PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC – The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund today announced a $1.8 million grant to the Boston-based nonprofit Partners In Health to support its Haitian sister organization Zanmi Lasante in a program that will make long-term, sustainable improvements in the scope and quality of Haiti’s healthcare and medical education sectors. The grant will be used to launch a residency program for family practice physicians and a certification program for auxiliary nurses at the public hospital in St. Marc supported by Partners In Health and Zanmi Lasante.

“The earthquake and cholera outbreak have only heightened the healthcare sector’s challenges,” Clinton Bush Haiti Fund CEO Gary Edson explains. “The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund’s three-year grant for Zanmi Lasante’s work is an investment in Haiti’s human capital. It will provide training for critically needed family practice physicians and auxiliary nurses at l’Ho?pital Saint Nicolas, the chronically understaffed public hospital serving 220,000 St. Marc residents and, ultimately, the 1.5 million people of the surrounding Artibonite region.”
Additionally, Zanmi Lasante will leave a lasting legacy for the nation’s public health system by upgrading and standardizing auxiliary nurse education, creating a first-ever certification program to be replicated by other medical training centers throughout Haiti.

Amplifying the impact of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund’s grant, Partners In Health will match the funds more than one to one, and will work closely with the National Faculty of Medicine and Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population.

Today’s announcement is an example of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund’s support for projects that provide both humanitarian assistance and economic opportunity, helping Haiti “build back better.”

“This grant represents an invaluable investment in the decentralization and long-term, sustainable reconstruction of Haiti’s health system,” said Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “It will enable Zanmi Lasante and Partners In Health – working in partnership with Haiti’s Ministry of Health and national medical school – both to improve the quality of care for the people of St. Marc and to train a new generation of healthcare providers to deliver comprehensive, community-based care in even the poorest and most remote places.”

Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded after Haiti’s January 12, 2010 earthquake, when President Barack Obama asked former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to head a fund aimed at easing the suffering of the Haitian people while laying the groundwork for “building back better.” The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund initially responded to the catastrophe with millions in humanitarian relief. By the time the Fund began independent operations in May 2010, it transitioned to primarily serving its longer-term mission of sustainable reconstruction efforts designed to promote jobs and create economic opportunity, enabling Haiti to chart its own successful future. To date, the American people have entrusted the Fund with more than $53 million from 200,000 individuals, supporting innovative programs that help Haitians to help themselves. To learn more, visit www.ClintonBushHaitiFund.org.

Partners In Health
Partners In Health (PIH) works in 12 countries around the world to provide quality healthcare to people and communities devastated by joint burdens of poverty and disease. PIH has been providing vital healthcare services in Haiti for more than 20 years, working with the Haitian Ministry of Health to deliver comprehensive health care services across the Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite Valley. For more information please visit www.pih.org.