Dear friends of Sante Total,
Mesi Anpil (thank you so much), for your generous donations of time, energy, and money, and your willingness to help!
We hope that you will lend us your support this giving Tuesday, December 1st.
Haiti needs your support more than ever to prevent the spread of COVID and to help ameliorate food and medication shortages that are an economic result of the pandemic and severe drop in tourism. You can do this by going to the website at www.santetotal.org and making an immediate or monthly donation, or by sending a check to the address listed there.
We send Holiday Greetings and hope that you and your families are doing well and staying safe in these crazy times. I know that many of you are depressed by the thought of solitary holidays and the spread of COVID, and I wanted to let you know that we are still working in Jacsonville despite our inability to travel.
Despite all of our accomplishments, there is so much more to do! We hope that you will think of the people of Jacsonville, Haiti, during this season of giving and share generously to support the projects needed to improve their quality of life. Again, that is: www.santetotal.org
Here’s to the hope that someday soon, we will work ourselves out of a job! I wish you all a Happy Holiday season and safe journeys!
– Barbara Weis, MD, MPH&TM Executive Director, Sante Total
Read on below for some accomplishments of 2020:
-COVID prevention team: The nurse and two of the students we are supporting went door to door, reaching every household in Jacsonville, to demonstrate how to construct hand-washing stations and educating families on the prevention of COVID and the importance of wearing masks.
-We completed one medical clinic in January before the travel ban, seeing over 400 patients. We are still helping three insulin-dependent diabetics buy their life-saving insulin. We also provided over $3000 to help patients pay for their surgery and medications, and are still trying to arrange for a baby to get cleft palate surgery, which has been delayed due to lack of a qualified surgeon in the area.
-The permanent clinic is moving forward: A major Thank You to the Rotary Club of Ellicott City! There are delays with the final construction due to COVID restrictions on the number of people allowed to be there at one time, and the heavy rains that made the road impassable and made it impossible to get the rest of the concrete, but we hope it will be finished this dry season. The next step will be furnishing and staffing.
-School Lunch Program and School Water Project: The school water system has been repaired thanks to the Rotary Club of Ellicott City and they now have running water. We expanded the school lunch program and are now providing daily lunches. When schools were closed, we sent food home monthly to help support the families in the crisis.
-CHEAHP (Center for the Handicapped and Aged of Pignon): We supported weekly meetings, monthly meals and a Holiday party for the center.
-Sustainable Agriculture: The fruit-bearing tree project continues to move forward.
-Educational Support: We supported the training of one medical, one nursing and two teaching students in the first half of the year and have added one University student (Maisson), who will study education, and a pharmacy student for the fall, which means over $10,000 a year in support!
