The Alt+Conference

Traveling to Haiti with Every Mother Counts

Spring is conference season in the publishing industry, which kicks off a series of trade shows where we learn of the latest innovations, lay the groundwork for partnerships that will contribute to strategic goals and financial targets, re-engage with remote colleagues and rebuild our teams in an era of emails and Skype, and particularly for publishing explore ways to transform our organizations as our industry is being transformed.

This season I opted for a different kind of communal experience. I traded in my annual pilgrimage to Digital Book World, CAMEX, or SXSW, and chose an alternative; the alt+conference.

The alt+conference in this case was the opportunity to travel to Haiti with aid organization Every Mother Counts. Founded by Christy Turlington in 2010, Every Mother Counts seeks to ensure access to quality medical care for women around the world and save the 300,000 mothers that die preventable deaths every year. Most of the mothers die, not because the treatment doesn’t exist, but simply because quality medical care is too far for them to reach.

Every Mother Counts partners with in-country organizations, like Midwives for Haiti, that know best the local problems and their solutions. EMC’s grants support grass roots efforts with scalable approaches to solving the challenges that cost lives.

Trips like this one educate their board and supporters while expanding much needed awareness and raising funds. Fundraising is done primarily through sponsoring and participating in organized runs around the world; Team EMC will run the distance so the mothers won’t have to. In addition to visiting a birthing center, hospital, midwife training facility, and orphanages, we participated in RunHaiti 2016, a half marathon from coastal city Jacmelthrough the Haitian countryside.

Alt+Conference Days One and Two: Understand your customers’ needs

After our arrival in Port-au-Prince we spent the night in the town of Mirebalais. The following morning began with a five mile trek along the dirt road to the Midwives for Haiti birthing center in Cabestor, a region with a maternal mortality rate three times the national average and where 18% of children do not survive past five. When we arrived, two women were in labor after walking three hours to the clinic on the same road we had traveled.

Mothers in the surrounding villages are given follow up care from the doctors and midwives at the center or from the mobile medical unit that covers the area. Their babies are provided clothing and blankets contributed by individual donors. One of the many highlights of the week was being able to gift the donations from friends and supporters back home, making a difference in a small, personal way.

On the day we visited, a U.S.-based volunteer medical team was on site at the birthing center and opened a temporary medical clinic, diagnostic center, and pharmacy. More than 300 patients had walked and waited hours to receive care. The work being done by Midwives for Haiti starts with the youngest child and extends to the entire community.

Alt+Conference Day Three: Find scalable solutions

There are 201 midwives serving 10 million people in Haiti. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Midwives for Haiti provides a tuition-free, year-long course for nurses to become certified skilled birth attendants and helps them find jobs with hospitals, NGOs, and clinics. Many graduates leave the school in Hinche to return to their home villages, spreading education and care throughout their country.

Music is an inherent part of Haiti’s culture. The midwives use song to teach their patients hygiene, safety, and how to recognize the signs that the pregnancy requires a trip to the birthing center.

The skilled birth attendants also coordinate with traditional birth attendants, known as matrons. This retains the knowledge gathered over generations, encourages trust among the villagers, and increases the number of care givers. Haitians helping Haitians, from one to many.

After the midwife school we visited two orphanages. In many cases, the children are not orphaned because they have lost their parents, but rather their parents have brought them there voluntarily because they cannot care for them. The littlest ones often arrive suffering from malnutrition and simply want to be held. These organizations encourage the families to visit regularly and do not allow foreign adoptions, believing that caring for and educating the children at home offers them and their country a brighter future.

Alt+Conference Day Four: Recraft your brand

In an earnest attempt to convey the need in Haiti, visitors to the country may neglect to share the country’s incredible resourcefulness and creativity. In the second half of our trip we discovered that there was more to Haiti than we imagined. In the city of Jacmel, where we moved on our fourth day, artist co-operatives hold classes, provide work and gallery space, and help provide commercial opportunities for local artists.

Discarded paper becomes vibrant masks that adorn the street lights; tires that would be trash are redesigned into colorful birds suspended from trees in local parks. And Jacmelhas been brought alive by the Art Creation Foundation for Children, a local organization that works with children and their families to decorate the city with elaborate glass mosaics. Through their own industry and artistry, the Haitians are transforming their country.

Alt+Conference Day Five: Find new partnership opportunities

Near Jacmel, we visited the Cine Institute and the affiliated Audio Institute. They partner with international artists and local professionals to offer tuition-free training for Haitian youth in film and audio-visual production. The students write, film, direct, act, record, and play the music themselves. Graduates average an annual income of $6000 compared to the GDP per capita income of $733. Haitians make their living telling their own stories.

Alt+Confernce Day Six: Set your goals

All the participants of this trip with Every Mother Counts were required to raise $5000 to support the work in Haiti and to participate in RunHaiti’sJacmel Riverbank 20K, a run through the city and nearby countryside. RunHaiti works with local health organizations to provide medical care and encourage healthy lifestyles through nutrition and exercise.

When I received the invitation to be part of Team EMC’s Haiti trip, I had never run a race in my life. I had two months to raise the $5000 and train for a half marathon over what its own organizers admit is “challenging terrain.” With many generous contributions from family, friends, and colleagues, I hit my fundraising goal on race day. That left only the race itself to overcome.

The 12.4 miles of the Jacmelrun traversed a mountain (1200 feet of elevation over seven miles), a few rivers, massive mud puddles, and no shortage of livestock. “Challenging” doesn’t cover it for this novice.

When the trail isn’t so clearly marked, it helps to know the language of the locals. And never be afraid to ask for directions. This little one kept me on the right path.

There were many moments when I thought I couldn’t take another step. After a rough hill that required toe holds to climb, these three smalls came out to take my hands and lift me back up. And when the incline was so steep it was more likely I would tumble down than run, this precious girl remained with me all the way. Just when the goal seemed most impossible, there was always a reminder of why I was there and what really mattered.

I was dead last but I finished (even turning down a kindly offer of a truck ride from the organizers). And I was greeted by my EMC teammates with cheers, and hugs, and complete belief that I wouldn’t give up. When people are counting on you—the donors back home who were with me in spirit, my fellow runners who told me all week I could do it, and the people of Haiti who had reached out their hands to help me when I was supposed to be there to help them—there is no question of finishing the race.

Alt+Conference Day Seven: Redefine success

After the earthquake of 2010, the devastation of what was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere was almost beyond comprehension. When I first visited Haiti in 2013, I worked in a school near a tent city and like all who saw it I was heartbroken by the suffering so near our land of abundance. But although there is much to be done, this trip has shown me that Haiti has the capability to rise from the rubble. We do not go to save them. We go to lend a hand, and receive a hand in return.

Alt+ConferenceOutcome: Transformation

If the objectives of a conference are to strengthen, inspire and transform an industry and its professionals, the alt+conference, then, offers the opportunity to be strengthened in your commitment to do work that makes a difference where a difference matters, to be inspired by a culture determined to prevail against tremendous odds, and to arrive with the intent to transform and instead find yourself forever transformed.

Alt+ConferenceHaiti Resources

Every Mother Countswww.everymothercounts.org

Midwives for Haitiwww.midwivesforhaiti.org

Maison Fortune Orphanagewww.mfofoundation.org

RunHaitiwww.runhaiti.com

Art Creation Foundation for Childrenwww.acffcjacmelhaiti.com

Cine Institutewww.cineinstitute.com