Five years ago yesterday, on January 12, 2010, Haiti was hit with an earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, causing more than 230,000 deaths and displacing 1.5 million people. The past five years of aid from relief organizations and donor money has transformed Haiti’s healthcare system. However, now that Haiti is no longer considered an emergency location, many of these efforts have ended, leaving a vacuum of healthcare resources.
But Family Health Ministries (FHM), founded by Duke Global Health Institute associate professor David Walmer, is there for the long haul. FHM’s mission is to “support Haitian communities in their efforts to build and sustain healthy families by developing best health care practices to share across Haiti and other low-resource communities.”