HEALTH PROGRAMS

To support girls healthy development, Lidè provides nutrition, health education, counseling, and medical services to our participants. Our team of nurses and health partners provide regular health screenings, reproductive health education, Covid-19 prevention education, and training in first aid and CPR. Lidè also offers mental health supports through individualized psychological counseling to participants in need, home visits to program participants, and support calls to participants and their families. And, our community food program serves hundreds of meals a week to our participants.

MENTAL HEALTH

In the aftermath of the earthquake in the south of Haiti in the summer of 2021, Lidè launched a new program on mental health in Les Coteaux. Conducted in collaboration with the Haitian Association of Psychologists and funded by the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, the program included capacity building for and training on the emotional and social impacts of disasters, the importance of psychosocial first aid, how to promote psychosocial wellness, and skills to foster long-term psychological resilience and well-being with their community.

The first part of the program, which began in January 2022, focused on psychoeducation, including training sessions with: Lidè participants, our staff facilitators, schools in the community, staff working at the police station, and staff at the local court. The focus of these initial sessions included talking about the aftermath of emergencies like the 2021 earthquake and helping people understand their trauma and identify their psychological symptoms. The second part of the program focused on the implementation of therapeutic groups. These groups allowed the psychologists leading the program to identify people that need continued psychological support. Through these efforts, as girls' traumatic experiences are identified and reported, families are being engaged in support of their children. We saw a high level of responsiveness to the program, especially in schools, where principals modified their schedules in order to give the psychologists time to work with students!  

The final stage of this work involved training Lidè facilitators and other community leaders about such topics as: workplace stress, stress management techniques, practicing active listening, learning how to identify sexual harassment, and emphasizing the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

HEALTHY MEALS

Our community food program serves hundreds of meals a week to our participants and over 4,000 a month. Our participants receive a meal on every program day, often the only meal girls will have that day. These meals are prepared locally by women in the communities and have a variety of healthy foods including vegetables, whole grains, and beans, which are all sourced locally.

COVID-19 RESPONSE

Throughout the pandemic, Lidè continued distance learning when necessary, made and distributed posters about ways to stay safe during COVID-19, set up hand-washing stations, provided nutrition kits to our participants and their families, kept in contact with our vulnerable populations through home nurse visits and established a toll-free phone number for girls who have questions or concerns to call for advice and support. We also provided training for communities and schools.