Providing Much-Needed Healthcare in Asile Comunal

Clinic set up in Asile Comunal.
Clinic set up in Asile Comunal.
Ron Libby, USAID
USAID-Funded Health Teams Treat 300 Patients Per Week in Asile Comunal

The January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti devastated hospitals, clinics, and other health facilities across Port-au-Prince, leaving thousands of residents without access to critical health services when they needed them most. With funding from USAID, Project Concern International (PCI) initiated a strategy to meet the needs of local families directly, while strengthening capacity of local NGOs and health providers to restore their services.

In Asile Comunal, situated in Belair, one of the most dangerous urban slums of Port-au-Prince, PCI and its community partners removed rubble and established a health clinic in partnership with the Centre D’Accueil et de Récupération des Personnes du 3ème Age (CARPA), a local Haitian NGO.

The clinic is staffed with a doctor, nurses, and volunteers from local universities, as well as a mobile health team. Serving an estimated 300 people per week, of which 69 percent are women and 14 percent are children under the age of five, the clinic provides services for a large population of elderly people who were displaced when the earthquake caused damage to their retirement home.

USAID funding for this health clinic in Belair is complemented by PCI-implemented programs in gender-based violence prevention; child protection; water, sanitation and hygiene; cashfor- work; and emergency shelter.

With assistance from USAID and in coordination with the Government of Haiti Ministry of Health, PCI has erected four community health clinics and utilizes nine mobile health teams to provide basic health services and outreach to community members in Belair, Nazon and Avenue Poupelard, Croix Deprez, and Fort National.

As of July 6, USAID had provided more than $54 million in health assistance in response to the earthquake

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