education

We fund primary school education, supplement staff salaries, subsidize secondary education, and…

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clinic

We support a permanent medical clinic, collaborate on a clean water project,…

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community health

We empower the communities we support to increase their education, health, and…

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economic development

We provide adult education, resources and local employment to support self-sufficiency.

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teams

Throughout the year we send medical teams to rural Northern Haiti to…

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The Things I Saw

By Carrie Petersen, team member just returned home from Haiti:

Translator Jean and volunteer Molly evaluate a patient at the eye clinic.

The plan was to blog my way through a week of volunteering in Haiti. But life in Haiti requires flexibility, and this past week, that meant living without the internet. I was able to post one update before the internet came to a grinding halt.

I made a couple more attempts to connect to the world wide web before I shut it all down and breathed a sigh of relief. While it meant that I couldn’t do any online work for Haiti Foundation of Hope, the broken internet also meant that I had an entire week of no personal or work emails, no instant messages, no news alerts, and no social media.

It meant that I had one whole week to be present. To see the three dimensional world around me. To sit without staring at a screen. And this is what I saw:

Nine graduates receiving their certificates after three years of training at the women’s trade school.

A village celebrating International Women’s Day with singing, dancing, laughter and encouragement.

Volunteers on their first trip to Haiti stepping up to teach English lessons all on their own.

A nurse making a house call to treat a toddler whose armed was burned by hot food.

Patients who could see for the first time in years after successful cataract surgery.

A graduate of the women's trade school receives her certificate.

A one-year-old girl weighing only 13 pounds but immensely loved by her father who brought her to the clinic.

Children eating healthy school lunches.

Medical staff missing out on sleep to treat patients throughout the night.

Translators whose care for the patients at the clinic was beyond measure.

Tears of gratitude.

Students studying physics into the night under the only light in the school courtyard.

Mothers of malnourished children learning from their neighbor how to cook healthy meals.

I saw love.

education

We fund primary school education, supplement staff salaries, subsidize secondary education, and…

Learn More

clinic

We support a permanent medical clinic, collaborate on a clean water project,…

Learn More

community health

We empower the communities we support to increase their education, health, and…

Learn More

economic development

We provide adult education, resources and local employment to support self-sufficiency.

Learn More

teams

Throughout the year we send medical teams to rural Northern Haiti to…

Learn More

A Newbie Shares Her Experiences

From Jo's blog...

One of our volunteer teams is currently in Haiti, working alongside Haitian staff at the Clinic of Hope. Jo, an ultrasound technician, is a self-labeled newbie to Haiti Foundation of Hope but she is already making a lasting impression, both on people in Haiti and back home in the States. She’s been blogging about her experiences in Haiti at Monkey Brain Musings. Here’s some of what she writes:

Tuesday night… In true Monkey Brain fashion, I woke up at 3am this morning, with lesson plans and training ideas bouncing around in my head! I refused to get out of bed that early, so I spent the next 3 hours going over ideas and napping, until the rest of the crew began to stir.

These people are so grateful for our care…remember that many of them travel for days to get here, and sleep on a concrete floor to be seen the following day. I am repeatedly being scolded for attempting to scan through lunch and into the evening. It’s so easy for me to lose track of time when I’m working. I’ve seen so much fascinating pathology that I feel like I am in an immersion program! Tonight was one of two nights that I gave a didactic lecture to the Haitian and HFH medical personnel, and my Monkey Brain paid off., the lecture went well. I received some wonderful feedback from my team and in spite of their exhaustion, the Haitian professionals seemed satisfied as well. For such a long, exhausting day, I feel so utterly happy about the day. This trip has been everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be for me. From the joy of scanning a healthy baby to the heartbreak of diagnosing terminal cancer, this trip has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.

Read more of Jo’s writings.

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