From Robin C. Davis, R.N., M.N., Executive Director

November 2011 (appeal letter)

Dear Supporters and Friends,

Haven’t the people of Haiti suffered enough this year? The terrible earthquake in January. Overcrowded and dangerous resettlement camps. A recent hurricane and flooding. And now the specter of a spreading cholera outbreak. Worse yet, children under five are especially susceptible to rapid dehydration and death due to the disease’s extreme diarrhea and vomiting.

Global Health Action’s response to this new crisis is to empower communities to act for themselves. In Haiti’s Leogane District, we are mobilizing, training, and supporting more than 100 community health workers (CHWs) and traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to respond within their own communities. In total, they will educate and serve 50,000 rural Haitians.

With training on the basics of the disease – symptoms, prevention, treatment, referral, and waste management – and key supplies such as soap, bottled water, water purification chemicals, and Oral Rehydration Salts packets, CHWs and TBAs are the first line of defense to prevent and treat cholera.

Something as simple as knowing about and being able to prepare home-made ORT (oral rehydration therapy) solutions – which are little more than a measured mixture of clean water, sugar, and salt – saves lives. It still brings a lump to my throat when I think about the Haitian pastor who GHA trained as a community health worker years ago, who, with tears in his eyes, told me at his graduation that if he had had this knowledge before, he could have saved the lives of two of his own children.

Training leaders. Strengthening communities. Saving lives. That’s what Global Health Action has worked for in Haiti since 1980. And that’s what we strive for everywhere we work around the world.

We invite you to join us. Please make a tax-deductible gift to Global Health Action to help us empower communities to help themselves. You can support our work in Haiti or you can make an investment to help GHA improve health and development in other countries and communities.

Thank you for your belief in our work and your support. We wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a peaceful and joyful holiday season.

Sincerely,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Months have passed since the devastating earthquake in Haiti and most of the news cameras and media are focused elsewhere. But, for the people of Haiti the effects of the earthquake and the challenges of rebuilding their lives and their communities will be of pressing priority for many years to come. Global Health Action has worked hand-in-hand with communities and local organizational partners in Haiti for 30 years, and we will be there for many years to come!

In Haiti, as is true with all of our programs throughout the world, we focus on building local leadership skills; supplying health education and disease prevention tools and knowledge; and providing guidance and support for lasting community-based actions to improve health and the quality of life.

For our Haitian staff, partners, GHA-trained community health workers and rural outreach leaders, this means equipping them with the knowledge, skills, basic financial resources, methods, supplies and equipment they need to address the challenges of poor health, poverty and the struggles of daily life facing their Haitian communities.

It is hard for most of us to imagine what life would be like if we didn’t have a health center or hospital within a few miles of our homes, a doctor or nurse to call on when our children are sick, a means of communication or simple transportation in an emergency or just to do our daily work, or a source of power to run lights, refrigerators and computers. In locally-appropriate ways, Global Health Action can help address these challenges in Haiti, with your help.

Please consider supporting GHA’s work this Christmas & Holiday Season and throughout the year as a way to honor those you love with gifts that will change lives.

Warmest regards,

Dear Supporters and Friends,

We recently launched a new version of the Global Health Action website, which gave us an opportunity to re-visit how we tell our story. We asked some people who know GHA – volunteers, supporters, friends – how they perceive us. One supporter explained GHA like this:

Think of the problem of raw sewage in a stream. If the people of a remote village get cholera because of poor sanitation fouling their water supply, an organization can come in and treat the problem with medicines, but then they have to return year after year to treat the same disease. Or, like Global Health Action, an organization can teach individuals to lead their communities in digging proper latrines and implementing other good health practices. The disease is prevented and the community learns to care for itself. That’s leadership training. That’s community building. That’s helping people lead healthier, better lives. That’s what GHA does.

Sewage in a stream is a graphic image, but it’s also a reminder of what we take for granted in this country and what so many people in the world cannot. GHA has been equipping and supporting people to solve problems for themselves for nearly 40 years.

Sometimes our work is as direct as health care training for village leaders and community health workers; other times we’re providing leaders of grassroots non-profits with the knowledge and tools they need to improve and expand their organization’s work; and still other times we’re giving national leaders the training they need to change things on a broad, strategic level. But, in every instance we’re educating and teaching individuals so that they can better care for themselves and their “communities,” whether that’s a village, a clinic, a district hospital, or a nation.

Please visit Global Health Action on-line at www.globalhealthaction.org. Read for yourself what we do and how we continue to impact and improve lives in Africa, Haiti, China, the U.S., and around the world. And, I urge you to make a donation to continue that work. Your gift will enable GHA to teach one person to help many.

We appreciate your consideration and all your support for GHA.

With sincere thanks,

May 2010 (update after Haiti visit)

Let me share with you, if I may, an update from Global Health Action’s on-going work in Haiti. I actually just got back this past Saturday after nearly two weeks visiting our programs and partners in Port-au-Prince, Darbonne, Leogane, and Petit-Goave; and . . .  I thought you’d be interested in some thoughts and impressions.

It’s now been close to four months since the earthquake of January 12, and I was pleasantly surprised that, overall, things in Haiti were functioning as well as they were; I had expected much worse. Maybe that’s because things in Haiti have never functioned that well, and the Haitian people have learned to make do, to adapt, and to be creative. As an organization that’s been working in Haiti for 30 years, GHA has also learned to adapt to less than ideal conditions. And, I guess that after more than thirty trips, I’ve learned to adapt too.

Port-au-Prince seems as crowded as ever, which is surprising given the official death count of 230,000 and the general belief that as many as 400,000 people lost their lives. There are still lots of international organizations, from the U.N. to the Red Cross, all of them driving around in well-marked vehicles and adding to the traffic congestion. Their presence is much less noticeable as you get out of the capital city and into the rural areas where GHA primarily works.

People seem to have access to food and water – either in the markets or through free distributions for the tens of thousands of displaced people in the camps – but the sanitation is dreadful.

There is cement dust everywhere – and that may lead to a lot of lung problems down the road – and it is dry – pushing 100 degrees and humid but only one hour of rain the whole time I was there. The rainy season will be here soon enough, so the dust will be reduced; but, we also know the problems that will come with the rains.  

Remembering the first dreadful days after the quake when we didn’t know who had even survived, it was wonderful to see and be with Franck Toussaint and Renette Olivier, staff who’ve been with GHA from more than 20 years, and to give them both an enormous hug.

Franck, the Goat Program Coordinator, is amazing! I don’t know how he did it, but in March, barely two months after he lost his office, equipment, and more than a dozen goats at the goat center in Darbonne, he and his staff held not one, but two goat farmer trainings for a total of 46 farmers. He has already distributed pregnant goats to all those farmers and held a third post-earthquake training while I was there. He is also bound and determined to find a way to replace the 47 pregnant goats lost by newly-trained farmers during the earthquake.

In the city and municipality of Petit-Goave, GHA has set up temporary and mobile clinics to provide people with basic health care. Doctors, nurses, and community health workers are staffing four to six clinics a week at different sites, treating patients, supplying medicines, and providing education. As you know, direct medical care is not usually how GHA works in Haiti or elsewhere; but, at this point, we’re focusing on meeting needs and helping to fill the gaps in the healthcare system, while planning for a more sustainable, community-oriented solution.

In Leogane, Renette and the community health workers we’ve trained and supported were the key implementers for an immunization campaign that last month reached 45,000 people.

Overall, we’ve been able to replace some of the lost equipment – cell phones, laptop computers, and printers – but the programs are still operating out of makeshift quarters, and they may be doing so for awhile.

Girija Sankar (GHA’s Program Coordinator), Rachelle Etienne (GHA’s Haiti Field Office Coordinator), and I have had conversations with dozens of individuals and groups in Haiti and outside, from denominational leaders to Ministry of Health directors to local and international NGOs, comparing notes, discussing partnerships, and exploring opportunities. As the saying goes, there are a lot of irons in the fire.

You’ve probably read in our newsletter or on the website about our short-term plan and activities, but I’ve also included here the long-term strategies for GHA-Haiti. As you can see, our overall goal is to help rebuild a better, more effective, and more sustainable community health and rural development system in Haiti.

Finally, let me share something I heard from a representative from a large international NGO, which will go unnamed. In the course of our conversation about the future of Haiti and what we all could do, he said to me, “we’re going to be here [in Haiti] for awhile.” I asked how long is awhile. “At least a year, maybe two years,” he responded. “But, if there’s another disaster, we’ll stay longer.” All I can say after 30 years in Haiti is that their idea of commitment is a little different from ours.

Thank you for all of your support for GHA and the people of Haiti. We are grateful and appreciative.

With warm regards,

March 2010 (from the newsletter)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Like so many others, my heart, prayers, and love went out to the people of Haiti as the images of the devastating earthquake flashed across the television screen in mid-January. But for me this was much more than a news event; it was a tragedy in the lives of people who are life-long friends and partners and part of our GHA family. Together over the past 30 years, we have created and implemented community-based programs to improve people’s lives; we have celebrated marriages and births; and we have mourned the loss of loved ones.

In the first agonizing days after the earthquake, I tried every means of communication possible to personally reach each of our Haitian staff members. Finally, after nine days of text messages, emails, internet postings, and phone calls, I received the wonderful news that all of our staff and their immediate families were unharmed, though most of their homes were severely damaged or destroyed. In those days of not knowing the fate or location of staff like Renette Olivier, GHA's long-time Coordinator of the Community Health Worker Program, my mind flashed back nearly 25 years.

I remembered Renette as a young registered nurse who took her responsibilities as a district community health nurse very seriously. Rather than sitting behind her desk and simply collecting health information, Renette got on a horse and rode far into the mountains to visit each community in her district. To this day she relishes the opportunity to teach new community health workers and provide technical advice to those whom she trained years ago. The road to health in Haiti means traveling where there are no roads, just steep rugged paths.

Not long after we started working in Haiti, Darbonne Episcopal Priest Octave Lafontant said to me, "Robin, these programs give people real hope and income for a better life and a reason to stay in their mountain communities instead of going to Port-au-Prince where they are far from their family roots."

Now, more than ever, Haitians need a real reason to hope -- a vision and plan for a better tomorrow. All of us at Global Health Action are resolved and committed to working with our Haitian family to help rebuild lives and improve health and the quality of life in Haiti.

Thank you for your prayers, partnership, and support for GHA’s work in Haiti, now and for the years to come.

November 2009 (appeal letter)

Dear Supporters and Friends,

After 37 years of working to improve people’s lives and futures, Global Health Action has witnessed the impact of our training and programs.

Sometimes it’s as basic – and important – as helping to meet a family’s everyday needs, as with the farmers trained through GHA’s Haitian Goat Project. Other times, the impact is life-changing for an entire community, as it has been for the people of Thana village.

Thana is a small, rural village in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. For many years, the village had no access to safe drinking water. Sixty percent of the population was affected by water-borne diseases, and, every day, many of the villagers walked two miles to the next village where they labored and were paid only in clean water. They were water slaves, stuck in a cycle of poverty and disease.

After Sister Stephen, an Indian nurse and village health educator, attended health and leadership training through Global Health Action, she was determined to help the people of Thana in practical, sustainable ways.

She took what she learned in the training and went to the village, where she trained two village health care workers. Together, they educated the people about disease prevention and community development and showed them how to pool their meager resources and successfully apply to the government for a matching block grant to construct a community well. The day the first clean water came to Thana changed the villagers’ lives forever.

In addition to slashing the disease rate and freeing the people from the oppression of the neighboring village, the new well enabled them to grow their own crops. They then sold the surplus and used the money to hire a teacher to educate their children, beginning a new cycle of hope for a better future. And, it all started with training, supporting, and empowering one person.

Together, we can change people’s lives in ways both small and large.

Your gift to Global Health Action helps make that possible. Thank you for your consideration and support.

With warm wishes for the holidays,

September 2009 (from the newsletter)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As you will read in the adjacent article, I had, earlier this year, what for me these days is a pretty rare opportunity to facilitate one of Global Health Action's trainings. Usually my role as Executive Director is much more about organizational partnerships, strategic planning, program design, finances, and the hundred and one other responsibilities necessary to keep a non-profit organization running smoothly.

But for this customized course in Nanning, China, I was a trainer, working hand-in-hand with our INSA/India colleague Edwina Pereira and with "Helen" Zhao of Amity to train project managers from many different parts of China. There were religious leaders, government officials, members of women's federations, Amity staff, and more.  

It was a great experience and reminded me of all the training I have done for GHA over the years, working in Atlanta, Haiti, India, Africa, and elsewhere to share knowledge, teach skills, offer assistance, build bridges, and, more than anything, increase people's capacity to help themselves.

I was also reminded that you never know what might make a difference in people's lives. It's often the little things.

This course focused on community-based HIV/AIDS programs, and, on the first day, one older man, a pastor, stood up to speak against working with and helping prostitutes. In truth, Edwina and I were taken aback, as was most of the group, and it was not an issue that we dwelled on beyond pointing out that when you're dealing with AIDS, this is not a population you can ignore.

We continued on with the course and the training, and on the third day, that same pastor stood up again and apologized to the group for having been so judgmental. He said he now realized and acknowledged that all people, including commercial sex workers, have the right to HIV/AIDS prevention information and programs. They too are our sisters, he affirmed. It was a change of heart and mind that he would follow through on in his own work. His words touched everybody and had many of us in tears.

I think about that pastor and the lives his work will touch, and I am inspired by the work we do at GHA and grateful for your support, in ways both large  . . .  and small.

Thank you.

June 2009 (appeal letter)

Dear Supporters and Friends,

Global Health Action believes in people.

I was in Haiti last month for my 28th trip since 1980, and in a country that is suffering acutely from the global economic crisis, GHA’s community health and development programs are bright spots, training Haitians to help themselves and others in their communities.

Most of you know GHA’s Haitian Goat Project and many are familiar with the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Children Child Survival project in Petit Goave, but the oldest of GHA’s Haitian projects is actually the Community Health Worker Training Program in Darbonne, in the Leogane District.

On this last trip, I had the chance to meet with a group of long-time community health workers (CHWs), all of whom have been serving at least 20 years in their respective mountain communities. We talked about what they do and the illnesses they prevent and treat, about their triumphs and challenges, about the people they serve and the communities where they live, about combating ignorance and providing hope, and about doing it all, day after day, year after year, for minimal compensation and little recognition but with enormous commitment and belief.

Belony Alliance, a tall, very dark-skinned man, who must be at least 50 but looks younger, talked about his personal commitment:

We serve our communities. People come to us first for help. They know they can call on us anytime, even at one o’clock in the morning. We are there for them – to look at their sick child, to treat their injury, to answer their questions. We are models for our community.

Indeed they are! Each of the 1200 community health workers trained in Haiti by GHA since 1982 is a model of how one person can improve the health and well-being of an entire community. It is a model we at Global Health Action believe in passionately and work towards every day.

Global Health Action needs your gifts to continue to train and support not only CHWs in Haiti, but also primary health workers in Heilongjiang, China, Program Managers in Africa, Haitian goat farmers, school counselors in Atlanta, and so many more, all of whom are working with us toward healthy people, healthy communities, and a healthy world.

With our gratitude for your consideration and our thanks for your gift,

April 2009 (from the 2008 Annual Report)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As we [this letter was written with Barry Smith, GHA’s Board Chair] reflect on Global Health Action's programs and impact in 2008, we recognize clearly that it is the people connected with GHA who are the true realization of our organization's vision and mission in the world!

On the following pages you will see profiles and photos that illustrate the impact of the health and development programs and activities of GHA through the eyes of our program graduates, our staff, our program partners, and the people we serve. In each instance, Global Health Action works in partnership with local people and organizations to bring about lasting changes, in the form of better health and improved quality of life, in under-served communities and areas around the world.

The profiles in this report just skim the surface of the many remarkable women and men who are part of GHA's work. For example, we have known and worked with both Edwina Pereira and Renette Olivier for more than twenty years. These extraordinary women are both graduates of Global Health Action's International Health Program course in Atlanta and have a life-long passion for training health workers and for working in communities to improve the health of people in India and Haiti, respectively.

As the Co-Director of INSA/India (an Indian non-profit organization founded by GHA in 1982), Edwina leads her organization's efforts to bring access to health and community development services to remote areas of India and neighboring countries. Whether trekking through the mountains of Nepal or forging rivers in India, she does what it takes to support the health workers that she and her colleagues have trained to serve in their communities. Her resolve does not waiver.

As the Coordinator of GHA's Community Health Worker Training Program in Haiti, Renette works tirelessly to train and support new community health workers and to refresh the skills and knowledge of long-time health workers. Improving health conditions in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is not easy, especially with the challenges of country-wide poverty, political turmoil, and, at times, extreme weather conditions, but Renette and her team persevere. She has the same passion and commitment as she did twenty years ago!

We are blessed to work with and learn from so many remarkable participants, graduates, program partners, staff members, volunteer leaders, and supporters. Together, we are bringing better health and hope for the future to people and communities around the world. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement.

Sincerely,

March 2009 (from the newsletter)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

These are harsh and uncertain economic times for all of us. The stock market seems to sink lower every week, dragging public confidence with it. Jobs losses soar and so do our fears. Everything seems to be in jeopardy.

As an individual, and as the head of an organization that largely relies on the generosity of individual, church, foundation, and organization donors to function and survive, I absolutely share your concerns. At GHA, we wonder about the ability and inclination of our donors to continue to support us, while looking for indications that the tide has turned for the better or, conversely, that our supporters have turned away.

Like all of you, I suppose we're looking for certainty in uncertain times.

But, even with the sharp stock market downturn and the overall economic gloom, I do know one investment which will always grow in value: Knowledge. That's not a sales pitch or a glib sound bite. I know it to be true because I've seen it happen over and over again for individuals, families, and communities all over the world.

Especially in these troubled times, Global Health Action needs your support to continue our mission of improving the health of individuals and communities around the globe through practical trainings and community-based programs in leadership, management, and health promotion. At GHA, we are:

• Exporting and exchanging knowledge
• Investing in people and communities
• Working with and through partners and communities to extend our funding and your contributions
• Having an exponential impact - teaching a few and impacting many

The future of the economy is uncertain, but making an investment in helping people lead healthier and more secure lives will last a lifetime.

We appreciate your consideration and your support - past, present, and future. Thank you.

Yours truly,

October 2008 (from the newsletter)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The series of devastating hurricanes and storms which hit Haiti in August and early September left massive death and destruction in their wake.

For all of us at Global Health Action, that destruction hits close to home. GHA has been in Haiti since 1980, working with local staff and partners to improve the health conditions of rural Haitians. Our Community Health Worker Training program, Goat Project, and other initiatives have trained thousands of Haitian health workers and community leaders.  

I've been to Haiti numerous times and have seen firsthand how, even in a regular thunderstorm, the water suddenly sheets downhill, ankle-deep and powerful. I can only imagine the incredible floods and damage brought on by weeks of pounding wind and rain. We've been receiving reports from our on-the-ground staff of neighbors dead or missing, homes flattened, families uprooted, goats lost, and documents destroyed. Digging out and rebuilding will be an enormous task.

But, at the same time, we know that that the thousands of men and women Global Health Action has trained over the years are in place to help rally their communities, organize the clean-up, and start dealing with all the health and disease issues which are sure to follow. In a crisis, GHA doesn't have to be on the ground ourselves because the people we've trained are already there, in their communities.

I'm reminded of - and inspired by - what a Haitian Episcopal priest said to me  years ago: "What you're [GHA] doing here is making a tremendous difference. In Haiti, your property, your house, your possessions, everything you own, can all be taken away from you or destroyed in an instant. But, no one can take away your knowledge, skills, and self-confidence to survive and build a future."

Knowledge, skills, and self-confidence to build a future, not only in Haiti but also in Africa, in India, in China, in Atlanta, and in a total of 94 countries around the World where GHA graduates are living and working and making a lasting difference.

I invite you to take this opportunity to support Global Health Action's mission and work in Haiti and around the World with your gifts, your thoughts, and your prayers. Thank you.

Best regards,