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HAITI - Helping Reduce Malaria and Malnutrition

Jan 4, 2010

The American Red Cross has partnered with the Haitian National Red Cross Society to reduce deaths attributed to malaria and malnutrition.  Haiti has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the Western Hemisphere, much of which has been attributed to the threats of malaria and insufficient diet.  The propensity for hurricanes and other natural disasters to strike the country create an additional health and safety burden.

This program addresses some of these threats to public healthy by distributing insecticide-treated mosquito netting to communities, providing nutrition, food preparation and breast-feeding trainings at the household level, and educating people about other health services.  The total number of Haitians assisted by this program is expected to reach more than 50,000.  This project is supported by the American Red Cross International Response Fund.

Preparing Communities and Partners to Respond to Disasters

The aim of this project is to standardize the Haitian National Red Cross Society's method of preparing for and responding to disasters.   Activities include training of national society staff and volunteers on disaster preparedness best practices and implementing community-based education programs and disaster mitigation projects.
This program is a partnership between the American Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) and the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office.  It is also being implemented in Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Saint Lucia, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.  In combination with a previous program that included activities in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, this program is expected to benefit nearly 60,000 people. This program is supported by USAID/OFDA.

Helping Youth Prevent HIV/AIDS

Since 2004, Together We Can has worked to provide interactive HIV prevention messaging and skills-building to more than one million youth in three countries—Guyana, Haiti and Tanzania. The goal of the program is to educate youth to strengthen life skills, improve decision-making and encourage safer behavior. The program targets young people between the ages of 10-24 years with a special emphasis on hard-to-reach and vulnerable groups like out-of-school youth and girls. The program utilizes traditional classroom environments as well as non-traditional learning methods such as peer-to-peer advising, community events and entertainment-information sessions. Since June 2004, the Together We Can program in Haiti has reached more than 360,000 youth.  The program has recently expanded into two new regions of Haiti and started incorporating free condom distribution into its outreach. This project is funded by the U.S. Government President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

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