I had the pleasure of videoconferencing with the VI board this morning, and learned that they have accepted my proposal for 2011!! This is wonderful news, and a real boost as we end this year. We are currently raising funds through calendar sales.
The strategy that seems to make sense to me (and I'd like your feedback) is to use the knowledge gained from 2010 to raise funds to cover the costs of the Child Health Campaigns. We know that it costs $3 per child per year. That's how much it cost this year. The more funds that can be raised (outside of VI's funding) to support the Child Health Campaigns will allow funds from VI to be used to advance the health effort for kids in Pestel. We would be able to start an anemia treatment initiative (piloted on the island, then more widespread throughout Pestel), a malnutrition initiative, and lay the groundwork for immunizations.
Secondly, I received the following email from Sister Fidelis. This is hard for me to read. If you have ideas, please let me know. Ben
First I want to thank all of you for your prayers and good wishes as Hurricane Tomas approached and waned.
Unfortunately, I need to make some corrections to earlier sunnier predictions of our situation here. For two days I could not reach our people up in the mountains. We are in the lower, coastal town of Pestel right now and have been through the duration of the storm. This morning people came down the mountains to the market. And then I heard plenty.
Many people lost sheets of corrugated tin from their roofs. Many trees came down killing many animals (goats, pigs, chickens, and even cows) and damaging a good number of houses. Their crops were just devastated, literally flattened from the high winds. Plaintain trees, which have very shallow roots, were all uprooted, but also vines like yams and beans were snapped leaving people without the food necessary to feed their families. Luckily for us personally, our house and new clinic were unaffected. However, the new school which was built next to our clinic had its entire roof blown off. I hear that the higher up the mountain people are, the greater the damage. This is the worst storm damage we have had here since I came to Haiti nine years ago. Sister Jo, Katie Large and I are returning home tomorrow to pray and commiserate with our friends and neighbors up the mountain.
There was not a lot of loss of life in Haiti with this storm, however life around here will be much harder with this new catastrophe. So please keep us in your prayers. And if possible, send a donation to Development Office c/o Sr. Carol Ann Grace 6832 Convent Blvd. Sylvania, Ohio 43560. Checks should be made out to Sisters of St. Francis and Hurricane Relief in the memo.
Much love to each of you, greetings from Jo and Katie too, Fidelis
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Haiti Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/
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