Community Rescue Family and Birthing Center

Lynzi Blacker is organizing this fundraiser.

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Community Rescue Family and Birthing Center, LaGonave, Haiti

My name is Lynzi I am a DONA Birth and Postpartum Doula, CAPPA Childbirth Educator and Lactation Consultant. Mother of four and married to Jez for 35 years. With our family have worked on LaGonave for 15 years with our 501c3 Charity U2U (u2uworld.com).

We helped build a 45 bed hospital which now has an accredited Haitian Nursing School; A guest house for visiting medical, agricultural and construction training teams. We ran an elderly home for disabled homeless elderly for 7 years and are still supporting Children's home with 18 children.

We have been involved with water catchment, building latrines to eradicate cholera, child sponsorship, local schools, teaching and training programs, micro enterprise and orphan teenage transition programs.

We completed Phase One of our Rebuild which was to repair the security walls.

We are building a Community Rescue Family Training & Birthing Center in the middle of an extremely poor community. Because of the current situation in Haiti this project is ON HOLD BUT we are still supporting the Children's Home and send money to Haiti every month for our team (we support ten families) and a much needed EMERGENCY FEEDING PROGRAM as tens of 1,000's of people who have suffered at the hands of gangs have now taken refuge on the Island of LaGonave. We are also desperately trying to - one person at a time - supply funds for micro-enterprise. Right now we need to buy a new generator for Jenwed so that he can continue to operate his welding business and support his family $2000.00.

After 15 years working on the island closely with Medical professionals it has become obvious that there is a desperate need for pre and post natal care, sex education and family support. In May 2021 when I was last there, a local group gathered the names of 87 pregnant mothers who were currently living in the slum from the age of 15 to 40. 90% of whom will have given birth in their homes without a Certified Midwife.

The high number of fatalities amongst birthing women and newborns on the island is avoidable. I too often hear stories of babies within their first year dying .. no-one seems to know why or be able to give me answers. Is it just as simple as education and SIDS prevention.

We hope to partner with a Certified Haitian Birthing Center on the Mainland and facilitate a Certified Midwife, Doula and Postpartum Doula Training School alongside the Wesleyan Hospital that we helped to build 2012. Our Center will become a hub we hope for resources, training, networking and education for the entire island.