Our Story
How did we get here?
The story of Sustainable Healthcare for Haiti as it continues it’s mission to help Children in Haiti
Miriam (founder) was a PM responsible for developing a federally funded project for a health center. Interested members of her Synagogue approached her with an idea to build a hospital in Haiti. Miriam connected with a contractor (Neil) and architect (Sho-Ping) who pushed for the idea to develop a "sustainable" designed clinic that can thrive off-the-grid in remote locations
The 2010 Haiti earthquake occurred on January 12, near the capital city of Port-au-Prince. It was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake, with its epicenter about 25 kilometers (16 miles) west of the city. The quake caused widespread devastation, killing an estimated 230,000 people, injuring 300,000, and leaving 1.5 million homeless. Many buildings, including hospitals, schools, and government infrastructure, were destroyed or severely damaged. The disaster triggered an international humanitarian response, with aid pouring in from around the world. Despite these efforts, the recovery process was slow and hampered by logistical challenges and pre-existing socioeconomic issues in Haiti. Roughly 400k Haitian refugees fled to the valley of Jerusalem near Titanyen for safety due to Port-au-Prince's destruction.
A Haitian man, who was connected to Miriam through a mutual acquaintance, had just been granted land near Jerusalem, Haiti to build a children's hospital, orphanage, and school.
Miriam and team visited the site of the future hospital. Given the 400k displaced Haitians in the surrounding valley, it was obvious that the immediate need was to fund and drill a well to offer water to the masses. Miriam and team fundraised and completed the well while simultaneously designing the new children's hospital.
Michel Martelly, also known as "Sweet Micky," took office as the President of Haiti on May 14, 2011. The election resulted in no longer allowing the land near Jerusalem to be used for a school, orphanage, and children's hospital. The dream was gone until Miriam and team are introduced to Lyris through Sho-Ping and get connected to Father Charles in Titanyen.
In 2011, SHH was officially formed as a 501c3 based out of Boston, MA (Miriam and other founders home city).
Father Charles Moise is a Haitian Dominican Catholic priest who was granted land in Titanyen after the earthquake to build an orphanage and school. Food for the Poor designed, funded, and built dorms, school houses, communal buildings, and a church. Soon enough Father Charles had a 650 person school from K-12 as well as 85 orphans living full time.
SHH decided to continue with their original mission and re-focus on the children of Fondation Montesinos / Saint Dominiques Orphanage. The team agreed to design and fund the construction of a sustainable clinic on-site for the children and surrounding town as well as develop a program / idea to develop and deploy a Electronic Medical Record / Blueprint for every child to have access to their own personal medical information that is stored in the cloud and educational tool as well as a way to track their healthcare and wellbeing for life.
As mentioned Father Charles is a Dominican priest who reached out to his Dominican network for help. Father Patrick, the previous Dominican pastor at Saint Tom's in Purdue University decided to hear the call and bring college students to fund and help build a basketball court for the kids
Father Charles then humorously mentioned to Father Patrick as he and the Purdue college students were leaving after building the basketball court "can you come back and teach the kids how to play basketball?". Father Patrick then asked Joe Obermiller, Marc Conner, Dave Conner (Current SHH Treasurer), and members of his parish who had background with basketball to put on the camp.
Sho-Ping (key architect / founder) sadly passed away in 2016 from her fight with cancer. Her family soon after donated a significant amount of money to help the vision of the sustainable clinic come to life
On our 2nd annual basketball camp, Tommy Conner (Current SHH President) joined his dad Dave and Joe as well as a larger group of Purdue families and students to put on a week-long basketball camp for the kid. One day, we saw a woman walking down the hill toward us to the basketball court and saw her get bit by a bee and stumble to the ground. This woman was Miriam and thus, that was the inauspicious but fortuitous moment when SHH and the Purdue / US Advisory board met.
SHH members joined the kids and staff in Titanyen to design the clinic. SHH teams conducted design workshops with the children to understand what they wanted from a clinic. Later that year, designs were finalized and final funding continued.
Food for the Poor had built 3 chicken houses that were at the time empty. Tommy applied for a grant and won to provide funds for buying and developing chicken houses to both provide recurring revenue opportunities for the orphanage selling to the local town as well as offering vital protein to the children with the eggs.
The foundation has 2 wells, though drinking water was not clean / safe to drink. Therefor, SHH partnered with an engineer who designed a compact RO system and installed it within the fondation to provide clean drinking water for everyone. At the time, they were spending a lot of money on daily basis buying drinking water for all the kids / staff
On our 3rd annual basketball camp, Joe, Tommy, Dave, Marc, and an even larger group of Purdue students and families put on a week-long basketball camp. This year however, Father Patrick decided to bring students and teachers who specialize in music / band to allow for both basketball and band.
Kristin Conner (Current Board Member) provided funding for a pig farm, pigs, feed, etc. for the foundation to use as a revenue source with the mission at moving more and more towards a sustainable model.
Work for the Sho-Ping clinic was completed in December of 2018 and a ceremony kicked off for the grand opening. The clinic was stocked with all the necessary medicines, medical equipment, etc.
Chalice is a Canada and US based Catholic sponsorship program. They have been crucial partners with bringing stability, governance, and financial support to the fondation. It started with a meeting between the Conner family and Chalice representatives at a local Catholic church in Newburgh, IN (Saint Johns) where they discussed what a potential partnership could look like. Today Chalice is the largest and most vital partner for the continued success of the orphanage and surrounding town
ALOM is a medical organization founded and led by Dr. Vlad. SHH developed a partnership with them via Dr. Ellen Lawson (SHH Board member) to offer doctor, nurse, and psychologist services for the children utilizing the Sho-Ping clinic and ALOM clinic when necessary. Dr. Ellen, (current SHH board member) has played a key role in the ALOM partnership with her mission work in Haiti.
PetroCaribe fund mismanagement led to the drastic spike in inflation and caused fuel prices to spike. Soon protests took over the country with violence and unrest shutting down key roads / ports of entry
Due to persistent unrest, protests, and violence - the 4th annual basketball camp was canceled. Many of the US SHH and Purdue members have not been back since due to unrest and gang violence.
COVID took shape in Haiti as it did across the world. SHH provided COVID funding to help keep the children safe during that time
SHH designed and funded a courtyard / playground for the children of fondation Montesinos. Work began, but was never completed due to supply chain shortages and continued situations of violence and unrest
Unrest continued to spiral coming off the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise and increased gang control over many areas of Haiti.
Miriam was posting online on Twitter, when a company called We Are Lifer reached out to help! They specialize in Non-Profit volunteer work, website building, online and in-person fundraising. They helped setup Sustainable Healthcare for Haiti's website as well as create online fundraisers on their mobile app called Lifer, ran some campaigns and sold SHH merch for Giving Tuesday and the Holidays.
In March of 2023, the country was in complete chaos. Titanyen had been completely controlled by gangs and were constantly battling with police and other rival gangs. A teacher from the Fondation was shot on the way home from the school, one of the nuns who ran the school was kidnapped momentarily & released, and schools and businesses shut down. Bullets were hitting the side of the church and dorms as the children and staff all huddled in a building for safety. A plan was devised with FFP, Chalice, and SHH to evacuate the children and staff via Tap-Tap in the early morning hours before the shooting began
The children of Saint Dominiques orphanage and staff evacuated to Port-au-Prince and found temporary housing with the help of Chalice.
A gap had become more and more obvious with the kids moving out of the orphanage and into University, trade school, or the workforce. They were not prepared to live successful lives on their own. Our Purdue & SHH team partnered with Kids Connection Haiti to provide critical workshops, one-one coaching, and guidance for Life Skills, Professional Development, and Career Search. They have been wonderful at helping our kids determine what their future looks like, what it takes, and how to achieve
After years of partnering with each other across initiatives such as the water system, security wall, solar panels, and many more initiatives, the teams from the original US Advisory Board / Purdue / Saint Tom's as well as SHH join into one combined team under SHH.
With the return to Titanyen in question, the children and staff are getting used to life living in the capital. They are enjoying a few months of reduced violence and hope for a safer future. Kids are going to school, a large house has been rented for the orphanage, and a transition house has been funded for the young adults 18 and older. Given the kids and staff are no longer living on their own fondation for free, there exists significant new expenses for rent, transportation, food, etc. Food for the Poor, Chalice and each contributing donor are critical to the continuing development of each child in our care.
With SHH and Saint Tom's advisory board combining, and issues with SHH's online presence and relocation to PAP, there was a need for a new website and a complete redo of content. We Are Lifer helped with making the new website a reality by providing their expertise in this space.
