Director's Statement

10 Years of Walking the Path Together 

Letter from the Executive Director- December 15, 2011

Dear Friends,

I have been privileged to spend about half of my time in Cap- Haitien in this past year. People from home frequently ask me and other volunteers what we do there. The answer defies an easy sound bite, because, as you can see from this report, the activities and tasks are so varied. I would answer by simply saying that we do whatever we can to help our Haitian neighbors build a functional health care system for their people, and we try to walk together with them on their path to that end. For me, konbit means to walk and work side-by-side toward a shared goal. It means facing challenges together and sharing failures as well as successes. It means being in it together. There are no shortcuts; it is a long journey predicated on a strong relationship.

It has now been 10 years since the first group of volunteers from Maine visited colleagues from the Justinian University Hospital in Cap-Haitien and, after a week of introductions and discussions, agreed to embark on just such a journey together, even though no one among us knew where it would lead at the time or the exact path forward. Speaking as one of those earliest visitors, I can attest to the fact that we found the challenges faced by the Haitian people and our Haitian health colleagues overwhelming, seemingly intractable, and stubbornly resistant to simple answers. Our most modest assumptions about existing resources and functional systems were overly optimistic. Haiti, in fact, has an oft-repeated reputation in the global development world as a place where things simply can't be accomplished.

Our journey over the last 10 years has had many unanticipated twists and turns and highs and lows. However, we have learned that positive change can happen when it is not imposed on people, but rather when solutions are found together. It happens when our Haitian colleagues – who, after all, are responsible for the provision of health care in Haiti – identify their priorities, what they can do to accomplish them, and what kind of support is needed. Sometimes things can be accomplished simply by doing business differently with some technical support. Other times, resources such as a sterilizer or a new well are needed, in which case we try to procure them together as partners.

This konbit relationship of working together has deepened and evolved over the years and has enabled us to help in a very significant way through the overwhelming and tragic challenges of 2010-11, especially the earthquake and the cholera epidemic. Our efforts, as humble and insufficient to the great task at hand as they sometimes are, are always about supporting the people and capabilities of the public system of care and their partners.

Through your generous involvement and support, Konbit Sante has grown and evolved in its ability to have a real impact. Once an entirely U.S.-based volunteer organization, we now have a very gifted and passionate staff in Haiti that is supported by both U.S. staff and volunteers.

This annual report focuses on the work and progress made this past fiscal year. You will see that our experience working to address the cholera epidemic in Cap-Haitien has drawn us into the community in a much greater way than any other time in the past while still keeping our commitments to the major health care and training facilities in the area. So many of you have made this work possible through generous gifts of money, time, knowledge, labor, and inspiration. By doing so, each of us has participated in the konbit in the way that we are each able, and for that we are deeply grateful.

We hope that this report will give you a glimpse of the impact that your investment in the people and health care system of Haiti has made, and that you will join together with us and our Haitian partners as we embark on the next 10 years of walking this path together.

Sincerely,

Nathan M. Nickerson, RN, DrPH

Executive Director