0 items | $0.00

No products in the cart.

Donate Now

Our Approach

  1. Home
  2.   / Our Approach

Our Approach

Our Approach to Tackling Haiti Poverty Challenges

According to data from the World Health Program (WHP), Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It ranks 68th in terms of human poverty by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). About 65% of the population lives below the national poverty line. Worse yet, throughout its history, Haiti has experienced many challenges, including political turmoil, lack of economic development, natural disasters, and human exploitation. Despite efforts to build and maintain strong public systems, this may not be successful due to the problems mentioned above. Thus, poverty in Haiti is complex. This complexity is caused by many interrelated social and economic barriers.

Having a lot of experience in working with rural and disadvantaged communities in Haiti has helped us to accumulate broader knowledge on the fight against poverty in Haiti. Thus, at HCS, thanks to our experiences, supplemented by research in the matter, we come to understand that the fight against a single factor to reduce poverty in Haiti will be in vain, even if we invest a fortune. Because poverty is the product of a multitude of major causes.

This is why we have created a strategy model, called SMART MODEL, which corresponds to the reality of the country. The model is based on four pillars and addresses five main reasons for the complexity of poverty in Haiti. In fact, this smart strategy allows us to work together to provide comprehensive and sustainable solutions to improve the lives of people in beneficiary communities.

The HCS Smart Model

The HCS Smart Model is defined as the connection between the 4 basic pillars and the 5 main programs to achieve the noble mission of improving the lives of Haitian families, especially children, through sustainable development.

  • The four pillars
      1. Donors
      2. HSC
      3. Community members
      4. Local Authorities
  • The five main programs
      1. Education
      2. Water and sanitation
      3. Health
      4. Food and nutrition
      5. Socio-Economic Development

Each program is a key element in breaking the cycle of poverty in Haiti.

Education

Education is the most effective tool that can enable Haitian children and youth to become architects and guardians of their own future and that of their communities. In order for education to play a real role in the lives of disadvantaged children in Haiti, at Haitian Support Connections, we have focused our education program on three basic points: equality, learning and sustainability. We understand that the best way to eradicate poverty is to start by making changes at the root, which are the children. Because, for a child, education is the best way to find the path to success and to break the cycle of poverty.

Health

The Haitian Support Connections health program is made possible by three fundamental points: help, prepare and develop. Through this program, we are helping to provide community health care and curative care in Haiti. We prepare health workers by equipping and empowering them through locally led health initiatives in a variety of ways including training and mentoring, improved infrastructure, medical equipment/materials and financial support. Then, we develop a range of health projects, but we specifically focus on maternal, newborn/child and trauma care.

Water and Sanitation

Under no circumstances, we can ever be able to enumerate as much importance as clean water, sanitation, and hygiene as the basic elements for leading a healthy life and disease prevention. Hence, recognizing the importance of these basic needs, at HSC, we work in partnership with communities to increase easy and reliable access to safe drinking water by drilling new artesian wells and restoring water supply systems that have operating problems. In addition, we work with schools and health centers to install treated water points to ensure that children and their families have access to safe drinking water during activities and in clinics.

Food and Nutrition

In Haiti, according to a study by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 22% of children under the age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition and 66% suffer from anemia. In addition, the World Food Program pointed out that Haiti is one of the most food insecure countries in the world, and nearly 50% of the population is in urgent need of food assistance. Hence, in order to better help in this area, we are working with communities to provide malnutrition programs and programs that are able to promote food security and improve agriculture, such as school gardens and irrigation projects. This factor aims to ensure that communities have better access to healthy food and products that they can also sell to improve their incomes.

Socio-Economic Development

At Haitian Support Connections, we believe in empowering underserved families so that they can develop their potential and meet their mid- to long-term needs. Then, through the socio-economic development program, we focus on the economic development of target families in their own society. So, we work with Haitian families, primarily women, by empowering them with financial and skills to lift themselves out of poverty by starting their own small business. The main program is based on sustainable and business-oriented solutions. In addition, we help small producers and other entrepreneurs build businesses that can change communities, create jobs, and increase productivity, business opportunities and incomes.