Hunger in Prisons Emergency Appeal – Haiti

Your support is urgently needed to help incarcerated people facing extreme hunger whilst detained in prisons in Haiti. Without your help, Haitian women, men and children could lose their lives.

This is a Haitian hunger emergency. The impact of a transition of governments affected food security in 2017 and is reoccurring in 2022. The malnutrition crisis has struck the Haitian prisons again as the country is without a president, and the government is in transition.

The Covid-19 pandemic, violent gang conflict, recent earthquake, and unstable infrastructure have exacerbated food shortages. Health through Walls staff and volunteers work tirelessly to access food and health supplies to save lives. Over 80% of women and men in prisons are unsentenced, and all incarcerated people need vital food and clean water to survive. If we act now, together, we can prevent unnecessary deaths.

With your support, Health through Walls can make a significant change in the lives of vulnerable Haitians. Over the past three months, we have worked in close collaboration with the government and the non-profits organizations World Hope International, Rise Against Hunger, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to feed pre-trial detainees and inmates in 17 overcrowded prisons. Some women, men, and children are now receiving food and support, but we need your help to expand this life-saving work.

The situation is critical in Haiti, where incarcerated people face severe food insecurity. The lack of food increases the risk of death from preventable illnesses. We need to raise emergency funds to provide the sustainable lifesaving support they need. With your help, we will:

• provide clean drinking water.

• provide healthcare screening, nutrition, and infectious and contagious diseases treatment.

• buy assorted seeds and tools for people to grow vegetables in prison.

• buy essential food for people facing starvation.

Meet Jean Louis - featured before and after intervention in the appeal photograph.

Born in Haiti, Jean Louis was incarcerated in prison in July 2020, awaiting trial.

After a year in detention, Jean Louis was admitted to the hospital for loss of appetite, insomnia, and chronic diarrhea. He was acutely malnourished, emaciated, and was unable to walk due to vitamin deficiency.

The Health through Walls team provided food, nutritional supplements, water and medication, which enabled his recovery. Like Jean Louis, hundreds of men, women, and children urgently need your help.

Call to Action

For $15, we can provide clean water and nutritious food for one person for one week.

For $50, we can provide health screens to people for infectious and contagious diseases exacerbated by malnutrition.

For $100, in addition to clean water and food, we can also provide seeds and tools for people to grow their own food.

Please give what you can to our Hunger in Prisons Emergency Appeal to provide urgent support to people facing starvation. Be assured that all donations will be spent where the need is greatest.