This spring semester, all the Global Health Fellows, Classes of 2016, 2017, and 2018, have worked to analyze the data collected during the needs assessment survey they conducted in rural Haiti in November 2014. After identifying the critical needs expressed by the community, the fellows have broken into smaller vertical groups to explore the following topics: Water treatment (biosand filters); Shoe distribution; Scholarships for secondary school (potentially partnering with the Upper School French Club to do this); Human waste management (latrines); Handwashing; Nutrition; School garden; Energy poverty (distributing the Luci lights sold during the December fundraiser); Clean cook stoves. The GHFs will present on these topics at the Spring Symposium on Wednesday, May 20. The Classes of 2016 and 2018 will travel to Haiti for a week in June to implement some of the projects stemming from this research.

Please come out and hear what the Fellows have been up to!

It’s Giving Tuesday in the United States, and in the aftermath of our week in Haiti, the Global Health Fellows were inspired to raise awareness on energy poverty around the world and raise funds to be able to distribute more Luci lights to families in need in rural Haiti.

The Global Health Fellows gave presentations in both Middle School and Upper School chapels this morning to share the following message and charge to the Norfolk Academy community:

Over 1.2 billion people worldwide, or 20% of the world’s population, are living without access to electricity. The majority of these people live in developing countries. The total darkness you are experiencing right now is what people in developing countries experience every night.

This is a satellite image of the world at night and offers a clear illustration of the divide between those who have light and those who don’t. It is shocking to see how much of the world experiences energy poverty. Light is incredibly powerful and offers so many opportunities for communities experiencing energy poverty. Electricity provides the opportunity for improved education, human health, communication and entertainment, comfort, protection, convenience, and productivity. When the sun goes down, peoples’ lives stop. A simple trip at night to the bathroom can result in injury and sometimes even sexual assault. With light, however, this risk decreases significantly. If you simply give light to a family, you change their lives forever.

Here is a satellite image of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico at night. Haiti is located on the same island as the Dominican Republic and is outlined in green on the screen. The only light you see is the capital city of Port au Prince. It is evident how rampant energy poverty is in Haiti. While Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, it also has the most ineffective power grid. Out of Haiti’s 9.6 million people, only an estimated 25% have access to electricity.

As many of you know, the Global Health Fellows were in Haiti last week. During our time there, we conducted a needs assessment survey in a rural community in the central plateau region to learn more about the needs of the community. We found that one of the many challenges the community faces is a lack of light during the night. Specifically in rural settings that are far from major cities, access to electricity is such a rarity. For many communities, the sun is the last light seen every day. The Norfolk Academy community, however, has an opportunity to impact the energy poverty facing rural Haiti.

During our week in Haiti, we distributed solar-powered lights called Luci lanterns to community members who participated in our needs assessment survey. After we handed them out, their faces lit up and you could see their ecstatic smiles as they were so happy to finally have a reliable and durable light source. Sadly, we were not able to provide every family with one of these lanterns. These lanterns are created by Mpowered, an organization that designed the lanterns in the aftermath of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, which left many people without electricity. The Luci lanterns are solar-powered, durable, waterproof, and can emit light for up to 6-12 hours. After seeing the impact these lights can have, we hope to provide more of these lanterns to the community. While we understand that Luci lights are not a longterm solution, they provide a cost-effective, innovative, and immediate benefit for rural Haiti.

Luci Lights Video

In order to distribute more Luci lights in rural Haiti, we need your help. During this season of lights, you can give the gift of light. For $15, you can purchase a Luci light for a family in Haiti while honoring one of your loved ones. For each light you buy, you will receive a holiday card that you can give to a friend or family member as a gift. You can buy these cards at the bookstore or from a Global Health Fellow during break or H bell. You can charge it to your bookstore account, bring in money, or even make out a check to Norfolk Academy. This card will give one Luci lantern to a Haitian family in need. We hope you will join us in giving the gift of light this holiday season.

(Graham Barbour ’17 and Nathalie Danso ’17): We woke up to a final day of interviewing and experiencing the wonderful culture of Haiti. Although this was our last day, morale was high despite the torrid climate and long day we faced. At 7:30 we departed for Rivage, a community on the banks of the Guayamouc River in Hinche, eager to meet the community and conduct a needs assessment of a second locale.

Arriving at the local school in Rivage, we were startled at how poor and minimal it was, assembled of only wood, tarp walls, and a tin roof. Despite the outward appearance of the school, the students inside told an entirely different story. With smiles on their faces, they happily greeted us, welcoming us into their school. Oxanne, the leader of school, with her son, Gampson, greeted us with many a hug and many words of thanks. Soon after, we assembled into our groups and began our interviews.

Leader of the Day, Helen Shaves, introducing our group to the students in Rivage.

We immediately recognized the drastic differences between Clory, where we have been conducting interviews the last few days, and this more urban community, Rivage. Despite our initial impressions from the school, the community proved much better off. As we continued throughout the town,  the large wealth gap between the communities became apparent. Most of the residents in Rivage had electricity and easily accessible (yet pricey) drinking water, compared to Clory where there was none. Even though Rivage was much better off than Clory, it had challenges of its own. For example, the school in Rivage lacked tremendously compared to Clory, and the sheer density of houses and people was overwhelming. As our last interview came to a close, we were all hot and tired but excited at the prospect of making a difference in these communities in the near future.

Rejuvenated by a long break over lunch, we departed with zeal, crammed into the pink jeep like sardines. Dividing into our separate cohorts, the ’18s experienced the wonders of the girls orphanage of Maison Fortune, while the ’17s fed children at the Azil. Stuart Luter headed back to Rivage for Stuart to meet the seventeen thirteen-year old girls that will be participating in her women’s empowerment curriculum in the coming months.

Stuart meeting the girls in Rivage who will be participating in her women’s empowerment curriculum.

(Hunt Stockwell ‘18): After Claire danced her way to fame among the children, the rest of us enjoyed painting nails, blowing bubbles, braiding hair and playing soccer. We played a keep away soccer game with the girls (who were all much better than us) that everyone joined in on. We all had a great time at the orphanage and it is definitely a place I would love to visit again next time I return to Haiti.

Making friends at Maison Fortune Orphanage.

(Graham/Nathalie): Having visited the Azil (Mother Theresa’s Home for Malnourished Children) on our last trip to Haiti, we were eager to see it again. As soon as we walked in, a cup of porridge was thrust into our hands and we happily began feeding the children. Nathalie holstered three infants, Ryan bounced two girls on his knees, and Graham raced around on hands and knees, chasing a little boy throughout the room and under cribs.

Highlights of the day:

Gabi: Playing at the orphanages

Hunt: At the orphanage when we were playing keep-away soccer, they would always laugh at Lawson and me when we were in the middle.

Olivia: visiting the orphanage, Maison Fortuné, and singing  High School Musical with the coolest 14 year-old girl.

Helen: playing with the little kids at the Azil who used us as jungle gyms and would not let go.

Ryan: Getting a hug from Oxanne and walking to get Coke from the stand down the street from the house.

Stuart: Running the first introduction workshop with Oxanne and 17 young girls. It made me super excited and hopeful for the future of my curriculum.

Justine:Playing at the Azil with the malnourished children

Elizabeth: Going to Maison Fortuné and playing with all the kids. They new a lot of English and they were so playful and joyful

Claire: The little girls played Justin Bieber on my phone.

Nathalie: Having a little boy at the Azil fall asleep on me.

Graham: Doing the needs assessment in Rivage and experiencing a whole new aspect of Haitian life.

This post was written by Hunt Stockwell ’18 and Lawson Montgomery ’18.

The alarm went off at 6 o’clock this morning. We were all tired from the exhausting day before but managed to make ourselves our own breakfast that consisted mostly of eggs, fruit, and Nutella with bread. After that we got our supplies for the day ready and stumbled into Midwives for Haiti’s pink jeep and had a wonderfully bumpy ride to the school in Clory, a rural community about 30 minutes outside Hinche.

Midwives for Haiti’s famous pink jeep.

We split into our four groups to conduct a needs assessment of the community. We have worked for the past month to design a series of questions to ask community members to assess their needs. The groups were Natalie, Olivia, and Hunt; Ryan, Elizabeth, and Gabi; Helen, Claire, and Lawson; Justine and Graham. Each group was also accompanied by a translator and a member of the local community.

Hiking through Clory to conduct the needs assessment interviews.

Each group went in a different direction from the school and started their interviews. All of the families we met were extremely nice and very willing to answer our questions. It was moving to see people living in extreme poverty who were nicer and happier than many people living in developed countries. Some examples of questions we asked included: What kind of fuel do you cook your food with? Do you clean your drinking water? If so, how? What do you think needs to be done to improve maternal and child health? If you could change one thing in your community, what would it be? Some of the answers to this last question were a better water system, better roads for improved transportation, better education for their children, and even a bakery.

Conducting a needs assessment in the rural community of Clory.

At the end of the interview we gave them all a Luci Lamp. These lamps are solar-powered and can run for 8-12 hours. They are waterproof and very durable, which will be good for the villagers to use. We distributed 50 of these lanterns and plan to give out more in the coming years. The fellows are working on planning a fundraiser to raise money for purchasing more of these lanterns, and we plan to launch the fundraiser on December 2^nd.

Conducting the needs assessment and distributing Luci solar-powered lanterns to each interviewee.

We arrived back at the MFH house ahead of schedule and we rested until we left to tour St. Therese, the government/Partners in Health-run hospital in Hinche. We saw the brand-new NICU that was donated by Ohio State and the maternity ward that Midwives for Haiti works in. We came back and purchased some cokes from a local vendor. This was a relief because we have been drinking water everyday. We have collected all of the data from the day and put these in a spreadsheet. We are working tonight to improve the needs assessment for Round Two tomorrow!

The GHFs working to improve the needs assessment survey questions at the end of day one.

Highlights from the day:

Ryan: Seeing people’s face light up when we gave them the Luci Lights during the needs assessment

Hunt: Interviewing this one elderly lady who seemed very cheerful and had a very cute, happy grandchild

Elizabeth: Seeing a different side of Haiti for the first time

Justine: Feeling like I was actually doing something to help make a difference and playing with the girl in the yellow shirt

Graham: Giving the lanterns to the residents and seeing how they lit up as we described the light

Claire: Talking to Gauthier Evane and when the people set up the nicest chairs for us

Lawson: Seeing the women kiss and thank us for the lights

Helen: Personally getting to know Haitians who are all generous, proud, and kind

Olivia: Hiking around Clory and listening to the needs of the people. Also, seeing how thankful they were to receive the Luci light

Gabi: Having this one girl followed around and she came house to house with us.

Nathalie: Talking to Stuart’s curriculum partner, Oxanne.

Stuart and Oxanne, the facilitator of her women’s empowerment curriculum.

Stuart: Today was a huge learning experience for me. Working with Oxanne opened my eyes to the long process & the time and work to implement a program in a way so that it is beneficial for the community and also that it is sustainable.

On Sunday, May 11 (Mother’s Day), the Global Health Fellows hosted an event to raise awareness and funds for Midwives for Haiti. About 110 people convened for a delicious Baker’s Crust brunch followed by a brief presentation by the Fellows to honor all the mothers in the room and to raise awareness about maternal health issues around the world. Nadene Brunk, Founder and Executive Director of Midwives for Haiti, shared with the group about the work MFH is doing in the Central Plateau region of Haiti and we enjoyed watching the “Making of a Midwife” miniseries.

The Global Health Fellows and International Relations Fellows selling Mother’s Day cards at Norfolk Academy’s Field Day, May 3.

Leading up to the event, the Global Health Fellows sold Mother’s Day cards. In total, the event and card sales raised $4015.56 for Midwives for Haiti! We hope to host a similar event next year on Mother’s Day – Sunday, May 10, 2015 – so save the date and plan to join us!

Global Health Fellows at the Photo Booth at the Mother’s Day Brunch!