Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

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H@H

June 11-13, 2012
Professionals and leaders in public health, medicine, law, development, education, humanitarian intervention, and economics are increasingly expected to integrate human rights in policy and programs. This course will equip decision-makers with the skills necessary to apply methods and practices grounded in basic human rights.

 

HHI, UN OCHA Release New Report - Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies

Issue in Focus

Introducing The Humanitarian Academy at Harvard

HHI is proud to announce the establishment of the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard, a new comprehensive training program for humanitarian workers. The mission of the Humanitarian Academy is to drive positive change in the humanitarian sector through rigorous undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and training in the theory and practice of humanitarian action, and it aims to help thousands around the world who work in war zones, help in the wake of natural disasters, or serve in other relief settings.

A University-wide center that uses research to improve aid response, the Humanitarian Academy will engage Harvard faculty from multiple disciplines, providing an integrated curriculum, and leveraging the latest technologies to make available innovative teaching and professional education opportunities that are grounded in field-based realities. The Academy will include the Lavine Family Humanitarian Studies Initiative, an existing training program for humanitarian professionals that was recently expanded through a gift from Harvard alumni Jonathan and Jeannie Lavine.

There also will be a new, interdisciplinary concentration in humanitarian studies, ethics, and human rights, to be offered at the Harvard School of Public Health beginning in 2013, and hands-on training through internships with relief agencies. It will create a professional pathway for students and existing workers in the humanitarian space, serve as a prototype for other academic centers of excellence in humanitarian education, and encourage an international movement to increase the impact of humanitarian relief efforts through a focus on both professional skill building and rigorous measurement and analysis of what really works in humanitarian aid.

For more information, please see HHI's Humanitarian Academy page or a recent article in the Harvard Gazette on its launch.

Homepage Events

May 14-18 and May 21-25, 2012 |  Advanced Professional Trainings on Humanitarian Assistance and Protection

Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Prevention is pleased to announce two upcoming trainings in Bangkok, Thailand. The Core Professional Training on Leadership and Management of Humanitarian Action takes place over five full days and serves as a unique opportunity to further refine the knowledge, competencies, and skills necessary to address contemporary humanitarian challenges faced by managers and team leaders in the context of humanitarian response.

More Events

Earthquake in Haiti

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There are many ways to try to quantify HHI’s impact in Haiti: More than 300 continuous days of HHI team members in Haiti, 200 national staff employed, over 700 medical volunteers, nearly 300 Haitians trained in medical or public health topics, and over 4,000 displaced Haitians served. Ultimately these numbers are only pieces of a much richer story. In collaboration with our partners such as the University of Chicago, Operation Smile, Hands of Light in Action, the governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the United Nations, Love A Child, and American Refugee Committee, HHI has truly made a difference in the lives of thousands of Haitian men, women, and children.

For a brief overview of HHI's work in Haiti, read From Rapid Response to Sustainable Solutions: Disaster Response and Recovery in Post-Earthquake Haiti.

 

HHI's Immediate Response020610_haiti_0973 ji small

HHI’s presence in Haiti began a mere 48 hours after the earthquake struck, when HHI’s Hilarie Cranmer and Stephanie Rosborough rushed to Haiti to provide emergency care. Shortly thereafter, Drs. Cranmer and Rosborough established a field hospital to treat earthquake survivors in Fond Parisien on the grounds of the Love A Child orphanage.

In the months following the Haiti earthquake disaster, HHI played a lead role in supporting the coordination of the Harvard-wide response including that of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals within Partners Health Care System. HHI oversaw the deployment of more than 700 doctors, nurses, physical therapists, psychologists and non-medical staff to care for more than 2,000 patients and their families at the Fond Parisien Disaster Recovery Center from January-May 2010. During this period, Harvard affiliated teams performed hundreds of critical surgeries, and worked to meet the needs of thousands of injured survivors.

To read more about HHI's immediate response to Haiti's earthquake, visit our Fond Parisien Disaster Recovery Center page.

 

From Disaster Center to Clinical Care

020710_haiti_0923 ji smallSupported by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, HHI was able to appropriately and effectively transition from complex disaster response to recovery phase operations. In May, the acute care field hospital was closed, and focus turned instead to full-time operation of "Klinik Lespwa," the out-patient clinic at Camp Hope as well as educational programs to build local capacity. From May to November 2010, HHI teams provided medical leadership and direct clinical care to the 1,700 displaced persons living in Camp Hope.

In addition to clinical care, HHI teams provided medical and technical support to bolster the existing local infrastructure. HHI trained more than 75 Haitian nurses and 45 Haitian physicians. Supported by the University of Chicago’s Disaster Management Program, HHI’s team conducted continuous community outreach to identify people with cholera symptoms and to connect them with care during the Fall 2010 cholera outbreak. These programs helped to establish a setting-appropriate, sustainable model of care that will continue to serve this community long into the future. In keeping with HHI’s objective of capacity building, the local CTC has been developed chiefly as a partnership between five Haitian NGOs.

To read more about this program, visit our Klinik Lespwa page.

 

carr center vid

 

Watch a video about critical issues of the Haiti humanitarian response

Sponsored by the Carr Center's Latin Amarican Initiative, this panel discussion features: Stephanie Rosborough, MD, MPH; Brett Nelson, MD, MPH; and Patrick Meier, PhD (candidate). It was moderated by Professor Jacqueline Bhabha with an introduction by Dr. Gregg Greenough. It took place February10, 2010.

 

Published Reports

cover one year report

From Rapid Response to Sustainable Solutions: Disaster Response and Recovery in Post-Earthquake Haiti

On the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, HHI released this report, chronicling eleven months of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's disaster response and recovery efforts in Haiti.  The report offers a brief overview of the establishment of the Disaster Recovery Center, the transition from complex disaster response to recovery phase operations, and the impact of HHI's medical and public health programming through outpatient medical clinic "Klinik Lespwa."

 
pieces jpg

Picking Up the Pieces: Women's Health Needs Assessment, Fond Parisien, Haiti

By: Lynne Hudson, R.N.-C, MPH, WHCNP, et al.

Circle of Health International (COHI) conducted this Women's Health Needs Assessment to identify the specific and immediate needs of women, and to provide evidence-based recommendations for short and long-term women's health programming in the Fond Parisien area. These recommendations are based on the results of surveys conducted with 64 women living in the American Refugee Committee (ARC) camp in Fond Parisien. This document highlights the present and future needs of the women living in this IDP camp, and provides specific recommendations to address the unique health needs of women within this population.
protecting children

Protecting the Children of Haiti

By: Satchit Balsari, M.D., M.P.H, et al.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine by the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights and the Harvard
Medical School, this report co-authored by a number of HHI fellows covers the security situation of children in Haiti.

 

In the Media

For a complete listing of media related to HHI's response in Haiti, please visit our media page.

haiti camp "Progress in Haiti Painfully Slow," Harvard Gazette, January 11, 2011
reginettes_story "At a crossroad in Haiti," Boston Globe, June 27, 2010
020710_haiti_0001 ji small "Hospital rises in the grass: Harvard-affiliated doctors spearhead Haitian trauma center," Harvard Gazette, February 8, 2010
a vision for haitian health care "A vision for Haitian healthcare," The Globe and Mail, January 21, 2010
haitibythenumbers "Haiti by the numbers: Damage, help on giant scale," The Washington Post, January 15, 2010
harvardmobilizesrelieffund "Help is on the Way," Harvard University Gazette, January 14, 2010
haitiquakevictimsfacethreat "Haiti Quake Victims Face Threat of Disease," WBZ Boston, January 14, 2010