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We are proud of how we have been able to take our place with a national team that has brought Covid-19 under remarkable control in Haiti, allowing us to grow the reach of our services. From the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, we have partnered with the Haitian Global Health Alliance (GHESKIO) centers and the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) in the development of an intensive, 2-day training program on the prevention and management of Covid-19.

To date, 862 individuals have participated in these trainings. Participants include nurses, physicians, social workers, field workers, support personnel, psychologists, teachers, sex workers, and others. These activities have helped us:

• Promote public health by teaching effective practices to prevent disease transmission through a focus on hygiene
• Further our core mission of strengthening the capacity of nurses to act as transformational healthcare leaders
• Expand our network of nurses and other healthcare partners,

Our work during the pandemic was highlighted in an article published in the New Humanitarian in June; the article was also featured on the website of the Ashoka Foundation.

GHESKIO’s new healthcare, hygiene and life skills program for Vulnerable Women. This program is primarily for sex workers, who remain a major source of transmission of Covid, HIV and tuberculosis. Based on the success of the Covid Commission/NECH-CIEH hygiene training, this new program is presently in its early stages, with NECH-CIEH taking a major role in designing and delivering the training. Since NECH-CIEH is being brought in as a professional consultant, we are in the process of establishing a fee schedule for delivering these services. As a not-for -profit organization, all fees received will be returned to NECH-CIEH and used to fund our programs.

NECH-CIEH Nursing Survey.  We are surveying nursing job/career satisfaction, as well as perceptions and power relations of and within the nursing profession among nurses, doctors, hospital and clinic administrators throughout Haiti. This survey will provide the groundwork for our goal of making nurses in Haiti the agents of change by transforming the perceptions as well as the roles of nurses.

Claudia Thomas Riché secured financing and oversaw print publication of the first-ever compilation of a 72-page manual of nursing standards for Haiti: Normes pour la Pratique des Soins Infirmiers.

1000 copies were distributed to all 900+ healthcare facilities in Haiti and is the first documentation of nursing standards in Haiti.

In that spirit, in March 2020, just as the world was grappling with the onset of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, NECH-CIEH was able to donate 5 gallons of our microbusiness soap to the Haiti-based operations of Double Harvest, through our mutual partner, DaVita Bridge of Life Trust.

As Haiti was struggling to respond to the terrible after-effects of Hurricane Matthew – and preparing for its long-delayed national elections – NECH-CIEH held its 4th national conference on November 12 and 13, 2016.  In the immediate backdrop of the conference were reports of new outbreaks of cholera in the hardest hit eastern portions of the country.

In response, this year’s conference featured new educational emphases and nurse-engaged dialogue as the organization explored with  its 35 attendees (see picture) their ideas about how to implement pilots programs of nurses-led economic initiative that combine use of local skills and labor, local production of infection-fighting products (eg., local soap manufacture) and in-community training in effective hand-washing and other infection prevention as a way to address the new threat of a long-term battle with disease.

Objective: The objective of the workshop was : To improve communication, administration, business research skills to enable Haitian nurses to create sustainable change in the healthcare practice environment.
Goals: Participants will be able to:

• Develop a research question with appropriate methodology
• Be aware of how Haitian nurses can contribute to the country’s economy
• Be knowledgeable of and committed to effective professional communication
• Understand the basic concepts of financial administration in healthcare

First NECH-CIEH leadership retreat in Montreal, Canada on Aug 8-11 2016.

NECH-CIEH’s executive leadership team will collaborate to discuss the vision and future plans for NECH-CIEH. The results will be shared at our next annual workshop in November 2016 to be held at Karibe Hotel, Haiti.