Four Years since the Earthquake Patients Have Tripled and 30,000 Children are at Risk of Being Turned Away!
Nearly four years since the earthquake, St. Damien Pediatric Hospital, the most modern pediatric facility of its kind in the country has seen their patients tripled – an increase of 60,000 annually. Without additional funding, they risk turning away 30,000 children.
“Since the earthquake, poor sanitation and widespread poverty have led to young children here being 15 times more likely to die from diarrhea and pneumonia than HIV/AIDS,” emphasizes Father Rick Frechette, D.O., Director, Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) Haiti.
“In America these are very preventable diseases but our resources are shrinking and there is an urgent need for funding to help us sustain our work in the community so that this emergency situation doesn’t become an even greater catastrophe.”
Please view this video for a better understanding of the dire situation faced by St. Damien Pediatric Hospital
NPH USA is helping transform thousands of lives through the support of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos/Nos Petit Frères et Soeurs (NPH/NPFS Spanish and French for “Our Little Brothers and Sisters”). Since 1987, NPH/NPFS has operated the St. Helene home in Haiti for orphaned and abandoned children. While the initial goal of NPFS was to build this permanent home, the large number of children dying from treatable illnesses showed a desperate need for a hospital that could treat chronic and other debilitating pediatric illnesses.
Funded through private contributions to NPH worldwide, St. Damien Pediatric Hospital provides high quality medical treatment for disadvantaged and sick children in Haiti. More than half of all patients are admitted for an infectious disease such as tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV while 25% are admitted for non-infectious diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and kidney infection. Most patients admitted are also malnourished. The outpatient clinic treats 100 children daily, for acute, parasitic, and bacterial infections. In specialized clinics, chronic conditions such as sickle cell anemia, congenital heart diseases (CHD), tuberculosis and cancer are treated for months or years if needed. St. Damien Pediatric Hospital and associated public health programs of NPFS reach over 90,000 women and children annually.
The St. Damien Pediatric Hospital Fund supports the budget necessary to run the hospital and provide support programs to the Haitian community. In a country where 1/3 of the population is under 14-years old, improvements in pediatric health are a vital and necessary requirement towards Haiti’s economic, social, and political development. St. Damien Pediatric Hospital offers children a place to receive first-rate quality and dignified healthcare regardless of their social level.
90% of every dollar that St. Damien receives goes towards providing high-quality life-saving medical care. Please help save the lives of children in Haiti.
To donate and learn more about St. Damien Pediatric Hospital, please visit www.nphusa.org/stdamien.
