Women for Haiti

“We want the women of Haiti to have the same possibilities for diagnosis and treatment of breast tumors that women have in other countries, like Italy, for example.” This is the dream of Jean Gerson Pyram, the doctor in charge of the breast cancer prevention program at the Saint Luc Hospital in Haiti. This goal is being achieved thanks to the support of Enel Cuore, which since 2019 has been helping the Fondazione Francesca Rava and the women of Haiti to prevent and combat breast cancer.

The Fondazione Rava was set up in Milan in 2000 in order to help disadvantaged children and youngsters suffering from educational poverty in Italy and around the world. The foundation strives to promote female empowerment and has been on the frontline responding to emergency situations such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2016 earthquake in Central Italy and the Covid-19 health emergency in 2020. Fondazione Rava is active in Haiti with projects to protect children experiencing poverty or abandonment, which it supports through shelters and hospitals.

In Haiti breast cancer is one of the most common causes of death among the female population: often women do not come to hospitals until the illness is at a very advanced stage. The lack of public healthcare services convinced the foundation to launch the 2017 project Women for Haiti, thanks to which it created, at the Saint Luc Hospital in Haiti, the first department specifically for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

With our support we have contributed to: the purchase of equipment for clinical and diagnostic activities in the laboratory available to local medical staff; the training of Haitian doctors and nurses; and missions by Italian medical staff who since 2018 have been deployed on location to coordinate the project.

Thanks to the activities of volunteer doctors from the Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, local healthcare providers have acquired the skills necessary to use the department’s machines and provide treatment. In the last two years more than 3000 women have been screened for free and 200 have been treated. With the support of the health promoters in the centers where Haitian women congregate, an awareness campaign has been carried out to promote self-examination, which is key to recognizing any potential problems early on.

Details

Location: Haiti

Association: Fondazione Francesca Rava N.P.H. Italia Onlus

Beneficiary: Haitian women

Contribution: 70,000 euros

Duration: 2019/2020