Bayonnais, Haiti

Bayonnais

The Bayonnais Valley in Haiti is a remote mountain valley in the North of Haiti with little to no infrastructure or access to services of any kind. OFCB, a local NGO, built and runs a school there that provides education and food to 1700 students. They have been training medical staff and are planning on building the first clinic in the valley.

Since 2004, the EWB-SFP Haiti Project Team has been in partnership with the local NGO in Bayonnais to help the community. Throughout the years, the team has helped to provide a hybrid-electrical system power to the school, construct a bridge, and reinforce existing structures.

The team’s current project is to build a medical clinic. The building itself is complete, but still needs latrines, electricity, and finishes. You can help finish this clinic by donating!

Donate

Help us improve the lives of the beautiful people in the Bayonnais Valley by donating to EWB - Haiti to help complete the first medical clinic in the area.


to the Haiti project using PayPal. Upon completion, you will be redirected to the secure PayPal site to finalize your donation. Please fill in your donation amount in the "Item Price" field after you are transferred to the PayPal site.

You can also donate to the Haiti project in these ways:

  • Click on the EWB-SFP Donation Page to donate via credit card or Paypal. Under "Donate by Credit Card", use the drop-down menu to select "SFP Haiti Project". Click Submit and you will be directed to the PayPal page to complete your donation.
  • Donate by check: If you wish to make a donation by check, please first download and fill out the donation form. Send your completed form and check (made payable to EWB-USA and put EWB-SFP - Haiti in the memo line) to the following address:
    EWB-SFP
    972 Mission St, 5th Floor
    San Francisco, CA 94103
  • You can donate on the main EWB-USA website ("Haiti: CATHOR" project).

Thank you for your support!

Medical Clinic

Haiti has the highest childbirth and infant mortality in the Western Hemisphere. It is estimated that 62 of each 1,000 children don’t survive to their first birthday and the average lifespan only reaches the mid-50’s. In a valley of around 80,000 people with no local medical care, hospitals or doctors, building a medical clinic has been a priority of the village since 1999 when the local NGO sent its first doctor to be trained in Port-au-Prince and purchased the land where the clinic is to be built.

Construction is currently underway on the first building for the clinic in May-June 2011. The goal is to have the clinic built by the time the first doctor graduates in 2012. The Haiti Project Team, in collaboration with the local NGO, is working on all aspects of the build including the clinic design, and power, water, and sanitation systems.

Sponsors

School

OFCB, a local NGO, has been running a school in Bayonnais since 1993. This school provides a quality education to students who would not otherwise be able to attend school. In addition, the school provides one meal per day to the students. For many of them, this is the only real meal they will eat. There is no electrical service in the area, so the school has to provide it’s own power. EWB installed a hybrid solar power system for the school in 2005 to reduce diesel costs. The school had been running 100% on their diesel generator, but this system has allowed the school to run the generator only 3-4 hours per day.

The power is used to light the school and run a computer lab for the students and the administrative computers, among other things. Having power also allows OFCB to run an international Sponsor-a-Student program that provides help for many of the kids at the school.

EWB is currently planning an expansion of the solar system from a 3 kW solar PV array to a 4 kW one. This will allow the school to use less diesel fuel running the generator, thereby both helping the environment, and their budget in these difficult economic times.

Sponsors

Bridge

The Bayonnais Valley is connected to the rest of Haiti through a single dirt road, which is often flooded and cuts off half of the valley from the outside world. The road crosses through the Bayonnais River, which becomes completely impassable during the rainy season, splitting the community into two parts. EWB-CU at Boulder designed and built a bridge between 2004 and 2006 to solve this problem. During the recent flooding in 2008, the approach to the bridge was damaged slightly, but the bridge survived and minimized the impact of the enormous flood.

Cholera Update (11/13/2010)

Bayonnais has set up a temporary emergency clinic to handle cholera cases. They have a large army-style tent that they are using to treat cholera victims with IV drips. The village doctors have returned from their studies to handle the situation. In addition, due to the medical outreach and training they have done, people in Bayonnais understand the disease better than others in Haiti, so there have not been protests or riots.

Earthquake Update (1/14/2010)

Bayonnais is intact, and Gonaives is OK. They felt the tremors but there was little or no damage there. The students from Bayonnais who were in Port-Au-Prince for school have been accounted for and are alive except for two journalism students. The school building where they attended classes was one of the buildings that collapsed. They’ve not given up hope for them but had not located them as of last night. The students are all trying to find their way back to Bayonnais, since the schools in Port-Au-Prince will be closed for a while.

The EWB and NC team that was in Bayonnais during the earthquake is fine. They are returning to the country now via the Dominican Republic, since Port-Au-Prince is no longer a viable return route. They should leave the DR on Friday, 1/15.

Earthquake Update (Fall 2010)

While Bayonnais did not suffer any immediate damage due to the earthquake, the resources of the village have been severely strained attempting to accomodate the numerous earthquake refugees from Port-Au-Prince.

Other organizations working in Haiti

There are a variety of groups working in Haiti, and they need monetary contributions to continue their efforts.

  • Partners in Health runs hospitals in Haiti and provides emergency medical care.
  • Fonkoze is a micro-finance organization in Haiti and the DR that provides loans to Haitians (in the North) to help them improve their lives.
  • Doctors without Borders is currently providing medical care in Haiti, as well as countless other places around the world.

For more information on the Haiti project, send an email to haiti-info@ewb-sfp.org