Partner with us to continue life-saving care

This year, Haiti earned a distinction no nation wants:
It’s become the most impoverished country on earth.

And that declaration by the World Bank was made before the Haiti was hit hard by Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac. Those storms inflicted even more death, destruction, flooding, homelessness and hunger on a place still reeling from 2010’s devastating earthquake.

Now, a new food shortage looms, as already meager crops were destroyed by the storms. And the cholera epidemic continues to escalate.

That’s what killed Adeline Sanon’s mother. We met the 11-month-old when her father, Gilbert Sanon, 24, brought her to the Friends Clinic. He was desperate for help because he could barely scrounge anything for the baby to eat.

We immediately enrolled Adeline in our Medika Mamba (“medical peanut butter”) program for severely malnourished children. Sanon also received a water filter to use at the one-room home he shares with seven others – to protect everyone from the same waterborne disease that killed his wife.

Adeline and her father are among the nearly 14,000 patients we’ve provided life-saving care for this year – something only possible only because of your support. And for that we are tremendously grateful.

However, the worsening humanitarian crisis in Haiti is threatening to overwhelm our resources. And without the vital medical services our all-volunteer teams provide, these most vulnerable families will go without. Many will not survive.

Our patients are counting on us. And we’re counting on your compassion and commitment to help us continue. Because together we’ve already made a dramatic difference by:

• Bringing doctors, nurses, EMTs, pharmacists and other medical professionals to work at our clinic to triage injuries, treat illness, offer pre-natal care and perform major surgery.
• Making clean water available via home filters, so families don’t die from myriad diseases carried by contaminated water.
• Fighting hunger with our Medika Mamba nutrition program.
• Creating economic opportunity by training and employing a Haitian staff at our clinic; partnering with the FilterPure factory adjacent to our clinic to offer jobs; and providing a marketplace for coffee farmers through our Brewing Support coffee sales initiative.

Despite catastrophes and the most crushing poverty on the planet, the Haitian people have shown remarkable resilience and tenacity. Let’s show them we mean our promise of delivering health and hope.

Please help us continue our work through a generous gift to our ongoing Mission.