Haiti is a small country located on the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, carrying a population of 11.72 million. Many problems are actively eroding the country’s prosperity, including poverty, poor health care and malnutrition. UNICEF reports that only 41% of Haitians live above the poverty line and malnutrition affects approximately 25% of children living in the capital. Amid all this anguish, many non-profits have started up in Haiti to help its citizens prosper and flourish. One in particular is Zanmi Lasante, a sister organization of the multi-national NGO Partners In Health, which operates in 11 countries and employs 18,000 workers worldwide.

Zanmi Lasante: HIV Initaitives

Established in the 1980s, Zanmi Lasante has impacted many Haitians. It supports many causes including HIV/AIDS reduction, mental health, nutrition and water sanitation.

In 1990, Zanmi Lasante created an HIV Equity Narrative to supply antiretroviral drugs to poor, rural areas. Patients who have been diagnosed with HIV early on can receive these drugs to prevent its replication. The organization also employs many community workers who distribute medicine to patients and care for them at home. The program also holds screening programs to detect the virus. So far, the program has tested more than 100,000 for HIV this year and an estimated 15,000 people have received antiretroviral drugs during the same period.

Mental Health

Zanmi Lasante expanded its range in 2005 and started focusing on alleviating mental health issues in Haiti; it improved its services in 2012 and now employs community health workers, nurses and psychologists who support patients with depression, epilepsy, psychotic disorders and children with psychological issues. The organization has also created the Zanmi Lasante Depression Symptom Inventory, which is a depression assessment tool manual written in Haitian Creole.

Zanmi Lasante held more than 9,000 therapy visits annually. From July 2023 to June 2024, it held 385 community outreach programs and 408 learning seminars regarding psychological issues.

Malnutrition and Hygiene

Furthermore, since 2013, Zanmi Lasante has been producing the food item Nourimaba, which is an extremely nutritious paste that it distributes for free among Haitians suffering from malnutrition. The organization makes Nourimaba from peanuts, milk powder, canola oil, sugar and vitamins. Consuming this for less than two months consistently can restore a severely malnourished child to health. Today, Zanmi Lasante successfully produces more than 120 metric tons of Nourimaba each year.

In order to improve Haiti’s water sanitation, the NGO provides soap to numerous hand-washing areas and improves old plumbing infrastructure by putting in newer pipes that connect to pure water reserves. The organization targets more than 50,000 people with these activities per year.

Partners In Health and Zanmi Lasante are making big changes in Haiti and increasing the country’s living standards daily. This non-profit’s work is likely to make even more improvements for Haitians and drastically reduce poverty, hunger, and sickness rates in the future.

– Mustafa Tareen

Mustafa is based in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan and focuses on Global Health and Celebs for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash