Haiti
Support to the SAKALA centre in Port Au Prince Cite Soleil; first aid trainings for children and young people. Work in an ambulance with the HERO organisation
Why?
Why did we help in Haiti?
Due to its geographical location, Haiti is systematically affected by natural disasters. In 2010, the biggest earthquake in 200 years killed about 316,000 people while 3 million people were injured or lost their homes.
In 2016 the island was ruined by another cataclysm. Hurricane Matthew caused enormous damage, the number of deaths was over 500 and hundreds of thousands of inhabitants lost their entire livelihoods. So far Haiti has not recovered from the rubble. Children live here doomed to starvation and suffering, often with no education and no prospects for a better future.
In 2016 the island was ruined by another cataclysm. Hurricane Matthew caused enormous damage, the number of deaths was over 500 and hundreds of thousands of inhabitants lost their entire livelihoods. So far Haiti has not recovered from the rubble. Children live here doomed to starvation and suffering, often with no education and no prospects for a better future.
Actually, I hardly ever got out of the ambulance. The main problem was not only complicated cases but also traffic jams making it difficult to get to the patients.
Michał Wieczorek,
Project Coordinator
How?
How did we help in Haiti?
In 2016 and 2017, we supported the SAKALA centre that provides care for over 350 people aged 4-25. Located in the poorest district of the Haitian capital, Port Au Prince Cite Soleil, the centre is a refuge and a place of free education for the poorest children. It is an alternative for children growing up in a juvenile gang environment, full of drugs and violence.
Our activities were aimed at supporting the education (including on health) of the centre’s charges, identifying the situation of the local health care system, identifying the most urgent needs and setting the direction for further actions.
The second phase of the project in 2017 focused on working in an ambulance, one of the five launched by the HERO organisation. The ambulance replies to about 200 calls a month. Our volunteer also conducted first aid training at the SAKALA centre.
Our activities were aimed at supporting the education (including on health) of the centre’s charges, identifying the situation of the local health care system, identifying the most urgent needs and setting the direction for further actions.
The second phase of the project in 2017 focused on working in an ambulance, one of the five launched by the HERO organisation. The ambulance replies to about 200 calls a month. Our volunteer also conducted first aid training at the SAKALA centre.
3
first aid trainings
for children and young people
350
children
in the care of the SAKALA centre
1
ambulance
with a PMM volunteer
Haiti 2017, photo: Polish Medical Mission
Who did we help?
People’s stories
We provide medical care for pregnant women and small children. In the Middle East, we help refugees in camps. Learn the stories of people we support around the world.
meet Mohamed
‘I'm not ready to go back to my country’, says Mohamed, squinting a little. ‘Of course I miss Syria, but here, where I live, I am happy’, he adds. In a burgundy T-shirt and fashionably ripped jeans, he looks as if he has just been shopping at a shopping centre. A slightly nervous look betrays him. Besides, he is wearing worn out and heavily dusty moccasins, which is a sign that he does not go to shopping centres but works in the field. Mohamed lives in a settlement of Syrian refugees called Hawaii, not far from the Syrian border. It is several houses made of hollow bricks, containers and tents in the desert – one of more than 40 informal camps for Syrians in the Jordanian province of Mafraq, but it looks more like a small village than a refugee camp. When I asked him why he felt so happy, he answered without hesitation that it was very simple: his family is safe, no one is starving, they all live together, and he has a wife, two daughters and casual farm work – one dinar an hour. Syria feels to him like the trauma of having to escape; and everything that is important in his life has happened in Jordan – here he got married, here his daughters were born. And this is where he will live for the next few years because he is not going anywhere for now.
We've helped already
Who helped in Haiti?
We are one of the few Polish non-governmental organizations that provide medical assistance. We help where the needs are the greatest. Our assistance is long-term – it brings permanent changes in the communities we support.
Polish Medical Mission
Michał Wieczorek
Project Coordinator
Medical aid. Permanent changes. Local partner.
Build aid with us in the neediest countries of the world.