UPLIFTHaiti (2026)

UPLIFT Haiti is a Section 501(c)(3) public charity. We assemble teams of volunteers to travel to Haiti. They work with local partners to achieve sustainable improvements in local residents' access to technology, training, education, employment and economic development.

22/07/2025

Medical Clinic Update
July 23, 2025
https://uplifthaiti.org/news/250723.htm

Everything went well at the 4-day special medical clinic in Baradères last week, says Sr. Julienne Siberisse, administrator of the Baradères Health Center.

She is now preparing a financial and statistical report for UPLIFT Haiti. In the meantime, we have some videos she sent. They show four days of high-speed activity as patients register, nurses do intake interviews, and doctors consult with patients. You can view a short compilation at https://uplifthaiti.org/video/Klinik2025-5.mp4.

"I am really thankful to God because everything went well," Sr. Julienne said. "All the doctors returned home safely. Everyone is very satisfied with the clinic. I just want to say thanks for everything you do for the people of Baradères."

The Baradères Health Center is the region's only public medical facility. The medical team typically is one physician and a couple of nurses. For special clinics, the staff grows to about two dozen doctors and nurses plus support personnel.

UPLIFT Haiti continues funding these clinics despite increased costs and travel risks due to gang violence, because most people in Baradères lack other options.

Our own cost for these clinics has averaged about $10 per patient. UPLIFT Haiti's long-term goal in working with Baradères Health Center is to strengthen the existing public health system.

This year, we began funding a nursing scholarship in cooperation with the Baradères Health Center and a Haitian university in the city of Les Cayes. To support this and our other work in public health, vocational education and economic development, please consider donating at https://uplifthaiti.org/donate.htm.

01/07/2025

July Medical Clinic in Baradères

About a thousand men, women and children in remote Baradères, Haiti, will get free medical care July 14-17 at a special clinic sponsored by UPLIFT Haiti and carried out by the Baradères Health Center.

Most people in the Baradères district have practically no access to medical care. Physicians visit occasionally, but few of the estimated 50,000 residents, mostly subsistence farmers, can afford to pay. And Baradères' population is growing, as people continue to flee from insecurity and violence in other parts of the country.

The Baradères Health Center is a first responder, the Baradères district's only public medical facility. The medical team typically is one physician and a couple of nurses. But from July 14 to 17, Baradères Health Center administrator Sr. Julienne Siberisse plans hiring 11 physicians and 12 nurses to staff the special clinic.

UPLIFT Haiti has funded several multiday clinics in recent years despite increased costs and travel risks due to gang violence.

Our own cost for these clinics has averaged about $10 per patient. Since 2019, all medicines and supplies are bought in Haiti. Paid extra staff are all Haitian medical professionals. There is no charge to patients for initial exams, tests and diagnoses. A prescription costs the equivalent of a few pennies, but only for those who can afford this.

Our long-term goal in working with Baradères Health Center is to strengthen the existing public health system. We are a very small organization, but the multiday clinics show that health care in rural Haiti can be provided inexpensively.

Please consider a tax-deductible donation to support our work in public health, vocational training and economic development in rural Haiti. We design our projects to achieve goals expressed by people in the community. You can donate online at https://uplifthaiti.org/donate.htm.

04/05/2025

Building an Emergency Bridge
April 30, 2025

About a year ago, students in remote Baradères, Haiti, were about to lose their schools and teachers. Many of the 1,500 students—in kindergarten through high school—were about to lose their only reliable meal of the day.

That’s because skyrocketing food and fuel costs prevented the pastor of Baradères’ St. Pierre parish, Fr. Ambroise Noemi, from paying the teachers and providing lunch for the students.

On Feb. 18, 2024, we told our own supporters about the emergency in the Baradères parish schools. They responded immediately and with incredible generosity. And they told others.

As a result, Fr. Noemi was able to build a two-month-long bridge of food and education to span the gap until St. Pierre parish would receive resources from its twinned U.S. parish, St. John the Baptist Catholic Community, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Months ago we posted photos and videos of emergency food being delivered, cooked and served at Baradères schools (here and here). But how was the emergency fund of $37,000 spent?

Three-fourths of the fund was used to purchase, transport, cook and serve lunch for the 1,500 students in the parish’s 16 schools. Food staples included bulgur wheat (1,800 lb), corn meal (6,000 lb), pinto beans (2,400 lb) and rice (6,500 lb). Also purchased were dozens of gallons of cooking oil, 2,800 tins of sardines, and local farm produce such as yams and plantains.

The rest of the fund went mainly to cover a month of salaries for more than 90 school teachers and other staff. About 5 percent covered transportation and fuel.

While we are grateful for what was accomplished, we are sobered by reality. Fr. Noemi reports that many more students are enrolled in parish schools today, as families from cities try to seek safety in rural areas. Nationally, gang violence and government paralysis continue to batter the population.

Hunger, already increasing, has spiked because of the cancellation of USAID projects.

But we are encouraged by a spinoff project begun last spring by the small community of Catholic sisters in Baradères, the Petites Sœurs de Sainte-Thérèse (PSST). The project helps local farmers and gardeners grow more food.

PSST sisters have been in Baradères for decades. They operate the local health center, a vocational school, and a large elementary school. They also teach in some of the parish schools.

UPLIFT Haiti has cooperated with the PSST and other Baradères leaders on vocational learning, health education and medical clinics, and other locally inspired projects for 15 years.

The next medical clinic is scheduled for June, and we have just begun funding a nursing scholarship. The sisters and our other Haitian partners are not quitters, and neither are we, thanks to your generosity. You can donate online at http://uplifthaiti.org/donate.htm.

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