On March 20th, 2020, Haiti recorded its first confirmed case of coronavirus. As of July 29, Haiti has recorded 7,371 official cases and 158 deaths, although because the country has not been doing sufficient testing, the actual figures are likely much higher. Unfortunately, Haiti’s Ministry of Health lacks the resources to adequately respond to the virus. A 2017 report from the World Bank found that the government spends just $13 per capita annually on health services, much lower than neighboring countries such as the Dominican Republic ($180 dollars) and Cuba ($781 dollars) and the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, which has a per capita public expenditure of $336 dollars. Of the few funds allocated to the health system, 54% of the government’s expenditure is allocated to curative care (38% to hospitals) with only 19% directed towards preventive care.

Needless to say, the Haitian government was ill-prepared to take on the COVID-19 pandemic. As wealthy, developed countries such as the US have struggled to contain the spread, COVID-19 has also resulted in a health and economic crisis in Haiti. As C2C is the primary partner of the Ministry of Health in the north of Haiti, health officials have relied greatly on our organization to slow the spread of the virus, mainly through community education activities.

“For us, the main way to deal with the pandemic in Haiti is prevention,” says C2C’s Chief Operating Officer Dr. Samuel Bernard. At first, our staff found it challenging to convince people to follow best practices for virus mitigation. “People didn’t want to hear about [the virus] because they didn’t trust that it was real,” reflects Dr. Bernard. “Asking patients to wear masks, washing their hands before entering our clinics was a fight. But, by providing education many times a day in the clinics [and the communities], our patients finally understood that they should follow the protocol to avoid being infected.”

We are collaborating closely with the Ministry of Health on education activities, keeping people updated on the state of the epidemic in Haiti and how they can protect themselves and their families. Although the government has not been able to provide much support for these activities, C2C is grateful to our generous supporters for allowing us to continue our COVID-19 response.

At the onset of COVID-19 in Haiti, C2C set critical overarching goals, objectives, and activities for our clinic network and have continued to adjust our plans and priorities as the crisis continues to evolve.

Goals:

1. Mitigate the spread of the coronavirus infection in our region of Northern Haiti
2. Treat any patient suspected of having coronavirus
3. Educate the communities we serve in virus mitigation best practices

Short-term Objectives:

1. Prepare and train staff to provide education to our communities on coronavirus
2. Secure equipment needed to face an epidemic
3. Enhance the capacity of the clinics to quickly identify any suspected case of coronavirus
4. Enhance the capacity of the clinics to care for any possible case of coronavirus infection

Sample of Clinical and Community Activities:

1. Training of staff on COVID-19 and means of prevention: prepare and disseminate training materials about COVID-19 to give to staff; supervising doctor ensures that all clinical staff are trained properly
2. Provide, improve, and resupply hand washing stations at each clinic and encourage increased handwashing among patients and staff
3. Radio and TV announcements weekly from C2C medical staff; hire a local “mobile” (a pick-up truck with large speakers in the bed) to drive through communities and broadcast the Haiti Ministry of Health’s taped message on COVID-19 prevention
4. Clinicians provide up-to-date information on COVID-19 during regular patient consultations; nurses hold education sessions in waiting room of clinics to inform patients how to protect themselves and their families
5. Increase collaboration with peer organizations and the Ministry of Health to scale communications, education materials, outreach, and training

To learn more about C2C’s COVID-19 response in Haiti, visit our official COVID-19 updates page on our website.

Dear Friends,

We’re excited to share some news! C2C has been evaluated by Charity Navigator through their revolutionary Encompass Rating System and received a 100 out of 100 rating!

The Encompass Rating System is a comprehensive evaluation tool that analyzes nonprofit performance based on four key indicators. In July 2020, Charity Navigator released the first indicator, Finance & Accountability, to highlight nonprofit organizations demonstrating fiscal responsibility.

This milestone achievement for C2C couldn’t have happened without you and your support. Thank you for being part of our family as contributors, funders, and fervent advocates. Your trust in us is what makes the difference to us and the communities we serve.

You can find our Charity Navigator Encompass rating here: https://charitynavigator.org/ein/264369180 and learn more about Charity Navigator and the Encompass Rating System at charitynavigator.org/encompass.

Thank you for being an integral part of our mission!

Until recently Haiti seemed to be fortunate regarding COVID-19, with reported numbers barely registering on the global radar screen.  We are now however beginning to see the kind of spike in cases we have long feared.

While the daily new cases reported count is now in the hundreds, we know (and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms) that the true case count is far higher due to logistical challenges and continued shortages in testing kits. With cases now spiking, the next likely crisis will be severe with illnesses flooding a healthcare system that is significantly under-resourced. The WHO warns that the combination of COVID-19 shutdown-induced economic shock and patients over-burdening the health system could trigger a terrible humanitarian catastrophe in a nation where half the population (six million people) lives below the extreme poverty line of $2/day.

At C2C, we began urgent preparations for the onset of COVID-19 in mid-March and we have been improving and reinforcing our capabilities constantly since then. At all of our clinics we have: 

COVID-19 in our clinics:

We have now seen COVID directly impact our staff. A cluster in one of our clinics yielded 6 positive tests but thankfully none had severe illness (3 were asymptomatic and 3 experienced only mild symptoms). We are glad to report they are now back to work serving our patient communities.

Starting in April, we began to see a drop in patient volume as patients began to fear seeking care due to the perceived higher risk of COVID in clinics.  This is a phenomenon that has occurred worldwide but is a concern because it means our regular patients are deferring critical care. 

Unfortunately, this crisis in Haiti is far closer to the “end of the beginning” than the “beginning of the end”. We will continue to keep you apprised of our efforts to take on this monumental challenge in the communities we serve.  Thank you so much for supporting our work, none of these efforts would be possible without our incredibly generous supporters and partners.   

Thank you, again, from all of us! 

Dear friends,

In this time of uncertainty, there’s a fundamental truth that gives us hope – that together we can do extraordinary things. Over the past few weeks and months, the entire world has been coming together to stand up, help out, give back, and heal. Whether that’s through donations to community organizations, celebrating doctors and nurses at shift changes, or reaching out to a neighbor to help with groceries, generosity has been helping the entire world get through this global pandemic. Together.

C2C is participating in #GivingTuesdayNow, a global day of unity and giving. As you may already know, we are raising a COVID-19 Response Fund to equip our staff and facilities with essential equipment and supplies that will help to slow the spread of the virus in Haiti and save lives.

But we can’t do this without you!

Not only do we need your support, we need your help to spread the word. Please tell your friends and family why you believe in our work and encourage them to support us too!

Join the movement! Click to learn about ways you can participate in the #GivingTuesdayNow movement and don’t forget to share this with someone today.

Thank you for being a part of the C2C Team.

Hope you are healthy and safe.

C2C is proud to announce that we have been selected by global giving circle Dining for Women as a featured grantee for 2020! The funds that Dining for Women raises on behalf of C2C will go towards implementing a sexual and reproductive health education program for young girls and women in the communities we serve in Northern Haiti.

Dining for Women is a non-profit giving circle dedicated to empowering women and girls living in extreme poverty. Care 2 Communities will be its featured grantee for the month of December 2020. We are very excited for this new partnership and are grateful to Dining for Women for supporting our essential work to serve vulnerable women in Haiti and ensure they have the education they need to make informed decisions about their health.

Learn more about Dining for Women here.

As of March 31st, the Haitian government had confirmed 15 cases of COVID-19.   While that number seems small, our great fear, just as we have seen elsewhere across the globe, is that we are only at the bottom of the curve and the numbers could spike very quickly in the coming weeks. 

The COVID-19 outbreak is now everywhere. In Italy, the virus overloaded hospitals in just three weeks which led to devastating stories of bed and ventilator rationing for patients. New York also seems to be entering a similar phase at the current moment.   

We are all wondering whether our governments could have done more and why our health care systems are so ill-prepared for a pandemic of this nature. But, what worries those of us who are so close to it is just how much more woefully unprepared Haiti’s healthcare system is compared to countries in Asia and Europe, and even the United States.

A recent World Bank study cited in the Miami-Herald highlights the gap we are facing.  Haiti spends just $13 on healthcare per capita vs. close neighbors like the Dominican Republic ($180) and Cuba ($781).  The whole Latin American and Caribbean region average is $336 and western nations range from $5,000 to almost $10,000. While recent trends are showing to be negative in terms of these gaps, Haiti’s government has steadily reduced national health spending over the past few years. In last year’s budget, only 5 percent of funds were allocated to health.

In a situation so massively under-resourced, Haiti will only be able to combat the coming epidemic if every component of the healthcare infrastructure is mobilized holistically. The World Bank study emphasized that a critical priority in the holistic approach should be on preventive healthcare where patients can be treated at the primary care level in a more cost-effective way. 

C2C is positively at the front line of this mobilization. Our founding vision hinged on the fact that primary care is consistently neglected, while it should be the core of a national health care system.  In an under-resourced country like Haiti, we have always been working to address the most cost-effective opportunity in improving health outcomes. The answer has always been access to quality primary care. As COVID-19 becomes established in Haiti, we must leverage the critical role we play in the system to mitigate its spread, improve outcomes, and save lives.   

As best as we can, we are preparing our clinics to respond to COVID-19 by training our staff on educational outreach, clinical management, best practice protocols, securing equipment and medical supplies, as well as working closely with Haiti’s Ministry of Health. We know that coordinated efforts are the best way to save as many lives as possible in the vulnerable communities we serve.   

But, the same challenges we are seeing in the United States (lack of respirators, testing kits, PPE, etc.) are massively greater in Haiti. Regardless of what we have done to prepare our staff and clinics, we know that current stocks of medicine and medical supplies are sparse and new sources of supply will be unpredictable at best and totally unavailable at worst. Despite all of this, we have to take on what’s coming. We will never be as ready as we would like but we will persevere. We must.

We are all struggling to process the changes the COVID-19 pandemic has already brought to our lives and, even more worryingly, what might be coming in the next few weeks and months. In that context, our most important wish is that you and your families stay safe and well. 

We know that there is a great deal of curiosity regarding how things are developing in Haiti and we wanted to provide a quick update for all of you.   

Thus far, there has not been a confirmed case of COVID-19 in Haiti, but there are many confirmed cases across the border in the Dominican Republic. Haiti has closed its border and stopped almost all international flights. While these steps may slow the onset of the virus in Haiti, we know it is only a matter of time until there will be a spike in cases.  

We are using this period to prepare our staff and clinics as best as we can for what will likely be a very difficult situation once the virus becomes established. Haiti suffers from every issue (but multiplied) currently facing the United States and Europe: lack of testing kits, an extreme shortage of masks and sanitizers, as well as very few hospital beds that are equipped to handle the kind of extreme respiratory complications we saw in China and are seeing in Italy.

However, due to the worldwide nature of this crisis, it is very unlikely that international support will be available for Haiti once cases appear in significant numbers. The reality in Haiti is that many family members cohabitate in small spaces; there is almost no ability to store significant quantities of food at home; and most Haitians live in very crowded urban neighborhoods with poor sanitation. All this suggests that COVID-19 is likely to be absolutely devastating.

With great urgency, we are doing our part to prepare for the imminent arrival of the virus in Haiti.  We are working closely with the Ministry of Health as it finalizes its operational plans. And, with our clinic staff, we are putting processes in place including an extreme emphasis on handwashing, patient screening, and enhanced training on the importance of social separation. In addition to that, we are working to source supplies such as masks, thermometers, sanitizers, and medicine from as many possible sources as we can during this time of extreme medical supply scarcity.

We plan to keep you updated regarding our efforts and look forward to the date when we can all speak about this global pandemic in the past tense.    

We thank you for your support and wish you and your families the best in this difficult time.

Dear Friends, 

This past summer, we announced that we would be expanding our clinic network to a new department in Haiti. After a rocky year of civil unrest, road blockades, and fuel shortages that threatened the country’s stability, we decided to move forward and open our first clinic site in the Northeast Department of Haiti. 

Before we sought to rehabilitate government clinics in the Northeast Department, we formalized a newly forged public-private partnership (PPP) between C2C and the department’s Ministry of Health. After several meetings throughout the last few months, we decided that it was best to rehabilitate a government clinic in Roche Plate. 

Roche Plate, a communal section of Trou-du-Nord, is a small community of 13,750 people and is approximately 80 minutes from Cap-Haitien.

Although the site was already an established government clinic, it was in bad physical shape, lacked essential medications, had a very low patient volume, and overworked yet underpaid staff. We knew that by taking it on as a PPP clinic, we could infuse it with C2C’s operational excellence and ensure that patients have access to quality care in their own community, as well as a fully-stocked pharmacy that has all the necessary medications.

Stay tuned to learn more about Roche Plate’s progress and the ways it continues to serve the community! 

The last decade began with the most devastating natural disaster to strike Haiti on January 12, 2010.  We open this decade with far more hope but with the acknowledgment that there is still so much to be done.

Ten years ago, the earthquake claimed the lives of an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 people, injured countless others, left millions of Haitians homeless, and caused tremendous damage to infrastructure. Today, a decade later, the recovery effort is still ongoing. Thousands of Haitians are still displaced, many people do not have access to basic services such as healthcare and sanitation, and the country has yet to heal from the trauma it experienced. This past year alone, Haiti faced some struggles in the form of civil unrest, fuel shortages, and country lockdowns. 

A few months after the earthquake struck, C2C opened its first clinic in partnership with Grace Children’s Hospital, AmeriCares, and Management Sciences for Health in Port-au-Prince, the center of the destruction. The clinic served an unmet need in the catchment area, offering gynecological and perinatal care for women.

C2C has come a very long way in the past decade, and so has Haiti. While Grace Children’s Hospital has rebuilt its infrastructure and no longer uses our clinic, we now operate six (soon to be seven!) clinics in two departments of Haiti. Though our model has pivoted over the years to focus on rehabilitating existing public clinics and offering comprehensive, one-stop-shop primary care services, our staff remains dedicated to delivering high-quality healthcare to families and communities throughout Haiti. Even though many NGOs have left in the years since the earthquake, C2C continues to grow in partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Health, working within the greater healthcare ecosystem to deliver sustainable care.

As we enter a new decade, we must celebrate the moments that show that Haiti will still stand tall. We are optimistic about the future of Haiti and believe in the resilience of its people. We look forward to sharing more updates soon about our progress, including our newest clinic opening this month!

Happy New Year & Happy New Decade! 

Thank you to all of our supporters for an amazing year at C2C!

While widespread protests and fuel shortages across Haiti made 2019 a year of many challenges, we also have so much to be grateful for. This year, we have served over 33,000 patients (up from 23,000 last year) and our imbedded social enterprise model recovered clinic operating costs at 80% across the entire network, further validating our sustainable health-delivery model. We secured significant new support from foundations and individuals and were recognized by the Innovations in Healthcare Initiative at Duke University in March and as a finalist for the Concordia P3 Impact Award in September. Even during very challenging times, we continued to provide high quality, sustainable primary care to communities who desperately need it. None of this would have been possible without your support!

Thank you again from all of us at C2C. Happy Holidays!