MCC and Haiti

MCC is Mennonite Central Committee. I am hoping to eventually partner with them for Haiti.

This is a link to an article about the situation in northern Haiti.
And this is a link to some photos. In one of the photos you can see a barren mountain in the background. Just imagine dumping huge amounts of rain onto those mountains. The result is flooding...

UNICEF short Video on Haiti

CNN Video of Haiti

Here is a very sad video clip from CNN about the current health conditions in Haiti. Gonaives is one of the hardest struck areas in Haiti.

If you are interested in giving to help the people struck by these three hurricanes, I would recommend the following:

Save the Children
Mennonite Central Committee
World Vision

Haiti Update

Several have written to ask about the conditions in Haiti right now.  As you may know Haiti was hit hard by the last 3 hurricanes:  Gustav, Hanna, and recently Ike.  The northern parts of Haiti especially took a beating.  One estimate put the number of displaced persons to about 800,000.

To put that in perspective, the total population of Haiti is about 9 million.  So 800,000 is about 10% of the entire population.   That's plain sad.

 

I just received these photos through Vanessa Carpenter.  They are from a trip that Father Rick took recently to the north parts.  These photos, let me say, are dramatic.  It is well worth taking time to look through them all.   There are surprises all along the way.

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/erinkloos/GonaivesFloods9608#

 

This will give you some idea, hopefully, of the challenges faced by these folks.

 

Here is an email Father Rick sent out with the photos:

 

 

 

hello to all

witth much difficulty and facing raging nature in the form of winds and rains and flash floods
we were able to get to gonnaives to help the sisters of mother teresa
who are friends of ours as of 20 years
they have sent many children to our orphanage over the years
and we have helped them with many medical cases

some of their patients drown in their house
and the sisters were on the roof for 3 days unable to come down

in any case
we made it to gonnaives with 5 truckloads of help

mostly drinking water which is rare
we went with 21,000 servings of water
it is preprared like a glass of water in a small plastic bag

we brought a ton of food
and dry clothes

and a pump, generator and gas to pump the water our of the compound

we left last night but got caught between 2 raging rivers
and spent the night in the trucks wondering what would happen to us and how we would cross
but we fought our way thru mud an waters today and made it to port au prince
where all the bridges around our hospital are destroyed and there is massive flooding in parts of port au prince, and cabaret
it is a very tragic situation

as you know our orphanage had extensive damage but no one was harmed
we will be without exelctricity for a few months i am sure

as you know we had the effects of hirrucane ike last night
so even though we left gonnaives
it is flooded again to 3 meters as i write
and by cell phone we know the sisters are back on the roof

tropical storms fay  gustave and hanna  and hurricane ike
have displaced about 1,000,000 people in haiti due to floods
from a government source i heard today


best regards
your prayers are appreciated

fr rick

 

 

Haiti Articles

Here is an article that just came from Wings of Hope orphanage in Port-au-Prince. It's a really great article by KC.

This is an article published recently in the British medical journal, Lancet. It does an excellent job of presenting the current health care crisis that continues in Haiti. Well worth the read!

Exciting news

Hi Everyone,

We had the great pleasure of meeting with the Kiwanis of Upper Allen again tonight over dinner. We presented information about Pestel and some of the specific needs, including clean water, health, and education.

The Kiwanis group has graciously added Haiti Medical into this upcoming year's budget!!! What a huge encouragement to again see others responding with God's compassion.

("Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time.")

ALSO, an individual member has pledged $600 annually!!! These funds will in part be used to cover the educational needs of four children (see Alfred's Story on the website). We are SO thrilled and encouraged and overwhelmed by this generosity. Jen was saying on the way home that this gift changed Alfred's story from one of sadness to one of joy and the promise of God's provision. How awesome to play a small part in that! And what a great gift to Alfred and his family.

A few other notes:

Pray that the hurricane, Hanna, would be moved off of Haiti (click here to read an article on weather.com about how it is affecting Haiti). It is lingering there...and as you probably know Gustav recently went through as well. (BTW, in the satellite photo of Hanna to the right Haiti is "buried" underneath and has been for the past 24 hours).
Sister Fidelis was to come to the US last week but her plane has been repeatedly delayed by the storms. I know she has been looking forward to this trip.



The teachers of Toma Elli (see the story on Toma Elli by clicking here and scrolling down) approached Sister Fidelis about the possibility of constructing some benches for school. The cost is $20 per bench. They will need about 20-30 benches. Please let me know if you are interested in helping to building these! By giving $20 you could provide seating for several children. I've been very impressed by the self-sacrificial dedication of the teachers of Toma Elli who work with minimal-to-no pay.



More later :)
Ben