HANDS UP FOR HAITI INC
Heal -- Teach -- Support
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Haiti, just hours from the US, has the highest rates of infant, under-five and maternal mortality in the Western hemisphere and an average life expectancy of only 63. One of every four children is malnourished. Severe and unrecognized hypertension contributes to high levels of stroke, heart failure and premature death. Many families subsist in extreme poverty on less than $2/day; food insecurity is rampant and the cause of much illness that our programs treat. The essential problem HUFH is addressing is the lack of access to health care and basic necessities such as clean water, as well as the lack of a strong health care infrastructure.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Child & Maternal Health
Pediatric Clinics
A primary focus of Hands up For Haiti has been the establishment and ongoing support for several pediatric clinics and programs that directly affect the health of the infants and children in those communities. Taking aim at the unacceptable under-five mortality rate in Haiti, our focus has been four-fold: improving neonatal outcomes, promoting breastfeeding, vaccination of children under five, and identifying and treating malnutrition.
Fighting Malnutrition
One in five children in Haiti suffers from malnutrition, preventing normal growth and mental development and making children more susceptible to infections. To identify and treat malnutrition, Hands up for Haiti (HUFH) partnered with Meds and Foods for Kids and Open Door Ministry to establish the first acute malnutrition program in Boise de Lance. Children are followed closely and given peanut based therapeutic food high in calories and protein. HUFH has empowered Haitian health care workers to be part of the solution to end malnutrition in Haiti. In addition our teams have worked to encourage breastfeeding which is life saving for many babies.
Vaccination Blitz
In some remote areas of Haiti, children have received no vaccines to prevent life threatening illnesses such as tetanus and measles. Going into remote areas where even the government has not been able to get vaccines to the children, our pediatric teams have participated in massive vaccination campaigns over the past two years. Working closely with the medical teams of Haiti Village Health and the local community health workers, more than half of the 12,000 infants and children of the Bod me Limbe region have now been fully vaccinated. As a result, deaths from measles and neonatal tetanus have dramatically decreased. During these pediatric outreach missions, children are also screened for other illnesses, provided de-worming medications, and given Vitamin A.
Global Health Education
Continuing Education
Working together and collaborating with our Haitian counterparts in the medical field are essential to our mission of creating a system of sustainable health care. Towards this goal, Hands Up for Haiti coordinates with the physician leaders of the Cap Haitian health care community, and after doing a needs assessment, provides educational resources for the physicians and nurses working at the main teaching hospitals as well as in the local clinical centers. HUFH is collaborating with other non- profit organizations to make possible a telemedicine program in Cap Haitien.
Community Education
Our teams of volunteers have organized culturally appropriate, educational sessions for members of the Haitian communities that we serve. From young nursing students and computer technicians to experienced doctors and nurses, workshops and talks have been prepared with our medical translators and given in multiple locations within the villages to children, young adolescents, and parents. These have included:
· Puberty for Girls and Puberty for Boys
· Preventing Relationship Violence
· Basic Nutrition for Families
· First Aid and Recognition of Emergencies
Global Health Training
Hands Up for Haiti has created a Global Health Training Program for medical students, nursing students, and residents-in-training in family practice, pediatrics, and ob-gyn. Working under the supervision of experienced physicians and nurses, these students and residents are given the opportunity to both work in a resource poor country such as Haiti and to participate in research projects and educational programs for the communities we serve. The training includes didactic learning modules and required reading in preparation for the medical missions, as well as discussions on ethics and cultural sensitivity. In addition, residents in training from Justinien Hospital, the main teaching hospital in Cap Haitian, are invited to join these students and residents for joint programs, providing an opportunity for sharing of ideas.
Medical Specialties
One of the goals of HUFH is to bring advanced specialties, modern equipment and culturally appropriate health care programs to northern Haiti. Our specialists, medical and surgical, provide assessments, perform surgical procedures, and collaborate and teach at public hospitals throughout the Northern region of Haiti. These missions have included cardiologists, pediatric pulmonologists and pediatric surgeons as well as a collaborative program for dentistry.
Cervical Cancer Screen and Treat
The cervical cancer screen and treat program addresses the 1500 annual preventable death among Haitian women by providing education, low-cost screening and immediate treatment for about 3000 women annually.
Annual budget $30000. Cost to screen and treat each woman: $10
Fighting Malnutrition - Medika Mamba Program
Fighting Malnutrition - Medika Mamba Program treats 600 children each year who are severely malnourished. Education spreads through the community, lowering the malnutrition rate for entire villages.
Annual budget $58000. Average cost to treat each child: $69
Clean Water Program
Each water well provides access to fresh and clean water for approximately 4000 people for more than 35 years, in turn preventing waterborne disease, including cholera. Community education ensures water safety and well maintenance. Wells built to date: 8
Annual budget $14000. Average cost per well to build, maintain and educate: $3500
Helping Babies Survive
Helping Babies Survive reduces Haiti's infant and maternal mortality rates, the highest in the Western Hemisphere, by training traditional birth attendants in newborn resuscitation skills and in how to recognize danger signs in the first 48 hours after birth, and by teaching local medical professionals to be teachers in their own country.
Annual budget $8000. Trained to date 300 traditional birth attendants; 200 medical professionals
Follow Up and Surgical Care
Follow Up and Surgical Care covers the medical and surgical costs for children with life-threatening illnesses; approximately 20 each year need hospital care and 15 need surgery.
Annual budget $8000. $400 pays for the average emergency hospital care or emergency surgery a child needs.
Hypertension Screen and Treat
Hypertension Screen and Treat combats the often fatal public health effects of severe and unrecognized hypertension, trains local health care providers in a simple easy-to-use protocol and provides the necessary supplies and medications.
Annual budget per program site $2000. Cost per screen and treat: $30
Saving Vision
Saving Vision provides vision saving screening, and treatment and surgeries for 200 patients each year, including surgery and consults, in a region with few ophthalmologists, and provides advanced training to local providers.
Annual budget $8000. Cost for cataract surgery $75; cost for glaucoma consult $25; cost for simple consult $5
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children treated for acute malnutrition
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Infants and toddlers, Children, People with diseases and illnesses
Related Program
Fighting Malnutrition - Medika Mamba Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We host 5 program sites.Each site has been very busy with enrollment of children moderate and severe malnutrition. We measure number who are enrolled, number who complete the program (8-12 weeks).
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
To build a better future and improve the health and well-being of the most vulnerable people in Haiti. Specifically, to remove barriers to care, reduce the rate of childhood malnutrition and improve the health status and development of children in our programs, improve maternal health and reduce infant and maternal mortality, and adult premature death in the communities that we serve.
The ultimate goal is a fully sustainable health care delivery system that addresses the needs of the Haitian community. To that end, we are working to achieve our vision of Haitian Run + Haitian Led = Lifesaving Programs that Build a Healthier Future.
Heal: Provide life-saving care (our programs)
Teach: Transfer knowledge (clinical and administrative counseling & training)
Support: Cultivate growth (measuring for impact/scaling for sustainability)
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
HUFH has been working with the target population since we first came to Haiti in 2010 as an organization bringing visiting teams which held outreach clinics and marked success by number of volunteers and patients seen. We quickly realized that on-the-ground, Haitian-led programs were key to achieving our mission. Today, Hands Up for Haiti now focuses our efforts on helping our Haitian colleagues, who know best the ways to deliver care to their communities, heal as we teach and support programs that they lead, an approach that is key to a truly sustainable health care system in Haiti, one grown from the ground up, available 24/7, rain or shine, natural or geopolitical disaster or beautiful Haitian day.
Hands Up for Haiti supports a Haitian staff of more than 50 health professionals, community health workers and lay staff. Haitian run, Haitian led programs include, among others:
Fighting Childhood Malnutrition
Well-Baby Preventative Care from birth to one year
Hypertension See and Treat
Prenatal Care, Nutrition & Education
Helping Babies Survive skills training for health care professionals and traditional birth attendants
Community Water Project that includes building and maintaining water wells and community education
Youth Health Education
Hands Up for Haiti is also committed to educating the next generation of Haitian health care professionals.
Hands Up for Haiti has integrated into our programs community health workers, in Haitian Kreyol Travay Sante Kominot (TSK), well-respected, motivated community residents recruited in consultation with community leaders and supervised by local doctors, nurses and lay professionals.
TSKS are both the how and the why of HUFHs theory of change, leading to measurably healthier, lifesaving outcomes for the target population. The positive impact that TSKs have on disease management/prevention, healthy behavior change and health-service delivery in low-income countries is well-documented. A major determinant of TSK success is the degree to which programs are able to achieve scalability and sustainability. Systematic reviews of TSK program effectiveness reveal a need for organizations to understand the community context, secure buy-in among staff members, program beneficiaries, and governmental and NGO partners, and explore ways to leverage impact to unlock new funding streams.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Hands Up for Haiti employs a Haitian staff of more than 50 health professionals, community health workers and lay staff, many of whom are continuing their education and obtaining advanced skills training to further our programs. Members of our Board of Directors and other volunteers, many of whom are medical or public health professionals, lend their expertise to collaborate with our staff on the ground to establish the most impactful program protocols. They mentor staff on the ground, and they volunteer for targeted program support missions during which they accompany Haitian staff, working side by side and teaching and learning from one another.
Hands Up for Haiti also collaborates with the Ministry of Health in Haiti and with in-country hospitals to provide care to our patients in need of surgery or hospitalization. Finally, Hands Up for Haiti runs a robust global health program, collaborating with several medical residency programs as they send residents and attending physicians to work with our Haitian staff in delivering quality care.
The TSK (community health worker) model employed by HUFH capitalizes on the inherent capacity that already exists on the ground in Haiti. More than just parachute service delivery or emergency disaster response, Hands Up for Haiti invests in deep-rooted relationships that empower Haitian professionals to affect change in their communities, on their own terms. Funds raised by the organization go first and foremost to the Haitian salaries that support the public health initiatives and medical programming already scarce to Northern Haiti. Hands Up for Haiti therefore achieves mission-focused objectives through work-force development activities, in addition to improved community health outcomes.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Hands Up for Haiti has robust and life-saving health care delivery programs led by a growing Haitian staff that continue to increase in size, impact and geographical reach. We have raised awareness in the communities that we serve about how to improve health outcomes. Our Mobile Sant programs for Prenatal, Pediatric Well Child Care, and Malnutrition - outreach clinics led by Haitian staff, travels to different communities, offering basic health care to more people who otherwise have little access to doctors or medical care. We have added new programs and program sites, greatly expanding the number of children, pre- and post-natal women and other patients who we treat, and we provide Humanitarian Relief packages in times of crisis.
Recently, HUFH has seen tremendous potential with hiring and training TSKs (community health workers) who are able to reach deep into the Haitian countryside to screen, treat, and educate vulnerable populations. These efforts open the door to new ways of measuring and achieving impact. We intend to grow the program to strengthen our health care delivery programs.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
HANDS UP FOR HAITI INC
Board of directorsas of 03/13/2024
Dr. Wendy Marx
President
Term: 2021 - 2024
Mr. Bobby Derival
Mary Ann LoFrumento
Allison Platt
Wendy Marx
Hope Bechard
Stephanie Korn
Lynn Perton
Bobby Derival
Barney Softness
Alexis Capozzoli
Adam Handler
Yewade Ng
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Not applicable -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 10/24/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.