GAHDA | Grand'Anse Health & Development Association

GAHDA USA Transition Announcement and Request for Support

Key Messages

The GAHDA breast cancer program in Haiti will continue through a new U.S. nonprofit partner working with GAHDA-Haiti.
As part of an orderly and responsible transition, GAHDA USA will cease operations within six months.
We ask for your support this giving season to ensure uninterrupted care for women currently receiving services during this transition.

Dear Friends of GAHDA,

Thank you for your many years of steadfast support for our programs in the Grand’Anse region of Haiti, especially our breast cancer initiatives. We are writing to share an important organizational transition and to invite your partnership during this final phase of GAHDA USA’s work.

Over the past year, we have been engaged in thoughtful leadership and organizational planning as our dedicated founder, Dr. Bette Gebrian, prepares for a well-deserved retirement after decades of extraordinary service (we invite you to review her accomplishments in the attached retrospective). To ensure the long-term future of the breast cancer program we have built, the GAHDA USA Board has made the decision to close the organization within six months as part of a careful and responsible winddown and ensure that breast cancer services continue through Haitian organizations and partners.

We are finalizing an agreement with a trusted U.S. nonprofit already working in the Grand’Anse region, which shares our commitment to community-based healthcare. This partner will assume responsibility for the breast cancer program in collaboration with our sister organization, GAHDA-Haiti. Once the transition is complete, GAHDA USA will no longer manage the program or accept donations, and we will guide our supporters to the new partner organization.

Despite Haiti’s ongoing instability, the breast cancer program has remained active and impactful thanks to our dedicated Haitian medical and community teams. This past year alone, we provided education to more than 5,000 residents, screened nearly 1,900 women, conducted 30 biopsies, treated 44 women with breast cancer, and offered palliative care when needed.

During this transition, we ask for your end-of-year support so that important lifesaving and compassionate services can continue uninterrupted.

What your gift makes possible:

$50 covers patient transportation to chemotherapy
$250 equips the medical team to perform biopsies

$1,200 supports a full year of chemotherapy for 1 patient
$10,000 sponsors treatment for 3–4 women

Your generosity brings hope, dignity and care to women and families facing breast cancer under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Thank you for standing with GAHDA—and with Haiti—during this important transition.

With gratitude,

Judy Lewis
GAHDA USA Board President

In Honor of Dr. Bette Gebrian

Founding Executive Director, Grand’Anse Health & Development Association

For more than four decades, Dr. Bette Gebrian has embodied what it means to serve with purpose, humility, and unwavering commitment. As the founding Executive Director of the Grand’Anse Health & Development Association (GAHDA), Bette has shaped not only an organization, but an entire model of community-centered, compassionate breast cancer care and community assistance in rural Haiti.

Bette’s relationship with Haiti began in 1982 and deepened permanently in 1987, when she chose to live and work there. Over the ensuing decades, she became a trusted partner, advocate, and leader in the Grand’Anse region—earning respect through action rather than words. For 27 years, she served as Director of Public Health and the Center of Hope at the Haitian Health Foundation, where her vision and steady leadership helped expand care for women, children, and families facing extraordinary challenges. She developed an internationally recognized community based and data driven primary health care program.

Bette on a mule (in front) coming down from a mountain clinic in the late 1980s

Trained as a nurse, public health administrator, and medical anthropologist, Bette brought both clinical rigor and deep cultural understanding to her work. Her academic contributions—as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut Department of Public Health Sciences and through numerous published articles and international presentations—reflected her belief that listening to communities is as important as treating disease. Her scholarship and practice consistently centered the lived experiences of Haitian women and families. Her accomplishments were recognized by ten local, national, and global health awards, including the American Public Health Association International Health Section.

Bette also was an educator and helped develop a community research program with Prof. Judy Lewis at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. This program resulted in over 50 research projects by medical, dental, nursing, anthropology, and public health students which improved health care programs in the Grand’Anse.

Bette with members of the GAHDA team at the clinic in Jérémie 2023

One of Bette’s most enduring legacies is the breast cancer program in the Grand’Anse. What began with her commitment to supporting breastfeeding mothers evolved into a pioneering, comprehensive breast cancer initiative—addressing education, screening, diagnosis, surgery, and care in a setting where such services had been virtually nonexistent. Beginning in 2011, she coordinated this work in close collaboration with Haitian and international partners, including St. Antoine Hospital, Dr. Jean Robert Douge, the Avera Health System, the University of Connecticut, Cross Catholic Outreach, Agape, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the Grand’Anse Department of Health Department and

many other organizations. The program has become a model for delivering complex, life- saving care in low-resource settings with dignity and compassion.

Bette’s accomplishments are many, but those who know her best speak most often of her integrity, persistence, and determination. She has always focused on building systems that would last beyond her own leadership—mentoring colleagues, empowering Haitian partners, and insisting on care that is accessible, respectful, and grounded in local realities.

As Bette steps into a long-awaited and richly deserved retirement, we celebrate not an ending, but a legacy that will continue to shape lives for years to come. We are profoundly grateful for her vision, her courage, and her tireless service. Most of all, we wish her joy as she turns her attention to time with her husband, Edwin Magloire, her daughters, and her grandchildren—surrounded by the love she has so freely given to others.

With deepest thanks and admiration, we thank you Bette.

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