

Spring 2023

Soaring Unlimited Haiti proudly celebrated the opening of its long-awaited Women’s Health & Birth Center (called “Sante Fanm” in Haitian Creole) on January 25, 2023, on Soaring’s “Dorothy Frederickson Community Health & Education Campus” in Pistere Village, Limonade Region, NorthEast Haiti.
The following day, Sante Fanm opened to women in the local village community and surrounding area. Patients who are coming can give birth with expert care and support from our highly trained midwifery staff, as well as receive a comprehensive array of women’s and children’s health services. Our “Continuum of Care” includes programming from feminine hygiene support that helps keep teenage girls in school, to prenatal pregnancy care and postpartum followup, to infant and child health and developmental assessments, to family planning services. Soaring has also been providing classes for local traditional birth attendants to enhance their skills, and will continue to work with them culturally in the community through our new facility and its programming.
“We’re gratified and humbled to finally see this dream and vision come to fruition – it’s truly a miracle to have completed the project during a global pandemic and the ongoing civil and political unrest in Haiti,” said Rev. Dr. Laura Alexander Elliott, Missionary in Haiti and Executive Director of Soaring Unlimited. “It’s our hope and prayer that this will improve the health and lives of women and their families where we serve in Haiti, as well as help reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in Haiti.”
First Sante Fanm Baby Born

Brooke Borgeson-Gray, Soaring Unlimited Haiti Board Vice President, holds the first baby born at Sante Fanm in January
The Very First Birth: A Mother’s Story
“My baby won’t wait!” she thought as she felt the intense labor pains. She had heard the new Soaring Women’s Health & Birth Center was opening the next day. She imagined how much safer she would feel with qualified midwives assisting her in the spacious facility. She had seen the preparations for the dedication ceremony being made, and she had nowhere else to go anyway. It was scary, so she made the request to enter “Sante Fanm.”
That night, when that first baby was born, she named it “Soaring” in the Haitian Creole language-- she was so grateful. The next morning, she was a celebrity at the opening ceremonies attended by the mayor, other dignitaries and Soaring partners. Your gifts are bringing happy outcomes after months of construction, training, and preparation.
Three more babies have been born in our first few weeks of operation, and we are seeing a steady stream of women patients for prenatal and other services. Your support is needed to continue this level of care, as well as help their families who struggle to get enough food in these stressful times. Soaring Unlimited Haiti is there to help them with solutions.
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