ZANMI SASYE—PARTNERS WITH SASSIER is a not for profit organization which partners with groups in the Sassier area to bring hope, create opportunity and improve lives for the 10,000 inhabitants living here in Haiti. Since 2006, we have provided or facilitated more than $1 million in direct assistance and investment in the Sassier area. Our work builds upon and complements efforts begun in 1998 by Sacred Heart Parish in Winnetka, Illinois. We focus on three principal areas:
- Education;
- Health Care and Humanitarian Assistance;
- Community and Economic Development.
Our key accomplishments over the past six years include:
- organizing a significant group of international collaborators who provide substantial financial, technical and operational support to the Sassier community, including the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Association for Schools in Hispaniola (Verein fuer Schulen im Hispanioloa), Kindermissionswerk, Catholic Relief Services, and a group of medical professionals from Western Michigan;
- providing funding and technical assistance for the completion of a 20 classroom school in Sassier;
- facilitating and providing funding for the education of more than 950 students in three schools in the Sassier area, including 850 students in Preschool through 11th Grade at Institution Pierre Toussaint in Sassier;
- soliciting and securing more than $500,000 in funding for the construction of two new school buildings in the Sassier area in the 2010-12 period, the first of which is now under construction;
- soliciting and securing $200,000 in funding for the rehabilitation of the deplorable road to Sassier including a new bridge across the Guinaudee River, which is now in process;
- providing technical and managerial support necessary to implement the foregoing projects;
- providing funding for two medical clinics in the Sassier area, each staffed by a nurse and a pharmacist assistant, complete with pharmacy;
- organizing, funding and managing visiting medical teams of American and Haitian medical professionals who provide primary care for thousands of area residents each year;
- provided technical assistance and funding to provide medical care, food and sustenance to more than 2000 migrants who fled to Sassier after the January 2010 Earthquake;
- organized and managed a team of 8 doctors who served the victims of the January 2010 Earthquake at St Antoine Hospital in Jeremie in February 2010.
All our Officers and Directors are volunteers and receive no compensation. Most also absorb all their own expenses for travel, lodging, etc. and contribute generously to Zanmi Sasye financially. More than [95%] of donations are directed to projects in Haiti that directly benefit the Sassier community.