Human Rights Watch reports that increasing violence has put the population of Haiti at grave risk. Gang violence, rising prices, falling income and below-normal rainfall that results in low agricultural production fuels the violence. Suffering is made worse when humanitarian aid can’t reach the communities that need it.
After the 2021 earthquake in Haiti, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) joined other humanitarian and faith-based organizations to increase relief efforts across the country. But today, only 10% of Port-au-Prince remains under government control, with criminal groups escalating attacks since late 2024. These groups have targeted key infrastructure, such as airports, seaports and roads, as well as state institutions, schools, health centers, media outlets, and residential and commercial areas.
Your gifts on UMCOR Sunday helps support the foundation for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to share God’s love with communities everywhere.
In the face of these challenges, UMCOR has been working with Haitian partners that have capacity and ability to serve women, children and families. Providing health care and counseling for women, food and medical care for children and general food and shelter relief to families has become the focus for UMCOR’s grants in Haiti.
One way of getting health care and specifically, gynecological care for women, to the temporary places where they are sheltering is to meet them where they are using mobile clinics. Several partners have access to vehicles, staff and expertise to do this.
The Association for the Promotion of Haitian Family (Profamil) is a Haitian non-governmental organization dedicated to providing sexual and reproductive health services to women and adolescents. Places where displaced people shelter are typically schools, churches, and public spaces – none of which are designed for this purpose – yet they accommodate thousands of individuals.
REFKAD, an organization that brings together 30 women’s organizations in Haiti, received an UMCOR grant to organize community mobile clinics to assist women and girls who are survivors of sexual violence. It supplied medical staff, medicines, consultation and psychosocial support to women in shelters.
The Centre Hospitalier de Fontaine Foundation (CHFF), a Haitian nonprofit that helps underfunded schools and hospitals serving marginalized Haitian communities, supports health care, education, child protection and job creation services. CHFF hosted mobile clinics that visited K-9th grade schools to provide health care for children and their families and school staff. CHFF also provided meals.
Négés Mawon, another Haitian nonprofit, received an UMCOR grant to improve the safehouse in Port au Prince that houses women, adolescents and children who are survivors of abuse. The grant was used to increase access to counseling and to make the residence more comfortable and functional for the residents.
The Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA) Haiti District has been a major emergency food distributor for several years now through ongoing and shifting disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes, severe flooding, and now political and social unrest. MCCA Haiti, also knows as EMH, or the Methodist Church of Haiti, has an agreement with UMCOR to buy and distribute food throughout the 13 circuits (or districts) of the church across Haiti. These ongoing rations of rice, beans and cooking oil help to supplement many families’ food needs.
The humanitarian need in Haiti is so severe that UMCOR continues to explore new partnerships and granting possibilities, especially with Haitian nonprofits. Consultations with Global Ministries’ Global Health unit ensure that programs involving health care are reviewed and any guidance relayed to the partner.
excerpt from a story by Christie R. House, consultant writer and editor, Global Ministries and UMCOR.
One of six churchwide Special Sundays with offerings of The United Methodist Church, UMCOR Sunday calls United Methodists to share the goodness of life with those who hurt. Your gifts to UMCOR Sunday lay the foundation for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to share God’s love with communities everywhere. The special offering underwrites UMCOR’s “costs of doing business.” This helps UMCOR to keep the promise that 100 percent of any gift to a specific UMCOR project will go toward that project, not administrative costs.
When you give generously on UMCOR Sunday, you make a difference in the lives of people who hurt. Give now.
