Preparing for the Pandemic in Haiti

In Haiti, Build Health International is urgently building one of three national COVID-19 Treatment Centers at St. Boniface Hospital, in collaboration with Health Equity International.

For more than two million people in Haiti’s Southern peninsula, St. Boniface Hospital is the only place they can access 24-hour emergency care. The hospital’s Center for Infectious Disease and Emergency Control, built by BHI in 2018, has 6 isolation rooms – that won’t be nearly enough.

The BHI team has been working around the clock with our partners, including Partners In Health, and the MGH Center for Global Health, to design emergency coronavirus treatment centers, each with a triage area, isolation wards, and ICUs. These will be built across Haiti and in other resource-poor countries, including Malawi and the Bahamas, which is still recovering from Hurricane Dorian.

We began construction yesterday at St. Boniface Hospital, and we are making rapid progress – the first two wards and the triage center are slated to be operational early next week. Longtime BHI foreman in Haiti Eduardo Maestro is leading the work on site. BHI’s warehouse team is sending cots, light fixtures, fans, medical equipment and PPE via air freight on Friday. 

The Coronavirus Treatment Center at St. Boniface Hospital is being partially funded through an emergency grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, but we need additional support. Please consider helping.

For more information and how you can support, visit www.buildhealthinternational.org