I'm in Haiti for about 5 weeks to document the work of a few different non-profit humanitarian groups and projects. World Wide Village and Randy Mortensen have been incredibly ingratiating to me by allowing me to work with them and a few of their affiliates for a couple weeks while utilizing their guesthouse as home base. I arrived early afternoon the first day unable to join a visiting American sponsored WWV team which was working with the full-time Haitian WWV team building a low-cost home for a woman in Cazale northwest of Port-au-Prince.

The next day, my first day really on the ground, was an amazing start to this trip. I joined the visiting Utah team members as they worked along side their Haitian counterparts to install the entire roof from beams to steal in a matter of hours. The most impressive part of WWV's work and donation process is their enabling of the locals to take the skills and practices that craftsmen from abroad bring into the country and make them their own. WWV is not simply coming in, building and giving homes away. They are enabling communities to become stronger from the ground up. This was wonderful to observe in action.

Along with helping in the construction process I had the opportunity to walk down to the village of Cazale and see the work of Real Hope for Haiti. This is a truly amazing organization that runs a Health Clinic, a Cholera Treatment Center and an Malnutrition Rescue Center all in Cazale. I am very grateful to them for allowing me to spend even a few minutes documenting some of the patients in their malnutrition center. It is eye opening to say the least to see such dire physical conditions but also to experience and be inspired by such amazing work. Visit Malnutrition Facts page here.

I hope these images are inspiring and please use the links above to read more about these organizations, make donations or plan on volunteering.

A volunteer hugs the woman they are building the house for.

The combined teams.

Real Hope for Haiti

Waiting line at 9 am at the Health Clinic - Real Hope for Haiti

A child snacks on crackers while waiting in line at the clinic.

A volunteer sits with 2 children at the Malnutrition Clinic. The girl on the left is 19 months old and weighs 9.5 pounds.

A child receives extra fluids by IV.

A young man with HIV and severe Shingles eats.

A volunteer rubs lotion on a 19 year old girl who is battling Diabetes though she has recovered from Tuberculosis. She weighs about 75 pounds.