Vision:

Hope for Haiti's Nurses Project (HHNP) seeks to create safe, adequately supplied, standards based and sustainable work settings for the nurses of Haiti so that they can help the people of Haiti to heal. Nurses are the backbone of healthcare - the art and science of care - of nursing - has the power to help lead Haiti into a better future. We must take care of those who care for Haiti - remove the barriers, give them the tools and help them to be a Haitian solution to the rebuilding and renewal and the breaking-down of social injustice that has been Haiti's greatest disaster.  15 million nurses world-wide have the power to heal the world - Our vision is to give voice to care - to strengthen nursing - to strengthen care in the most disparate area in the Western Hemisphere.

Mission: 

HHNP seeks to assure that nurses have the right nursing tools (such as BP cuffs and stethoscopes, oto-opthalmascopes, baby scales and thermometers) , personal protective equipment, laptop computers and methods to record and monitor patient progress, a living wage and a safe work environment (such as a mobile clinic or a safe structure) and above all, the ability to provide evidenced based excellent care for the people of Haiti through continuing education and training. 

• Create an epicenter where nurses are empowered and can actualize their highest vision of care in order to create lasting peace and possibility for the people of Haiti and her environment,
• Create - in partnership with Haitian Nurses - culturally sensitive and appropriate resources to build a stronger Haiti
• Connect the world’s nurses to the Nurses of Haiti to strengthen care and nursing in Haiti, and
• Empower the nurses of Haiti to actualize their dreams through mentoring, financial support, appropriate technology, and nurse-to-nurse friendships.

From Nurses for Nurses International’s (NFNI) Founder and CEO, Michele Sare

On January 12, 2010 I arrived in Port au Prince, Haiti just minutes before one of the most violent earthquakes imaginable. The journey from Haiti’s capital city to Léogâne, 20 miles to the southwest, opened my world-view to what social injustice is truly all about. The things that I experienced, the people that I met and fell in love with  and the things that we witnessed and did over those first horrible days after the quake have forever changed my life. 

As you read on the main page of the Hope for Haiti's Nurses Project (HHNP), and can read in more detail in Today, Leogane, the new graduates and student nurses gave everything they had to help those in desperate need.  During my 35 years as a Registered Nurse, I have known and taught many nurses, both in the US and abroad, and I can easily say that those I had the great privilege to work beside in Leoganeat were the equal of any new nurse in the US.  They were amazing nurses and true heroes.

The level of care given and competency  and service quickly became known and trusted among the people of Haiti. Their skills were basic, but readily said, "show me how Micheel"; "why do we do it that way?" and then they were off to apply their best and to teach others. People traveled from Port au Prince and other cities as the word spread that the nurses of Léogâne would care for them in their critical and dire circumstances. Nurses were their only hope.

BUT, the sad truth is that the working conditions for these amazing young people is horrific - without adequate supplies, few to no personal protective equipment, few medications, bandages or other necessary tools and they even face discrimination and acts of violence: The Nurses of Haiti need safe environments and good tools in-order to care for the people of Haiti.

The Nurses of Léogâne were given little more thana basic nurisng education, but with that, they saved lives.  For this reason, NFNI is dedicating the HHNP to the Nurses of Léogâne - and to all nurses in Haiti - to promote greater opportunities for the nurses of Haiti so that they can help to rebuild their country stronger than before.

Nowhere is the effort of aid going to be more worthy and sustainable than in the strengthening of nursing, the strengthening of care, and the strengthening of nursing education.

What can I do? 

While the people of Haiti are amazingly strong, the destruction that leveled cities and destroyed families left them with very little. 

• Download and read the e-book Today, Leogane - you'll be helping the Nurses for Nurses Internaitonal Foundation
• Look around our website - let us knwo what you're interest are - ideas to partner, ideas to collaborate
• We also encourage you to visit the HNF website at:  http://www.haitinursing.org/ to help nursing schools in Haiti.