Kenya

Haiti Health Care System on Verge of Collapse

  • Posted on: 24 May 2024
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

According to UNICEF, Haiti's health system is "on the verge of collapse" with six out of 10 hospitals in the country barely operational. UNICEF emphasised that violence, mass displacement, dangerous epidemics, and increasing malnutrition have put the country's already weakened health system under great strain but it may be supply chain breaks that cause it to collapse. Getting vital supplies, health care staff, and patients to where they need to be has become logistically challenging and dangerous due to gang-violence.  It remains unclear, even after all this time, when the Kenyan-led security force will arrive - and without security, access to health care will suffer.  The full BBC article by Jaroslav Lukiv follows.  

Kenya Ready to Lead Multinational Force to Haiti

  • Posted on: 1 August 2023
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

Kenya's Foreign Ministry said his country is ready to lead a multinational force into Haiti, which is experiencing a surge in violence between police and gangs.  During a time when so few countries are willing to get involved in Haiti's increasingly desperate situation, it is refreshing to see a country, and one that is not even remotely close to Haiti geographically, offer to take a leadership role.  The proposed 1,000 police officers would help train and assist the Haitian National Police in restoring security.  The deployment would still require a U.N Security Council mandate and formal approvals in Kenya.  The brief article is linked and follows, updates will be posted in comments. 

Are Bio-Latrines Right for Haiti?

  • Posted on: 8 February 2009
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

On the outskirts of Les Cayes several years ago, I came across a school with a bio-latrine that used airless digestion to transform human waste into gas suitable for cooking, heating and lighting.  After one month, there was enough gas being produced to cook a meal for all of the students in this fairly large school, without using environmentally destructive wood charcoal. The gas is without odor and, beyond the initial investment, without cost.  The experiences of other low resource countries might hold lessons for the potential scale up of this innovation in Haiti.