Hurricane Matthew Relief

Helping Rebuild Communities

Southwest Haiti was hit hard in October 2016 by Hurricane Matthew. Thanks to your generous donations, CCH has been able to provide tangible relief to help communities rebuild. We’ve reopened and rebuilt a cholera treatment center serving Jacmel and surrounding areas. The rainy season and storm events usually cause an uptick in this waterborne illness. We’re making sure the cholera center has adequate staff and resources to treat patients in need.

We purchased and distributed 1,510 tin metal roofing sheets for 151 families to rebuild their homes around the town of aux Côteaux. The communities of aux Côteaux, Rodaille and Lafond are also going to receive a total of 200 goats because these areas lost over 50% of their livestock herds in the hurricane. We also distributed seeds and farming equipment through a partnership with ESKOADD (Ekip Solodarite Kominotè Aksyon Devlòpmam Dirab Aquin). That includes: 10 lbs. of okra seeds, 4.8 lbs. of Swiss chard seeds, 4 lbss of spinach seeds, 15 lbs of bean seeds, 12 watering cans, and 2 spray pumps.

Thanks to your generous giving, we’re able to help rebuild lives through this tangible support. Watch our short video on hurricane relief.

Brother’s Brother Foundation selected as the 2017 Jim Wilmot Humanitarian Award Winner

Jim Wilmot dedicated 32 years to building Wilmot/Sanz into one of the most respected healthcare design studios in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. In 2009, Jim started working with CCH to design its healthcare facility in Jacmel – with the explicit purpose of transforming lives through service. He traveled to Haiti and voluntarily designed other structures that improved the lives of the poor. On his last trip to Haiti, Jim participated in construction of the CCH Clinic, helping to bring his design to life. Regrettably Jim died suddenly, before the facility was completed. CCH’s Jim Wilmot Surgical Center is named in his honor.

Each year, CCH selects an individual or organization that embodies the service, partnership and commitment to collaborative impact in which Jim’s life and legacy are anchored. At its 4th Annual Benefit on April 1st, CCH named Brother’s Brother Foundation as the 2017 Jim Wilmot Humanitarian Award Winner. BBF and CCH have partnered together to equip healthcare mission teams and their counterparts in Haiti with the supplies they need to serve the people they love. BBF’s tremendous contributions to CCH have helped us advance our mission in impactful ways. These include donations of surgical supplies to the Jim Wilmot Surgical Center; donations of pharmaceuticals and consumable supplies to the CCH Primary Care and Rehab Cneter; and donations of pharmaceuticals and consumables for Hurricane Matthew response. In the last six months alone, BBF donated more than $200,000 worth of pharmaceuticals and the better part of two 20’ containers of medical supplies to CCH. And CCH was not the only mission in Haiti to benefit. Because of BBF’s generosity, CCH was able to “share of its plenty” and distribute much-need pharmceuticals and supplies to 14 other healthcare centers in southern Haiti.

Thank you, Brother’s Brother Foundation. This honor is but a modest reminder of how grateful we are for you and your partnership!

Physical Therapy Clinic is Moving

Pack up those bands, crutches and parallel bars – we’re moving!

After many months of exploration and discussion, we’re thrilled to announce that the CCH PT/Rehab Clinic is moving to the campus of Jacmel’s public Hospital St Michel (HSM). The HSM, together with Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health & Population (MSPP in French), which runs the public hospital system, has agreed to provide CCH with the space on campus – free of charge. The Healthcare Architecture Group of the US-based Baskervill architecture, design & engineering firm is partnering with CCH to design and renovate the new space. Planning is underway, and operations are slated to open in the new facility by early fall.

This new-to-us clinic is larger than CCH’s current PT/Rehab Clinic, allowing for expanded services and patient flow. It’s location on the HSM campus, adjacent to the new hospital’s Primary Care and Surgical wings, also enables direct access to CCH’s outpatient services by hospital patients. CCH and HSM have been working together since CCH first came to Jacmel in the days following Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake. This move is an important step towards strengthening our partnership in the near and longer term. Additional collaborative programs are already under discussion, including a desire for inpatient PT/OT services and a national training center for healthcare professionals.

Education Notes

Our CCH Education Team Continues to “Train the Trainers”

Our team of volunteer school teachers, administrators, and pastors continues to increase student learning in our 7 CCH partner schools. This year, we’ve: helped publish “mother tongue” books written by students, led 9 seminars for teachers and principals, provided training on 20 different topics from math manipulatives to carpentry, evaluated school communities and individual teachers at 4 partner schools to identify progress and next steps. Our volunteers even won an award for their hard work!

1st Quarter

In January, the Education Team held seminars for teachers and school administrators focusing on: brain stimulation and parts of brain, graphic organizers for content, math logic, and math tools. Team members also modeled lessons in the classroom for teachers and provided observations and feedback. The most exciting school event during this quarter was the “fwa” or field day for students from 3 different schools. Students rotated in groups among 5 stations: dance, devotional, art, paper airplane making, and relays. Mont Fleuri school won the tightly contested academic competition. The exhibition soccer game of girls was fun! The championship game was tied in double overtime and will be decided at another date.

Four events reached out to female students and teachers with Days for Girls. Dee Fallavollita (a Days for Girls and CCH volunteer) and Ninotte Lubin (a midwife and CCH translator) and Melissa Jean-Bart thoroughly worked with the girls and answered many, many questions on the amazing body of women, how it works, and information on protection from violence and trafficking. The girls were very happy to receive their hygeine kits. A new publishing center was set up at Isaiah House. CCH employees were trained in how to use the publishing center, early childhood supplies, harassment and workplace respect, and how to do hearing assessments on students.

2nd Quarter

In April, the Education Team hosted seminars focusing on: Tableaux (a style of drama) for response to devotional and academic content, Bloom’s taxonomy, literature response and questions, and a base ten game with manipulatives. Team members modeled lessons for teachers on: folded paper (as a way for students to show their learning), tableaux or scripture application and summary of content, carpentry, comprehension questions with fiction, base ten, paragraph frame writing, patterns, writing a story together, and stations within a classroom.

Year-round the Education Team meets with principals at CCH partner schools, but April afforded them an opportunity to go deeper in face-to-face seminars where they tackled challenges and opportunities related to: time for teaching in rural compared to city schools, importance of reading to children; fact family flash cards; discussions of the lessons that were modeled; teacher development opportunities through the Matenwa training school and Haiti Partners; writing books, poetry, community engagement, keeping schools clean, parent engagement, etc.

These members of the Education Team work hard for our CCH schools, both in Haiti and when they’re back home in the US. It’s a labor of love, covered in prayer, and they are continuing to see progress on their goals as teachers gain skills and confidence. They’re incorporate new methods to engage and teach students.

NCP Grants

Presbytery Grants Support 2017-18 Wellness and Leadership Development

The Washington DC National Capital Presbytery has approved two grants to support CCH’s efforts in leadership development (with St Andrew Presbyterian Church) and student/community wellness (with Vienna Presbyterian Church).

Leadership Development

We always say that true change in Haiti will be generational – that bright, passionate, God-­‐loving young people are the key the country’s future. Any of us who have worked in Haiti can describe a young man or woman who exemplifies faith, hope and perseverance. We recognize the sincerity in their goals; we see God at work in their spirit and relationships and actions. We talk about how we wish we could help ignite the same fire, drive and leadership in other young people – replicate them so that many, many others might also hear and experience the love of God through them. St Andrew Presbyterian Church (SAPC), in collaboration with CCH will design and coordinate a leadership development program in Haiti that rises up and encourages Abundance Disciples.

The program will bring together cohorts of young people to learn together, serve together and grow together in bold Christian leadership in Haiti. Disciples will meet on retreat at least six times per year, during which they will participate in targeted training, collaborative service-­‐based work and individual and group prayer. Over the course of each cohort’s year of participation in the program, Disciples are expected to build understanding, confidence and competencies in a thoughtfully and intentionally selected list of core qualities that embody the toolkit that Jesus teaches is necessary for both achieving and inspiring others to embrace “fullness of life”.

A Program Advisory Committee that includes Haitian peers will identify the core qualities, and then training experiences will be developed around each. Each cohort of Abundance Disciples will be selected via a competitive recommendation/application and interview process. As part of the experience, each Disciple will also be expected to design and carry out his/her own project that brings to life the program’s goals and values. Individual projects facilitate application of skills and lessons learned, which in turn ensures lasting impact within the individuals as well as expansion of that impact into their circles of influence. Each cohort of Disciples would also remain connected to the program, even after completion, so that we can track and better understand the outcomes and impact of the training as well as connect alumni with current participants (for peer-­to-­peer mentorship and training).

We recognize that such a leadership development program is no small undertaking, but it’s potential to nurture and lift up very real and influential change makers is tremendous. We also trust that the Lord will guide program design and development as we feel certain that this program is responding directly to His call to share Christ’s teachings, to spread His love and to expand His Kingdom – together.

This program recently kicked off with our Leadership Development seminar in May 2017. We can’t wait to see how it goes and share the impact.

Student and Community Wellness

We understand “wellness” as a complex mix of environmental, occupational, intellectual, emotional, financial, physical, spiritual, cultural and social components. Our concept of wellness is the life-long process of an individual enhancing each of these components in his/her life so that s/he can grow, lead and serve to the fullest potential, just as our Creator intended.

In 2016, CCH partnered with Vienna Presbyterian Church (VPC) to pilot a new Student and Community Wellness effort in southern Haiti. Initial efforts targeted the three rural communities of Mont Fleuri, Lavanneau and Demontrieul where a CCH partner school is an anchor institution in each community, and in two communities, the schools are paired with small community churches.

Priority actions in Year 1 of the program built on these partnerships and included a series of School-Based Clinics and community-‐based health education campaigns. Together, CCH and VPC set their sights on the long-term goal of improving health and access to healthcare within the communities served. Program partners also worked to mobilize a Parent‐to-Parent Network within each community to encourage parents to advocate for their community’s needs and also train other parents and community members in basic at-home healthcare and other priority skill sets (e.g., literacy, social entrepreneurship, sewing, art).
In Year 1 of the Student & Community Wellness program, CCH’s School-Based Clinics provided more than 400 rural schoolchildren at three different schools with preventative and curative healthcare at three separate times during the school year! The Clinic at each school lasted 3-5 days during which 2-3 physicians and a team of nurses traveled to the rural schools, transformed classrooms into patient consultation areas and met with students and their families individually to provide full health physicals, answer questions and address any issues. Those who needed medications were provided with pharmaceuticals that day. Those who required follow-up care were given priority referrals to the CCH Clinic in Jacmel – and transportation to that clinic, if needed. CCH’s School‐Based Clinics are strategically timed at the students’ most vulnerable points during the school year:

• In late May/early June, just before the children leave school for 3 months over the summer;

• In October, just after students return to school following summer vacation; and

• In January/February, after students return from the month – long Christmas and New Year holidays.

Community-based health education programming is held in conjunction with School-Based Clinics (e.g., cholera prevention in October 2016; “Days for Girls” feminine hygiene training in Jan/Feb 2017) and at other times during the year (e.g., blood pressure, diabetes and breast cancer awareness and screenings in March 2017). Such programming raises awareness around priority health issues within the community and facilitates conversation around treatment and prevention. Such conversations also give opportunity for awareness raising around the broader CCH mission and the fact that all of our efforts are done in the name of Jesus Christ and to His glory.

As VPC and CCH look to Year 2 of the Student & Community Wellness program, anticipated impacts include:

• School-Based Clinics continue to Improve health and access to healthcare for approximately 500 rural Haitian students at least 3 times per school year

• CCH and partners refine their approach to School-Based Clinics, based on lessons learned in Year 1, to increase efficiency during Clinic days, encourage Haitian educators to be more actively engaged in student health advocacy and find ways to better monitor and address student health needs in between scheduled Clinics

• Recently graduated nurses and nursing students (Haitian) broaden their understanding of and exposure to community health issues via active participation in Wellness program activities.

• Budding parent‐to‐parent networks in partner communities gain momentum, and each network organizes at least one community training or wellness event

• Family and overall community wellness continues to improve through education and outreach around community-selected topics (e.g., treating fever, basic hygiene, clean water, when should a child see a doctor, exercise, nutrition, stress management, family devotions, etc.)

• Increased awareness of the CCH mission and CCH Clinic services

• Strengthened partnerships between communities and CCH.

• Collaborative identification of other priority needs and interests within the communities that can inform future years of programming

Although CCH recognizes that wellness is more than good health, in this second year of the Wellness initiative we will continue to use preventative and curative healthcare as an anchor for our community collaborations. When Haitian children are becoming permanently disabled by – or even dying from –treatable conditions, they cannot learn, they cannot play, they cannot thrive. So we’ll start with healthcare. Likewise, when we watch countless men and women battle chronic and uncontrolled illnesses that are manageable with minimal support, we’ll start there. With good health as an option, we believe the community’s foundation can be stronger.

Inaugural CCH Leadership Development Retreat Asks Tough Questions

On May 9th, a CCH leadership from Haiti and the US convened a group of 35 community partners to explore the characteristics of bold Christian leadership in Haiti. Through a variety of facilitated exercises, participants identified and explored the question: “What do Haitian leaders need to make change?” The group then voted to spend time analyzing and characterizing values and qualities like “trust”, “transparency”, “compassion”, “being a model” and “respecting the rules”. Lively discussion throughout the day, always rooted in the bold flavors of Haitian culture and context, was capped off by a thoughtful devotion led by Rev. Dr. David Milam of St Andrew Presbyterian Church (SAPC) in Virginia. With support from the National Capital Presbytery of the PC-USA, SAPC and other church partners of CCH are hoping to work with these leaders in Haiti to develop a leadership development program as part of CCH’s expanding community development portfolio. Stay tuned for updates and please contact Clark Seipt (clark@cchaiti.org) if you or your church are interested to learn more or participate. See more details about the NCP grant supporting this work below.

New Staff

Abby Gwaltney joined our U.S. staff in January as CCH’s part-time Director of Communications & Outreach. She manages communication efforts for the organization and also coordinates mission trips. Abby has a science and nonprofit communication background and became involved with CCH as a student sponsor a couple of years ago. Previously she worked for an international climate change nonprofit organization. For the past 15 years she’s also volunteered with a nonprofit organization straddling the US and Mexico. Now Abby is excited to expand her horizons to Haiti and work with great colleagues at CCH. Abby lives in Virginia with her husband and three children.

Nazaire Leveillé recently joined our staff in Haiti as the Community Development Liaison. He be responsible for nurturing current and new relationships with partner communities to help CCH better understand community needs and assets. He’ll work with our partners to design and implement collaborative activities. Nazaire may look familiar to CCH travelers since he’s been a translator with us for several years. He lives in Jacmel with his wife and two young children.