October Update from Fidelis

Hi all,

Some neat news here and some updates....and some suggestions for giving 

I spoke with Sister Fidelis this morning.  She and Sister Jo are doing well and were heading up the mountains in Pestel today until we arrive in early November.  

For the past couple of years "we" (meaning, a family in our church) have been sponsoring 4 children (Alfred's kids) in Pestel through school.  The oldest, Jessica, recently took the national exam as she finished up 6th grade.  She passed!  Beyond that, she also applied to a specific high school in Port-au-Prince which required her to take another entrance exam.  She passed that as well and was accepted into the school!  This is a true highlight for us because without the financial support Jessica (and her siblings) would not have continued in school because their father (Alfred) was severely burned on the job, thus disabling him.  I've attached a photo of the 4 kids.

There is no high school opportunity in Pestel so those who succeed must then go to the city, which reduces their chances of returning to the rural areas.   A high school will need to be started in Pestel at some point.   There is a trade school, and we hope for a possible agricultural training center.  

With current funds in the account from folks like yourself we will be doing the following:

1.  $3555  will go to support 14 teachers throughout Pestel for this school year.  That will impact about 300 kids!!

2.  We will use money to fix the floor in one of the schoolrooms in the village of Thomas Elie (see photo).  This is the same place that we were able to hep with the school benches.  The way the floor is currently they have not been able to use it.

3.  We will be purchasing several more Chateau Deaus (water catchment system through Dr. John Leininger's organization).  We just installed 6 of them.  I believe we can set up another 4 ($1000 a piece).  The ones we had installed last year are still working quite well.  

4.  Some money will be going to help with medical vouchers and medical emergency needs

I will offer some specific giving opportunities that Sister Fidelis mentioned.  If any of these particularly are items that you would like to support, just let me know:

Copy Machine--any copies have to be done at the nearest city (Jeremie) which is about 3-4 hours away.  Teachers have to copy sheets by hand, for example.  This would benefit the school primarily.   Small fees could be charged to others as a way to provide revenue for the school (i.e. purchase replacement parts etc).

($750)  Diagnostic tools and equipment for the new medical clinic in the village in Abriko.  This would include some things like chairs, tables

($500)   Play therapy in school for post-traumatic stress.  Sister Jo is a registered therapist and uses art therapy as a way to bring about healing.  Some of the children in the area are from PAP and were traumatized by the earthquake.  I think this is a fantastic way to utilize the gifts God has given Sister Jo.  She would purchase materials with the funds

($1000)  Lease space in town for a sewing school.  I believe an Eagle Scouts project in Toledo Ohio was able to secure 17 working sewing machines which should be arriving in Haiti fairly soon.  This would provide an important trade for Pestel.

($1000)  Lease space in the mountains for a sewing center.  The young women would be trained down in town, but they would work up in the mountains.  The idea is to produce goods that would be sold in the US.  Right now they are planning to work with a parish in Toledo Ohio.

($1000)  Support for a classroom.   Tuition costs about $50US per child per year.   $50 x 20 = $1000

Ben

Busy week ahead

I know you don't need a blow-by-blow account of my life, but there are some really interesting opportunities this week I want to let you know about:

Monday night--I'll be returning to Messiah College to speak to the Pre-Medical group. That's always a lot of fun!

Wednesday morning--I'm meeting with an eclectic group in Harrisburg to discuss how an engineering firm might become involved in helping Haiti in some fashion.  The group includes a lot of engineers as well as a local Haitian American lawyer, folks who are connected to the UN and USAID.   I'm looking forward to this!

Thursday morning--I've been invited to participate in a teleconference with a group of people in Iowa to discuss the possibilities of having some of the largest food producers involvement in helping Pestel develop an agriculture-to-nutrition initiative.   :)    

I'll let you know how things go after Thursday, but needless to say, I'm quite jazzed about this meeting.  The way out of the deep mire of malnutrition is, in my opinion, through building up the region's agriculture--so that they can produce their own food, feed their kids with locally grown food, and generate new income for their local economies.  This can then (hopefully) spill over to further health and education and infrastructure needs.

Sunday (next week)--we'll be participating in our church's Mission Sunday.  We'll be showcasing Johnny's CharRocket stove:   an innovation that is designed for Pestel.  The stove is very low-tech, VERY efficient (it can run on dried leaves and dried bamboo, for example), and produces charcoal which can be formed into charcoal briquettes. Each use of the stove produces enough briquettes to cook another meal.  I will try to send out a video soon (I worked on it yesterday but had trouble uploading it to Youtube).

I greatly value the "big" meetings and the "small" meetings.  My perspective is that both are opportunities to sow seed for God's kingdom.  Some plant, some water, but God causes the growth.  

AND the really exciting thing is that we may have no idea whatever of the harvest.  But investing in God's kingdom is going to yield returns far greater than anything we can generate on our own.  And this is pleasing to God.

THAT'S what gets me up in the morning

:)

Let our work do this:  reflect well on God.

"Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and praise your Father in heaven."

Happy Sunday morning!

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

September Update Additions--Education focus

I just received a neat report from Sister Fidelis that I wanted to share with you:

I mentioned that we've been raising some funds to help support teachers' salaries in Pestel.  The report is below.    We've been able to provide partial funding for these teachers.  Full funding is something around $1000 per teacher per year.  Keep in mind, however, that these folks are often high-school trained.  But very dedicated.  

I find it hard to go back sometimes and see them because they continue to work, despite receiving little pay, because they know what they are doing is important.  I have heard several times from different teachers in different villages:  "I have been teaching for the past 3-4 months without any pay.  I just cannot keep doing this.  I have to care for my family."  

I am not trying to manipulate emotions here; just stating what has been in my head for the past 3 years--that it is sometimes hard to tell them, "Please keep doing what you're doing!"

That being said, here's the report:

Father Parnell's Update on Education in Pestel

August 2010

Saint Maria Goretti School (La Sal--photo attached. They meet in an all-bamboo structure)
34 children;  1 teacher
Grades offered:  1st and 2nd

Saint Rose School of Lima (Ferye):
50 children; 2 teachers
Grades offered:  1st and 2nd

Notre Dame Lameci School (Dezet):
37 children; 1 teacher
Grades offered:  1st and 2nd

Saint Gerard School (Tomas Eli--this is the school that received the school benches):
91 children; 4 teachers
Grades offered:  1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th

School in Ka foo Sitwon (this is the school I mentioned some time ago where the land was donated by a family, and the community came together to build the school!)
97 students; 5 teachers
Classes offered:  1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th


TOTAL Children:   309
TOTAL Teachers:  13
TOTAL Schools:  5

If you break it down to $1000 per teacher x 13 = $13,000. We have probably been able to send something like $4000 in the past year (I don't know the number right off hand).

One way to look at it could be something like this:

$13,000 / 309 children = $42 per child per year.

That's more manageable! :)

I want to be clear: the schools listed above are not the only schools in Pestel! Not by any means! Some very good elementary schools exist down in the town (including one supported by the Sisters of St. Francis in Sylvania, OH, and Odelin Francois' school supported by his network in NYC). The schools above were some of those who were at higher risk of shutting down due to funding, or other similar priority issues.

My "thing" is health care. As I survey the issues across Pestel I am convinced that the way forward is education. No doubt in my mind.

The workers are just about finished with the household survey (an entire month ahead of schedule!). The survey will tell us how many kids attend school. We sort of know the answer (it'll be low), but it'll be important to put hard data behind our observations.  

The education-issue is similarly daunting like with the health issues.  

1. how to provide basic primary education for all children throughout Pestel?

2. how to ensure educational value for the $ invested in the schools? Standards of education, standard curricula, teacher oversight....superintendent? school boards?

3. where will the teachers come from? How to build local capacity to teach?

And I didn't even mention anything about high school. For high school the few kids who attend have to go to the cities.

The other option that exists in Pestel, and that just started up about 2 years ago, is a trade school. Great idea! I'd love to support that effort as well. Masonry and animal husbandry are the two areas they currently teach.

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Messiah College

Hi All,

Just letting you know that I had a really terrific evening last night at Messiah College.  I took part in a panel discussion, and I provided some insight into the health conditions in Haiti.  The panel was a good mix of personalities and expertise.  The audience was about 1000 first year students and faculty (and some friends and family!) that had finished discussions of "Mountains Beyond Mountains."

It went quite well. And I'm really grateful for the opportunity to have spoken about the health issues in Haiti and try to encourage the students to trust in God, despite great challenges.

I have two more invites:  one to the Pre-Med group at Messiah College, and another later this year with a local group called Kingdom Builders (thanks to Stephen Sands!).  Oh yes, and we'll be having a 'booth' at our church's mission fair in a couple of weeks.  We'll be featuring Johnny Zook's CharRocket stove!  I'll try to send out a short video about that stove fairly soon.  

I'll keep you posted!

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Water Mission Intl Video

Thanks to Rebecca for passing this along to me!  

This link will bring you to a video about Water Missions International.  This is the same group that we are partnering with to begin establishing some of these water purification systems in Pestel.  In November I will be taking a trip to Pestel (with Steve Miller again!) and we'll be exploring the countryside with John Lane (who has done a lot of work with WMI) to look for suitable sites related to water and these systems

http://www.watermissions.org/water-missions-featured-on-cbn-morning-news

Ben
--
My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

August Haiti Updates

Hi all,

Is summer flying super-fast for everyone else, of just me?   I've really enjoyed this summer--spending it with Jen and the kids, and slowing down.   Humans are not meant to go for 7 days a week, every week, for prolonged periods of time.  I kind of forgot that  :)

A couple of neat things:

1.  Over 9000 child forms have been entered into the database.  I'll have another 1000 or so coming fairly soon.  One of my friends, Odelin Francois (who runs a school in Pestel), will be bringing them back for me since he was just in Pestel.  Odelin lives in NYC, and his family is from Pestel.  

2.  I met with a wonderful guy named Frank from the large engineering firm in Harrisburg.  I believe he said that his organization is in the top 50 nation-wide in terms of size.  They build BIG things.  They are very interested in doing some humanitarian work in Haiti.  And Frank has excellent contacts in Haiti.  I'll meet with him again on Monday.  

3.  I was able to get in touch with folks who are coordinating the Nutrition Cluster for Haiti.  They put me in contact with a person from UNICEF who is in charge of coordinating nation-wide Child Campaigns for Haiti.   Hopefully more to report.

4.  I've been asked to participate in a panel discussion on Haiti at Messiah College, my alma mater.  Messiah 1st year students will all be reading the story, Mountains Beyond Mountains, which is about Dr. Paul Farmer and his tireless work in Haiti.  They're asking me to talk to about 700 students/faculty about the medical aspects in Haiti.  A great honor.  And this opportunity is directly from my in-laws, and several people at my church who are faculty as Messiah.  Thanks!!!

There is a great hymn that says, "Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the GodI love"

 I struggle with the issue of self-sufficiency, and of seeking human solutions and human wisdom.   Please pray that I would seek God's wisdom, His ways--in the nitty gritty detail work as well as in the big scheme ideas.

The whole verse to that hymn:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Ben
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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

For those interested in data

Hi all,

I just worked on some of the data related to anemia, and I'm attaching it if you're interested in seeing the results.

The gist of it is this:

1 out of 2 children in Pestel is anemic.  (50%)

Across the board, younger children are likely to be MORE anemic.  This unfortunately makes sense because about 1 out of every 8 children do not make it beyond year 5.  They die from pneumonia, diarrhea, malnutrition primarily. 

The worst region is the island:  80% anemia.   And the degree of anemia is FAR worse.   Anemia is roughly defined as a hemoglobin level less than 11.   The average hemoglobin in the other 5 sections hovers around 11.  You can see from the section graphs, though, that a lot of kids fall below the red line, which is the cut-off for anemia.  The island, on the other hand, AVERAGES 7.9.   That's horrible.  And it will be a focus for 2011.

One goal will be to move as many kids as possible above the red line on the graphs.  We've already started that process with deworming.  Now comes the hard part.

Let me know if you're interested in helping with this.  It'll take quite a comprehensive approach to 'fix' this one.  The impact of anemia on kids' health cannot be overstated.  But in this setting it's symptomatic of something deeper-->malnutrition-->poverty.   

I'm truly thankful to God for this data.  As some of you mentioned, each data point is a child.  For me this is not just 'data'.  These represent kids.

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/