Promoting access to Primary Healthcare and Hygiene

Location: Grande Anse

Situation:

The poorest country in the northern hemisphere, Haiti is emerging from a long political crisis and trying to reconstruct a state of law, which would respect the fundamental rights of its citizens. MdM is working in disadvantaged rural areas, characterised by a weak government presence and a subsistence economy that is vulnerable to changing weather conditions. MdM is also working in poor areas of Port-au-Prince which are blighted by crime and violence.

Activities:

Primary healthcare:
• Trials of a cost-recovery system in two health facilities, with exemptions for pregnant women and children under five;
• A study of the social, economic and health situation of the population of Roseaux;
• Supporting the Communal Health Unit 2 (UCS2) with supervision of 15 decentralised health facilities;
• Improving the equipment and the electrical system at Jeremie reference hospital.


Outlook:

MdM will demonstrate the relevance of the programme to the Haitian institutions as a way of extending it to all the facilities of UCS2.We will lobby the institutions concerned with access to primary care in Haiti. Periodic support will be provided to the hospital to improve the referral and cross-referral systems. In relation to the latrines, after three years, the vast majority of them will be in use and maintained.MdM would respond to requests from neighbouring communities if ad-hoc funding were found.

Project start date: July 2006     

End date: June 2008