NOVA Hope for Haiti - Bringing Urgent Humanitarian Aid to the People of Haiti

NOVA Hope for Haiti, Inc. is a non-sectarian non-profit organization that strives to bring sustainable healthcare to the most needy country in the Western Hemisphere. It is officially recognized as an ONG (non-governmental organization) by the Haitian government and works in conjunction with Haiti’s Minister of Health to coordinate periodic medical missions and to establish a healthcare infrastructure that will include the rural and isolated mountain regions of southwest Haiti where this is not currently available.

In 2002 the Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey became interested in collaborating with a poor parish in rural Haïti to initiate a program of medical support. After considerable planning and procurement, a 10-member medical team was dispatched to perform a one-week service project, screening and treating local residents who required medical care. To date ten bi-annual missions have taken place with up to twenty-three volunteers per trip. Typically, a wide variety of medical conditions are evaluated and treated and often upwards of 1000 patients, who would otherwise have had no medical care at their disposal, are seen. Representative diagnoses and treatments are detailed on the following page. These church-sponsored medical missions always rigorously remained nonselective in terms of population treated, and the participating practitioners and volunteers on these trips have hailed from a variety of diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Debriefing and analysis at the culmination of each one of these medical trips progressively became more disconcerting because traveling members independently, but unanimously, concluded at one point or another that the benefits provided, although at times dramatic, were only of short-term duration and probably did little to impact positively on the overall well being of the population served. Furthermore, upon cost analysis it quickly became apparent that significantly greater long-term benefits should be expected from cash expenditures upwards of US$30,000 per mission and the intangible value of the numerous donated man-hours, both in planning and logistics and in absenteeism from work.

Consensus dictated that a permanent facility be established and operated by permanent staff, and that like-minded teams of volunteer professionals should organize monthly or every two months sending medical missions to Haiti from abroad to provide additional services complementing the day-to-day activities of the envisioned permanently staffed local clinic. The scope of these visiting medical teams would include higher-level of care and procedures, the expertise for which would not be readily available in a developing country.

To this end and after much forethought, a non-governmental non-profit organization was created in 2005 for which tax exempt 501(c)(3) status was sought and granted. After an extensive application process and careful examination of the planned programs and activities, the Haitian government has granted NOVA a tax-exempt ONG status. NOVA Hope for Haïti currently functions as an independent nonsectarian body that solicits support and volunteers from diverse service-oriented communities to realize its goals.


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	NOVA Hope for Haiti, Inc. is a non-sectarian non-profit organization that strives to bring sustainable healthcare to the most needy country in the Western Hemisphere. It is officially recognized as an ONG (non-governmental organization) by the Haitian government and works in conjunction with Haiti’s Minister of Health to coordinate periodic medical missions and to establish a healthcare infrastructure that will include the rural and isolated mountain regions of southwest Haiti where this is not currently available. In 2002 the Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey became interested in collaborating with a poor parish in rural Haïti to initiate a program of medical support. After considerable planning and procurement, a 10-member medical team was dispatched to perform a one-week service project, screening and treating local residents who required medical care. To date ten bi-annual missions have taken place with up to twenty-three volunteers per trip. Typically, a wide variety of medical conditions are evaluated and treated and often upwards of 1000 patients, who would otherwise have had no medical care at their disposal, are seen. Representative diagnoses and treatments are detailed on the following page. These church-sponsored medical missions always rigorously remained nonselective in terms of population treated, and the participating practitioners and volunteers on these trips have hailed from a variety of diverse backgrounds and cultures. Debriefing and analysis at the culmination of each one of these medical trips progressively became more disconcerting because traveling members independently, but unanimously, concluded at one point or another that the benefits provided, although at times dramatic, were only of short-term duration and probably did little to impact positively on the overall well being of the population served. Furthermore, upon cost analysis it quickly became apparent that significantly greater long-term benefits should be expected from cash expenditures upwards of US$30,000 per mission and the intangible value of the numerous donated man-hours, both in planning and logistics and in absenteeism from work. Consensus dictated that a permanent facility be established and operated by permanent staff, and that like-minded teams of volunteer professionals should organize monthly or every two months sending medical missions to Haiti from abroad to provide additional services complementing the day-to-day activities of the envisioned permanently staffed local clinic. The scope of these visiting medical teams would include higher-level of care and procedures, the expertise for which would not be readily available in a developing country. To this end and after much forethought, a non-governmental non-profit organization was created in 2005 for which tax exempt 501(c)(3) status was sought and granted. After an extensive application process and careful examination of the planned programs and activities, the Haitian government has granted NOVA a tax-exempt ONG status. NOVA Hope for Haïti currently functions as an independent nonsectarian body that solicits support and volunteers from diverse service-oriented communities to realize its goals.