Causes: Food, Human Services, International, International Development, Nutrition

Mission: Hope for Haiti's mission is to improve the quality of life for the Haitian people, particularly children, through education, nutrition, and healthcare.

Results: Hope for Haiti held its largest fundraiser and raised over $1 million to increase capacity in its regular programs. Hope for Haiti touches 500,000 people per year through our education, nutrition and healthcare programs.

Target demographics: 10,000 students, 400 teachers, 40 schools, 5,000 through nutrition, thousands through a network of over 60 healthcare facilities.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 100,000

Geographic areas served: Haiti, specifically Port-au-Prince and Southern Haitian communities near Les Cayes

Programs: Over 20 years ago, Hope for Haiti started with a focus in education, but in 1997 Founder and President, JoAnne Kuehner, quickly joined forces with Dr. Keith Hussey, a gastroenterologist, to expand the organization’s initiatives to include nutrition and healthcare. Hope for Haiti quickly discovered that providing support for nutrition and healthcare was absolutely critical to continue educational success. The education of children cannot be successful when children and their parents have no access to quality medical care or if they are suffering from severe malnutrition. Over the last 12 years, Hope for Haiti has provided approximately $100 million to the Haitian people in the areas of education, nutrition and healthcare. Presently Hope for Haiti supports 40 schools with nearly 10,000 students and 400 teachers; provides medications to over 60 healthcare sites which benefits thousands of patients and their families; and supports 3 medical nutrition programs that reach thousands of pre-natal and post-natal mothers and their children. Additionally, 12 water purification systems have been installed which can provide 500 gallons of purified drinking water to each community daily. For some years, Hope for Haiti has supported a reforestation project that has planted tens of thousands of trees which help address the severe deforestation problems that have depleted much of the country’s ability to feed its people. Hope for Haiti strives to empower local institutions by providing them with access to supplies, financial resources, and outside support. On January 12, 2010, Hope for Haiti added Earthquake Relief as an additional focus. Since the devastating earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Hope for Haiti has responded to the enormous needs of the Haitian people during this epic tragedy in a big way. We were able to provide safe delivery and distribution of over $30 million worth of medications, medical supplies, food, water, tents, and construction material to over 60 healthcare sites, including over a dozen Internally Displaced People’s camps within and outside of Port-au-Prince. This delivery and distribution network has continued and has transferred over from air cargo and private planes, to shipping containers to the country’s capital where Hope for Haiti staff quickly and safely stores, sorts, and distributes supplies specific to the needs of each location. Additional planes were sent with some of the first American medical personnel on the ground after the earthquake. Because of Hope for Haiti’s relief efforts, countless lives were saved and tremendous suffering relieved.