NEWS

Rita Allen Foundation Supports Efforts to Save Haiti

January 27, 2010

The Rita Allen Foundation (RAF) Board of Directors has presented Partners In Health with a grant of $25,000.

Recent events in Haiti have again focused attention on the valuable work performed by Partners In Health (PIH), an organization committed to addressing the healthcare needs of some of the poorest people in the world. PIH has been providing assistance in Haiti for over twenty years.

In the letter to PIH announcing the donation, RAF President and CEO Elizabeth Christopherson said:

The Board is extending this grant (to PIH) in recognition of the staggering challenges you face as you work feverishly to aid the people of Haiti and in other parts of the world where suffering is sadly present.

The images we see on our television screens and the internet leave us speechless. It is heart-wrenching to know that hundreds of thousands are destitute and desperate. We are grateful your organization is there offering comfort, care and a beacon of hope.

And we are thankful for the work of individuals such as Dr. Paul Farmer, your Executive Vice President, who has dedicated himself to improving the health of underserved populations, and demonstrated a special interest in the people of Haiti.

Without organizations such as Partners In Health, where would those in Haiti and others who face unimaginable circumstances turn for assistance in their hours of need? It is apparent just how fragile existence is for them, and how limited their access to healthcare, even when they are not consumed by natural disaster. Your presence so often makes the difference between life and death.

You can learn more about PIH, what they do to help vulnerable people access medical care, and their “Stand by Haiti” campaign at www.pih.org.