Immediate Action for Borgne: A Youth-Led Initiative to Support Nutrition and Family Care

In recent months, cuts to external funding have threatened one of Borgne’s most essential community services: immediate nutrition and care for children and families. Mobile nutrition clinics—long a cornerstone of the Sante nan Lakou model—have been forced to pause, even as food insecurity has intensified across northern Haiti.

Inside the Alyans Sante Oboy hospital, Dr. Thony Voltaire and his team continue to provide urgent nutritional support to children who arrive for care. But without restored funding, outreach to the broader community remains compromised. For many families, this means the difference between recovering fully and falling deeper into preventable illness and malnutrition.

A Youth-Led Initiative Across Borders

In response, a remarkable new partnership has emerged. Young people in Borgne, together with students of the Global Youth Leadership Board at The Madeira School, have joined efforts through R.I.I.S.E., a youth-driven initiative long envisioned by teachers in Borgne and developed over many months of planning.

This collaboration reflects a powerful convergence:

• Borgne’s youth bringing lived experience, insight, and leadership

• Students in the United States bringing commitment, solidarity, and awareness-building

• Together, expanding the circle of people who can help sustain essential health services

Launching an Initiative for Nutrition and Family Care

To meet the most immediate need, this youth partnership is launching a focused initiative to restart and sustain the nutrition program in Borgne. Funds raised will support:

• Nutritional supplements for children who are acutely ill

• Essential outreach to families through community health agents

• Revitalization of the mobile clinics that serve the most vulnerable households

By supporting this initiative, we can help ensure that children receive the nutrients, treatment, and community-based care they need to recover and thrive.

This is youth-led global citizenship at its best: grounded in local wisdom, animated by shared purpose, and dedicated to strengthening the extraordinary capacity already alive in Borgne.

Global Youth Leadership Board meets weekly on Monday nights to support R.I.I.S.E.