The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) is a university-wide center involving multiple entities within the Harvard community that provide expertise in public health, medicine, social science, management, and other disciplines to promote evidence-based approaches to humanitarian assistance.
The mission of the Initiative is to relieve human suffering in war and disaster by advancing the science and practice of humanitarian response worldwide. HHI fosters interdisciplinary collaboration in order to:
- Improve the effectiveness of humanitarian strategies for relief, protection and prevention;
- Instill human rights principles and practices in these strategies;
- Educate and train the next generation of humanitarian leaders.
HHI Responds to Earthquake Devastation in Haiti
Responding to Haiti's earthquake disaster, HHI plays a lead role in supporting the coordination of the Harvard-wide response including that of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals within Partners Health Care System. Leveraging HHI’s unique position as an academic and research center with long-standing ties to leading medical and public health personnel, HHI has facilitated deployment of >70 surgeons, emergency physicians, anesthesiologists, and nurses to Haiti in the earthquake's immediate aftermath.
