Social Issue

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Haiti’s public health infrastructures are dilapidated due to the unstable historical, social, political, and economic context, which has meant that 60% of Haiti’s children do not have access to the most basic health services.

The child malnutrition rate in Haiti is alarming. Poverty and unhealthiness cause disease and suffering among the child population: 8% suffer from severe malnutrition and 22% suffer from chronic malnutrition. In the recent history of the country, a terrible 10% of children have died due to malnutrition, with 6 deaths for every 100 babies. More than half of the infant deaths are related to the lack of adequate food and the lack of medical and nutritional assistance.

The under-five mortality rate is the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean, comparable to that of some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The main diseases causing this situation are AIDS, tuberculosis, acute diarrhea, or chronic malnutrition.

Our Response

The medical-nutritional recovery project at St. Damien Children’s Hospital provides high-quality medical and hospital treatment each year to 90,000 sick and vulnerable Haitian children. Patients with tuberculosis, anemia, cancer, acute respiratory diseases, and AIDS are treated, and at the same time, their recovery at a nutritional level is achieved.

The programme consists of three phases:

• Phase 1: Aimed at the stabilisation of the newborn, infant, or child at a critical stage, when life is in danger.
• Phase 2: Aimed at the child’s nutritional recovery. It consists of gradually introducing solid foods and of training family members on this field.
• Final phase: Outpatient follow-up that allows controlling the development of the child and avoiding possible relapses. At the same time, vaccines and medicines are administered, and X-rays and relevant analysis are carried out to assess the child’s health status, as well as to check the positive evolution during recovery.

Managed by the local partner of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos in Haiti, NPFS, this project helps to combat the alarming rate of malnutrition amongst the child population in Haiti, where one in ten children dies from this cause.

Expected Social Impact

With this collaboration, we contributed to the medical-nutritional treatment and recovery of 129 Haitian babies and children who were in poor health due to malnutrition.