Adding Space to the Cap Haitien Center

Last week we announced our need to expand the Cap Haitien Maternity Center. We’re currently seeing 80 to 100 people each day including pregnant women, clients seeking family planning, and new moms with their brand new babies. 

It’s getting crowded in here! 

Over the past 7 days, you have really shown up for us. 

We’ve had so many of you reach out to help us figure this out. 

We’re so thankful. 

With donations of all sizes, we’ve now reached the halfway point to our goal!

With more than 60% of the goal already raised, we are so close to ensuring that no mother or newborn goes without care. 

Last week we told you that to continue to serve families well, we need to build three more rooms, additional seating, and more space for mothers in labor. 

It was urgent then and it is still urgent today. 

It’s so important that we’ve already started building the foundation. 

Today was the first day of construction for expansion at the Cap Haitien Maternity Center.

We hire local professionals to do everything from the foundation to the plumbing and electricity.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves we need to reach this goal before we can talk about lights!

It was a beautiful day with no rain. And many community members were onsite for the first workday.

If you know us, you know that we have great faith in this community. We absolutely trust that the funds will come. We have the best supporters. They always do.

And since every minute that passes there will be mothers and babies who don’t get the care they need, we didn’t wait.

With the donations received to-date, we’ve taken the first steps.

We still need help with the rest.

Today is the last day for matching donations and every bit makes a difference, especially when doubled, today.

You’re making a difference.

DONATE TODAY TO HAVE YOUR GIFT MATCHED.

Interested in giving by check? Simply reply to this email and let us know so that we can count it towards the matching total. 

📬

You’ll find our mailing address below.

❤️ from Haiti

It's Time to Expand

Hello! And welcome back to Sixty Seconds with Second Mile.

We’re so glad you are here!

Have you enjoyed our stories from the early years?

We hope so.

We wanted to focus today on where that fateful first step has taken us. Specifically, to the eventual opening of not one but two Maternity Centers!

Have we told you the story that led us here?

Do you know the faces behind why it felt so urgent to figure out how to give more women good maternal health care.

It was this little one and others like him.

In 2016 and 2017, 20% of the children at the Malnutrition Treatment Center were being cared for by someone who was not their mother. We saw Aunts, Dads, Grandmas, Sisters, Cousins.

And while we loved to see these family members involved from such a early age, we had to investigate the underlying issue.

Mothers were dying in child birth. They were dying in the days and weeks after, and they were dying while pregnant from eclampsia and preeclampsia.

There was Philomene, a grandma of 62 years who came to the center with twin girls. Her daughter had no prenatal care and died after her birth. There was Ardiane whose daughter died just after her Grandson, Emmanuel was born. She came to the center with Emmanuel when he was 10-months-old.

There was Planika and her aunt, Suzanne. Planika was 5 when she came to the center. 4 years old when her mother died of eclampsia. Suzanne had to grieve the loss of her sister. Planika lost the baby sister she had been expecting. She lost her mother. And she became very, very sick.

We knew that maternal mortality was high in Haiti, 1 in 254 births led to a mother’s death. But then we surveyed our community and learned that only 2 in 10 women had a skilled birth attendant at their last birth.

Access to quality Maternal Care was a huge problem.

A problem that you’ve been helping us solve for 5 years now!

If you came to our Maternity Center today, you would have seen 75 women in line for Prenatal Education. On busy months, we have as many as 60 new babies born at the center. Yesterday, 107 parents travelled to the center for vaccination day with their newborns.

And lately, we’ve been seeing between 60-80 clients everyday for the rest of our services (prenatal care, postpartum care, and family planning)

We are quite literally busting open at the seams.

What’s that look like on a grand scale?

5,189 women have sought care at our this center since 2018.

Space is starting to become a huge problem. For the first time, we find ourselves having to limit the number of clients we can see each day. And closing the doors to new patients earlier and earlier each morning.

It would kill us to keep turning people away. Especially since there isn’t a comparable alternative.

So, it’s time to expand.

Did you guess what was coming next?

That’s right. We’re building.

How can you help?

We are going to need $40,000 to make sure that we don’t have to turn any one else away. We would like to start building as soon as possible. The plans are drawn and the builders are on call.

If we raised every dollar today, we could start tomorrow!

What exactly will an expansion look like?

It will look like more rooms so we can have more Midwives. And more comfortable spaces for people to sit while they wait.

A birth garden for laboring women and their support people. More space to move about.

A shaded seating areas outside the gate, for family members who attend the appointments & need a shady place to wait.

And it will look like more space for local entrepreneurs to make and sell food to the hundreds of people that come and go from the Maternity Center each day.

We’re very excited.

We have a generous donor who has committed to match every dollar donated to the building project over the next week.

Donations will be matched through May 31st.

Isn’t that wonderful?!

You’ve helped us build so many safe spaces. This will be no different.

Can you help us reach our goal before the 31st?

Love from Haiti 🇭🇹

A Mother's Gratitude

Hello friends and happy belated mother’s day to those who celebrate.

You hear from us every week and in case you’re sick of us (impossible, right?)  we thought we’d do something a little different.

This week, we’re passing the reins to Linda, a recent graduate of the Second Mile Haiti Malnutrition Treatment Program.

Linda is a 39-year-old mother to five. Linda means beautiful and she chose an equally beautiful name for her 5th child. Malaika means “Angel.”

The pair spent 10 weeks in our semi-residential center, returning home on weekends. And 2 weeks in the hospital for intensive care.

Second Mile staff had nothing but wonderful things to say about Linda. Kind, generous, helpful, warm, wise, and encouraging. Linda was a leader.

The fact that she spent 2 weeks at the hospital and other 10 at the center, might have been discouraging for some mothers. But Linda took this in stride. Other caregivers referred to her as “the original mother” since she was already well established at the center when most of them arrived.

But she laughed off their jokes, pointing out that her daughter had much farther to go. Plus, the other mothers made these jests with love. After all, Linda had been there to coach and comfort most of them when they first arrived.

If a mother was especially disheartened or scared for her child, Linda asked the nurses to show them a picture of Malaika “before.”

She wanted them to see what was possible.

Here’s what Linda had to say about her experience.

How did Second Mile Haiti help you?

“Second Mile gave me so much support with my daughter. She was seriously ill when we arrived. She is fully recovered now. We received support of every kind. Medicine, care at the hospital, education...

I don’t know that she would be here today if I didn’t find Second Mile Haiti”

What changes have you noticed in your daughter over the past few weeks?

“She loves to eat now. Her sickness improved. She had no appetite when we arrived. She was always crying. Her little body was wasting away. Now she has so much energy to play! She’s smiles at everyone!”

What about you, have you noticed any changes within yourself?

“I feel great! When I arrived I was in a really bad place. It was so hard to see my daughter in the condition she was in when we first arrived. But with all of the changes that have taken place, I feel so joyful. I’m so happy. ”

Above: Linda wears a headband she made during a sewing class at Second Mile. She holds some of her art pieces from “Art Therapy,” Second Mile’s newest activity to help caregivers process trauma

What’s next for you?

“There were a lot of things I didn’t know how to do before. There are certain things I plan to do differently now that I know more. I have more knowledge about how to keep my family healthy. 

My business as a vendor in my local market went under when Malaika became sick, but with Second Mile’s help I will rebuild. I feel great and I’m looking forward to resuming my work as a market vendor while I continue to care for my children.”

“To everyone who made this possible, I’d like to say thank you for the support you gave my family.”

-Linda Ambroise, mom to Malaika

Thriving Gardens

It’s been raining more than usual lately which means the dogs paws are extra muddy and late afternoon Zoom calls are off the table. Heavy rain drops, metal roofs, and conference calls don’t mix, but we take our wins where we can get ‘em.

Rain is a win.

Rain means the gardens are alive and well. 

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been growing food for 10 years now. 

When we imagined a place where children could recover from malnutrition with their parents rather than in orphanages, we imagined a place with food.

Food growing from the dirt and food hanging from the trees.

And parents could benefit from the earth, learning from and spending time in the gardens while their babies napped. 

a mother at Second Mile Haiti-Cap Haitien waters pepper plants during a garden session

So…in early 2013, when the buildings seemed a few months shy of completion, we put seeds in the ground and planted plantain and banana trees.

We hoped to have something to show by the time the first families arrived at the center.

We hoped.. and by golly, we did!

The first lunch ever prepared at the center was made with love for a mother named Claire and a baby called Marie Ange.

Second Mile cooks, Gigi and Magoul (still with us today), showing off a garden haul of cabbage, carrots, and spinach that we grew onsite in May 2013

caregivers at Second Mile participating in a gardening class circa 2019

Today there are more than 60 plant varieties growing around the centers. 

Stop by on a Tuesday or a Thursday in Cap Haitien or Saint Raphael and you’ll find around 40 mothers and grandmothers with their hands in the dirt — transplanting green onions — or reaching for ripe fruit from one of several hundred fruit trees. 

Some of our earliest trees were generous donations from friends at Bonne Terre and Cory & Thede. And we thank them for inspiring us. 

Children recovering from malnutrition and their siblings get a variety of farm fresh goodies for their mid-day snack. Papaya, egg, and pumpkin.

On Fridays, when they pack up their babies to go home for the weekend, caregivers take home whatever surplus we have to offer.

Ten years later and the cooks still take full advantage of the garden’s offerings, making stews with yams and arrowroot.

They add spicy Moringa leaves to rice dishes. Their rich sauces contain scotch bonnet peppers and okra.

Most importantly, the gardens’ benefits are still extending far beyond the centers’ gates.

Our nurseries have afforded many hundreds of families with fruit trees for their own “food forests.” More than 10,000 trees in total. 

And 750 women have taken the skills they learned from the agronomists at our Centers and applied them to their own vegetable gardens.

Second Mile Haiti beneficiary, Rose Guerda, hides a smile while showing off the carrots she’s growing in her home garden

Today marks exactly 10 years since we opened our doors in Cap Haitien, Haiti. The gratitude we feel for all supporters—past and present—is endless!

There are a handful of reasons why we've managed to make it to this milestone. Monthly donors—our Kollektif—is one of them.

We’re delighted by the 6 new monthly donors who have joined the Kolektif since our last email. We still need 24 new monthly donors to support Second Mile Haiti this year.

If you’re looking for a way to support this work, this is a great one—we need you more than ever.

Love from 🇭🇹

Clear Intentions

In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson. - Tom Bodett

When I see the photo that follows, I’m always in awe of what happened next. 

It was April 15th, 2013 and Second Mile Haiti was set to open in exactly 4 weeks. We were getting down to the wire and one important piece of the puzzle hadn’t yet been sorted. 

Power. 

The rooms were built, the well was dug, and the programs were taking shape on paper. We even had a few crops in the ground. We had our fingers crossed—hoping that beans and corn would be ready by the time the first family spent their first night onsite. 

But we didn’t have electricity.

Most people we knew—i.e. the other organizations in Northern Haiti being run by Americans—obtained electricity via generators. Big, loud, gas guzzlers that seemed to require maintenance at all hours of the day and night.

It wasn’t our first choice. We hoped for a facility run 100% by solar power— but at this point in our young career as “fundraisers” we only had about $8,500 raised that we could allocate towards electricity.

A used generator was all we could afford. 

At this point in the story, we find ourselves in the bustling city of Santiago in the Dominican Republic. It was where we’d been told we could find used generators on the island. And we’d found one.

But now that it was dangling over our vehicle about to be ours, did we really want it?

No.. Not really. We wanted something more sustainable. 

Jenn waved off the lift operator. “No, take it down” she managed to gesture with her hands, limited as she was by a language-barrier. 

We didn’t have enough money for solar panels at the time, but staying true to our intentions was important enough to make a 180-degree turn.

On that day in 2013, we thought a generator was a necessary purchase. But as she looked at the used generator hovering over our vehicle and thought about all the money we might spend fixing, feeding, and replacing this piece of equipment through the years…

she decided NOT to go through with the purchase. 

It took a few more months and a few humbling asks to raise the money for the solar panels, but we’ve never looked back.

In 10 years, not a single dollar of your generous donations has been spent on generator fuel, repair, or replacement. It’s meant that even through floods and hurricanes, fuel spikes and fuel shortages, our health centers have never been without power.

We learned a valuable lesson that fateful day. 

Intentions matter. Being clear about your intentions and following them—even if it means delayed gratification or doing without something for a time— is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself, your family, and the organizations you are a part of.

Jenn unloads solar panels 1 month after turning that big, bulky generator around

The decision to skip the generator 10 years ago has helped us be intentional in so many other ways. In fact, we don’t ever purchase anything with a plug, without first researching how much power said item might pull from our system when in use. Every employee at the center—from the midwives to the gardeners—knows how to communicate with one another so that we don’t run out of power by operating a sterilizer and a water pump at the same time. We unplug our refrigerators when it’s cloudy outside.

We are intentional. And it has paid off in so many ways. 

Our intention this year is to bring you along. We want you with us for the next 10 years. And we want you to know that there are no rash decisions or unconsidered actions happening over here. 

Our fierce leader is willing to–literally— turn that hunk of metal around if it doesn’t feel right. 

In the end, every dollar we haven’t spent on fuel has been spent directly on keeping families together.

It’s week 2 of our push for 30 new Kolektif Members!

We still need 28 new monthly donors to reach our goal.

Will you join us today?

Ten Years

We are so glad you’re here.

May is a really big month for us in a really big year. 

May 14, 2023 marks 10 years since we opened our flagship Malnutrition Treatment Center just outside of Cap Haitien, Haiti. 

It was a 12-bed, no frills, building on what had been a sugarcane field in a little known village in Northern Haiti—our first effort as a newly formed non-profit.

We were very, very green.

Clearing the field for construction to begin, 2012

Dreaming of vegetable gardens and orphanage alternatives

Before our center opened in 2013, young parents with no money and no support left sick and starving infants at hospitals and orphanages. There was simply no structure that made holistic support available to parents while their children remained in their care.

Can you even imagine? 

So we dreamt of Second Mile Haiti. At the time, there was nothing like it.

We only had one family and one nurse that first night. 

It wasn’t long before other organizations took notice and in 2015 we received funding from the United Nations to expand the center. 

This was just the start of Second Mile Haiti’s evolution. 

Before long, we didn’t just want to treat malnutrition, we wanted to prevent it—full stop. 

At the time, 1 in 250 births in Haiti resulted in a mother’s death. Too many of these infants—now without their mothers—ended up with severe acute malnutrition.

We opened our first Maternity Center in 2018.

We have since walked with 6,000+ women through pregnancy and helped 3,000+ individuals access birth control. Our birth centers have offered more than 1,700+ families a safe and supported birth.

Baby #1000 born is born at our Saint Raphaël Maternity Center in Sept. 2022

You probably know what comes next, we purchased land and did it all over again, opening a second campus in a new community gradually over several months in 2021 and 2022. We now call each campus a Family Center, because that’s what we are — family. 

Caregivers and staff celebrate Mother’s Day 2022 at Cap Haitien Family Center

As we reflect on the last ten years, we are hyper aware of how much we need each other. 

We recently sent almost 100 thank you cards in the mail—one to every one of our monthly donors. It was a process to write each by hand and to mark them all with mailing addresses all over the world.

But we did it with SO much gratitude.

As we head into this season of celebration and recognition of how much we have accomplished together, we are asking for your continued support. 

To celebrate our 10-year Anniversary, we are giving our Monthly Giving Club a new name. We are calling it the Kolektif (Haitien Creole for Collective).

Collective (n.) - a group of individuals acting as a whole

If you are a monthly donor and you see us mention the Kolektif, that’s you! 

And if you’re not a monthly donor, is it something you’d like to be a part of?

The needs in Haiti are greater than ever and we need to find 30 new Kolektif Members in these coming weeks. 

Specifically, we need:

10 new monthly donors of $25+

10 new monthly donors of $50+

And 10 new monthly donors of $100+

You can start today.

For the next few weeks we will be sharing some of our favorite stories from the past 10 years.

We love to hear why you support Second Mile Haiti and what you have loved about taking this journey with us.

Amy & Jenn, deep in thought, in the final days of Second Mile Haiti’s construction, 2013

And if you have the means, please help make this work possible by starting a monthly donation.

Join the Kolektif today.

Love and solidarity from Haiti

❤️

It's Earth Day!

Bonjou!

It’s a gorgeous morning in our little corner of Northern Haiti.

The sun is shining.

Birds are singing their springtime song.

And thanks to a few more days of steady rain, the landscape is finally looking green again!

It’s a perfect day to celebrate the beautiful spinning globe we call home.

We recently, we launched a community trash collection initiative in Jean Louis,  home to our Cap Haitien Maternity and Malnutrition Treatments Centers.

Since today is Earth Day, we thought we’d share the process with all of you.

Perhaps, it’s no surprise that there are no formal, or city-endorsed, trash collection services in rural Haiti.

Most families burn their trash in close proximity to their living spaces. This subjects everyone to the inhalation of toxic fumes and while also releasing carbon into the environment.

We wanted something different for our neighbors and beneficiaries.

So, we got to work!

First, we purchased used oil drums, cleaned them, and painted them white.

We purchased paint locally, and a combination of our most creative staff members from all over the organization, got to work outlining different designs.

Some of the caregivers at the Malnutrition Treatment Center got to help out with the artistic process.

We painted geometric shapes, colorful trees & flowers, and even a funky, friendly sun!

Once we had 8 oil drums designed to our heart’s content, it was time to install them in the community!

We spaced them out evenly along the main road, near homes and businesses. We poured a small cement base and attached the bins to the base using a bolt.

The bins are for anyone in the community, whether you are from the area, or are just passing through. Before we chose a location for each bin, we made sure the people who lived closest would be willing to help on trash day.

And after all of that, we were ready for the first trash pick up!

Sweet, clean, success!

We currently sponsor a twice weekly pick-up from a local waste management company, Bien Nettoyer.

It’s been a few weeks since the launch, but people in Jean Louis haven’t stopped talking about how proud they feel to have these beautiful trash bins in their neighborhood.

You can catch a video of the process on Instagram.

Happy Earth Day, friends. 🌏

Thanks for helping us make the world a better place for all!

Love from Haiti

❤️

The Possibilities of Light

There’s something special about light.

Most of us know the feeling of fumbling around in the dark until we manage to find a light switch or our cell phone. When we’re in total darkness, we can’t flip the switch fast enough.

Light gives us the freedom to tackle whatever problem had us running for that light switch in the first place.

That’s what I love about Second Mile Haiti’s solar street lamp installations.

As of Tuesday, Second Mile Haiti has installed 127 solar panel street lamps in the communities right outside of our Maternity and Malnutrition Centers.

They now touch 6 different communities and provide light for thousands of people!

Yesterday I saw two girls, maybe 10, skipping home hand in hand, their hair freshly braided for the school day ahead. It was 7:30 in the evening, with only a sliver of moonlight in the sky.

There would have been no way for them to skip so freely if the street lamps we’d installed earlier in the year weren’t casting a glow across their entire route.

I like to solve problems. But I really love to see girls skipping freely in a place where they should always feel safe.

~~~

This week’s solar panel installation was the easiest one yet!

Because of your donations, we are able to purchase the solar lamps, the metal posts and some wood to create a cement base, locally.

Normally, we would also provide the cement, while the community would come in with sand and water for mixing.

But this time, a few community members gifted bags of cement they’d purchased for their own home repairs.

All of the labor, cement mixing, hauling, was donated as well.

Pictured here are just 6 of the 100+ people who came out to help.

Including the local mayor—dressed for a day of hard work.

So much excitement in the air!

Local mayor, Patrick Guillome (second from left), stands with a group local residents

Two years ago, if you drove through this area after dark, you may have seen light from a single cell phone flash—bobbing in the distance as someone tried desperately to light their own way.

Now you see dozens of businesses attracting clusters of people beneath each lamp. There are hot dog stands and women sitting beside steaming pots of soup.

You hear music playing and kids are riding their bikes in and out of the fray.

Beneath some of the panels, people of all generations are playing cards, talking, and laughing. And beneath others, teens sit silently memorizing facts and figures for their upcoming school exams.

If you make regular contributions to Second Mile Haiti, thank you!

You made this possible.

To learn more about solar street lamp installations or to sponsor one in the future, send us a message. We’d love to chat.

Sending love (and light) from Haiti.

❤️🔦

Supporting Small Babies

Lately, with our centers full and our programs in full swing, it seems we have no shortage of good news to share.

And since today is Good Friday, it felt appropriate to share some of our best news.

SUPPORTING SMALL BABIES

We are so proud of our teams in Saint Raphael and Cap Haitien for the way they’ve stepped up to help small babies. We are currently caring for 4 babies under 4 lbs.

Whether the babies were born prematurely or have other health issues, our teams have been digging deep into their tool boxes

to help each small baby succeed.

Like Dadie.

She weighed just 2.7 lbs when she arrived at our center and is now crushing the scale at 4 lbs!

Dadie’s twin died shortly after they were birthed at home which makes the support she is receiving now both healing and empowering.

Fed-Davens is another small baby with special needs.

He and his parents travel every fews day to the Cap Haitian Maternity Center. He is weighed and his feeding tube gets changed as needed.

If you’ve ever bodyfed a newborn, or know someone who has, you know that feeding a baby isn’t as easy as it looks.

While the feeding tube is one way we can help his family in the short-term, it isn’t the only way.

Miss Frenise—our resident “lactation specialist”—is also helping Fed-Davens’ mom stimulate lactation through pumping and supplements even though she hasn’t been able to nurse since he was born.

So it’s settled then. Support small babies is beautiful, life-saving, and spirit-saving work!

SAVINGS GROUP

The Second Mile Haiti Savings Group is a small group of parents whose children battled Malnutrition at one of our Centers sometime in the last (5) years.

They are all entrepreneurs, working creatively and diligently to make the businesses they launched thrive.

Every week they meet to deposit some of their profits in a safe space, to discuss their triumphs and challenges, and encourage one another.

This connection, combined with a safe place to save, is giving parents and female entrepreneurs a sense that maybe their dreams can become reality.

Plus we love to see women in there 60s connecting with women in their 20s. That’s some cross-generational magic!

STUDENT MIDWIVES

And lastly, it would be a grave disservice to our collective spirit to NOT to share these last few photos with you.

For the past 6 weeks it’s been an absolute joy to host student midwives from the University at our Cap Haitien Maternity Center.

The students follow Second Mile Haiti Midwives around the center as they provide prenatal and postnatal care.

They learn from our experienced team as they support with women through breastfeeding, labor, and birth.

And a few times each day, they get to witness the miracle of birth.

They are young.

They are enthusiastic!

They are the next generation of midwives

There are a lot of uncertainties in Haiti at the moment.

But this we know for sure:

Small babies are still fighting for their place in the world.

Haitian parents are still encouraging one another to never give up.

And young people—like the student midwives we hosted this month—are still pursuing vocations where they can make a difference.

There are a lot of people who have given up on Haiti recently, but if you’re reading this now, you’re not one of them. Thank you!

If you enjoyed this good news, consider a donation today!

Happy Easter.

🐣

A Heavy Week

Hi friends,

“How are things in Haiti?”

It’s a question we get asked quite a lot.

As the weeks pass by, the question has become more frequent. Most people know that things in Haiti aren’t good right now.

Armed gangs control 75% of Haiti’s and the effects of this control ripple throughout the country.

Food insecurity is affecting 5 million people.

More children are arriving at our centers with Severe Acute Malnutrition.

We are working hard and fast to meet the increasing need for more space at our Malnutrition Treatment Centers. But, Severe Acute Malnutrition is a hard thing to witness and this week has felt especially heavy.

So allow me to end this week’s update with something light.

Every child pictured here experienced Severe Acute Malnutrition in their first years of life.

The light part is coming, I promise.

Sherlie, front and center, battled for months in our Malnutrition Treatment Program when she was just two years old.

Today, Sherlie is an active, playful, eight-year-old. She’s one of the 140 students we sent to school this year with support from our School Sponsors.

She loves soccer, dance, and art, and despite her early setbacks, she is keeping pace with her classmates in the first grade.

Before Sherlie was born, her mother Diana, lost 4 children between 0 and 5 years old.

She didn’t think Sherlie was going to survive.

But she did!

This is the hope we have to hold onto.

We can’t thank you enough for sticking with us on this journey.

Your support helps us through the heavy weeks and keeps us smiling.

We recently asked a few of the kids from our School Program to share a few words with you.

We hope it makes you smile. 🔊

With ❤️ from their classroom to yours,

Jenn, Amy, & the Second Mile Haiti Team

Rain Makes Happy Gardens

Today, the rains fell in Northern Haiti.

If you caught our IG story this morning, you know that we’ve been waiting on rain for quite some time. This most recent drought lasted a grueling 3 months, and put added strain on Haiti’s meager food supply.

Rates of acute malnutrition are climbing and both of our Malnutrition Treatment Centers are full.

But the rain allowed everyone to exhale. Even if just for a day.

We even did some planting as an act of gratitude.

You may have seen us post about “home gardens” in the past.

Our team helps every graduate of the Malnutrition Treatment Center, start a vegetable garden at home after they leave the center.

Our on-campus practice gardens help familiarize parents with the types of vegetables they will soon plant in their own gardens.

By the time they leave the center, each caregiver has spent more than 40 hours in the on-campus garden.

And leaves with a whole new set of skills.

Between 2021 and 2022 we helped launch gardens for 180 Treatment Center graduates and 540 of their neighbors.

Today we invited the first group of 10 graduates back to the center. They shared about how their gardens have grown and evolved over the past few years.

They spoke about their experiences teaching friends and neighbors how to nurture their own plots—inspiring and motivating one another in the process.

The parents pictured here all have children who are healthy now, attending school, and growing strong.

Home gardens have played an integral role in helping these families thrive.

Earlier this year, Haiti became the 10th hardest hit country by food inflation.

The ability to grow food at home is a game-changer.

Each month we will bring another 10 parents back to the center to exchange ideas, receive seeds, and get tips from our All-Star Agronomists—Coralie and Ange-Marie.

Agronomist (n.) a professional in the science of keeping plants alive

I think most of us could use a professional plant nurturer by our side during own ventures into backyard gardening.

Thanks to your support, these parents get just that.

After a full day with our team, these caregivers returned to their homes—seeds in hand—and will continue to mentor their neighbors in the art of growing food.

We visit in a few weeks and share more updates with you then.

Dave Mayly’s mom plans to work with four of her neighbors to grow Hot peppers, Bell Peppers, Green Onions, and Carrots.

Dave Mayly, now 8, recovered from Malnutrition in 2017 and loves to help his mom in the garden. When their jack and starfruit trees fruit, they will have a nice variety of fruits and vegetables to enjoy, share, and sell.

She and her neighbors will even have the opportunity to add goat farming into the mix later this year.

More on that soon!

With ❤️ from our garden to yours,

Happy growing 🥬

Jeffly's Story

Hello from Haiti!

Have the past few weeks been as wild and crazy for you as they have been for us?

Things seem to be moving at a break-neck pace as we set out to accomplish our project wish list for 2023. I’m sure you have one too. There is just so much we hope to accomplish.

Life in Haiti is still difficult. Most notably, the rains that typically come this time of year, have yet to fall. So, while we focus on the programs you all know best, we are working on some new projects as well.

We can’t wait to share those updates with you. But today, we wanted to bring things back to where they all began almost 10 years ago.

On May 14th, 2023 we will be celebrating the 10 year anniversary of our Malnutrition Treatment Center in Jean Louis, just outside of Cap Haitien.

Could there be a better way to kick off our 10-year-celebration than to celebrate with this guy?

We didn’t think so. So here he is. Recent graduate of our Cap Haitien Malnutrition Treatment Center: Jeffly.

Age: 2 years 9 months

Favorite Things: Peanut Butter, Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa

Favorite Pastime: Peanut Butter, Fast Cars, and Collecting Rocks

Jeffly was referred to the Malnutrition Treatment Center by a nurse from a nearby hospital. He and his mother subsequently spent 6 weeks with us, growing, learning, and healing.

The bright smile you’ve become accustomed to was no where to be found when we first met Jeffly and his 18-year-old mother, Jessica at the end of 2022.

He was 20 lbs when he arrived. Still underweight for his age despite the swelling of his face, arms, and legs. He was just shy of two years old.

One of the first things Jeffly’s mom learned from the staff at Second Mile Haiti, was how to feed her son “Plumpy Nut,” the peanut butter-based food that would help him recover.

Some kids need a lot of coaxing when it comes to this fortified food, but Jeffly needed no extra encouragement.

In fact, Jeffly was such a big fan of “Manba" (the Haitian Creole word for peanut butter) that he earned himself the nickname "Little Peanut Butter Man."

Jeffly may not have been able to stand on his swollen legs when he arrived. And he was certainly too weak to smile during his first few weeks at the center. But today, he is an energetic toddler, loved by his family, and full of life.

He will be turning three years old later this year.

As of this writing, all 42 beds in Second Mile Haiti’s two Malnutrition Treatment Centers are full.

With rising food prices and a severe drought, children continue to succumb to illness when their caloric needs are not met.

In 2013, we had just 12 beds and we supported just 13 families that first year. Now we are able to support more than 300 families in a single year. We are so very grateful to all of you.

Your support makes each family’s journey possible.

Your support really can change a life.

❤️ from Haiti

Women Starting Businesses

Gladys, 46, is a mother to 6 children (ages 8 to 24). She lives in a home with her husband, her 4 youngest children, and 4 sweet grand-babies.

When the twins first came to live with her, they were 8-months-old and their health had taken a turn for worse. When she took them to see a doctor and the doctor referred her to Second Mile Haiti. The twins needed treatment for Severe Acute Malnutrition.

What Gladys found at Second Mile Haiti was so much more than health for her grand-babies.

After 5 years without any source of income, Gladys was able to launch a business through our business program.

Since she first launched the business in early 2022, Gladys has reinvested her profits in more ways than one. She used her profits to plant a garden, purchase a cow, and build an enclosure for her home and garden.

We still see Gladys and the twins at regular internals for health check-ups.

The twins, now 2 1/2-years-old, are happy and thriving.

Thanks to our donors, Gladys isn’t the only Second Mile Haiti graduate benefiting from a new start in business.

We’ve helped 61 Second Mile Haiti graduates launch new businesses over the past 3 months.

So how exactly do your contributions help women start businesses?

It goes like this…

Four days a week, caregivers at Second Mile Haiti Malnutrition Treatment Centers participate in a business class. The classes offer practical tips and strategies that help them earn and save after they leave.

Then, shortly after a child recovers from malnutrition, their caregiver receives a Business Kit. These kits contain bulk goods like washing detergent, rice, oil and flour.

Next, each caregiver will set up a storefront at their home, a nearby market, or a city square.

As they take note of which goods are high in-demand, Second Mile graduates reinvest their earnings in new ways. Some caregivers even change their business completely, opting not to sell consumables and to raise animals instead.

No matter how they choose to further their income, every graduate of Second Mile Haiti is equipped with “can-do” attitude and a “know-how” vision.

You should see how far they go!

And in fact, you can. Check out the most recent photos we posted on Instagram (or Facebook) and get inspired.

Sometimes all it takes is someone to believe in you.

Thank you for believing in Haitien women.

And thanks for believing in us.

Your support really can change a life.

Thanks for reading!

❤️ from Haiti

Caregiver Support

It was late on a Thursday afternoon when Rosemene, 26, arrived at the Malnutrition Treatment Center with her niece, Melissa. She’d travelled more than 2 hours to get there.

As our team evaluated the one-year-old it became instantly clear that she couldn’t stay. She would first need intensive care at a nearby hospital—at least for a few days.

We would support them while they were there, pay Melissa’s hospital fees, and make sure her aunt had money for food.

When Rosemene heard of our plans to send them to the hospital, she was distraught.

She thought about how long she’d been trying to nurse her niece back to health. She thought about the money she’d spent so far and knew she couldn’t afford whatever hospital fees were in store. She started crying.

In a whisper we heard her tell the one-year-old, “I don’t think there’s anything else I can do to save you.”

What Rosemene hadn’t understood was that a nurse from Second Mile Haiti would accompany them to the hospital and help them get settled in.

She hadn’t understood that her medical fees would be paid for and she’d have money in her hands for food and other essentials.

Six months ago Rosemene lost her sister—the baby’s mother. Before that her mom and dad died. And only one week before she arrived at Second Mile Haiti, her brother died unexpectedly.

There were now 5 children living under her roof. And the small amount of money she made working at a nearby business wasn’t enough to support them all.

The kind of support Second Mile Haiti was now offering her, was so outside of her reality, that that it wasn’t sinking in.

There were no guarantees, but Melissa still had a chance.

At the hospital, Melissa received the emergency care she needed and when she returned to our Treatment Center, she continued to improve rapidly.

Rosemene now understood what we had tried to convey on Day 1.

At Second Mile, there was an entire team of people who cared not just about her niece’s survival, but about her well-being too.

Thanks to your support, Rosemene found a reason to hope and a new family to walk with her on this journey called life.

Melissa is thriving in her care.

As always, we are so glad you’re walking with us on the Second Mile.

Thanks for reading!

❤️ from Haiti

Excitement to Share!

When we thought about what to share with you this week — it was hard to pick just one thing. 

Should we talk about the 80 women starting home gardens for the first time in Saint Raphael this month? Or the growing team at our Maternity & Malnutrition Care Centers there?

We’re operating a whole campus many miles (and hours) from our headquarters—doing all the incredible things we do here, there.

It’s wild. It’s working! And we are so proud of all the amazing Haitian professionals making this possible—like Wilnie Desamours—Saint-Raphaël’s brilliant Garden Manager. 

Or, we could talk about one of the families at the Malnutrition Care Center and the incredible progress they are making. There are at least 50 families going through our recovery program at any given time. Each one has an amazing story.

We have so many photos of parents taking part in literacy classes and art therapy. Should we talk about these activities, and the power they have to impact the well-being of families for generations to come?

Then there’s my favorite photos from the week.

Photos of Second Mile psychologists, Dacheline and Magdalie, sharing the story of Yaya with children at the center.

We could talk about the Cap-Haitien born author, Angie Bell, and why books in Haitian Creole are so important. Or what a miracle it is that these children have the strength to engage, to sit, to interact—considering how sick and frail they were just weeks ago.

It’s our 10th year operating programs in Haiti, so that theme is also on our minds. It’s been 10 years and 1 month since the first Malnutrition Treatment Center opened in Cap Haitien. We could mention just how thankful we are for all that has come from that one desire— to keep children out of orphanages

…to keep families together. 

In the end, there is one thing that MUST BE SAID in this week’s letter. 

THANK YOU!

You really showed up— contributing donations of all sizes— to bring our Maternity Expansion total to $32,039 in just two weeks!

That puts us at 80% of our goal. And allowed us to pour the cement for the building’s foundation this past Friday.

No mother or newborn without care. That’s the goal.

If you’d like to help get us to 100%, you can use this link to donate.

We hope you enjoyed the round-about adventure we took you on this week.

You can help us by sharing what you want to hear next.

Love from 🇭🇹