Update: August 2010
Thank you to everyone who donated to Haiti during our appeal.
“I am very grateful for IPPF/Western Hemisphere Region because they helped Profamil after the earthquake. We hope to continue to receive support and expand services. Port-au-Prince was hit very hard and we hope to reach the people there and in other parts of the country in need.”
Dr. Michaud Gadner, PROFAMIL Executive Director
Our Member Association in Haiti, PROFAMIL, have been working hard to get back on their feet since the January earthquake.
PROFAMIL is currently replacing its temporary tent sites with more sturdy prefabricated structures which will fare better during the hurricane season. Three prefabricated structures will be strategically located near the tent cities in Port-au-Prince.
One of these ready-made clinics will be situated on the site of the old building, which was damaged in the earthquake and is currently being demolished. The Port-au-Prince Youth Center stands adjacent to this prefabricated structure, thereby allowing young people easy access to a wide range of services.
In Jacmel, PROFAMIL now occupies a centrally located building which houses a clinic, a laboratory, a youth center, and eventually a surgical facility.
PROFAMIL has re-established its youth program which includes: youth-friendly services, reproductive health education by young people themselves, and a variety of other activities directed towards empowering young people and improving their sexual health.
Given the increased vulnerability of young girls in the post-crisis context, PROFAMIL's youth program places a special emphasis on meeting the needs of young girls, to help them build their coping skills and know their rights.
Violence against women has also increased dramatically and PROFAMIL is working to expand their capacity to help women.
Yvrose is a 36 year old in Haiti, find out what she has to say about PROFAMIL.
Read our East & South East Asia and Oceania Region report about Haiti 4 months on.
London 19 February 2010
Naomi Campbell’s Fashion For Relief launched London Fashion Week (18.02.10) with a spectacular charity fashion show and auction for the women and children of Haiti.
Watch the show.
This year Fashion For Relief is supporting The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, whose partner organization, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, is working in Haiti to rebuild the healthcare system to address the health needs of women and girls, especially pregnant women and newborns.
The Fashion For Relief charity fashion show and auction raised over £1.4 million in a single night for Haiti, and, with the auction and sales of a Vivienne Westwood designed limited edition T-shirt for Fashion For Relief still running, this figure is expected to rise.
Proceeds from Fashion For Relief will go directly to IPPF’s Haitian Member Association, PROFAMIL, which is based in the communities most affected by the earthquake and able to give help immediately, and will also support another White Ribbon Alliance partner organisation, The Haiti Hospital Appeal.
In Haiti 37,000 pregnant women now face giving birth in dangerous, unsanitary conditions. IPPF is currently struggling to meet the overwhelming need for basic healthcare services. IPPF’s clinics, which are based in the communities most affected by the earthquake, have been severely damaged. A number of PROFAMIL health clinics are operating from tents, with additional IPPF mobile bus clinics from the Dominican Republic operating in Haiti. Necessities such as staff, medical supplies and diesel fuel are urgently needed.
The White Ribbon Alliance, whose Global Patron is Sarah Brown spoke at Fashion for Relief, is an international coalition of organisations and individuals, active from grassroots to government and international level, saving the lives of pregnant women and newborn babies where needed around the world.
Sarah Brown said, “IPPF has been working in Haiti’s poorest communities for twenty-five years, providing crucial services especially for the three-quarters of-a-million women and girls of reproductive age who live in Port-au-Prince, and the 15000 in the city of Jacmel on the southern coast. Now the risk on the streets and in the camps is even greater for them.
“The IPPF’s clinics have been destroyed, staff been injured, but there is a core group of dedicated staff who are doing all they can; but they’re desperate for essential supplies. Amazingly, two of their three vehicles are still working but in desperate need of fuel. The IPPF team in neighbouring Dominican Republic has been sending mobile teams of doctors, nurses and volunteers into Haiti, returning to the Dominican Republic to restock up with essential medical supplies.”
To view the Fashion For Relief event visit: www.whiteribbonalliance.org
Contact: Paul Bell, +44 (0) 20 7939 8233 or pbell@ippf.org
Editors notes:
Set up four years ago to demonstrate the kind of contributions the fashion community can make, the first Fashion For Relief™ show was held in 2005 in New York City during their fashion week, and raised more than $1 million dollars for the Hurricane Katrina relief.
In 2007 the event, held in London, raised an amazing £1million for the Rotary Flood & Disaster Appeal.
In 2008, Naomi Campbell teamed up with Sarah Brown for the first time to host an unforgettable Fashion For Relief raising thousands for The White Ribbon Alliance and raising awareness of the charity.
Last year Fashion For Relief travelled to Mumbai, India and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania where the shows featured local models and celebrities.
Fashion For Relief brought together, on the catwalk, top international faces of fashion, music, film, TV, sports and society. The show will feature glamorous clothes by the world's most renowned and respected fashion designers including Vivienne Westwood, Jaeger, Alexander McQueen and Dolce & Gabbana.