At the beginning of May, ICC USA’s new Communications Director, Kirsten McIlvenna, traveled to Haiti and the Domincian Republic for the first time. She wrote the following upon her return, and we felt it necessary to share with all of you

My name is Jack Dynes and I am excited to come on board as the new Marketing and Communications Intern here at ICC. I am currently a rising senior at Kalamazoo College, studying Economics as well as English literature. I am also a member of the baseball team at Kalamazoo College and recently returned from a 6-month study abroad journey in Perth, Australia.

When Aldonese Anitchi’s youngest daughter was weighed last month at the age of six months, she could barely fit into the sling the health workers use. In a country where malnourishment and disease take the lives of 1 out of 11 children under the age of five, this is reason to celebrate. 

Some pretty spectacular kids wow-ed us last week at Lakeside Chataqua when in just two and a half days they raised $1,468.68 for children of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Likely you know that the Dominican Republic is a great vacation destination with beautiful beaches, palm beaches, and warm weather. Tourist images aside, how many of these facts do you know?

In the Summer of 2015, undergraduate student Kenya Louis traveled to Haiti for a unique internship. Originally from Haiti, she is currently studying for her bachelor’s in Healthcare Administration at Rhode Island College. At the internsthip, she was able to contribute and learn at the same time. Now back in the States, she wanted to share her experience.

The CDC announced yesterday that "Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have concluded, after careful review of existing evidence, that Zika virus is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects."

We would like to take a moment to introduce you to Tayana, a bright, young 10-month-old whom generous sponsors such as yourself are helping to care for through Grace Children’s Hospital. She was severely malnourished and was experiencing diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. Although she has only been in the hospital for two months, Tayana has already made significant growth.

The truth is that as a society, we have the technology and capability to save millions from tuberculosis (TB), but the financial support for it makes the death rate from TB unacceptably high. Here's what you can do.

Each day that Chrislande Perceval arrives to work at Grace Children’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, she is reminded of her valuable role in providing healthcare and guidance to the community. Because she practices such a high level of nursing care, her patients trust her and are able to learn valuable information that could help save their children’s lives.

In the US, many of us take for granted that women are able to deliver healthy babies, most often in a hospital with a doctor and nurses to care for the child and mother should a complication arise. Yet in Haiti, more than 80% of births occur at home, with 50% of them without any outside assistance.

While we don’t have an update on the Zika virus in Haiti since we last communicated about it, we did want to share with you some valuable resources that may answer some of your pressing questions and help subside some of the fears that may have erupted from Zika being so prevalent in the news lately. 

My name is Kirsten McIlvenna, and I’m thrilled to join the ICC USA office as the new Communications Director. I am a 2011 graduate of Saginaw Valley State University with a BA in Professional & Technical Writing as well as Creative Writing.

Currently the Center for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) has declared the Caribbean area at alert level 2, meaning that residents and visitors should “practice enhanced precautions.” They are not at this point telling people from staying away from these countries, but are instead advising to take precautions against mosquito bites (how the virus is spread) by wearing protective clothing and repellent and sleeping in mosquito nets. 

It has since been reported, based on health data throughout 2015, that Haiti alone registered 98% of total cholera cases in the Americas. In Haiti, since the beginning of the epidemic, in October 2010, through November  12, 2015, there have been 754,735 cholera cases, including 9,068 deaths.