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 "We
are only stewards of the gifts that we are given...they only grow when
we share them with the needy."
Dr. Jeremiah J. Lowney, DDS, M.S., M.P.H., has devoted the last
22 years to serving the poor of Haiti. What began as a short trip to
offer dental care has become a lifelong passion to provide healthcare,
development, and the hope of a future to the poor of southwestern Haiti,
with a concentration on perinatal women and children. Since 1982, Lowney
has returned to Haiti every three months to personally care for children
and families, founding The Haitian Health Foundation (HHF) in
1986. His original dream, to provide healthcare to 35,000 people in 25
villages, has grown to an outreach to more than 200,000 people in
Jeremie and 104 rural and remote mountain villages. Through HHF,
hundreds of thousands of Haitian children and their families have been
rescued. HHF's 27,000-square-foot outpatient clinic serves 350 to 400
patients each day. HHF's inpatient "Center of Hope" facility provides
care for malnourished children and at-risk pregnant women. Care is
provided in the rural villages through HHF-trained Health Agents, who
teach healthcare and diagnose and treat endemic diseases, triaging the
very ill to the Clinic. Successes include: a 90 percent immunization
rate, almost 100 percent reduction in diarrhea deaths, a national award
for Vitamin A program (prevents child blindness) and a reduction in
childhood deaths from bacterial pneumonia by more than 50 percent. In
addition, Lowney maintains a feeding program which distributes hot meals
and take-home food for thousands of malnourished children. Other
projects include house and latrine construction and the distribution of
pigs, chickens, eggs, goats, and garden seeds. HHF has also helped to
found a school of nursing and a boys' welding school in Jeremie, as well
as built a school for 200 very poor children, which it still supports
today. HHF's family sponsorship program sends more than 1,500 children
to school each year. Lowney and his wife Virginia are full-time
volunteer administrators for HHF. Thousands of volunteers from the
United States, Canada and Europe have traveled to HHF to serve the poor
and to study HHF's programs. For more information, visit
www.haitianhealthfoundation.org.
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2004 Honorees
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