NOVA Hope for Haïti, 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 Haïti’s Minister of Health to coordinate periodic medical missions and to establish a healthcare infrastructure. This will eventually include rural and isolated mountain regions in southwest Haiti where prevention, diagnosis and treatment are 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 since then with up to twenty-eight volunteers per trip. A wide variety of medical conditions have been evaluated and treated and often upwards of 1000 patients are seen per mission. Few if any of these people would have had access to medical treatment were it not for these organized trips, and actually a few pediatric patients have been brought back to the United States for complicated care. These church-sponsored medical missions always rigorously remained available to every Haitian citizen, and the participating practitioners and ancillary volunteers have hailed from a variety of diverse backgrounds and cultures.
As time progressed, it became more and more evident that greater impact at a much lower relative cost could be achieved if a permanent medical facility were established in Haïti. Follow up care could be readily provided and, more importantly, education and preventive measures could be implemented to increase the overall well being of the target society, reducing sickness and making emergency care less of an imperative. Eventually, the concept of a permanent medical facility became a mandate and to this end NOVA Hope for Haïti, Inc. was created in 2005 as a non-governmental non-profit organization. Tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status was secured.
Subsequently, in compliance with a rigorous application process and after careful examination of NOVA’s planned programs and activities, the Haitian government, in conjunction with the Minister of Planification and Minister of Health, granted NOVA a tax-exempt ONG (NGO) status in Haïti as well.
NOVA Hope for Haïti, Inc. currently functions as an independent nonsectarian body that solicits support and volunteers from diverse service-oriented communities to realize its goals.
