Haiti earthquake: two years on
Following the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, Sightsavers has supported our partner Société Haïtienne D’Aide aux Aveugles (SHAA - Haitian Society for the Blind) to provide emergency food relief that helped nearly 4,000 people. Our support also included cash grants for 125 families, which covered basic necessities in the aftermath of the disaster in the short term, and to help restore livelihoods in the long term.
We also supported our partners Comité National de Prévention de la Cécité (CNPC - National Prevention of Blindness Committee) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to carry out a post-earthquake assessment and planning meeting for eye health and inclusive services.
New premises
Sightsavers also supported SHAA’s relocation to a temporary office as their original office in Port-au-Prince was demolished. Their new office has now been built and they move in on the 23 February, in time to celebrate their 60th anniversary! Sightsavers will also work to equip the new office with a new vision center and in-house spectacle lab. These will provide services through a project funded by the European Union.
This project has also helped to equip a vision centre at the Eliazar Germain Hospital in Petionville, Port au Prince. Equipment for an operating theatre at the same location has unfortunately been held up in customs, but we expect it to clear any day, so surgical services can start.
Training eye care staff
To date, this project has also supported the training of 100 Haitian primary health care workers to screen and refer people with eye problems. More primary health care workers will be trained in 2012, and we will also support the training of three ophthalmologists.
Also in the pipeline for 2012 is starting three more vision centres, two operating theatres and training more eye care workers such as optometrists and refractionists to screen for long and short-sightedness, low vision specialists and technicians to work in the spectacle labs.
Although Haiti faces unique and at times overwhelming challenges, we continue to make progress. This is largely due to the professionalism, dedication and commitment of our partners Société Haïtienne D’Aide aux Aveugles and Comité National de Prévention de la Cécité, and we extend our gratitude to them.
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