Community Health Initiative (CHI)

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - CHI Haiti Winding Down Operations in Haiti

We are reaching out with the sad news of the closing of Community Health Initiative, Haiti. The board of directors and our executive directors have worked hard over the past several years to avoid this, but the situation in Haiti, with political instability, rampant violence, skyrocketing inflation, and our inability to travel there over the last four years, has proven to be insurmountable. Our US staff members have taken pay cuts, and we have borrowed as much money as we reasonably could, but in the end, it was just too much, and we are simply out of options.

None of this work would have been possible without you. Many of you have been with us for years and we will be forever grateful for your generosity. We cannot thank you enough for the resources; financial, personal, and professional, that you have entrusted us with in order to carry this work forward. We will always be grateful to you for our time together, as will our friends in Haiti.

The true heroes of this story, though, are our staff in Haiti. They have been running clinics on their own for four years now. They have not had a raise in eighteen months, but they have kept working because they understand how important the work that they do is. In the last few years, as the violence has spread from the capitol to Arcahaie, they have continued to care for people, despite tremendous personal risk. When it was too dangerous to run clinics, they have been going door-to-door to make sure that people get the care that they need. Despite burning tires and barricades, our incredible CHW’s find a way to get the sickest patients to the hospital. Dr. Daphene Pierre, our heroic medical director, has scoured the dangerous streets of Port-au-Prince for medications to distribute and has braved unspeakably horrifying conditions to get to Arcahaie. There are many, many others without whom this organization could never have been successful. We could never have hoped for a more committed, compassionate, and courageous team, and we will never have words enough to thank them for everything they have done. They have exceeded our wildest dreams.

Donations to CHI may still be made via the CHI website (https://www.chihaiti.org/) until July 30, 2023, as well as by check after that date (CHI Haiti, P.O. Box 1143, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406) until further notice. Those donations will be applied to outstanding obligations, as well as providing Haitian staff with a bit of a cushion during their transition to life without the financial support of CHI.

It breaks our hearts to see CHI come to an end, especially as the needs of both our communities and our staff have never been greater. But, as individuals, we will continue to look for ways to provide support in the hopes that once things are more stable, we can reunite.

We ask you to keep everyone in Haiti in your thoughts.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support.

Sincerely,

Leah Mathiason, Executive Director
Kim Riley-Adams, Board President
Chris Buresh, Co-Founder

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To read the full letter from the CHI Executive Team click the link below or in our bio.
https://mailchi.mp/1b0b9cecde73/5sydh1vuss-16872920

🌼 - DAY 2 RECAP

The Haitian Clinic Team was in do digue, pisket ,and carefour!

CHI Haiti Operations Director, Wisly Dangé said “We saw a lot of babies, hypertensive and diabetics and of course a couple wounds etc...Good day ,and 85 patients got meds and treats. As we always say : until the work is done.!!”

🌼 – DAY 1 Recap

The Haitian Clinic Team were in Repo Dominab and saw 77 patients!

CHI Haiti Operations Director, Wisly Dangé said “ Today was a good start of clinic, and we were very happy to have Dr Fleury with us again this time. We saw a lot of hypertensive, diabetes, and skin diseases.

They patients were eager to be seen and thankful. Thanks to all the CHI supporters for caring and always standing along side the Haitians people.”

🌼 – over the weekend our CHI Haiti Medical Director, Dr. Daphene safely made it to Arcahaie and the Haitian Clinic Team got to work on prepping meds for this week’s clinic!

Thank you to our Haitian team for their dedication and to our CHI supporters that continue to make this work possible.
Be sure to stay tuned to our social media for daily updates!

❤️💙!

…Come join the Peloton challenge this year for CHI’s annual Ride for Haiti event. This year you can pledge per minute of any Peloton activity or per mile of activity on your Peloton in the cool comfort of your air-conditioned space. We will set up some live ride options and you can ride on your own. You can ride the whole month of June under the Leader Board hashtag

*Live ride times will be sent separately once we know who is signing up for the Peloton challenge.
Note in your registration that you will be riding Peloton and we will connect you with the organizer..

Sign up here: https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTc5MjQ3