Latest news with #KonbitSante
Boston Globe
17-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
In Haiti, Trump's assault on foreign aid is ‘a gift to the gangs'
A federal judge late Thursday ordered the government to temporarily lift the freeze on some congressionally appropriated aid. But it is unclear if and when payments will resume, and the fate of many programs in Haiti remains uncertain. The Konbit Sante clinic, for instance, remains closed. Advertisement The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in the Dominican Republic this month that 'the solution for Haiti is in the hands of the Haitian people' but the United States 'cannot ignore the problems there' and would help. Already, the freeze has had profound consequences that won't easily be reversed, USAID officials and aid workers said in interviews that took place before the judge's order. Clinics for victims of rape by the gangs have let staff go. At the height of the planting season, seeds have been locked up. With half the country suffering acute food insecurity, malnutrition prevention programs are paused. The heavily armed, well-connected gangs control up to 85 percent of Port-au-Prince, the capital, and block aid deliveries. About $13 million for a poorly funded, UN-backed, Kenya-led police mission to counter them has been in limbo. Advertisement The history of US aid in Haiti is complicated, and few involved in its provision dispute a need for reform. But even the critics who say Haiti shows how foreign aid can go wrong say Trump's broad assault on the system will do more harm. Analysts argue it could also undercut US interests, strengthening armed groups, deepening poverty, and fueling the migration the administration wants to stem. 'It really is a gift to the gangs,' said an aid worker who oversees projects in Haiti. The worker, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by their organizations to speak publicly or feared retribution. 'I don't know that that's good for US or North American interests,' the worker said. 'But I can only see them as the main winners in this and I'm sure they're thrilled.' More than 5,600 people in Haiti were killed last year by gang members, vigilantes, or the police, the UN office in Port-au-Prince reported this month. Several of the deadliest massacres have occurred since October, and gangs have routinely attacked health care facilities. They have filled a power vacuum left by a leaderless government. The presidency has been vacant since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse; the National Assembly has been empty since the last lawmakers' terms expired at the start of 2023. In their place is an unelected interim council and an appointed prime minister, the country's third in a year. Haitian officials have said they intend to hold general elections in November, but it's unclear that security conditions will have improved enough by then. The aid freeze paused US technical assistance for the panel organizing the vote, a person familiar with the matter said. Advertisement In Washington, foreign aid, which makes up about 1 percent of the federal budget, has traditionally drawn bipartisan support as a bulwark against Russian and Chinese influence and an important form of soft power. In Haiti, it's complicated. Some in the country view the programs as a necessary lifeline. Others say American assistance is a form of economic colonialism that has often benefited US contractors and international organizations at the expense of Haitian groups more closely connected to the reality on the ground, has accomplished too little, and has enfeebled state institutions, effectively trapping the country in a cycle of dependency. The cataclysmal Port-au-Prince earthquake in 2010 drew billions of dollars in foreign aid and pledges to finally set Haiti on a path toward progress. The US Government Accountability Office found that USAID projects had 'mixed' results and that many experienced delays, due in part to understaffing and 'unrealistic' plans. USAID sent tens of thousands of tons of US rice to the country. But the program benefited American farmers over Haitian farmers who were already struggling because US rice subsidies had undercut local production. But analysts say Trump's assault on the foreign aid apparatus, including shutting off the spigots overnight, will have devastating results. They say his plan to support only those projects that align with his 'America First' agenda will preserve the most harmful elements of the system. 'The biggest reason aid is ineffective is because it is designed to support US interests and not the interests in these countries,' said Jake Johnston, author of 'Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti.' 'The changes that we're seeing from the administration is making USAID more overtly political … and is doubling down on all the worst parts of aid.' Advertisement A USAID employee called the administration's moves 'a blow' to the bilateral relationship. 'There are critics who have every right to be critical of US policy in Haiti,' the employee said. 'But I think when it comes down to it, most people would agree that US assistance … has been and is necessary.' The Zanmi Lasante health clinic, which supports some of the 140,000 people in Haiti with HIV, continued to provide HIV treatment, but social support programs were paused. Wesler Lambert, its executive director, said US agencies fund 90 percent of HIV programs in Haiti, so any long-term gutting of assistance could undo years of progress against the virus. 'I would not say that the billions of dollars have not helped Haiti,' Lambert said. 'There's a lot of work to do, but it has helped. It has saved lives in the health field.'
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Maine nonprofit's work in Haiti hampered by USAID shutdown
Feb. 8—A Falmouth-based nonprofit announced Friday it was closing a long-running prenatal and newborn care program that served thousands in northern Haiti due to the Trump administration's attempt to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. Konbit Sante had to stop its maternal care work at a public hospital serving a poor neighborhood in Cap-Haitien, the country's second-largest city, under orders from USAID, which provides it with $220,000 a year to buy medical supplies and pay 32 nurses and community outreach aides. "Like everybody else, we were expecting some instability and tried to plan and prepare for it, but we never thought the country's entire foreign aid program would be eviscerated in the first two weeks of the new administration," said Perry Newman, Konbit Sante's executive director. Newman had hoped last week's 90-day stop work order was temporary while President Donald Trump's new administration evaluated USAID programs, but that hope was dashed when the agency put all but a few hundred of its 10,000 employees on leave and recalled its overseas workers. Trump left little doubt of his plan for USAID Friday. "CLOSE IT DOWN!" he said on his Truth Social page. The closure has met with strong criticism from many Democrats who claim it is unconstitutional, and many international leaders who worry about the vacuum created by the withdrawal of the world's largest provider of foreign assistance. It is likely to be challenged in court. Konbit Sante is not the only Maine nonprofit to be hit by the dismantling of USAID. MCD Global Health of Hallowell has had to halt its mission to combat malaria in Mozambique, Uganda and Niger. MCD is the recipient of a five-year, $27 million USAID grant. USAID spent $240 million in Haiti in fiscal year 2023, federal records show. Humanitarian grants funding emergency food and disaster relief got the highest spend, at $89 million. Health care funding was second at $66 million. Maternal health care programs accounted for $15 million. The loss of the funding means Konbit Sante will have to withdraw from Fort Saint Michel Health Center, a public hospital that serves a community of about 5,000 people who live in fragile dwellings built on garbage. Tuberculosis is the biggest public health challenge in this flood-prone community. In 2009, Konbit Sante helped the 24-hour emergency clinic expand into women's health services by adding gynecology, obstetrics, and prenatal and postnatal care. In 2012, it funded the addition of a 17-bed maternity ward to the center's existing surgical room, laboratory and tuberculosis clinic. USAID funding provides training, supplies and salaries to eight nurses and 24 community health workers who visit people in their homes to promote neonatal and postnatal referrals, malnutrition treatment and vaccinations and encourage pregnant women to give birth in the hospital. Konbit Sante will continue to pay these employees through the end of the month out of its own funding, Newman said. But the program's closure will eventually put those nurses and health aides out of work in a country where unemployment hovers around 15%. The facility staff that remain will be able to use up the remaining USAID-purchased medicines and medical supplies, but those will soon run out, Newman said. Konbit Sante is working with non-USAID agencies in Haiti to take on their maternal health care clients. "It's a very bleak picture," Newman said. "With the stroke of a pen, an entire community will suffer. Others will step in to try to help, but they won't be able to fill the void. These women and children will suffer. Many lives will be changed, and sadly, some lives will be lost." Fort Saint Michel Health Center is the only Konbit Sante program funded by a USAID grant. The rest of the organization's $750,000 annual budget comes from private contributions, Newman said. Konbit Sante will continue its maternal health care work at three other Haitian health centers. The organization will direct some patients to a neonatal intensive care unit it is building at a health center 2-1/2 miles away, Newman said. It can take up to an hour to travel that distance by motorbike or flatbed truck taxi because of potholes, traffic jams and overturned vehicles. "Imagine you're that mother on that bike with a sick child on your lap," he said. "Haiti is a high friction society. It's hard to find anything that can be easily accomplished here. But losing the ability to care for sick children where we find them, when we've been doing it for 20 years, it's soul crushing and it's cruel." Konbit Sante has a long history in Haiti. It was founded in 2001 by Michael and Wendy Taylor of Portland, a dermatologist and marketing manager. Konbit Sante is a Haitian Creole phrase that means working together for health. Copy the Story Link
