It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through the year! As we reflect on the past six months, we are so grateful for the incredible progress happening across our projects – all made possible through your prayers, generosity, and partnership.

It’s been a while since we shared a big update, so this news item is a little longer as we celebrate some of the most joyful highlights from recent months.

Celebrating 2024: A Year of Challenges, Opportunities, and Impact

With the end of 2024, we at Hope Health Action (HHA) reflected on a year filled with incredible opportunities and significant challenges. From launching new projects in East Africa to beginning a new chapter in Haiti, the journey has been a rollercoaster—but we’re so grateful to have shared it with you.

Thanks to your generosity and God’s amazing faithfulness, we’ve been able to change thousands of lives this year. Now, we’re excited to share 10 of our top highlights from 2024—moments that wouldn’t have been possible without your support.

2024 Top 10 Achievements

Grace Rehabilitation Centre Opens in Haiti

One of the biggest milestone moments of the year was in July, when we opened Grace Rehabilitation Centre in Haiti – which offers specialised care, physiotherapy, and vocational training to people with spinal cord injuries and other neurological disabilities. Opening this centre in less than 6 months was a huge feat, and is now enabling us to offer continued compassionate care to people that otherwise risked being left behind. 

Night to Shine

In February, we were thrilled to host our third Night to Shine event in Haiti, celebrating children with special needs. We had over 70 children in attendance with their parents or caregivers and over 150 volunteer staff to make it the most memorable night! This unforgettable evening brought joy, inclusion, and fun as the children were crowned kings and queens and walked the red carpet to cheers and applause!

Empowering with skills for life

Continuing and improving our holistic approach to disability care, our Vocational Training Programmes in Haiti and East Africa made significant strides this past year, focusing on equipping individuals with income-generation skills to create sustainable and independent futures. Beneficiaries are learning skills such as donut making, IT, and soap creation. We also offer training in sewing, shoemaking, and much more. By combining physical mobility support with these empowerment opportunities, the programmes foster independence, and deliver lasting change.

Special Education at Amazing Grace

In 2024, HHA partnered with Amazing Grace School in Uganda to launch a much needed Special Education Programme for children with disabilities, giving them the chance to learn and grow alongside their peers. In refugee contexts, children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable, often left isolated at home as parents work to survive. Our programme provides a tuk-tuk ‘school bus’ for safe transport and access to a Special Needs Teacher, fostering an inclusive environment where every child can thrive.

New Hope Kajo-Keji Turns One

In South Sudan, our New Hope Clinic continued delivering essential care, treating over 20.000 people since the start of the year. Following the outbreak of malaria in the region, a key highlight has been the start of our malaria prevention programme, supplying mosquito nets and the ground-breaking University of Oxford vaccine. Since launching in August, this programme has vaccinated over 300 children, having a major impact on so many preventable premature deaths.

Award-Winning Agriculture in Uganda

In May, we were proud to see our agriculture project in Uganda recognised through the Global Development Network’s award for ‘Most Innovative Development Project’. This year alone, this project reached an incredible 420 households across two refugee settlements with seeds, tools, land and training – empowering hundreds of vulnerable families to grow their own sustainable source of food and income. By empowering vulnerable individuals - particularly people with disabilities - and making them visible as able, active members of their communities, his project is not only combating hunger, but also promoting understanding and reducing stigma.

Mobility Through Innovation

In collaboration with our amazing global partners, we continued the distribution of wheelchairs in Haiti, Uganda, and South Sudan, providing over 1500 wheelchairs for life-changing mobility.  In addition, we launched an innovative Wheelchair Repurpose and Repairs programme in Uganda, transforming old, unused chairs into fully tailored solutions for individuals in need. The program is a wonderful leap towards more sustainable operations, transforming discarded or old wheelchairs into fully functional mobility aids, maximising resource efficiency and minimising waste. Over the past year, HHA’s amazing local team repaired and repurposed 570 wheelchairs - an enormous achievement that will enable even more beneficiaries to use chairs functionally and safely!

A new home for the Maison

In September, we proudly opened Maison de Grâce, our independent respite care centre in Haiti, dedicated to children with disabilities and their families. Currently supporting 23 children three days a week, the centre provides a holistic programme of care, including education, physical, music, and play therapy, as well as nutritious meals. Parents also receive invaluable support, advice, and the crucial respite they need. Maison de Grâce is more than just a centre, it’s a place of hope, empowerment, and renewal.

Partnering to treat malnutrition

With the help of our partner Edesia, we shipped over 1,500 cartons of Plumpy’Nut to refugee settlements in Uganda, delivering life-saving support to children facing severe malnutrition. Plumpy’Nut is a therapeutic, ready-to-use food designed to treat acute malnutrition. Packed with essential nutrients, it’s a transformative solution: a single course of treatment can take a child from the brink of starvation to a healthy weight in just 8 weeks. By bridging critical supply gaps, this vital intervention truly demonstrates the power of targeted nutrition to save lives and create a healthier future for vulnerable children.

Transforming care for mothers and babies

2024 marked the beginning of a transformative maternal and infant health programme in Haiti – an urgent need in a country with the worst maternal mortality rates in the western hemisphere. A recent highlight was the delivery of five life-saving ‘mOm’ incubators to Justinien University Hospital (JUH), the largest public hospital in northern Haiti, which previously had no working incubators. This milestone is just the start of a broader initiative, supported by an incredible partnership with J&K Wonderland. Alongside the incubators, we're also building clinical capacity, and launching a large-scale community-based maternal and infant health programme, with the goal of transforming maternal and infant health outcomes for years to come. We look forward to seeing this initiative flourish in 2025!

CENTRE DE RÉADAPTATION DE GRÂCE 

On July 26th, we inaugurated our brand new Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center! Our local team was joined by the Director of the Ministry of Health for the North of Haiti, as well as some of our UK and US team and trustees, to celebrate this exciting milestone.

It was incredibly poignant to stand alongside Dr Toussaint and Pastor Gideon –  with whom we first dreamed our Haiti dream, standing in a field back in 2005 – as we took this exciting step together. This new centre feels like a true answer to prayer, and our special thanks go to our amazing partners, the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation, Haiti Rehab Schweiz, Walkabout Foundation and Free Wheelchair Mission, whose continuous support has made this - and everything still to come - possible. 

MAISON DE GRÂCE

After many months of searching, we were delighted to find a location for our respite home for children with disabilities, which will be called ‘Maison de Grâce’ - in memory of one of our earliest Maison children whose life was a testament to the transformation that care, love and hope can make possible. The next steps will be to make the building accessible (including adding ramps and railings) – and we hope to start providing respite care for up to 20 children, three and a half days a week, in August!

A GROWING TEAM

After months of recruitment, our HHA Haiti Hub team now includes 30 permanent members of staff, including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, administration staff, a vocational therapist, psychologist, cleaners, laundry staff and security guards. In addition we are delighted to have secured the services of a visiting Urologist; a much-needed skill sadly in very short supply in Haiti. Over the past few weeks, we’ve run several workshops with this new team, including not only role-specific training, but also sessions on leadership, teamwork, and HHA culture. This team will grow to almost 50 when we open the Maison de Grâce. We can’t wait to see what they will accomplish!

Thank you for joining us on this journey. Your support, encouragement and prayers are truly invaluable as we build our nest in Haiti, little by little. Piti piti zwazo fè nich li!

• Enabling us to provide wheelchairs, custom-made prosthetics and orthotics, and rehabilitation to people with disabilities in South Sudan and the refugee settlements of northern Uganda.
• Providing health and nutrition education from our centers in Uganda and South Sudan, with the aim of empowering beneficiaries to improve their wellbeing in the long term.
• Supporting the children, staff and carers at our respite home for children with disabilities in Haiti – providing care, education, and rehabilitation, especially as we move the center to a new home.
• Reaching more people with disabilities with our agriculture projects in the Ugandan refugee settlements – providing seeds, tools, land, and farming & business training, to give them a sustainable source of not only food, but also income.
• Supporting the setup of our spinal cord injury rehabilitation center at our new Haiti Hub, where we’ll provide specialized care that is extremely difficult to access in this part of the country.
• Providing wheelchairs and training across Haiti through our amazing network of local partners, giving mobility and dignity to people with disabilities – the majority of whom have never had a wheelchair before.

Your generosity will enable us to do all of this and more – and we can’t wait to update you on the impact of your support. In the meantime, on behalf of all the people that will be touched by what you came together to achieve in May, thank you.

This major global acknowledgment is a true testament to the team’s dedication in making a real difference in the lives of vulnerable households and communities. With this incredible honour, HHA EA is empowered to expand the impact of the winning project, providing critical agriculture and livelihood support to further 100 vulnerable refugee-households in 2024/25.

By strengthening food security and creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for the most vulnerable, the project is not only combating hunger, but also breaking down barriers and stigma against people with disabilities. It’s absolutely wonderful to see this holistic approach recognised for its innovation and celebrated by the global community!

Our heartfelt thanks to the prestigious awards jury for recognising the exceptional efforts and impact of the HHA EA Nutrition team. This acknowledgment will inspire us all to continue our commitment to creating positive change.

Key Statistics (since opening in September 2023)

• 5600 outpatients seen
• 4000 laboratory tests
• 6200 received health education
• 84 pregnant women registered
• 72 prosthetic & orthotic devices provided
• 36 wheelchairs & trikes given
• 230 physiotherapy sessions provided

Highlights from New Hope Kajo-Keji

• Clean running water is now available in the clinic thanks to the addition of a pump, control unit, insulated water towers and sinks. This is a huge upgrade and will dramatically improve working conditions for our team and their patients.
• Electricity is now available onsite thanks to installation of generator, solar panels and battery storage.
• Prosthetic limbs, and wheelchair distributions taking place at the clinic thanks to outreach mobile clinics provided by our team from New Hope BidiBidi.  
• First baby born at New Hope Kajo-Keji! - although deliveries are usually referred to the government hospital, one baby girl decided to make an appearance quicker than expected. Our amazing midwife stepped in and delivered a healthy baby girl.

Story for New Hope Kajo-Keji: Rose and Solomon

Rose lives in Kajo-Keji with her son Solomon, having returned from BidiBidi refugee settlement in Uganda. Although she has to walk three hours to reach the clinic, Rose has been making use of the services available since the clinic opened in September 2023, and has returned three times with Solomon when he has been suffering from a fever and diahorrea.

Rose and Solomon visited the clinic again in March, when Solomon was diagnosed with Malaria through a rapid test and was given medication to combat the disease. Malaria is the most common case the team seen at the clinic.

Rose commented that the team have really helped and cared for her and she was grateful that HHA have empowered a local team. Our team provided Solomon with more than just medication – they also showed him love, and gave his mother hope in difficult circumstances. Ultimately, this is what HHA’s work is all about, and what we strive to achieve with every beneficiary that we see at New Hope Kajo-Keji.

Throughout May 2024, we are running our Matched May Appeal where all donations towards our global disability work will be doubled by a generous donor. This is an amazing opportunity for your donations to go twice as far. Get all the info here.

• We’re delighted to have established a new partnership with a local medical university (which we’ve been working alongside for many years to offer training opportunities to their students). This new partnership will be mutually beneficial, providing us with an incredible space that will be the new home for some of our projects, as well as enabling the university to take the first step towards becoming a teaching hospital.
• Our disability rehabilitation unit will be moved to this new location, and will include a men’s ward, women’s ward, physiotherapy room and vocational training room. This will enable us to continue providing life-saving and life-changing care to patients with spinal cord injuries, who otherwise have very few options in this part of the country.
• This new home will also house our Wheelchair Distribution Center, from which we will continue providing custom-fitted chairs with our in-country team and network of local partners. Our program continues to transform lives every week, providing dignity, mobility and independence to people across the country, many of whom have never had a wheelchair before.
• Of course, we also visited Maison de Benediction, our respite home for children with disabilities, where the kids were all doing great (we were met with the usual barrage of hugs as we walked in!). We visited a number of possible new locations for MdB this week, and are committed to choosing a new home that will enable us to continue giving the children the level of care and support they need, as well as including areas for education, therapy and play - stay tuned!

After a week on the ground, we are so excited for this next chapter and all God's going to do  – but we’re also aware that this new beginning is going to require significant energy, momentum and funds. It is a time when we need the support of our amazing HHA community, perhaps more than ever before, which is why we’re incredibly excited about a huge opportunity that we will be launching next week: one of our biggest ever global fundraising campaigns, Matched May.

For the whole of May, thanks to match funds from a generous donor, all donations up to the value of $6,000 will be doubled until we reach our goal of $37,500. That means we have the potential to raise a massive $75,000 for our global disability projects, including those that we are currently transitioning in Haiti. During this massive month of fundraising, we’re asking our supporters from across the world to come together in a movement of faith, hope and generosity to support our work, at a time when it is truly needed – and we hope that you’ll join us.

A few more of the things we’ve bought that have made a real difference…

Battery chargers - enabling us to keep vital equipment (like blood pressure machines, thermometers and calculators) working, even with limited access to electricity

Zip ties - helping our technicians to make specialised adaptations to wheelchairs, to make sure that beneficiaries are comfortable and well-seated, and most importantly to help avoid pressure sores 

Footballs and coloured chalks - for students at Amazing Grace School

LED light strips - used for our sensory classroom at Amazing Grace and in New Hope Rehabilitation Center BidiBidi - to create safe, inclusive and educational spaces for children and adults with disabilities

Post-partum maternity pads - to provide dignity to new mothers at our clinic in South Sudan

Coloured chopping boards - to help improve food hygiene standards in our staff kitchens in both BidiBidi and Kajo-Keji

Safety glasses and ‘quality’ power tools for our workshop, where we custom-make prosthetics and orthotics

Brackets and wallplugs (particularly difficult to buy in-country) that enabled us to construct shelves in our pharmacy in Kajo-Keji - keeping the space organized and tidy!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this campaign making the purchase of these small, but hugely important, items possible.

1. GLOBAL DISABILITY CARE

We continued to provide empowerment, dignity, and support to people with disabilities in Haiti, Uganda, and South Sudan. Last year, we provided over 1,450 wheelchairs, more than 300 prosthetic and orthotic devices, and thousands of rehabilitation sessions. We also opened a new rehab garden for patients with spinal cord injuries in Haiti, hosted another wonderful 'Night to Shine' for young people with special needs, and got a new vehicle in Uganda, enabling us to reach more people through mobile clinics.

The next phase of the project began with food distributions for all of the households, to address immediate food insecurity (particularly acute at the moment following recent ration cuts in the settlements) and ensure participant households are physically able and strong enough to participate in the project. We also distributed seeds to all the households, which have now been planted. When these crops are harvested, they will provide a sustainable source of food, as well as livelihood opportunities for some families that are able to sell their extra produce.

On top of the provision of resources and land, a key part of this project is training - crucial to making a lasting impact. As well as education sessions on planting, cultivation, business skills and income generation for the 1,100 households involved in the project, we have also recently begun nutrition training for the beneficiaries at New Hope Rehabilitation Center. This means that while they wait for treatment - whether that’s a wheelchair, physiotherapy or fitting for a prosthetic - they are provided with information about basic nutrition and food groups, empowering them with knowledge to improve their own health.

Stay tuned for updates on this life-changing project!

The inauguration day was incredibly joyful, with community leaders, government representatives, and HHA staff and supporters coming together to celebrate this long-standing dream becoming a reality. East Africa Programmes Manager, Isaac Taban, said: “Before the war, there were 44 clinics running [in this area]; now, there are less than 20 health facilities. With the opening of this clinic today, the community is very excited, because they are going to benefit from the services that we’re going to offer.” Carwyn Hill, CEO and co-founder, said “That first promise that we made to this community - to help - has finally come to fruition today, seven years later. We’ve never lost hope during that time, and it was amazing to hear the community today, so thankful and appreciative of the services, and so desperate for them. In the coming weeks you will see this clinic fully up and running!”

We are incredibly grateful to everyone that helped to make this possible. Special thanks go to the UNHCR, The Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity, Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust, the Favell Family, our incredible church partners, every single person that donated to our East Africa Rebuild Hope Appeal earlier this year, and those that wish to remain anonymous. Your generosity means the world.

Given the nature of inpatient rehabilitation services, many patients live in the unit for months and in some cases years at a time. Although the patients’ days are occupied with therapy sessions and nursing care, this still leaves a good portion of the day unaccounted for, during which the majority of patients spend indoors in their beds. Knowing the psychological, emotional, and subsequent physical health benefits of community engagement and outdoor recreational activities, we chose to transform the area into one that is advantageous to our incredibly resilient patients. 

Now, the garden is wheelchair accessible with wide concrete pathways creating a route from the Rehab Center to the Chapel, and includes a shaded area for sun protection and cooler temperatures. There are a variety of benches and seating areas available for people of all physical abilities, scenic landscaping with raised flower beds, and a designated elevated gardening area for Vocational Training to teach patients agricultural skills enabling them to grow sustainable food for themselves and families upon discharge.