Mission statement
The Foundation for the Development of the South of Haiti (FDSH) is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2008 after the severe food crisis hit Haiti that year. The main goal at the time was to help the town of Roche a Bateau rebuild its economic resources. Still, FDSH’s focus grew exponentially to target necessities inherent to a sustainable society, and evolving life for the population. The mission is to comprehensively revamp the health and educational systems in the South of Haiti by providing enhanced medical services and infrastructure support to the communities while expanding to other towns one at a time. In 2011, FDSH was granted 501.3(c) status, and that facilitated it to raise more funds in assisting a more significant number of affected neighborhoods.
FDSH has implemented a series of annual health fairs allowing the residents to receive at no cost to the various healthcare screenings and treatments that they would not be able to afford on their own. Ranging from blood pressure monitoring, a dispensation of pain and gas relieving medications, to diabetes and sexually transmitted infection testing, the participants also receive over the counter medication as needed for treatments. With the vast land that FDSH purchased in 2011, the organization is planning to build a clinic offering daily medical services to the community. This clinic is to also serve as a school to educate and train future nursing students and other medical professionals on the practical skills necessary to provide quality healthcare to the patients.
Recent project or new campaign
When Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful Atlantic tropical storm since 1954, hit Haiti on October 3rd, 2016, the southern coast of the country was the most affected region with a toll of over 800 people dead and 1,243,000 people displaced without any shelter and necessities. Due to the destruction of many homes, the health crisis has worsened, and FDSH is allocating more resources to infrastructure support by helping to provide rooftops to the families unable to cover this cost on their own. While employing five people for the rooftop project, FDSH is not only tackling the health crisis at its core by making a home safer but also playing a vital role in the local economy by purchasing the necessary construction materials from multiple vendors. With the cost of a rooftop averaging the US $321, FDSH is looking to provide relief to 20 families in the first quarter of 2017.