Dear Friends of C2C,

It’s been a whirlwind of a first month as Executive Director at C2C. I participated in my first Board meeting, represented C2C at a global conference in Mexico and, most importantly, visited our staff and clinics in Haiti for the first time.

Prior to joining C2C, I was attracted by the extremely positive “ingredients” the organization had – visionary founders and passionate Board members committed to taking on one of the planet’s biggest challenges (access to quality primary healthcare, particularly in the developing world), a social enterprise-based earned revenue model that ensures long-term sustainability, a partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Health that opens a path to significant scale, and a passionate and committed Haitian staff in our offices and clinics. These last ingredients I knew about “outside looking in” before I joined but, as is so often the case, what a completely different experience it was being there!

Sure, there were some challenges that come to life in a whole new way when you are in-country such as: very difficult roads that can quickly become impassable with anything more than a brief tropical shower; generators that break; solar panels installed in the shade; more patients than doctors and nurses to serve them at times. But, our incredible team on the ground takes these challenges (and many more) head-on every day and they deliver! The new clinics we have opened in our partnership with the Ministry of Health have seen morale and quality measures double since C2C’s involvement. Our doctors and nurses are happier, patients are getting a far higher quality of service and are saying so in surveys, and our revenue model establishes over 80% ongoing expense recovery within just a few months of operations. It’s a very exciting picture that has enormous potential for expansion in the coming year and beyond.

My goal is to take the C2C footprint from 5 to 15 clinics by 2020. I also believe that our model (and our expertise) can be applied in many other developing countries down the road. The challenges will be many and it certainly won’t be easy, but in just one month, I am even more convinced that C2C can deliver high quality primary healthcare in a sustainable way throughout Haiti and (ultimately) the globe. I’m excited to get to work and tackle the challenges I mentioned so that C2C can achieve the potential of the wonderful ingredients we have assembled.

Most importantly, and finally, we could not have reached this point of amazing potential without the support of all of you.  You all should feel great about what you have enabled and the potential that lies before us – thank you so much and onward!

With best regards,