How the project came about
A meeting between a Montfortian priest visiting France and a volunteer doctor, a member of the FRIENDS of HAMAP-Humanitaire in CATALONIA , gave rise to this project.
Father Joseph HILAIRE, whose congregation is firmly established in Haiti, is also a doctor, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Health Sciences and the secretary general of that university, located in Port-au-Prince.
The health situation in Haiti is catastrophic and the needs are enormous. Father Hilaire approached the French organisation to strengthen access to healthcare for the people of the slum he has taken charge of.
What is the situation?
Haiti, the poorest island in the Caribbean
In recent years the Haitian population has been hit by multiple shocks: natural disasters, epidemics, displacement. Poverty has risen, making access to basic services such as education, health and protection even harder.
Surviving day by day
More than 6 million Haitians (out of a population of around 11 million) live below the poverty line (60%), with their fundamental rights denied.
It has escaped no one that growing insecurity is added to all of this.
Canaan, a land of welcome, yes, but…
After the earthquake of 12 January 2010 that struck Port-au-Prince (230,000 dead), survivors took refuge on a hill north-east of the city, in a very arid, hostile but free and available area (albeit with no legal status). That is how the Canaan neighbourhood came into being, in the commune of Croix des Bouquets, a vast slum that is now home to more than 85,000 people.
It is this neighbourhood that Father Hilaire has taken charge of and for which the Friends of HAMAP in Catalonia are mobilising.
Access to care for the Canaan slum
So the Friends of HAMAP in Catalonia decided to help, in the following ways:
- Converting an existing room into a clinic
- Improving the clinic's access to water with a water tank
- Organising remote training, education and awareness sessions (hygiene, contraception, AIDS, diabetes, eating habits and so on) for local health workers
- Organising occasional volunteer health missions to support the local teams
But how is all of this to be funded?
A 2021 call for projects from the Pierre Fabre Foundation then came along as an opportunity, and proved a real catalyst for getting the project under way.
To be continued …