FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Olivia Duggan, oduggan@buildhealthinternationaldotorg.wpcomstaging.com

BUILD HEALTH INTERNATIONAL MOBILIZES TO COMPLETE EMERGENCY HEALTHCARE INFRASTRUCTURE ASSESSMENTS AND REPAIRS, FOLLOWING EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTHERN HAITI

Beverly, MA — August 16, 2021 — In the aftermath of the recent Haiti earthquake, Build Health International (BHI), a global health infrastructure nonprofit that supports the design, construction, and maintenance of high-quality health infrastructure throughout Haiti and around the world, is mobilizing to provide emergency relief infrastructure for patients in need.

On the morning of Saturday August 14th, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Haiti, damaging much of the Southern Peninsula, including the cities of Les Cayes, Jérémie, and the island of Ile a Vache. Though the full scale of the damage is still unknown, it is expected that it is almost as large as the earthquake in 2010, the event that inspired the creation of Build Health International.

Since 2010, BHI has built over 60 projects across Haiti to strengthen health infrastructure across the country. Among these projects is the St. Boniface Hospital in Fond-des-Blancs, the largest referral hospital on Haiti’s Southern Peninsula. Despite the wide-spread damage caused by the earthquake, BHI is grateful to report that St. Boniface and all major BHI partner hospitals have sustained little to no structural damage and are accepting patients.

BHI’s majority-Haitian team of engineers, architects, logisticians, contractors, electricians and plumbers are on the ground mobilizing to get supplies and specialists to people as quickly as possible. BHI is working alongside partners at Health Equity International and Partners In Health to repurpose operating rooms and construct additional space for trauma and orthopedic surgery at the St. Boniface Hospital in Fond-des-Blancs. New operating tents, equipment, and supplies were packed in Beverly, MA on August 15th to be air freighted immediately to Haiti. Additionally, BHI is helping to coordinate surgeons from Port-au-Prince and the University Hospital of Mirebalais (HUM) to fly to the site before Tropical Storm Grace descends upon the island and injuries become fatal.

BHI is also completing rapid assessments of other centers and clinics in the Southern Peninsula, helping to get existing hospitals back up and running to save as many lives as possible.

BHI is actively seeking funding to provide urgently needed infrastructure relief to hospitals across southern Haiti. To support these efforts visit: https://buildhealthinternational.org/donate.

About Build Health International:

Build Health International (BHI) believes that every person has a right to quality healthcare. In 2010, following the Haitian Earthquake, BHI built the Hopital Universitaire de Mirebalais (HUM), Haiti’s flagship teaching hospital. Since then, BHI has designed, built, and equipped over 200 dignified spaces in 26 countries for care in the world’s most vulnerable communities, enabling local clinicians to work at their full potential. Working closely with Ministries of Health, partner organizations, and local workforces, BHI promotes sustainable design, and empowers communities, and enables access to dignified and affordable healthcare in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

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