2021 was a challenging year for Haiti and the world.
We started the year with hopes of returning to some sense of normalcy but Haiti was hit with one colossal challenge after another. Our hearts sank further each time, but we made it our goal to get back up stronger than before knowing that we’re our families’ only safety net. As we reflect on the year, we’re incredibly grateful to have your support to fight harder for our families after each setback. We’re also so proud to have a set of achievements and outcomes under our belts that continues to make our community stronger. We end the year with leadership in place in our community to see our work through, and a model to scale to new communities that can benefit from it. You’ll find a summary of our impact below.
OUR GOAL: To place two heads of households into good, dignified jobs.
Health
Our objective: to provide open access to medical care so illnesses no longer stand in the way of progress
Education
Our objective: to ensure our children have consistent access to education and the opportunity to complete high school
Workforce Development
Our objective: to accompany families to into dignified work so they can end poverty for themselves
Family & Community Services
Our objective: to build leadership and resiliency with our community so they can succeed independently long term
In Menelas and Truitier, we served 352 family members in 2021. Our impact included:
Health: 100% of families receive open access to medical care, avoiding cases of emergency while building capacity for families to advocate for their own health outcomes. This includes education and support for the prevention of COVID-19, resulting in 0 cases.
Education: All but 1 of our school-aged kids are in school through our education program. 90% of our students advanced to the next grade level.
We currently have 2 programs for our 14 young adults who have either completed or are no longer eligible for secondary school. 50% of this group is in our Higher Education and the other half are in our Job Program.
Workforce Development: 47% of our heads of households are in a job preparation or job training program. The remaining 53% are working with our team to build the capacity at home to address essential needs so they can begin job programming.
We also added 9 new businesses to the community this year.
Family and Community Services: Community leaders are recognized as a source of information, a resource to turn to and are a part of our implementation team during emergencies.
Our housing program supported rentals
Our emergency support program provided critical support to over 2,760 family members across all of Haiti, including families in Menelas and Truitier and our entire First Mile collectors network. We also supported 88 collectors and their families in Les Cayes after the 7.2 earthquake in August with essential supplies. Our construction team is currently making repairs and building new homes for these families.
We couldn’t have facilitated the emergency response work that was needed in Haiti this year without your support. Hear from our team in Haiti about the impact you helped us make after the earthquake.
In the new year, we will continue to progress forward with our existing families, and expand our footprint first by onboarding our next 50 family members in Menelas and Truitier and 5 new First Mile communities across Port-au-Prince, serving over 1,000 family members.
Expanding our footprint in Port-au-Prince
Within our First Mile program, we completed an assessment of surrounding landfill communities within Port-au-Prince to introduce our work to the informal waste collectors there and to get to know them.
Hear firsthand from our First Mile Impact Manager Richardson Antoine, and Christie Saint-Croix, Program Manager, about this growing impact as they described it to our Bright Futures, our virtual annual gala participants. Thanks to HP, who provided new resources for us to expand our work.
We aspire to make the most use of our model to communities who need us.
This year, we’ve assessed the needs in Taiwan and Honduras, two existing First Mile supply chains. Having begun to learn from the local community of waste collectors, we’re currently designing a program for our network in Hualien, Taiwan to be launched in the new year sponsored by PUMA, a First Mile partner.
We’ve also had the honor of visiting communities similar to Menelas and Truitier, where informal waste collectors are doing the critical work of removing as much plastic material from the environment as possible. There, we learned about their work, their achievements, and their challenges, so that we can assess the applicability of our model to their communities. We’ve visited Accra and Takoradi-Sekondi in Ghana, Anchorage, Alaska, the Flathead Reservation in Montana, São Paulo, Brazil, and have more visits currently undergoing the planning phase that we will make in the new year.