Partnerships at Work

UUSC’s grants attempt to serve people who are the most marginalized and overlooked by mainstream aid efforts, including youth and women. UUSC also focuses on building capacity at the local level for long-term sustainability.

UUSC believes that justice is aid with dignity — aid that addresses the rights of earthquake survivors to safety and security, to assistance and recovery, and to rebuild their homes and livelihoods.

ActionAid enabled neighborhood groups that work with two Haitian organizations, the Platform of Community Organizations of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Zone (COZPAM) and the Regional Coordination of Southeast Organizations (CROSE), to access and distribute emergency relief supplies to earthquake survivors in Jacmel and Mariani in Port-au-Prince.

After the earthquake, my situation with my family was very difficult. We went through some very difficult times. For a long period, we had no food to eat. In the Bon Berger Camp where we stay, now things are looking better. ActionAid and COZPAM gave us a lot of support and also made sure that all women in the Bon Berger Camp felt at ease. A sanitary kit was distributed to each family in the camp. It contained hygiene pads, toilet paper, toothbrushes for adults and children, toothpaste, soap, bathing towels, shampoo, bed covers, pillow covers, and a tablecloth. It is nice to see that they thought about our needs. That made us feels very special. Thank you!"

—Nadege Auguste

Association for the Promotion of Integral Family Healthcare (APROSIFA) works with the community to improve the poor physical and mental health of earthquake-affected children, youth, and their families in six marginal communities of Carrefour through a multipronged approach of nutritional therapy, parental support, art therapy, income support, and expanded health care. 

Beyond Borders supports a pilot program in 10 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) to raise awareness of child-protection issues and to attempt to reduce child abuse and slavery. The program uses the modalities of Open Space dialogue and Education is a Conversation. The initial project will also result in the creation of ongoing community-approved child-protection committees.

International Relief Teams provides much-needed medical supplies to hospitals in Hinche and the Artibonite that are caring for injured earthquake survivors from devastated areas of Port-au-Prince. Also supports the delivery of medical supplies to the Association for Haitian Physicians Abroad (AHPA) who are caring for survivors in Port-au-Prince and Petit Goave.

KOFAVIV (Komisyon Fanm Viktim pou Viktim, or the Commission of Women Victims for Victims) addresses gender-based violence (GBV), which has been on the rise since the earthquake, especially in IDP camps. KOFAVIV offers direct services to survivors of violence, trains GBV agents to work in the camps, and conducts education and awareness activities. With UUSC support, they are also training 120 women in business development. In addition, UUSC supports KOFAVIV's work with girls orphaned by the earthquake who are turning to prostitution out of desperation, to train them in income-generating activities like jewelry production. UUSC has teamed with other funders to help KOFAVIV reestablish their office, which was destroyed in the earthquake, so that they can resume providing a full range of services.

Konbit Fanm SAJ (KFS) assists 75 women earthquake survivors in the Bel Air and Fort National areas of Port-au-Prince, who are living in informal camps run by the KFS-affiliated group Saj Veye Yo, to recover their livelihoods and become economically independent.

Lambi Fund provides immediate emergency water, food, shelter, and medical care to earthquake survivors who fled to the rural areas, through local groups and a grassroots network.

Pierre Antoinier St.-Cyr is the Lambi Fund field monitor in the south. His 80-year-old mother has 39 people living with her in the aftermath of the earthquake. This is an example of how much families in Haiti have been impacted by the influx of displaced families from Port-au-Prince to the rural areas. The St.-Cyr family was one of the households assisted through the UUSC grant, which enabled Mrs. St.-Cyr to buy clothes, food, medicine, and other essentials and infuse the local economy.

Other Worlds supports a multimedia education and movement-building collaborative that lifts up the voices of grassroots Haitians to ensure their participation in a just and equitable rebuilding of Haiti. Like UUSC, Other Worlds works with people whose voices would not otherwise be heard. In the spirit of "Nothing about us without us," Other World's emphasis is garnering visibility and power for Haitians who have been marginalized in the redevelopment process and overlooked by foreign humanitarian efforts and the mainstream media. 

Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP) provided immediate emergency water, food, transport, medical care and shelter for two months to earthquake survivors who left Port-au-Prince in search of help in the Central Plateau. Also created temporary employment opportunities through community service projects, including the renewal of a potable water source for a local village and a soil-conservation project for over 1,200 people. This pilot project was immediately taken up by another agency and multiplied.

One of MPP's projects, the Road to Life Yard program, conducts workshops to teach farmers about tire gardens (called “piloti” in Haitian Creole) and a variety of other proven agricultural techniques. According to MPP, a single tire can generate over $200 a year in produce, growing enough food to feed a family, with produce left over to sell at the market. More than 100 families are now using them.

Partnership for Local Development (OPDL)/Groundswell provided temporary employment opportunities, through nine peasant organizations in rural Haiti, for 900 IDPs. Participants earned funds to resume the education of youth and cultivated food security by working on projects that contribute to the sustainable development of the rural communities where they currently reside.

When OPDL invited me to participate in this soil conservation and road-improvement project, it was like a gift from Heaven! With the money I earned, I paid part of the annual school fees and bought shoes and a uniform to go back to school. I am in sixth grade. Honestly, if I did not get this part-time job, I would not have gone back to school. Instead I would have gone to the Dominican Republic to support myself and my family. Please keep doing these kinds of projects. They allow us farm families to live like human beings!

—Jordany, 23 years old

Trauma Resource Institute (TRI) builds local capacity in mental-health stabilization of the underserved Haitian population affected by the earthquake, addressing the affects of trauma and training community workers (80 so far) in trauma-resiliency techniques.

I want to let you know that this training is the greatest gift and the best tool you could give the young Haitian people; I want to give special thanks on behalf of all the participants.

—A participant of the TRI training