Help for Haiti’s youngest
At MAF, we believe that everyone should have access to the food they need to survive, and we help fly partners who work to eliminate hunger and . This includes organisations such as Danita’s Children in Haiti.
Sadly, 1 out of every 14 Haitian children won’t live to see their fifth birthday due to malnutrition and related complications, like . But Danita’s Children — a Christian organisation serving in Haiti — is working to change that.
The charity has launched a new programme that brings mobile malnutrition clinics to areas of Haiti. ‘We’re finding the ones who can’t get to us,’ said Brittany, the malnutrition programme director.
One area Brittany and her team are focusing on is Baie d’Orange, a beautiful and extremely area in the mountains of Belle Anse, Haiti. About 14,000 people live here, and there are no health facilities or doctors.
MAF flies the organisation’s malnutrition team to the airstrip nearest to Baie d’Orange two or three times a year. The aircraft also carry boxes of a peanut-based food called Plumpy’Nut or Plumpy’Sup.
‘The people are very poor and almost all of them live off the land to survive,’ explains Brittany. ‘The need is greater than I’ve seen anywhere else in Haiti, especially in terms of child malnutrition.’
On one of their visits, the team saw 167 children in a day. Twenty of them were found to be severely . MAF flies severely ill children to the main Danita’s Children medical centre in Ouanaminthe.
In October 2019, the team was able to stock a with a year’s worth of medicines and nutritional supplements. They trained two partner nurses, planted moringa trees, funded the of toilets, and shared the Good News of Jesus with the community.