'A Night in Haiti' offers guests a glimpse of daily life at sister parish in Haiti

For the second year in a row, a Mary, Queen of Peace party will give guests a glimpse of daily life at St. Benoît Dessources, the Mandeville church’s sister parish in Haiti. “A Night in Haiti,” being presented by the church’s Haiti Solidarity Partnership Ministry, will take place March 15. The goal is to increase awareness of the ministry’s efforts to transform St. Benoît and help its people ultimately become self-sustaining.
Since 2011, Mary, Queen of Peace has partnered with St. Benoit Dessources in Haiti. Funds contributed by parishioners and community members have gone toward construction projects at the church, seen here before its reconstruction.
“We offer this as a thank you to all of the people for their generosity throughout the years,” said Muguet Bolotte, the ministry’s leader. “The people of St. Benoît are very grateful to them for changing the face of Dessources.”
Since 2011, the Mandeville church has partnered with the Haitian parish, located in the impoverished nation’s rural mountains. St. Benoît serves more than 5,000 families, who live without electricity, running water or healthcare and walk an hour or more to celebrate Mass at either its main church or one of its six outlying chapels.
The buildings were significantly damaged during the January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, and the many of the donations collected by the ministry have gone toward construction projects.
Mary, Queen of Peace first funded a new roof for St. Benoît’s main church, which has now been transformed with plaster, paint, a new fence and more. They also have contributed to the construction of new classrooms, a kitchen and cafeteria, and toilets for St. Benoit’s elementary school, along with other projects.
Proceeds from last year’s “A Night in Haiti” went toward digging a water well in Dessources. It is now operational, meaning that St. Benoît’s students do not have to carry heavy jugs of water during their long journey to school each day.
"“All donations, large and small, make an impact in the lives of the people of St. Benoit," said Muguet Bolotte, ministry leader. But the impact of the partnership goes beyond construction projects. Ministry funds also have paid for a hot school lunch program, the creation of a pre-K program with a certified teacher, the hiring of additional teachers, and the consistent payment of those teachers’ $100 to $125 per month salary.
Last year, the ministry received a grant from the nonprofit Vitamin Angels to distribute vitamins to children ages 5 and under for five years. It also has established funding pages through the nonprofit Food for the Poor for the remainder of its water well costs and for a program to buy goats for St. Benoît’s families.
In return for Mary, Queen of Peace’s efforts, St. Benoît’s parishioners continually offer prayers and gratitude. The partnership has grown into a deep kinship – St. Benoît’s pastor, Mgsr. Wildor Pierre, has traveled to Mandeville four times. Mission teams from Mary, Queen of Peace have visited Haiti twice; a third mission team will travel there April 24 to 30.
Since everyone can’t see St. Benoît’s dramatic transformation firsthand, the main goal of “A Night in Haiti” is give people a sense of daily life in Dessources through pictures and displays, Bolotte said. It also will show a progression of the work accomplished with donations from Mary, Queen of Peach parishioners and community members.
“All donations, large and small, make an impact in the lives of the people of St. Benoît, especially the students who are able to attend school for the first time,” Bolotte said.
The event will feature a menu of Caribbean fare – pulled pork, black beans and rice, and tres leches cake – along with beer, wine and a special rum drink. Guests also will have a chance to dance to Haitian music and purchase Haitian crafts such as masks, jewelry, paintings, and decorative items.
Guests will be able to contribute directly to the fund during the party or sponsor one or more backpacks – at $10 each – to be sent to St. Benoît’s elementary school students.
All proceeds from the night will go into a scholarship fund to pay for educating St. Benoit's children. Although Catholic elementary school education is free, the church’s yearly costs of providing lunch, uniforms and supplies totals $90 per child, Bolotte said.
“They are just thrilled because they have an elementary school to go to. There are all different ages in all the grades because many have never had the opportunity to go,” Bolotte said.
The cost for middle school tuition jumps significantly, and Bolotte said she’s not sure why. Attending 7th grade is $500; 8th grade is $600; and 9th grade is $700.
Currently, middle school is taught at the church in the afternoons, although a building constructed by a Canadian and Mexican consortium is ready for middle school students once it has power and water and qualified teachers are found.
Last school year, donations from St. Scholastica Academy paid the tuition for Nerline Chapotain, the first St. Benoît student to attend middle school. Now, they are once again paying Chapotain’s tuition and are sponsoring a second middle school student.
“Our longer-term strategy … is to move into microfinance area to stimulate the local economy, so people can launch businesses, produce more, sell more and save more to send their children to school. Once the money begins to circulate within the community, all will benefit,” Bolotte said.
"A Night in Haiti" will take place March 15 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Mary, Queen of Peace School cafeteria, 1501 W. Causeway Approach, Mandeville. Cost for the event is $25 person, and the public is welcome to attend.
Reservations for the night can be made at any time in the church's Parish Center, after all Masses March 8-9, and after the church's mission March 10-12.
For more information on the night, call ministry leader Muguet Bolotte at 985.705.1846 or e-mail mqphaiti@gmail.com. For more information on Mary, Queen of Peace, call 985.626.6977 or visit www.maryqueenofpeace.org.
To see the ministry’s Food for the Poor funding pages, go to www.foodforthepoor.org/stbenoit for the water well or http://support.foodforthepoor.org/site/TR/Events/Champions?pxfid=10090&fr_id=2091&pg=fund for the goat program.

Dance party benefit to help Eben Ezer School in Haiti

February 26, 2014 2:00 AM
PORTSMOUTH — The fifth annual Caribbean Nights Dance Party to benefit the Eben Ezer School in Haiti will take place Saturday, March 22, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 168 in the city.
Money raised will be used to pay teachers, buy uniforms and educate children at the school in the rural town of Milot, Haiti.
Latin and reggae tunes will be provided by Combo Sabroso, a Boston band that plays the event each year.
"We love playing this gig because not only are the people who come ready for an awesome dance party, but also because we are all learning about and helping kids in Haiti who might not ever learn to read or write without our help," said Matt Jenson of Arlington, Mass., band leader and University of New Hampshire alumnus who is currently on the piano faculty at Berklee College of Music.
Local restaurants will contribute Indian and Mexican food, as well as chowder, baked goods, meatballs and flatbread pizza.
A Latin dance instructor will be available to teach a few steps early in the evening for those who want to pick up the basics.
This year's dance will also include a video production by local high school student Georgia Barlow of South Berwick, Maine, who traveled during a recent school vacation week to the Eben Ezer School.
The dance party begins at 7 p.m. with the video and a short update on the progress made thanks to the hundreds of Seacoast residents who have been involved, including about a dozen who have been to the school.
Dancing starts at 8 p.m.
The first Caribbean Nights Dance Party was held in 2010, when the Eben Ezer School had only 100 students and four classrooms. Since then it has grown threefold. Dozens of families in the Seacoast and beyond have signed up to sponsor students at the school, and through the dance provide the operating funds that allow the school to continue.
The video and slide presentation will include an update on efforts to build a guesthouse to help the school create its own income and train vocational students. York Rotarian Paul Salacain, who was in Milot in February, met with Rotarians there and investigated options for building a water tank and buying materials.
The guesthouse is being designed by Mike Lassel of Lassel Architects in South Berwick.
Tickets are being sold at Black Bean in Rollinsford, Ceres Bakery in Portsmouth, Nature's Way in South Berwick, Full Circle Community Thrift Store in Eliot, Maine, G. Willikers! in Portsmouth and RiverRun Books/Lils in Kittery, Maine.
Checks made out to Life and Hope Haiti can be mailed to 37 Highland Ave., South Berwick, ME 03908. Tickets cost $20.

Pre-fabricated homes packed onto ship for Haiti

A shipping container full of pre-fabricated homes is one step closer to embarking on a voyage from Nova Scotia to Haiti where they will be available for sale to help Haiti's rebuilding effort. On Saturday volunteers in Truro packed up 90 of the ready-made homes in a church parking lot.
The homes are going to Fond de Blanc, a town that wasn't extensively damaged by the earthquake and quickly filled with people who lost their homes. It's just under 100 kilometres away from Port-au-Prince.
Fond des Blancs had a population of about 5,000 prior to the January 2010 earthquake. That number has swelled to 60,000.
Now, officials in Haiti plan to to permanently expand the town and new homes are needed for that.
About $45,000 was raised by Friends of the Orphans Canada to buy the pre-made homes.
Organizer Ian MacHattie said the homes will be assembled in Haiti.
"They're a steel-arched dome — like in a semi-circle — with a fabric pulled tight over it," MacHattie said, explaining the look of the homes. "It's 12 feet by 12 feet and that way it's wind-resistant, solar-resistant, won't fall down in an earthquake, and just provides basic shelter."
He said the structures are anchored to the ground using concrete instead of wood because of termites in the region.
MacHattie said about 200 volunteers contributed time and money to help the unique housing project.
The homes will be sold for $500 each, including shipping, freight and installation.
He said the container will make its way to the Halifax port in the next couple of days.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/05/21/ns-haiti-homes.html

US and Sweden donate US$2.6 million to Haiti camps

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says that the United States and Sweden are donating US$2.6 million to help prevent sexual assaults in settlement camps set up in Haiti after last year's devastating earthquake. The IOM, an intergovernmental organisation that was initially established in 1951 as the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) to help resettle people displaced by World War II, said the money will also aid in battling child trafficking in the impoverished, French-speaking Caribbean country.
The IOM said it has received US$1.6 million from the US Department of State and the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) to fight child trafficking.
It said Sweden’s International Development Cooperation Agency has provided US$1 million for the installation of solar lights in 20 settlements in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
The money will also be used for counselling and other services for victims of sex abuse, the IOM said.
Over 300,000 people were killed and 1.5 million left homeless by the massive January 12 earthquake last year.
The IOM said while the number of Haitians living beneath tents and tarps has been cut in half, the reduction is not a sign of significant improvement. It said the number of newly-built permanent homes remains shockingly low.
Newly-installed President Michel Martelly has promised to relocate earthquake victims living in six highly-visible camps during his first 100 days in office.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/US-and-Sweden-donate-US-2-6-million-to-Haiti-camps#ixzz1N6EbUhR3

Volunteers in Portsmouth pack food for students in Haiti

By AIMEE LOCKHARDT Special to the Sunday Citizen
Sunday, May 22, 2011
PORTSMOUTH — Jim Willey, who has been going to Haiti since 2005 to help arrange deliveries of food, says the statistics there stunned him.
There was not only an 80 percent unemployment problem, but 40 percent of the people were illiterate and 40 percent of the population is 14 years or younger.
When the earthquake hit in 2010, he started Help for Haiti in June.
"I decided to take it up a notch and do something more," he said.
Help for Haiti focuses on three areas: feeding children in schools, promoting education by paying teachers and improving school building, and promoting companies in Haiti so graduates have employment opportunities.
On Saturday, Willey's dream to feed children in schools finally came true when 550 volunteers met at the Frank Jones Center to package 100,000 meals for Haitian students.
"I'm tremendously encouraged," he said. "We're only in the second year, and we already have teachers getting paid and a school being rebuilt — and now a lunch program."
Around 300 of the volunteers came from churches, including Bethany Church in Greenland, Second Baptist Church in Sanbornton, CenterPoint Church in Concord and First Presbyterian Church in Concord, Mass. The other 200, Willey said, were volunteers from the community.
All volunteers took turns working two-hour shifts packaging rice, dried vegetables, soy and chicken flavoring. The food for packaging, or MobilePacks, is provided by the Feed My Starving Children organization. The 21,000 pounds of food will be shipped to a church school in Marmalade, Haiti, where 130 students will receive a meal every day as part of a lunch program there.
"If they see something they're familiar with they're more likely to try other things and they're a great source of carbohydrates," Ursula Maley, MobilePack Supervisor for Feed My Starving Children, said of the rice in the MobilePacks.
All volunteers were placed into groups of 13 to 21 people, where they formed an assembly line to place the meal into packaging bags.
Cindy Solomon, of Newmarket, came to participate in the food packaging when a friend invited her.
"It's a great opportunity to help people in need, the poor and hungry," she said. "¿ My heart goes out to these people."
Solomon also brought her 13-year-old daughter and her daughter's friend.
"It's important as a mother for her child to see we're not the only ones in the world who need help and not the only ones in the country suffering," she said. "It's important for them to see what's happening around the world."
Jim Rolston, of Greenland, a member of Bethany Church, said he came to the food packaging after he heard about it in church.
"In my opinion, this is what life is all about," he said. "You've got to make the world better than what it was like when you were coming in."
The realization of the importance of that food was made even clearer when his wife told him a startling fact that morning.
She told me "that Americans consume $23 billion worth of ice cream every year," he said. "That's enough to feed all the hungry people in the world for an entire year. She said she would never be able to enjoy an ice cream again."
Nancy McKinney, of Hampton, is also a member of Bethany Church.
"I have a real desire for helping the poor and every opportunity I can fulfill that desire and take advantage of that," she said of her involvement Saturday. "When I think about people and children dying of malnutrition every day in this world and the abundance we have and waste it brings tears to my eyes."
Eventually Willey would like to expand and do packaging in other regions such as Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
"As a Christ follower it's what we are all called to do," he said. "In my opinion, every church should be doing things like this. The bible says to take care of the poor and widows. A little kid in Haiti don't care about the politics or who's president. He just wakes up hungry."
The cost to complete and ship a meal is 34 cents. For 100,000 packages, $34,000 is needed. To donate, visit www.helpforhaiti.org or send a donation to Help for Haiti P.O. Box 103 Rye, NH 03870.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110522/GJNEWS_01/705229901/-1/fosnews

Belfair Couple Falls in Love with Haiti

After their second trip this summer, they dream of annual visits, despite a battle with cancer.
BELFAIR — When Lori and Richard Hebert first visited Les Irois, Haiti, two years ago, they fell in love with the local people. The Belfair couple were part of a team from their church, Port Orchard-based Harper Evangelical, which has been supporting sister churches and programs in Haiti for more than 20 years.
“Their people are so giving and accepting of you. They’re so gracious, it blew me away,” Richard said. “They have nothing and they can do so much with it.”
The church schedules a weeklong trip every two years, and the Heberts decided immediately they would go on the next one again. Last summer, they went through the application and interview process and started fundraising.
On Christmas Eve, Lori learned she had cancer. “When the doctor said I have leukemia, I said, ‘That’s fine, can I go to Haiti?’” she said.
The couple had been sponsoring Haitian children for several years through their church’s “Hope for Kids” program. They spend $250 a year per child, which pays for education, a daily meal, medical care, uniforms and other expenses. One of their sponsored children recently “graduated” from the program, and the couple continue to support two others, including a newly selected 5-year-old.
“If you don’t get sponsored for the first few years of your life, you will not get an education,” Richard said. “Then the state will pay for high school or trade school.”
Richard said they heard many stories from the returning mission trips through the years but one deeply affected him: Some children would walk as far as 5 miles to have their photo taken for the sponsorship “booklets” and they didn’t even have a guarantee someone would choose them. That’s when he and Lori decided they wanted to experience Haiti first hand.
When their team arrived there the first day two years ago, the kids waited for six hours to greet them. And as a gift to the team, they staged a celebration, dancing their way through the village as others came to sit on the side of the roads and watch the procession.
“They marched and danced to a nearby church, a tiny shack … They were sharing our visit with the community,” Richard said.

Selling Up a Storm
Richard and Lori, who’ve lived in Belfair for 20 years, are in charge of raising money for the July trip and they’re close to their $32,000 goal. One of their fundraisers — a garage sale organized on short notice at their home last Labor Day — surprised them with its success. So on Memorial Day, they are going for a repeat, and this time are bringing in help, church members and other supporters who are helping set up a large sale that will take over the Heberts’ lawn — and much of the neighborhood.
The two are actually expert sellers. They’ve had garage sales at their house for 15 years, and last August decided to put their skills to good use, raising money for the church. They tested it with a small sale at the end of the month, and then for Labor Day as many as 3,000 people showed up.
Since then, they’ve been collecting items for the next round, and have rows of boxes stacked up to the ceiling in several outbuildings. Richard has been taking his 18-foot trailer to church regularly and bringing it back full of items.
Donations for the sale have ranged from household items, tools and furniture to women’s clothes (sizes 2 to 24). Lori is planning a special “upscale” section under a tarp that will include designer clothes, purses, shoes and other “boutique” type items.
They’ve spent hours washing and cleaning the donations and a few weeks before the event, hung about 250 items of clothing but were looking for many more hangers. Richard estimated they already had 1,200 hungers but needed another 800 or so.
The donations have come from as far as Seattle. There was a 5-year-old refrigerator, 20 bicycles and various television sets.
“It’s from people we know, and they know somebody, and they know somebody … It’s like in the old days of neighbors with a telephone in a can,” Lori said. They’ve been testing all the electronics and eliminating any items that were not in good condition.
They’ve recruited a neighbor to allow for extra parking, and will have people directing traffic as well.
A team of volunteers will begin labeling and tagging items a week prior to the sale, and others will prepare meals for the workers. Last year, Lori did a lot of that herself, but with cancer treatments draining much of her energy, others have stepped up.
“We’re going to plan for more help than needed, just to be safe,” she said. “We have gotten a lot of people involved and a lot of people are waiting to get involved, you just need to let it known and they’ll step up to the plate.”
Bettering Women’s Lives
As the pair have been collecting items for the sale, they’ve also given away some to people in need. It’s a “habit” that goes back to the days when Lori worked with low-income women in Tacoma. She said she always carried clothes and necessities in her car, in case she met a woman who needed some.
Part of that desire came from her personal experience. Growing up, she said she wasn’t equipped with the knowledge to fight adverse circumstances. “I know what it’s like when nobody reaches out to you,” she said.
She’ll talk to women in the most random places, listening to their stories. Working with women and helping them has become a passion — and she has extended that to Haiti.
During the last trip, a highlight for her was the “Princess Tea Party” she organized. The name of “princess” comes from the idea that “we are all daughters of the King,” she said. She has organized these kinds of parties at church and even at her former job or at home for years.
She said the women in Haiti don’t have the same resources available, such as going on retreats, when they’re “hungry for the word of God.”
“At the tea party, I’m reaching out to them, woman to woman,” she said. “They’re hungry for woman conversation and a little party … The day after the party, they were wearing their tiaras to church and they had tears in their eyes.”
Although she is feeling better — and preparing for the trip by cutting back activities until then to build up her strength — Lori knows it may not be easy. She said she’ll focus on the tea party during the trip to conserve her strength.
Medical bills have brought a bit of a financial setback but the couple is looking ahead a couple of years. Their dream is to move to Florida, the home base of Reciprocal Ministries International, the organization that helps their church (and many others) coordinate the trips to Haiti and the children’s program.
The Heberts want to work with the organization directly so they can go on longer mission trips, and moving to Florida means less expensive travel to Miami, the RMI’s headquarters, and on to Haiti. Their dream is to spend two to three months a year in Haiti and they hope in a couple of years or so Lori’s health will improve enough so they could do that, even though she has a few other ongoing medical issues.
“Even though I’m sick and my disease is with me the rest of my life, I plan to do a little bit each day. I’m hoping for remission,” she said.
She said their experience in Haiti nearly two years ago was so powerful she could not give that up.
“When you’re there … we’re together as people, the culture doesn’t interfere,” she said. “You’re connecting where you’re at and you’re enjoying each other’s company … It reminds me of the old America when families weren’t thousands of miles apart and were at meals together. We’ve gotten away from that — we’re too much into our ‘stuff.’”

The yard sale is planned for Thursday-Saturday, May 26-28 starting at 9 a.m. In the event of big rain, the sale would be moved to the following weekend. In addition to thousands of items in good condition, Fair Trade coffee, Avon cosmetics and some other items will be available for sale.
Donations will be accepted until the week of the sale, call (360) 275-0945 or email kemosobiee2@yahoo.com.
The address of the sale is at 3440 NE North Shore Road, not far from Belfair State Park.
Monetary contributions for the trip may be mailed to the 2011 mission trip team at Harper Church, PO Box 150, Southworth WA 98386.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/may/19/belfair-couple-falls-love-haiti/#ixzz1MtD3JBgW
Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/may/19/belfair-couple-falls-love-haiti/#ixzz1MtCMT9jg
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/may/19/belfair-couple-falls-love-haiti/

Local woman continues work with Haitians

By JAIME CONE / Reformer Staff
Posted: 05/17/2011 03:00:00 AM EDT
BRATTLEBORO -- When Mariam Diallo first began raising money for Haiti, she fasted outside the Brattleboro Food Co-op, where she works in the deli, and collected more than $2,000. That was in June of last year, about five months after an earthquake left Haiti in ruins.
But she didn't stop there. She returned from her two-month stay as a volunteer at Bon Samaritan orphanage more determined than ever to continue helping the children who live there.
She helped organize a fundraising drive at local schools, where she taught the children about Haiti and spoke about her experiences during her trip.
The students and other members of the community donated
"The kids loved everything," Diallo said.
She said it's important for Americans to continue helping Haiti with the same enthusiasm they initially displayed after the earthquake, as she has seen firsthand that living conditions have not improved for many Haitians.
"They still need a lot of help," she said. "People are still living in tents after a year-and-a-half ... there's no running water; I visited someone in a camp who said she has to wake up at 4 a.m. to get water because there is such a long line during the day."
"I work with the kids while I'm there. I sleep with them, eat with them ... we do games; I speak French, so I teach them how to read and write in French," Diallo said. "Most had never been in school until they went to the orphanage, so some are 8 years old and still learning their ABCs."
She said a 2-year-old became especially attached to her during her most recent trip. The little girl even slept in her bed, and Diallo gave her medicine and cared for her when she was sick.
"She was with me 24 hours a day," Diallo said. "I think about her every day. I call her every day, and I sing her a song in French."
She said she is absolutely sure that she will return to the orphanage.
"I have to," she said. "I cannot abandon them; they became a part of my life. Every time I leave, I feel like I am letting them down just like they have been let down before."
Between her first and second visits, things stayed about the same at the orphanage, she said. The only noticeable change in the living conditions was the addition of beds, which Diallo helped purchase during her first trip.
"I asked them what they really wished to have, and they all said they wanted beds to sleep on, so we bought some beds for them. They said they are sleeping a lot better," Diallo said.
Crime has been increasing lately in the town of Croix-des-Bouquets, where the orphanage is located, and the next step is to hopefully move the facility to a safer area.
Diallo's current goal is to raise enough money to help the orphanage find and purchase a larger plot of land where they can grow their own crops.
"The kids don't eat fruits and vegetables very much," Diallo said. "The food is basic -- usually rice and beans every day of the week, twice a day or sometimes once a day."
It will cost about $6,000 to buy the land and another $6,000 to build a new facility, Diallo said.
She's continuing to move forward with her fundraising, not just to collect money but also to help keep Haiti in people's thoughts.
"I want people to still think about it and not forgot," Diallo said.
Residents interested in contacting Diallo to find out how to assist on her next visit to Haiti may contact her via e-mail at mariam_d@hotmail.com.
Jaime Cone can be reached at jcone@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 277.

http://www.reformer.com/ci_18076706?source=most_viewed

Man accused of fraud in Haiti project cancels Reno house-building event

A Reno businessman accused in a lawsuit and by former employees of defrauding churches and individuals in a plan to build homes in the U.S. and ship them to Haitian earthquake victims has canceled a house-building event planned for Saturday in Reno.

Mike Stickler said Monday that he has sent refunds to the people who registered on his website for the Help Build Hope Haiti project and paid a $57 or $67 fee. The Reno Gazette-Journal was not able to confirm this claim.
Reno churches that signed up as sponsors and gave between $12,500 to $23,000 said they have not been reimbursed.
Stickler declined to say how many people had signed on, but said it was fewer than the 200 that would be needed “to make a viable build.” The “sponsors” — those who signed contracts to participate and contributed at a higher rate — would be refunded according to their contracts, he said.
Stickler’s decision follows a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation published in April that found that a year after he began gathering funds for his Haiti home-building group, most of the money was gone and many of the lead workers and churches quit the project claiming Stickler misused the funds.
Despite the controversy, Stickler said on May 6 that he planned to go forward with the build event in Reno, but on Sunday he sent an email saying it wasn’t going to happen.
He said his group would continue with the project “and the future city-builds over the next five years.”
“Our goal to build 5,000 homes for those in dire need continues,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Reno Police Department is investigating bounced-check claims against Stickler, and the Nevada Secretary of State’s office is working with the Attorney General’s office on an investigation into Stickler’s business practices.
Two Texas groups that had put up $23,000 each for the project have filed a lawsuit against Stickler claiming he made false claims to secure the funds and a Kentucky group sued Stickler claiming he did not have permission to use the Help Build Hope trademarked name.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20110516/NEWS/110516021/Man-accused-fraud-Haiti-homes-project-cancels-Reno-house-building-event-?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CLocal%20News%7Cs

Supermodel Petra Nemcova Brings Education to Earthquake Ravaged Haiti

By DAVID MUIR (@DavidMuirABC)
and MICHAEL MURRAY

May 17, 2011
A year and a half later, Haiti is still reeling from the devastation caused by the earthquake that struck the country in the late afternoon on January 12, 2010. ABC News has followed up repeatedly with the still-ravaged country, this week traveling to Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti, with supermodel Petra Nemcova to find out how her charity, the Happy Hearts Fund, is helping to bring education to Haitian children.
Gone are the military planes, the crates of food and medicine flown to Haiti, but rubble can still be found on the streets. Tent cities house the homeless. Just as staggering is the fact that 50 percent of school-aged children in Haiti are not getting to school.
Nemcova was in Thailand in December 2004 when the Tsunami hit. She and her fiancé were swept away by the powerful wall of water. Her pelvis was crushed to pieces, but she managed to clutch onto a tree and hold on for 8 hours until help came. Her fiancé was swept into the ocean and perished.
During those eight hours, she could only listen as children begged for help. She was powerless to come to their aid.
"I was not able to help those children," Nemcova told ABC News. "You heard them screaming for help and after some time you couldn't hear their voices anymore."
Today, ABC News was there as Nemcova's Happy Hearts Fund opened their first school in Haiti. It's the 51st school the organization has built in disaster zones all over the world.
Immediately, a wave of local residents came to see the new school, eager for a moment of joy in a bleak landscape. The old school was a shabby tent that barely protected students from the elements.
Kindergarteners filled the classroom; most of them have tragic stories.
Five-year-old Stayshama told us her mother died in the earthquake. Another young boy told us he lost his father.
Nemcova knows that her school is just the beginning of the massive effort needed to rebuild schools in Haiti so that the country can have a future, but every story needs a beginning.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/petra-nemcova-brings-education-earthquake-ravaged-haiti/story?id=13624771

Fighting Cholera and Dirty Water in Earthquake-Ravaged Haiti

By MICHAEL MURRAY

May 14, 2011
On Saturday, former carnival singer Michel Martelly takes over the presidency of Haiti as that country continues to struggle with water-borne diseases like cholera following the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country in 2010.
Five thousand people have died in Haiti from cholera since the outbreak began in October 2010, according to United Nations officials.
Water for Life
World Water Relief, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, is a small group of dedicated humanitarians trying to fix the problem of dirty water in Haiti by installing clean water systems, but even more effectively by teaching kids how to wash their hands. So far, World Water Relief's cholera prevention program has taught basic hygiene classes in 100 schools and has reached 30,000 students in Haiti.
"To rebuild this country, we need water," Albert Juin, a Haitian youth coordinator for World Water Relief, told David Bruckner, who made a documentary about World Water Relief's work in Haiti in October 2010.
"We need purified water," Juin said. "We need to educate kids about this water is bad, this water is good."
"It doesn't look like it did after the earthquake, but the tent cities are all still there," Mo Baptiste, a World Water Relief board member and associate professor at Ithaca College, told ABC News. "Has there been debris removed? Yes. Is there a whole lot more to be removed? Yes."
"When I started going to down to the [region] doing medical mission work, I quickly realized that you can treat all these problems with medicine, but the real problem is that people don't have access to clean water," Dr. Kevin Fussell, vice chairman of the board for World Water Relief and a practicing pulmonary critical care physician, told ABC News.
Fussell left for Haiti three days after the earthquake that struck on Jan. 12, 2010.
Globally, more than 3.5 million people die each year from waterborne illnesses like cholera, according to World Water Relief. More than 80 percent of those who die from those diseases are children.
A deadly outbreak of cholera struck Haiti in October 2010, stemming from the unsanitary conditions that continue to plague Haitians.
"We were in Haiti [in fall 2010] when the cholera epidemic broke out, so it was really important to teach kids really basic hygiene," Tim Douglas, an education coordinator for World Water Relief, told ABC News. That involved teaching "when to wash your hands, how to wash your food, use a latrine, clean the latrine -- really basic stuff. But you realize it's difficult to do there, because you want to wash your hands but there's no clean water."
World Water Relief buys water filtration systems from a company called PURAUV, which sells ultraviolet water filtration systems. It installs large, 300-gallon tanks so that even if electricity cuts out, the purified water will flow out through the force of gravity.
"That was the easy part. It took a month and a half to get three schools done, which is pretty quick," Douglas told ABC News. "From there, we had to go about doing our education. ... We had to find a way to reach the students."
They attracted students through any means they could. They taught English, since many people are interested in learning the global language for business, and Douglas even brought out his ukulele to add some fun to the classes.
"We installed a water filtration system at an orphanage and built a reserve system outside where the community could get water, and we thought the water was going to be free community water," said Douglas. "We went back there after a few months and this guy called 'El Pastore' was selling the water."
"The key to any of these kinds of projects is to have the social infrastructure in place," said Fussell. "The difference with what we do is we work in areas where we're going to be day-in, day-out for tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. We work with organizations and schools on the ground, people we can touch base with to see if the systems are still working. We stay very involved with any system we install. We aim to find people who will be involved in maintenance and upkeep. We don't just drop [water filtration] systems in anywhere."
If you would like to help World Water Relief's work in Haiti, visit their website to find out how you can get involved.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/world-water-relief-fighting-cholera-epidemic-haiti/story?id=13592939&page=2

Austin group gives Haitian orphan second chance at life

by MORGAN CHESKY / KVUE News

Follow: @MorganC_KVUE
kvue.com
Posted on May 11, 2011 at 6:26 PM
AUSTIN, TX - She is thousands of miles from her hometown in Haiti. Wednesday Leonise Louima took her first nap with a healthy heart.
Her story is one of many that hundreds of volunteers make happen in Austin. For the first time in her life, 10-year-old Leonise Louima is living life, without a deadly heart defect.
"She's such a lovely girl," said Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Karen Wright. "She's come in with a beautiful spirit; you could just see it in the smile in her face."
Dr. Wright met a much sicker Leonise Monday at Dell Children's Medical Center. The Austin based Heartgift Foundation flew the orphan from Haiti to Austin for a chance to fix her heart for good.
Leonise suffered from Patent Ductus Arteriosis or P.D.A. It i s a defect usually caught during infancy that leaves a hole in the heart. Leonise's heart was one and a half times larger than a typical 10-year-old's. Every irregular beat brought heart failure closer.
Dr. Wright saved her life Wednesday morning when she inserted a plug through a vein that blocked the hole in her heart. The permanent plug now lets blood flow to all the right places.
Just an hour and a half later, Leonise napped in a hospital bed.
KVUE spoke to her Aunt Shella, the only family Leonise has left, through a Creole translator. She said she was very happy and thanks God.
As Leonise slept, a Creole serenade filled the room and the heart of a girl's life forever changed.
Leonise will spend a week with a host family before returning to Haiti courtesy of the Heart Gift foundation. Since 2000, the group has helped hundreds of children all over the world.
http://www.kvue.com/news/Austin-group-gives-Haitian-orphan-second-chance-at-life-121667949.html

Sponsors for Haitian kids sought

Published Thursday May 12th, 2011 A3By ADAM BOWIE
bowie.adam@dailygleaner.com
If you've ever considered sponsoring a child in Haiti, Bernie Zebarth has some stories he'd like to share with you.
Zebarth is the project co-ordinator of Freddy Link's Fredericton-Haiti Community Development Partnership. The program helps establish connections between local citizens and the residents of a Haitian community named Cobocol in collaboration with World Vision.
The local advocacy group will host an information session at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre tonight, giving Zebarth and several volunteers the chance to share stories from a recent trip to Haiti and to explain the impact child sponsorships are having on the devastated Caribbean country's youths.
They'll have Haitian food and music on hand for the free session and they'll also set up a live video conversation with guest speaker Morose Evenel, who will speak on behalf of World Vision Haiti.
Zebarth was one of three local Freddy Link volunteers who travelled to Haiti in January 2010 to visit several development programs in Cobocol.
But the catastrophic earthquake that levelled much of the country's infrastructure, homes, schools, hospitals and businesses happened two hours after they landed, effectively cancelling the group's plans. The volunteers were evacuated two days later.
It wasn't until Feb. 22 that capital region residents Zebarth, Heidi Billington, and Laura Chatterton were able to return with the rest of the team.
This week's event, dubbed Hope For Haiti, will give the volunteers an opportunity to share their experiences with residents who are sponsoring children in Cobocol and to people who are thinking about it.
"Our goal really is to sort of engage the people of Fredericton by having them sponsor children," he said.
"We're up to 58 confirmed sponsorships (from the region). When we went down we actually took gifts from the sponsors to the children. We each had an envelope that we were able to hand directly to the kids, took pictures of them and everything. It's basically to build a relationship."
Zebarth said participants will also receive an update on the work being done with three development programs co-ordinated by World Vision in the Central Plateau region. The projects have unfolded over a 12-15 year period and help Haitian residents establish resources that will improve their health, the quality of their water and sanitation systems, expand educational opportunities and improve their economy.
"A couple of things really impressed me. We were looking to see whether these programs are really effective. We saw lots of evidence of that," he said.
"You could see it in the faces of these children. You could see their joy."
He said the ultimate goal is to create a continuous relationship between local citizens and Haitians.
Hope For Haiti takes place tonight at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre between 6:30-8:30 p.m. People can RSVP by calling 458-8206 ext. 21 so the organizers can prepare enough food.
http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/1405772

Figge seeks volunteers to package food for Haiti

Posted Online: May 10, 2011, 4:35 pm Press release submitted by Susan Horan
The Figge announces the fall exhibition, Restoring the Spirit: Celebrating Haitian Art and the recent reinstallation of the Figge's Haitian Gallery with an event on May 18. The upcoming exhibition celebrates Haiti's complex visual traditions and the devotion of artists to creative endeavors in the face of national adversity. The exhibition will open September 17 and run through January 15, 2012.
The Figge's Haitian Collection is one of the first and most comprehensive collections of Haitian art in the United States. The collection was established through a gift from Davenport native Dr. Walter E. Neiswanger and charts the growth and development of the country's rich artistic tradition from its origins in the 1940s through today.
Now on view in the reinstalled Haitian Gallery is the triptych Azaka, Agro Rex by Edouard Duval-Carrie. Duval-Carrie, who was featured in the solo exhibition, Migration of the Spirit at the Figge in 2006, will have work included in Restoring the Spirit exhibition. Duval-Carrie will visit the Figge on October 13 to lead a "Thursdays at the Figge" art talk on his experiences as a Haitian artist.
On May 18, in honor of Haitian Flag Day, the Figge will host an event to celebrate the announcement of the exhibition and the recent Haitian Gallery reinstallation. The Figge is partnering with Kids Against Hunger Your Quad-Cities to bag life saving food which will be delivered to Haiti.
Kids Against Hunger is an international food relief organization working to save the lives of starving people. The local chapter has provided over 500,000 meals to starving people in Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua, many of whom suffer from malnutrition and resort to eating mud cakes to stave off the hunger. In addition, they have provided nearly 60,000 meals to hungry people in the Quad Cities. The bagged meals, made up of rice, soy, six vegetables and twenty-one vitamins and minerals, provide a nutritionally complete meal and cost $0.25 per meal.
The Figge is seeking over 100 volunteers to help bag food from 2:30pm to 4:30pm on the May 18. Individual cash donations of $20 are encouraged to help cover the cost of these meals. For a fee of $360, teams of 12 volunteers can sign up to create 1440 meals in an hour.
Leading the bagging efforts will be Keith Donohue. Donohue is the founder of Positive Present®, an organization devoted to making a positive impact through philanthropy. His organization is currently embarking on a unique project called "50Give," where Donohue will trek cross-country to volunteer in each of the 50 states as well as Canada, Mexico and the District of Columbia. Travelling by car, plane or boat, Donohue will devote over five months of his time helping various nonprofits, charities and other worthy causes.
Donohue volunteers at one non-profit in each state and has chosen to spend his time in Iowa volunteering at the Figge. In addition to helping bag food, Donohue will help in the administrative offices and assist Figge outreach staff with an elementary program in the Davenport School District.
There will be a brief program at 2pm with remarks by Figge staff and community members. Haitian gallery tours will be offered at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm by Sally Ruggeberg, a Figge Docent who has spent time volunteering in Haiti.
To volunteer, please contact Jennifer Brooke at the Figge Art Museum 563.326.7804x2048 or j.brooke@figgeartmuseum.org
For more information on 50Give and Keith Donohue visit www.50give.com/contact.
For more information on Kids Against Hunger Your Quad-Cities, contact John Kessler at info@kahqc.com or 309.762.0437.
This event is being sponsored by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. As the country's largest fraternal benefit society, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans does much more than offer financial services. It offers programs and outreach opportunities where members can connect with each other, learn new things, and help their communities. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans supports two foundations that address a variety of needs and serve charitable purposes that support individuals, organizations and communities.
For more information on Thrivent Financial for Lutherans contact Tom Brooke at 326.650.2389 or Thomas.Brooke@Thrivent.com
http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=543386

PUC faculty teaches in Haiti

By Andrea Drac Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, May 8, 2011
Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti and the area hit hardest by the January 2010 earthquake, had been the center of higher education, drawing in students from all over the country. 87 percent of Haiti's universities were located within or close to Port-au-Prince. Out of 32 major universities, 28 were destroyed and the rest were severely damaged, according to Phyllis Bergiel's, visiting instructor in philosophy, PowerPoint presentation.

Bergiel visited Haiti in March as part of an education mission program. Other PUC faculty members who visited Haiti are Neeti Parashar, associate professor in physics; Lynn Zimmerman, associate professor in education; and Kathy Tobin, associate professor in history who introduced the program to PUC.
"We went on a volunteer basis," Bergiel explained as she went through various PowerPoint slides.
University of the Nouvelle GrandAnse is a community college with two programs in agriculture and management, with no permanent staff available. Bergiel spent two weeks in Jeremie, with eight days of student contact. She taught the students for an hour and a half each day. Most of the students were adults, who had homes, family and work to take care of.
"I was surprised they could study with all of the work they had to do at home," she said. "They knew the readings back and forth."
When Bergiel was not teaching, she was networking with non-governmental organizations to coordinate efforts in Haitian agriculture. Other tasks she mentioned were getting back reliable electricity and getting more sanitary facilities such as toilets, clean water, etc.
One of the things Bergiel was surprised about was Haiti's close distance.
"I pictured Haiti to be further away than it was," she said. "But it was a two hour plane ride from Florida."
Bergiel said the conditions were dangerous, but the experience was very rewarding for her.
Zimmerman said the conditions in Haiti were different to what she is used to. To take a shower she had to stand under a single pipe with water running down it.
Zimmerman went to Haiti in November of 2010, but did not go alone. She brought along a friend, Karen Oswald.
"It was nice to have someone with me, to talk to," she said.
Zimmerman taught an English class at UNOGA. The lack of technology was the hardest thing for her to get used to.
"I never used electronics or technology, except for one time when we were showing a video, because it was too difficult," she said.
Without technology, Zimmerman had to make copies of everything and rely on the blackboard to write things down. However, she introduced her class to the concept of group work, which she said they did well with.
"Working with the students was rewarding," Zimmerman said. "(We were) able to give them something they couldn't get otherwise."
Parashar visited Haiti in November 2010 and taught two physics courses at UNOGA during her one week visit: mechanics and a class in electricity, magnetism and optics. She said the students were shocked to see a physicist who was a woman.
Besides teaching, Parashar enjoyed doing yoga with her class of 120 students.
Despite the language barrier, Parashar and her students connected well, thanks to a translator. Both Zimmerman and Bergiel expressed their thanks to their translators as well during the presentation, as they helped them with anything they needed in Jeremie.
"Despite all apprehensions, I was very glad to be a part of people who appreciate it (our help)," Parashar said. "It is our duty to help those in need."
http://www.pucchronicle.com/puc-faculty-teaches-in-haiti-1.2224352

Saskatchewan Registered Nurses: Helping and healing in Haiti

By Debra Clarke, Leader Post May 9, 2011 4:09 AM "Every second was a new picture."
Patricia Zip still remembers the sights, sounds and smells of Port au Prince, Haiti, four months after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck on January 12th, 2010.
In the country to teach rehab staff and patients while facilitating safe, competent inpatient and community care, Zip remembers rubble being left where it had fallen, with paths cleared only to make room for people and vehicles involved in the recovery efforts.
"Extreme poverty and filth was everywhere. It was hot. Hospitals had no windows or doors; goats, chickens and children ran in and out. Women and men patients were separated by gender: one room for each group. TB, aids, maternity, spinal cord injuries were all in the same room. No regard for contagious diseases and little privacy. "
The continued political unrest in the country meant Zip and her medical colleagues always traveled with a Haitian guide while armed guards protected the hospital compounds or homes where they were staying. The threat of disease was also an ever-present danger.
"We took daily anti-cholera medications and were treated for malaria and other diseases. We slept under malaria nets. Some of the medical staff became ill. Our daily food was cooked by local Haitian ladies and consisted of a mixture of rice and beans, sometimes varied with a few small portions of goat or chicken added because we were 'honoured guests'."
Haiti would turn out to be a life-changing experience for Zip - one that would not only call upon all her training as a registered nurse but also one that would impact her as a person. "As a nurse, my training taught me to think critically but it was overwhelming walking into an area of devastation and destruction. It was the destruction of the human spirit which was the hardest to deal with."
Despite all they have endured, though, Zip says the Haitian people have great hope.
"We're taught to utilize many important competencies such as nursing care provider, counseling, teaching, and advocating. Nursing, as an evidence-based profession involves life-long learning. With experience comes adaptability without compromising standards of safe care. Haiti was certainly a test of commitment and adaptability."
A faculty member with the Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan (NEPS), Zip has gained significant education and training, including Canadian Rehabilitation Certification Nurse. She teaches in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the University of Saskatchewan and facilitates clinical students in Rehabilitation Medicine at City Hospital in Saskatoon.
After hearing about the destruction and the urgent need for medical help, Zip knew she had to go. A colleague put her in touch with the head of Team Canada Healing Hands, a group "committed to facilitate development of rehabilitation professionals to staff clinics and rehab facilities with a goal of training Haitian health care and community workers."
Another goal, says Zip, was "to construct and operate outpatient rehab services."
Zip was chosen to be part of the team because of her considerable training and expertise, particularly with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI). "The majority of patients were paraplegics," she says. "These patients were situated in Fond du Blanc and Cap Haitian, on opposite sides of the island. I spent a week at each. I worked in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of rehab specialists including a physical therapist and physiatrist from New Brunswick."
Zip also spent time teaching individual patients and staff, since the earthquake had destroyed the nursing school in Haiti. While most of the students were out of the school doing practicums on the day of the quake, sadly "the entire faculty died when the building collapsed."
She discovered Haiti's version of heath care is much different than Canada's. "Care was managed by family and nurses at the level of an aide or licensed practical nurse. Hospitals are scarce and sparse. Patients provide their own bedding, food, water and even medications in many situations. A lot of Haitians have strong Christian faith but turn to voodoo healers when sick and progress is not as hoped for."
With much of the population living in poverty, the focus for many became survival following the earthquake. Zip notes that most Haitians live on $2 a day or less, meaning there was little money to buy medication or supplies at treatment centre, which charged fees in order to pay for staff and upkeep - a source of both anger and despair for the Canadian medical teams.
"I recall a baby denied inhalers for asthma because her family could not afford them," says Zip. "The volunteer nurses paid for some medication but the baby soon died because the family could not maintain supply of the meds. This would never happen in Canada. We cried."
The lack of supplies, medical aid and overwhelming destruction and devastation impacted Zip in many ways. She returned to Canada "with only the clothes I wore. I left everything I possibly could for them. I wish I could have given more."
She is also planning a return trip to the still-ravaged country, having been invited back by a prominent Haitian physiatrist and by Healing Hands Canada.
"Until the day that they have leaders who actually care for the people, volunteers are needed. I am not special. I simply gave of myself and did whatever I possibly could."
Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Saskatchewan+Registered+Nurses+Helping+healing+Haiti/4749877/story.html#ixzz1Lqc1HXiO
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Saskatchewan+Registered+Nurses+Helping+healing+Haiti/4749877/story.html

Haiti among LCDs to benefit from new programme

CMC Monday, May 09, 2011
UNITED NATIONS (CMC) — Haiti is expected to benefit from a new 10-year programme for the world's poorest nations.
Talks have started in Turkey bringing together heads of state, lawmakers, civil society organisations, the private sector and chiefs of international agencies as the least developed countries (LDCs) seek to implement measures for building infrastructure to attain economic self-sufficiency, decrease poverty and create decent jobs.
A UN statement said that Haiti is among the 48 nations — 33 in Africa and 14 in Asia — that will benefit from the initiative.
Among the features of the May 9-13 UN conference will be an LDC trade fair as well as a private sector forum and CEO summit on international business opportunities in these countries.
"But the LDCs average a 50 per cent rate of extreme poverty, are victimised by deadly disease and climate change and remain highly vulnerable to political or external economic shocks.," the UN said.
A report released in late March by an expert panel appointed by the UN secretary general warned of continued marginalisation of these countries.
"Rising food prices pose a severe challenge and an opportunity. Most LDCs are net food importers and one third of their populations are chronically malnourished.
"But if modern infrastructure is in place and local farmers have access to necessary support, they might benefit from firm prices and launch a turnaround in low-productivity agriculture, the UN statement said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Haiti-among-LCDs-to-benefit-from-new-programme_8776186#ixzz1Lqa7que4

Local doctor helping in Haiti.- He aids hospital with rebuilding

By Alyssa Sunkin
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 05/09/11
Nearly 16 months ago, when orthopedic surgeon Ronald Israelski heard of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti, he knew what he needed to do.
The Goshen resident stuffed 10 large duffle bags with equipment from Orange Regional Medical Center, Catskill Orange Orthopaedics and Crystal Run Healthcare.
Then, about 19 days after the quake that killed more than 230,000 people and injured 300,000 others, he left his wife and three children behind and set out for the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
There, he set up shop for seven days at Hopital de l' Universite d'Etat d'Haiti — the nation's largest hospital and its teaching hospital — reduced to rubble by the quake. There were no X-rays. No sterile environment. No overhead lighting.
He amputated limbs. He closed deep gashes. He watched an 18-month-old toddler, with flies swarming around his eyes, die in front of him.
"The howling and crying of the family members was almost unbearable," recalled Israelski, 51, Orange Regional's director of education and founder of its bone and joint center. "This poor young child staring out into space, flies on his eyelids, never had a chance to even have a semblance of a real life."
As the son of Holocaust survivors, the Haiti disaster struck a chord with him. "When I saw the piles of bodies and heard the unprecedented suffering, it was the closest — with the sights, sounds and smells — that my parents and dead relatives witnessed in the Holocaust," he said.
He's submitted a business plan to hospital administrators in Haiti detailing six steps he believes will help rehabilitate the orthopedic services department.

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, orthopedic surgeon
Ronald Israelski of Goshen went to help. He's shown in a
 medical  tent in Port-au-Prince that served as a treatment
center after Haiti's largest hospital was damaged. He
now  hopes  to rebuild the hospital's orthopedic
services department with  the help  of our local hospitals

Israelski hopes that by rebuilding the department's infrastructure and obtaining equipment, then sending down teams from our area hospitals once a month and establishing a permanent affiliation, he can jump-start the operation.
He has since been back to Haiti three more times — totalling about two weeks — talking to hospital orthopedic residents, administrators and others about his agenda.
He's sent down portable X-ray and ultrasound machines and other equipment, courtesy of Radiologists Without Borders, Hudson Valley Ambulatory Surgical Center and the Fox Hill Community in Walden.
And he plans to establish a nonprofit, Do The Right Thing, for which he'll soon apply for
501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Once that's set up, he hopes to collect donations to fund his efforts.
"Having seen the entire department, hospital operating rooms and infrastructure in shambles," he said, "it has become extremely important to me to try to make an impact."
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110509/NEWS/105090324/-1/SITEMAP

Haitian orphan having surgery in Austin

Leonise Louima, 10, to undergo heart surgery Published : Sunday, 08 May 2011, 6:14 PM CDT
Jacqueline Ingles
AUSTIN (KXAN) - Leonise Louima, a 10-year-old Haitian orphan, arrived in Austin Sunday evening after a long day of travel.
She will undergo heart surgery mid-week at Dell Children's Hospital .
Leonise Louima was born with patent ductus arteriosus or PDA . PDA happens when a blood vessel called the ductus arteriosus fails to close normally in an infant soon after birth. The condition leads to abnormal blood flow between the aorta and pulmonary artery – two major vessels that carry blood from the heart.
"I feel good," said Leonise after she arrived. Her host mother, Yvrance Joseph Volcy, a Haitian native who moved to the United State 30 years ago, translated for her. Leonise speaks French. This was her first time on an airplane.
With Haiti recovering from the devastating earthquake of January 2010, she can't get the surgery she needs at home.
"I am going to be there for her," said Volcy, who is also hosting the girl's aunt during her brief stay.
Lewis Lucke, a former U.S. Ambassador to Swaziland , was also at ABIA Sunday, but couldn't stay to meet Leonise when her flight became delayed.
He led the U.S. response team following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010. He will meet with her Monday and serve as her translator.
"I'm just going to be around to greet her, to make her feel at home and we have gifts for her and her aunt," said Lucke.
Lucke has never met Leonise or her aunt, but he did help them get visas to travel to Texas.
Austin-based HeartGift Foundation is helping this third-grader get the life saving surgery she needs at Dell Children's Hospital . The foundation provides life-saving heart surgery to children from developing countries.
Leonise couldn't undergo this type of surgery in Haiti.
Lucke, who visits there twice a month, said the country is still devastated.
"The crisis really has continued. The Haitian people are incredibly resilient. They need everything but mostly the world's attention," Lucke explained.
Leonise is from Gonave, about an hour drive from Port-au-Prince.
She herself is resilient, having lived through three hurricanes prior to that deadly earthquake.
She has also had to deal with the death of both her parents. Her father died in 2001; her mother died in 2005.
Volcy told KXAN she will sing to Leonise to help her feel at home.
"I will see Fara Jacka to her. All French children love that song. I will give her hugs too," Volcy explained.
Leonise is slated to undergo surgery on Wednesday at Dell Children's Hospital.
Lucke said Leonise will likely head back to Haiti a week after surgery.
Leonise lives with her aunt, her grandmother, her four sisters, her brother and several cousins back in her home country.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Homes-for-hundreds-going-up-outside-Haiti-s-capital_8776563

Help needed packing meals for Haitian kids

Friday, May 6, 2011 PORTSMOUTH — Local businesses, community members, and church leaders are joining together to pack 100,000 meals on May 21 to be shipped in a container to Haitian children. Organized by Help for Haiti, a local non-profit, Bethany Church, and local business leaders this event seeks the community's help for two-hour shifts (9 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m.) to pack bio-engineered high protein meals into sealed plastic bags for local distribution on the ground in Marmalade and other rural villages.
"It's been amazing how many people have pulled together to make this happen," said Mark Rivera, Campus Pastor-Intern of Bethany Church. "Leaders from the business community, Help for Haiti, and church congregants have been meeting since late 2010 with the vision to supply 100,000 meals and now we're making it happen."
The team is partnering with Feed My Starving Children, an organization based in Minnesota chartered with eliminating starvation in children throughout the world by helping to instill compassion in people to hear and respond to the cries of those in need. Their approach is grass roots: children and adults hand-pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children. They have provided "food packing events" and shipped meals to nearly 70 countries around the world.
"After travelling to Haiti for over seven years to help the poor, my wife Betsy and I decided to found Help for Haiti, a Christian non-profit organization based in Rye, New Hampshire," said Jim Willey, Founder and President for Help for Haiti, and former president of Willey Brothers. "There are children and families starving, the unemployment rate is over 80 percent, people really need our help. It's time to pull together and do something. Getting the community together to pack 100, 000 meals on a Saturday is one way you can make a difference."
Jim Willey and Help for Haiti need your help to pay the $ 30,000 cost for the food and to cover the shipping cost for 100,000 meals to the schools in Haiti. Their goal is to provide a lunch for 500 kids each day they are in school who need food to be alert and to learn. To donate, please visit: www.helpforhaiti.org or send your donation to Help for Haiti PO Box 103 Rye, NH 03870.
The Help for Haiti promise is that 100 percent of your donation will go directly to the cost of the food and the shipping cost.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Forty percent of Haiti's 9 million people are under the age of 14 years old, there is a 23 percent literacy rate and 12 percent of children die before the age of 5 years. Eighty percent of children do NOT receive education past sixth grade.
The Frank Jones Center is at 400 Route One By-Pass (Portsmouth Traffic Circle), Portsmouth. Register: www.helpforhaiti.com/foodpack/, Donate: www.helpforhaiti.org.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110506/GJCOMMUNITY_01/705069976/-1/FOSNEWS

Woman uses art to aid Haitian children

Posted: Tuesday, May 3, 2011 6:00 pm

By CHRISTINA GUENTHNER, Argus-Press Staff Writer The Argus-Press
OWOSSO — Ellen Coulter had never been much of a world traveler. Until recently, she had never been through Customs or found the need for a passport.
But, when the First United Methodist Church member was approached by a pastor about traveling to Haiti on a mission trip to train teachers to use art therapy with their students, she felt a calling to go.
“It took me a while to decide... I’d never done anything like that before,” Coulter said.
A retired nurse, Coulter said she’s not an artist. She was invited on the trip by the Rev. Gordon Schleicher from the University United Methodist Church in East Lansing because he knew about her nine years of experience working with children at Community Mental Health.
Coulter said Haitian culture goes by the old adage: “Kids should be seen and not heard.” Because of this, many of the youth are having a hard time dealing with their feelings about the massive earthquake that struck the island nation in 2010.
“They’re not allowed to speak unless they’re spoken to,” she said. “It was (Schleicher’s) idea to use art and get the kids to express themselves that way,” Coulter said.
The pair spent their nine days in Haiti at four schools in the Cayes area, training about 80 teachers to use art therapy with their students.
Coulter said they started the process by having the teachers draw pictures and then discuss what they were about; then the teachers did the same process with their students.
Coulter and Schleicher taught the teachers to recognize a child’s struggles through what they draw and the colors they choose to draw it with.
Because the teachers are given a certain curriculum to teach from — one that doesn’t include art at all — Coulter said the teachers were planning on incorporating the art therapy creatively.
The pair also had the opportunity to work hands-on with about 100 students.
“Probably about 99 percent of the pictures were about earthquake-related losses,” Coulter said.
She said the entire country is still suffering the damage caused when a 7-magnitude earthquake hit on Jan. 12, 2010.
“The roads are still really, really bad,” Coulter said.
After flying into Port-au-Prince in February, Coulter said it took more than six hours for them to travel to Cayes — a distance Coulter said would have likely been covered in about two hours in the United States.
Another area the country lack’s in is medical care, Coulter said.
“Once they found out I was a nurse they had all kinds of questions for me,” she said.
In addition to the pencils, crayons and paper they took with them, the pair brought three suitcases full of medical supplies with them to Haiti.
“Everything we took, we left there,” Coulter said. “It was culture shock to me. I had never been to a third world country.”
Even though she hesitated when first asked to take the mission trip, Coulter said she would go back in a heart beat.
“The people there are so hungry for stuff,” she said. “They’re hungry for knowledge — for what we in this cultured world can teach them.”
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