CRS Work in Haiti

Catholic Relief Services Haiti works to improve access to health and nutrition services, education, and water and sanitation. CRS programs assist with emergency response, HIV and AIDS, social safety net institutions, and agricultural development. These efforts focus on ensuring social justice and preserving human rights.

Using vital food aid resources from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), CRS helps fight chronic hunger in Haiti and encourages economic growth with programs that increase agricultural production and invest in natural resource management. The support provided by CRS brings much-needed health and education services to poor communities throughout the country. In emergencies, the food we provide helps those in need, saves lives and eases suffering. It also serves as an education tool for sharing nutrition information with mothers and their children. CRS uses food aid as a safety net for the country's most vulnerable groups, including orphans and people living with HIV.

Health and Nutrition

Haiti has the highest infant and maternal mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. Approximately 1 in 10 Haitian children dies before reaching the age of 5, and nearly a quarter of those who survive are malnourished. A shortfall in agricultural production in the country limits the availability of food for many Haitians, and a widespread lack of access to health care and clean water causes recurring bouts of illness that only exacerbate conditions of malnutrition.

CRS Haiti's Maternal and Child Health Nutrition feeding program provides food for children from 6 to 24 months of age, pregnant women and nursing mothers, and people living with HIV. The program also helps to teach community health centers how to effectively manage their services and assists them in delivering essential health care, such as immunizations, vitamin A (important for eye health), and nutrition and follow-up care.

Agriculture

Severe soil erosion, widespread environmental degradation, extreme poverty and high unemployment conspire to stifle agricultural production and create food shortages in Haiti. More than 60 percent of the work force is engaged in agriculture, but farming accounts for just 28 percent of the country's economy. Most of Haiti's farmers are subsistence farmers struggling to support their families on less than an acre of poor-quality land, with little or no access to markets, capital, or improved farming methods and equipment.

CRS Haiti supports projects that increase agricultural productivity and enable farmers to diversify their crops and better access existing markets. Our projects help improve degraded land by teaching about better management of natural resources, reforestation, planting crops that don't damage soil as much, and creating barriers against erosion. We also promote microfinance projects that help farming families increase their income. In turn, the savings groups support women's organizations and parent-teacher associations.

Education

CRS Haiti works to provide Haitian children with a quality education by combining school feeding and increased parental participation with training for teachers and education officials. In the short term, school lunches — for some children, the only meal of the day — encourage children to enroll in school and attend regularly. CRS' education activities focus on supporting teachers, providing health and hygiene education and services for students, and improving school infrastructure by building latrines or rehabilitating buildings. Ultimately, our goal is to encourage communities, schools, local officials and education authorities to work together to increase access to quality education.

Water and Sanitation

CRS Haiti works in the field of water and sanitation to construct latrines, improve access to clean water, and provide sound hygiene education to schools and health centers.

Emergency Response

Hurricanes, floods, and other natural and man-made disasters exact a devastating toll on Haiti's most vulnerable population. A lack of early warning systems catches many communities ill-prepared, while the country's treeless terrain leaves them unprotected against the elements. Even the weakest of storms can have a profound impact.

CRS responds to these disasters by providing victims with emergency supplies, including food, clean water and medical supplies. We help communities prepare for disaster by establishing early warning systems and forming civil protection committees. These are groups of locals who are trained in different aspects of emergency response, such as evacuation or transportation. After the immediate danger has passed, we aid community members by repairing and building water and sanitation systems, providing farming tools and supplies, and rebuilding homes.

HIV and AIDS

As in other countries around the world, HIV remains a misunderstood disease in Haiti, shrouded in ignorance and stigma. As a consortium member of AIDSRelief, CRS seeks to improve the quality of life and sustain the dignity of people living with HIV. With the support of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), we deliver quality medical care to people living with HIV. Through education programs, we help prevent the spread of HIV and work to transform negative attitudes in the larger community, while teaching HIV-positive people — and their caregivers — the importance of diet and adherence to treatment.

Through a series of innovative programs, CRS promotes community care and financial support for people living with HIV. For example, CRS supports a local organization that provides small credit loans to families affected by HIV. The credit program establishes community banks and teaches families living with the disease better financial management tools.

Social Safety Net

CRS' social assistance program provides support to children's shelters and other institutions that help the poorest and most vulnerable Haitians, including the elderly and people living with HIV. Facilities that serve such groups receive little or no government support and are therefore reliant on donations from international organizations, missionaries, private donors, institutions and other governments. CRS provides these institutions with daily meals for children, help with infrastructure repair such as building additions and repairing buildings, and funding for small, income-generating projects. We also train the organizations in project proposal writing, health and hygiene, and how to deal with HIV.

Civil Society, Justice and Human Rights

CRS Haiti works closely with local justice and peace committees, while also building partnerships between Catholic dioceses in the United States and Haiti that focus on human rights and development projects. CRS Haiti assists repatriated Haitians and children who are victims of trafficking by providing them with temporary shelter, food and employment opportunities. Our civic education and human-rights training empowers local organizations to embrace leadership roles in their communities, and to defend and protect the most vulnerable people in Haiti.