For over 30 years, Project Medishare has been an oasis of health care and support in Haiti, especially for women and children. We provide comprehensive maternal and child health services in rural communities of the central plateau.
Alongside this, our in-home and in-school nutrition programs delivered more than 128,000 meals to children during this past school year and screened over 55,000 children for malnutrition. Kids must eat to stay healthy and succeed in school, but due to funding cuts, we had to discontinue our school lunch program for this school year, which will have devastating consequences for school children in the communities we serve.
Renee Lewis is the executive director of Project Medishare. (courtesy, Renee Lewis)
Until this spring, about one-third of this work was supported through USAID. But when USAID programs in Haiti were dismantled in January, our funding came to an abrupt halt. Despite escalating violence and insecurity caused by gangs and political unrest, Project Medishare has continued operating — delivering lifesaving health services to vulnerable families. Still, this loss of funding has left us urgently seeking emergency philanthropy to sustain our clinics and programs. Now, without emergency support, Project Medishare will be forced to close our doors in December after more than three decades of service to Haiti’s most vulnerable populations.
We are not alone. Dozens of organizations providing essential care in Haiti face similar crises.
Together, we join the call for Congress to take a stand for continued, effective U.S. foreign assistance — funding that fights acute hunger, infectious disease, maternal mortality and child survival challenges like pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. For families living in extreme poverty, these are life-and-death issues.
There is hope. Since 2003, the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (or PEPFAR) has saved the lives of more than 26 million people around the world. This efficient, effective bilateral program has provided critical U.S. global health leadership to end the AIDS epidemic worldwide. In Haiti, thanks in large part to the PEPFAR, since 2010, HIV infection rates have dropped by 59%, and AIDS-related deaths have decreased by 72%.
Though PEPFAR experienced funding freezes earlier this year, the State Department unveiled a strategy in September to keep commodities and frontline health workers at the center of this program to ensure that we continue to lead the world in the dramatic decline of AIDS infection and death. Alongside AIDS, they also seek to end the malaria and tuberculosis epidemics as well.
We cannot afford to lose this progress in Haiti or in other nations around the world. And sustaining U.S. investment in global health is not just a win for Haiti — it is a win for Americans, too, creating a safer, stronger and more prosperous world for all.
Project Medishare will weather the storm, continuing to provide a beacon of hope and health for Haiti’s mothers and children. But we cannot do it alone. We need continued support — both from U.S. foreign assistance and from generous donors — to ensure our clinics remain open and vulnerable families continue to receive care.
We urge Florida members of Congress Mario Diaz-Balart, Maria Salazar and Brian Mast to support legislation and funding for lifesaving programs like Project Medishare and PEPFAR that protect the health of mothers, children and families in Haiti and around the world.
Renee Lewis is the executive director of Project Medishare.