Norwich — Operative in Haiti since 1985, Norwich-based nonprofit Haitian Health Foundation has become the primary health care provider for 250,000 people in and around the city of Jeremie — especially given the fallout from a nationwide strike at multiple public hospitals that began in March and only recently ended.

So when Founder Dr. Jeremiah J. Lowney and his team learned that Jeremie was in the direct path of the powerful Hurricane Matthew, they immediately began preparing for the worst.

On Monday, Haitian Health Foundation launched a separate fund dedicated to responding to Matthew's destruction.

At the moment, foundation members don't know just what Matthew has destroyed — Lowney said the nonprofit has lost all communications with the people it has on the ground in Haiti.

However, the nonprofit fears a major famine, homelessness and an increase in waterborne diseases will be left in Matthew's wake, along with a large number of people with chronic diseases struggling to obtain the medications they need for life.

Lowney said the warehouses and operations the foundation has in Haiti are passing out the food and medications they have in stock, but that once those things are gone, they won't be easy to replenish.

Further, Lowney said the 4,000 children Haitian Health Foundation sponsors to go to school — and who receive one meal a day as a result — also have lost that source of food because of the hurricane.

The group is working with other aid organizations in Haiti to attempt to get a better grasp on the situation and to combine efforts where possible, Executive Director Marilyn Lowney said, but because of all the flooding, access is a major issue.

"All of these things come to a halt, and the people are desperate," Jeremiah Lowney said. "We don't know what we're going to need, yet, but we know we're going to need quite a bit."

To make a donation to Haitian Health Foundation, visit www.haitianhealthfoundation.org/donate.

l.boyle@theday.com