greeting) and ventilate homes as best they can. We can distribute soap and disinfectant for cleaning hands and surfaces. People have already learned to drink treated water whenever possible. And they can learn the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 as well as when and how to seek care. One of our biggest concerns is finding ways to support the workers who are tasked with providing care at our partner facilities. To that end, we are preparing an emergency shipping container to send what we can so that they have the most basic tools and protections to do their work. We are grateful to the Dalton Foundation, a Haitian-American surgeon from New York City, and others who are sending very important materials that are needed now by our partners and will be included in this container. We are also grateful to pilots from Archangel Airborne who have volunteered to fly materials into Haiti if needed. As this unfolds, those of us based in the U.S. will continue to do our part to support our neighbors and communities in this time, and to support our global neighbors and communities that we have come to know so well in Haiti. We can—and will—do both. Please be safe. Look out for each other. And please join us in helping others respond in their own communities as well. Peace, Nate Nickerson Executive Director   Solar installation complete at ULS The solar panel array at the ULS health clinic We are continuing to help the ULS health center in Bande du Nord make improvements that will help it become more self-sufficient. Installation of a solar panel array is now complete enough to provide most of the energy needs of the center, making it less reliant on a gas-powered generator. The clinic is not connected to the Cap-Haitien power grid, and a nationwide fuel shortage during the past year frequently increased the price of gasoline, so a more efficient, clean, and sustainable source of power was critical to the clinic’s ability to provide care. The solar array was installed by the non-profit organization Justice and Mercy Energy Systems (JAMES) and funded by a matching funds campaign spearheaded by one of our supporters, Dr. Laalitha Surapaneni of the University of Minnesota Medical Center, who is continuing to solicit donations to complete the project. The health center’s director, Dr. Maudelin Mesadieu, reports that the clinic has not had to use the generator since the solar array became operational. In other ULS news, progress is being made on a new retaining wall to replace one that was destroyed by a torrential thunderstorm in December. The clinic is located on the side of a mountain, and the wall is essential to prevent storm runoff from threatening people living below. The replacement wall will have deeper and wider footings to help ensure it will not fail again under extreme conditions. FSM receives 3-wheeler for supply distribution We were recently able to help the Fort St. Michel health center purchase a 3-wheeled motorcycle with unexpected funds dedicated to support FSM. The motorcycle can now be used to transport supplies and perform other errands that FSM was utilizing its ambulance to perform. This will free up the ambulance for more emergency-based use, which will be essential for COVID-19 response. Donate

Copyright © 2020 Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership, All rights reserved.

Congratulations Hebert Johnson!

Hebert Johnson ELIEN, a student at Sonlight Bible College in Port-de-Paix, Haiti, received the Certificate of Achievement from the Association des Pasteurs Evangeliques d'Haiti testifying that he faithfully completed his Partnership with Pastors International Course 1 - "The Message and The Messenger" in February 2020.

CONGRATULATIONS Johnson!

News from Port au Prince - St. Luke's Foundation...in response to their 1st 2 cases of COVID-19

Please click on the blog address to read the update. Please remember Haiti as you pray for all the others in the world who are affected. Thank you, and God bless you.


http://www.stlukehaiti.org/blog

Induction in the Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society - Our Amazing Elms College MBA Students!

On February 23, 2020 our MBA Graduate School Students, Emmanuella Tonaime, Evelyne Cherenfant, and Marie-Claire Charles were presented for membership into the Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society at Elms College, Chicopee, Massachusetts. 

The accomplishments of these three young women is beyond admirable. 

CONGRATULATIONS EMMANUELLA, EVELYNE & MARIE-CLAIRE

We are so very proud of you!

Sigma Beta Delta is a scholastic honor society that recognizes academic achievement among students in the fields of business, management, and administration.