Update on BRAC in Haiti

A letter to our supporters from BRAC USA President & CEO Susan Davis.

Dear Friend,

I want to thank you for your support of BRAC after the earthquake in Haiti.  I was truly touched by the immediate and generous response that BRAC and its partners in Haiti received after the devastating earthquake. Did you know that any donations you gave for Haiti relief between January 12 and March 1st count toward your 2009 tax return?

As an organization born in the wake of natural disaster and war, BRAC sees the immediate need to engage the people of Haiti in rebuilding their country and their own lives and livelihoods. On February 12, BRAC International Executive Director Aminul Alam traveled to Haiti with two Haitian-Americans, who we engaged to work with us in Haiti, to meet with our partners and strategize how BRAC can best support the people of Haiti in the aftermath of this disaster. 

When I met with Amin after his trip, he was confident that Haiti needs BRAC's programs to support its short term relief and rehabilitation as well as long term development. In speaking with the people of Haiti and our partners on the ground, we've identified and are acting on priorities where BRAC has had experience and success in getting people back to work.

Reviving a struggling agriculture industry

The earthquake in January created an impending food crisis in Haiti, as many farms have been destroyed and urgently need to be repaired and given inputs for the upcoming planting season in March, which accounts for 60% of national food production.

BRAC has more than three decades of experience running agriculture, poultry and livestock programs and has created more than 3.5 million livelihood opportunities in this sector.  We're sending expert BRAC staff to set up programs to improve and scale up the agriculture, poultry and livestock sectors in rural Haiti through research, training and cash-for-work projects.

Scaling up programs for extremely poor women

BRAC has been working in partnership with Fonkoze, the largest microfinance organization in Haiti, to replicate its ultra poor program, which aims to provide support to women in the poorest 10% of the population, providing them with assets, training and support to enable them to build livelihoods.

A successful pilot was recently completed, and we are now working with Fonkoze to scale up the program to reach even more of the poorest women and their families in Haiti and put them on a ladder to opportunity.

Supporting the injured

It's been estimated that 8,000 people had to have limbs amputated as a result of injuries sustained in the earthquake - you may have read about this in an article that recently appeared in The New York Times. 

To provide these people with the opportunity to rebuild their lives, BRAC is setting up a limb and brace center, a replication of a social enterprise we've been running for more than 10 years in Bangladesh.  We hope to provide braces and limbs to 6,000 Haitians who've been affected by the earthquake.

Providing a second chance for education

Even before the earthquake, education levels in Haiti were extremely low, and even a child who was lucky enough to attend primary schools was likely to drop out before 6th grade. The destruction brought on by the earthquake has made primary education even more difficult to attain. 

BRAC has been running "second chance" schools for older children who have dropped out of school or who never had the chance to go in the first place since 1985.  We are sending expert BRAC program staff to strategize setting up primary schools for out-of-school children in Haiti.

The success of our programs is a result of the support we receive from people like you, so I want to thank you again for your contributions during this very important time.  We will continue post updates of BRAC's work in Haiti on our blog.  

With best wishes,

Susan Davis