As COVID 19 terrorizes the world, our girls are poised to be hit especially hard. This pandemic has closed schools, thus affecting girls’ education. Because of these constant disruptions, adolescent girls are lacking the quality of education needed to secure social and economic development. Without financial autonomy, they are at higher risk for financial difficulties, sexual violence and abuse, rape, unwanted pregnancies, and increased levels of stress and anxiety. Even within the “safety” of the home, social distancing is more of a myth than a reality. In Port-au-Prince, where most of our beneficiaries reside, neighborhoods are densely populated and many families live off of less than $2 a day. Residents are not fortunate enough to access decent housing and basic necessities such as water, food, electricity and internet. Many families must choose between washing their hands or saving that water to drink or cook. 


In light of the stay-at-home orders, we’ve created the following COVID-19 response programs. The plan has 4 prongs:

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Household level Data Collection

We aim at collecting a one time demographic household level data. Via WhatsApp, 42 of 80 girls are self-reporting any underlying health conditions in their families, their access to resources, and general habits (including whether they’re abiding by regulations) during the stay-at-home order. This helps us identify the need for potential urgent medical services for at-risk beneficiaries/family members and alert our sister organization Zanmi Lasanté so that they’re prepared if services are required. It also allows us to offer testing and contact tracing for families with risks of contamination and dispense medical or preventative assistance.

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Direct Social Support and Community Sensitization

Our families live on a day-to-day basis. When a crisis hits without access to social welfare and a safety net, it is immensely difficult for these vulnerable families to get the basics needed to stay alive. Accessing food, water and electricity in Haiti is a daunting task for so many. Through cash transfer for a three month period, families are able to stockpile on food, water and other necessary supplies including phone credit that would otherwise take them to the streets on a daily basis. Additionally, we are distributing hygiene kits to our girls and promoting neighborhood hand washing stations as a preventative strategy to the less fortunate communities.

Health and Wellness Program

42 out of 80 girls we serve  have access to a smartphone, thus we decided to develop a Health and Wellness Program in which we send weekly activities via Whatsapp. The activities include journaling and drawing prompts, guided meditations in creole, yoga movements and a short story. Every Sunday, we share the past week's work and engage in group discussion. We also send updates on the development of coronavirus in Haiti and globally and continuously encourage following the guidelines - frequent hand washing, cleaning surfaces, confinement etc. We’d like to extend this program to all our beneficiaries for greater impact by providing them with access to technology.

Micro-Enterprise Development

At the request of some of our beneficiaries, we are developing a business plan and providing start-up funds to launch micro-enterprises in their communities. We will be providing 5 sewing machines to 5 of our girls with sewing skills and the necessary material to sow face masks for general distributions.