The cost of medical care is the biggest barrier to children receiving care. In Haiti, patients must pay for services ahead of being treated. This includes laboratory tests, x-rays, and purchasing necessary supplies (gloves, IV fluids, needles, etc) from pharmacies inside the hospital or in the street. Hospitals are not like those in the US, and families must also provide their patient with food, water, bedding, and often even a bucket for a toilet. A caregiver must stay with the child, usually the mother who is often the primary breadwinner for the rest of the family. All of these factors put great financial stress on a family and for the 85% of the population who make only $1-$2 per day they are insurmountable barriers. Private hospitals are even more expensive, and a hospitalization can cost a family up to 2 times a family’s annual income!

Thousands of infant and child deaths every year can be prevented by providing access to early healthcare interventions for common childhood illnesses like pneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition. And this is where we come in: by providing free, high quality healthcare in Carrefour, one of the poorest and under-resourced communities in Haiti, we can prevent hundreds or thousands of needless deaths every year.

* A note on statistics: Health statistics in Haiti are difficult to pinpoint exactly due to lack of reporting of many illnesses and deaths. We believe any national averages of preventable deaths are HIGHER in our community due to the higher levels of  poverty, worse sanitation, fewer healthcare resources, and higher food insecurity than other areas of Port au Prince and the rest of the country.