PIH receives $1.8M grant to strengthen medical education in Haiti

	The grant from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund will launch a medical residency program at l’Hôpital Saint Nicolas in St. Marc.

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund recently announced a $1.8 million grant to Partners In Health (PIH) and its Haitian sister organization Zanmi Lasante (ZL) to fund a program that will make long-term, sustainable improvements in the scope and quality of Haiti’s healthcare and medical education sectors. The grant will be used to launch a residency program for family practice physicians and a certification program for auxiliary nurses at a public hospital supported by PIH/ZL.

“The earthquake and cholera outbreak have only heightened the healthcare sector’s challenges,” Clinton Bush Haiti Fund CEO Gary Edson explained. “The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund’s three-year grant for Zanmi Lasante’s work is an investment in Haiti’s human capital. It will provide training for critically needed family practice physicians and auxiliary nurses at l’Hôpital Saint Nicolas, the chronically understaffed public hospital serving 220,000 St. Marc residents and, ultimately, the 1.5 million people of the surrounding Artibonite region.”

Additionally, ZL will leave a lasting legacy for the nation’s public health system by upgrading and standardizing auxiliary nurse education, creating a first-ever certification program to be replicated by other medical training centers throughout Haiti.

Amplifying the impact of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund’s grant, PIH will match the funds more than one to one, and will work closely with the National Faculty of Medicine and Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population.

“This grant represents an invaluable investment in the decentralization and long-term, sustainable reconstruction of Haiti’s health system,” said Dr. Paul Farmer, PIH co-founder and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “It will enable Zanmi Lasante and Partners In Health — working in partnership with Haiti’s Ministry of Health and national medical school — both to improve the quality of care for the people of St. Marc and to train a new generation of healthcare providers to deliver comprehensive, community-based care in even the poorest and most remote places.”