Haiti
Mary’s Meals began working in Haiti in 2006 providing meals in schools in the Cite Soleil slum outside Port au Prince and in the Gonaives and Hinche regions.
School Feeding Cite Soleil
Cite Soleil is a slum area of the capital Port au Prince situated on the edge of the Caribbean Sea. Around 300,000 people live crammed together on what is essentially a giant rubbish tip. Their houses are flimsy shacks with no access to potable water or sanitation. The slum is run by armed gangs and the area is extremely volatile. There is widespread hunger and malnutrition especially amongst the children.
Prior to the earthquake in January 2010, Mary’s Meals provided meals to over 6,000 children who attended 8 schools built by our partners, Hands Together. Cite Soleil is a notoriously difficult place to work in and we are only able to do so thanks to the courage and dedication of our partners led by Fr Tom Hagan, an American priest whose humanitarian work has gained the respect and support of the local community. Sadly these schools were badly damaged in the earthquake and our school feeding projects are now taking place in temporary shelters.
School Feeding – Gonaives
Mary’s Meals provides daily meals for over 2,000 children who attend 7 village schools in this region. This area has been badly hit by hurricanes and flooding affecting the land’s fertility and leaving people already desperately poor living in even more difficult conditions. ‘There have been a lot of changes with the children. Sometimes, this is the only meal that they have. Before, their hair colour was different, an orange colour. Now the colour of their hair is different.’ Daniel Claude, Administrative Principal, Guimby
School Feeding – Hinche
Mary’s Meals provides meals for over 3,000 children in the Central Plateau area. Some are orphans living at the Masion Fortune Orphanage others are children attending schools serving poor, rural communities.
Mary’s Meals Haiti Downloads / Links
Mary’s Meals Haiti Film – Jimmy’s Story
Haiti Earthquake – Our Emergency Response and Recovery Work
On 12th January, 2010, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck Haiti at around 5pm local time. The quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, left thousands more homeless, and devastated the capital Port au Prince. Haiti was already the poorest nation in the Americas before this disaster which was why Mary’s Meals was working there. Our friends in Port Au Prince were in the midst of the disaster and sadly members of their team were killed and their office buildings destroyed. In nearby Cite Soleil the 8 schools where we served Mary’s Meals were badly damaged. Thanks to our excellent local partners and our ever generous supporters we were able to respond promptly and effectively to this tragedy.
We have:
- Delivered urgently needed medical supplies to Hinche hospital and a Cite Soleil clinic
- Helped 500 displaced people relocate to their home towns
- Supplied 2,000 families in Hinche who have taken in people who have fled from Port au Prince with food, clothing and hygiene kits
- Employed local people to salvage re-usable building material from the schools in Cite Soleil
- Erected temporary shelters in the school campuses to re-start classes
- Extended school feeding to accommodate extra pupils in Hinche
We Hope To:
- Repair/rebuild the schools in Cite Soleil
- Resume school feeding in Cite Soleil
- Establish a mobile clinic
- Provide 2,000 elderly in Cite Soleil with a daily cooked meal
- Build 50 simple shelters for people in Cite Soleil
- Expand school feeding in Haiti
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