Projects
Sarah moved to Jacmel in 2008. She knew it would be important to live in the community, building relationships and establishing her reputation. In the first year, Sarah instituted educational classes on nutrition, hygiene, and information on pregnancy for the people of the community. She was the midwife for numerous mothers in the area, providing prenatal care and assisting in the delivery of their babies. Sarah maintained contact with these mothers with postnatal care and baby wellness check-ups. Throughout the year, Sarah also took in some very malnourished babies and, after setting up a nutritious feeding program, was pleased to be able to hand them back to their mothers in good health. Sarah also started craft classes for a small group of teenaged boys in the community. They learned a variety of different crafts using recycled plastic bags, bottles, and coconuts.
Our projects for this year are:
Maternity Center:
In Olive Tree Projects' first year in Jacmel, we learned that the only birthing options for women in Jacmel and the surrounding areas were to deliver at the public hospital, deliver with an expensive, private doctor, or deliver at home, alone or with a traditional Haitian midwife.
Jacmel alone is 40,000 strong. Including Jacmel’s surrounding communities, it’s population is closer to 150,000. A population that large, with a birth rate of 35 per 1,000 per year, needs to have capacity for almost 450 births a month. The public hospital has the capacity to handle only 80 – 100 births per month; however, they have been delivering close to 150 babies some months. We want to help increase Jacmel's capacity to provide healthy birth environments. We hope to serve a population of 12,000 people, handling approximately 35 births a month, and offering prenatal, delivery, and post delivery care.
We recognize the importance of first trimester prenatal care, but realize that there is no way of enforcing that women receive care in their first few months of pregnancy. In response to this, we’ve begun identifying and meeting with ‘volunteer moms’ who are responsible for attending monthly classes where they learn the signs of pregnancy and the importance of prenatal care. These women will identify pregnancies of friends, family, and neighbours in their communities in time to refer them to us for first trimester prenatal care.
Malnutrition Program:
Many children in Haiti are living with malnutrition. It is often not a lack of food, but a lack of nutritious food that is causing the malnutrition. Simply providing a nutritious diet may sustain the child, but this isn't always enough to bring the child out of malnutrition. We are offering weekly nutritional classes for the mothers of the malnourished children while monitoring the growth of these children who are being treated with a three month course of Medika Mamba, a highly fortified peanut butter meal. www.mfkhaiti.org
Project ‘Amen’:
In Creole, amen means by hand. We have a class of boys, ages 10 – 18, who are learning to make jewelry, toys, and decorations out of readily available resources such as coconuts and garbage. Their work will be sold to visitors in Haiti and at OTP fundraisers. Fifty percent of what these boys earn will go into a savings that they may access when they have graduated from school and are ready to get post-secondary education.