The Richard King Mellon Foundation awarded a $150,000 grant to help Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS) strengthen the capacity of its U.S. development and marketing operation.
The hospital, which was founded in 1956 by Pittsburgher William Larimer Mellon, collaborates with communities in a particularly challenged rural area of Haiti to improve public health. HAS runs a hospital, four community health centers, and mobile clinics that serve a population of more than 350,000 people. The hospital is the only one in the region that provides life-saving surgery and other critical care.
The grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation will help the U.S.-based HAS operation, based in Pittsburgh, increase awareness and support of this organization, which was a pioneer in community-based healthcare that results in lasting change.
“HAS is grateful for this significant investment, which will help ensure the long-term sustainability of this important healthcare resource,” said HAS Board Chairman John Walton.
The Richard King Mellon Foundation also has generously supported a HAS agroforestry program, which is helping rural farmers in the HAS service area grow trees and shade crops, while helping improve the environment in Haiti, which has been damaged by decades of deforestation.
For more than 60 years the Richard King Mellon Foundation has invested in the competitive future and quality of life in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and in the protection, preservation, and restoration of America’s environmental heritage.