Commonly Searched Questions
How do nonprofits operate during civil unrest/crisis?
Heartline Haiti has continued to operate during the crisis in Haiti by making rapid adaptations to our policies and procedures. Examples include temporary closures of campuses to ensure safety, adjusting our Children’s Education program to allow families to choose the safest school for their children, and reducing transports to and from our Maternity Center. Heartline’s continued operation is possible because of our Haitian team’s intimate knowledge of conditions on the ground. We trust them to identify threats and hazards and respond accordingly.
What is the status of the crisis in Haiti?
Haiti continues to experience its most violent and unpredictable period in recent history. There is still, years and years into this crisis, no elected government, and no signs of elections in the near future. Gangs control an estimated 90-95% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city. Heartline Haiti continues to operate our Maternal & Infant Healthcare, Children’s Education, Community Care, and Scholarship Fund programs, and we hope to reopen our adult-focused Career Training programs at the Heartline Education & Employment Campus soon.
What charities are still operating in Haiti?
Many charities and other NGOs have left Haiti in recent years, due to safety concerns or cuts in funding from USAID. Heartline Haiti is still operating in Port-au-Prince, largely due to our 100% Haitian staff on the ground.
What is the state of maternal healthcare in Haiti? What challenges do mothers face in Haiti?
Access to maternal healthcare in Haiti is extremely limited. The vast majority of clinics and hospitals have been shut down due to gang violence or other outcroppings of the crisis in Haiti. Heartline Haiti’s Maternity Center in Port-au-Prince is still operational, providing 1:1 care all the way from pregnancy tests to postpartum classes.
How can we fight back against maternal mortality rates?
One way to fight back against maternal mortality in the developing world is to support Heartline Haiti, a nonprofit organization based in Port-au-Prince Haiti. Heartline is nearing 2,000 births at its Maternity Center, and has never lost a mother in childbirth. At Heartline, Haitian nurses and midwives provide prenatal, labor, and postpartum care to Haitian mothers.
Who provides maternal care in Haiti? Do any charities provide maternal care?
At the few remaining hospitals in Haiti, costs can be prohibitive for the average Haitian mother, so most maternal care in Haiti is provided by local midwives. Heartline Haiti’s Maternity Center in Port-au-Prince has provided affordable maternal & infant healthcare to Haitian mothers since 2007, through an all-Haitian staff of nurses and midwives.
How does education work in Haiti? Do any charities offer educational programs?
There is no functional public education system in Haiti – even K-12 students are responsible for the costs of tuition, uniforms, books, and transportation. For many Haitian families, those costs are simply too high. Heartline Haiti’s Children’s Education program connects overseas supporters with Haitian children, and for less than $100 a month, covers all those costs (and more!) so that students can focus on their education and families have the support they need. After graduating primary and secondary school, those students have an opportunity to pursue higher education through Heartline’s Scholarship Fund.
What does it look like to sponsor a student in Haiti?
At Heartline Haiti, sponsoring a student doesn’t just mean paying for books and tuition. It’s a holistic program – so your monthly gift also helps the student with school supplies, uniforms, food, transportation expenses – even family needs when they affect the student’s education. Heartline’s program aims to support the whole student so they can get the best education possible.
What college education options exist in Haiti?
Colleges and other postsecondary institutions are relatively uncommon in Haiti, and the vast majority of Haitians will never step foot inside one. But they do exist – universities and trade schools and technical colleges. Through Heartline Haiti’s Scholarship Fund, students who couldn’t otherwise afford to continue their education have their tuition covered, so they have a chance to achieve the education they dream of.
What happens to kids who graduate from sponsorship programs?
Through Heartline Haiti’s Scholarship Fund, high-achieving graduates of our student sponsorship program have an opportunity to attend a college or university. Through a rigorous interview process, students are selected for the program by local Heartline staff. Heartline works alongside these young scholars to identify transportation, secure supplies, and complete applications, tests, and other prerequisites (on top of providing the funding they need for tuition and books).
What are prisons like in Haiti? Do any charities work in Haiti’s prisons?
Prisons in Haiti are some of the world’s most overcrowded – most prisoners are still awaiting trial and haven’t been convicted of anything. Disease spreads rapidly and malnutrition is a constant threat. Heartline Haiti’s Community Care team has visited prisons for men, women, and children weekly for over a decade, bringing food, medicine, and companionship with them.
Why should I support Heartline Haiti?
Heartline Haiti invests in Haitian families, holistically addressing the root causes of material poverty through maternal & infant healthcare, career training, children’s education, and community care. There are many worthy causes all over the world, but we’d humbly offer that Heartline offers a unique impact proposition to Haitian families. Our Haiti operations, unlike many organizations, are 100% staffed by locals – Haitians who speak Creole, who know their communities, who live our mission every day. In an era where most international NGOs have left Haiti, Heartline has carried on its mission amid a crumbling government and what is functionally a civil war, because we rely on Haiti’s own people – and supporters all over the globe who believe in them as much as we do.
64% of our operating funds come from individual donors – almost half of whom give less than $500 every year. Heartline holds a Platinum Transparency rank from Candid and a four-star rating from CharityNavigator, both the highest ratings available.
Heartline is in it for the long haul, and we firmly believe that Haiti’s rise will come from within. It will be found in the Haitian people and we’re here to invest in the foundation - Haitian families.
