Mission Trip 2009 to Haiti

Processed over 500 children for sponsorship.

This was Lesley’s first mission trip and it was exciting to have her with me on my third mission trip to Haiti with the organization HH4H with Jamie Charles as our team leader. We were a total of 12 team members, one being a nurse that was already there and working in the clinics.

Off to Haiti, from 30 to 90 degrees in temperature.

 

Our t-shirts read “Children are hungry…you can help!”, but we did not get any response to them.  We left Albany and traveled through Atlanta to Orlando, Fl. It was there that we met up with the rest of the team, and road a van to Fort Pierce and stayed in the Sleep Inn, with an episode of bugs in the beds (and we hadn’t even got to Haiti yet).  We rose early to get the daybreak flight on the Mission Flights International Plane.  On to the Bahamas for refueling and then landed in Haiti sometime before eleven o’clock am.  The heat hit our faces as we stepped off the plane and at first it felt really good. As we waited under the wing of the plane, the breeze was hot and soon we began to experience  the “steady flow” of perspiration.  Sorry to be so graphic. *smiling*

Lesley under the wing. She looks more like a movie star than a missionary.

Pastor Noel met us at the airport with two SUV’s and off we went to Terrier Rouge with a quick stop at his house in Cap for refreshments.   I am sure that for Lesley the mile from the airport to Pastor’s house in Cap Haitian which has been nicknamed the “Mile of Shock and Horror” by past team members must have left an impression on her as it did me when I saw it for the first time.  The new paved highway to Terrier Rouge  just about cuts the time in half for getting there.  It also seemed like people along the road were taking more pride in their homes and the area seemed alot  cleaner than before. 

Views of DuNord Blue Mts. along the way to Terrier Rouge.

Arriving at the team house (Pastor Noel’s Terrier Rouge home) was an event with all the neighborhood children and the staff that would be taking care of us while we were there, surrounding  the arriving cars, and everyone was squealing with delight to see each other again, hugging and kissing each one we could.  I am sure the “newbies” found it overwhelming and amusing at the same time. As things turned out, Lesley and I ended up sharing a back small bedroom together, away from the road and very private. The four younger women had the room adjacent to ours in the front of the house, and across the main room, was a room for four more ladies, and a small room like ours for the two men.  We were hoping to get right to work after we settled in a bit, but we found out that school was canceled that day, and would not start until next week after Mardi Gras. This was very upsetting, because half of our team was leaving in a week and it did not leave much for them to do.  We had an emergency meeting and the principal of the primary school had to call in the students for the next day so we could processed them for their sponsors and do some replacements for the students that left the program.

Lesley helping me with the kids with making drawings for their sponsors.

My job for the first week (which I orchestrated) was to acquire drawings and colorings from the children to their sponsors, something that is needed in improving the sponsor to child relationships in the program.  Lesley helped me and was the “transport” lady of the kids between them having their new portrait taken and coming to me to do their drawings.  It took a while for me to communicate to them what I wanted them to do, but I found a small piece of chalk and made images of different things on a board, such as a house, flower, smiley face, people, etc.  So, once thery saw another child drawing they got right into it. 

Wildiana and friend drawing for their sponsor.

For some reason this was a difficult mission trip, it seemed that we had several “road blocks” when it came to doing our work.  Lack of co-operation from some of the Haitian over-seers, rain, and the imposing holiday season of Mardi Gras were definate problems. But, we kept plugging along and eventually we were able to update and process over 500 students. We did not break our last year’s record of 667, but we did get alot of work done eventually.  I came home exhaused both from the last day of working in three villages, and being sick with stomache problems while I was there and the trip home which left me even more sick from motion air sickness. 

The PINK Ladies. Myself with new sponsored child Frantz-Suze. She was very cute.

Getting to visit with our sponsored children is the highlight of the trip for most of us.  Above, I am with a new sponsored child named Frantz-Suze, she was very cute, but hard to get close to. She was very independent.  The child that made me cry when I left him was my wonderful boy, Francelyn.  When we left his village of Danda, he ran after the truck we were riding in the back of, with all his heart and with that great fabulous smile on his face. I will never forget that moment. It made me cry. We have a special bond. 

Francelyn and his Dad. What a smile. My Boy!

Lesley’s meeting with little Venise in Danda. Precious moment.

Another special moment was when Lesley met her little girl Venise for the first time. She was so shy and would look up at her with big soulful eyes. Her little sister looked just like her, and we arrangned for our friend John to sponsor her because he was looking for four especially needy children.

A touching moment saying "Good Bye".

With some of my children in Danda, Eneitgh hiding, Emerlie in pink, and Francelyn in green stripe.

Saying good bye to our children is hard, because for most of us we do not know if we will ever see them again. It is hard to explain the sponsor-child relationship. It is so special. I hope there are others who are reading this who have not sponsored a child yet, will be moved to do so as soon as possible. For such a small price we can change a child’s life and our own.

Lesley and Deb in Haiti. No, we are NOT on a Caribbean Cruise.

International Crisis Group report

 

seaside in bay near ports in Cap Haitian, Haiti. No garbage control.

Haiti 2009: Stability at Risk
Latin America/Caribbean Briefing N°19
3 March 2009

OVERVIEW

A series of crises in 2008 have increased the potential for serious trouble in Haiti this year. The politically motivated, violent April riots against high living costs caused widespread disruption and suffering, toppled the government of Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis and forced postponement of a donor conference. In August and September, four tropical storms and hurricanes killed 800, affected nearly one million, exacerbated food shortages and pushed yet more Haitians into poverty. Extensive damage was caused to infrastructure and agriculture. The global financial crisis is making it difficult for donors to meet commitments and reducing diaspora remittances. President René Préval and Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis, who took office in September 2008, need to secure the support of donors and parliament quickly for a wide-ranging stabilisation strategy or risk political instability and violence. These are major challenges in a year in which parliamentary elections will be held and constitutional reform is on the agenda.

Related content

Reforming Haiti’s Security Sector, Latin America/Caribbean Report N°28, 18 September 2008

In the Aftermath of Hurricanes, Haiti Situation is Critical, Mark Schneider in WorldPoliticsReview, 20 October 2008

Haiti: Affirmative Engagement or Malign Neglect?, Donald Steinberg in Haitian Times, 9 October 2008

All Crisis Group Haiti reports

Almost half a year has passed since Pierre-Louis entered office, and Haitians are still waiting for an effective response to pervasive socio-economic, institutional and political challenges. There is an urgent need for broad political consensus and improved relations between the executive and legislative branches of government, as well as a government-donor-civil society partnership to kick-start a community-oriented reconstruction process. This includes building a social safety net for hurricane victims and jobs-oriented infrastructure projects that prioritise areas hard-hit by the floods, boosting agriculture and enhancing a longer-term poverty reduction and economic growth strategy.

The immediate focus should include:

providing donors an operational reconstruction plan and then holding the long-postponed donors conference in April 2009 as planned. The plan should identify government-led, community-approved, high-impact and high-visibility projects to tackle key challenges such as food shortages and provide for close monitoring to ensure relevance, implementation and completion;
building national ownership of reconstruction through active participation of the political and business sectors and civil society, particularly in the worst disaster-affected areas such as Gonaives, and doing a better job of holding non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the field accountable for the delivery of project results;
boosting security sector reform by speedily completing police vetting, setting judicial standards, relieving jail overcrowding, responding to pleas for heli­co­pter interdiction of aerial drug smuggling and completing actions begun in 2008 to control Haiti’s porous borders and corrupt and inefficient ports;
working closer with parliament and improving transparency in handling emergency funds and carrying out reconstruction, including by providing frequent updates on government action and better articulating policies and strategies domestically and abroad; and
strengthening democratic institutions and stabilisation efforts by holding elections that include all major parties to fill one-third of the senate’s seats on 19 April and other elections in the timeframe foreseen by the constitution. Authorities should encourage the deployment as soon as possible of national and international observers to oversee not merely the polling but also pre-election preparations.

Haiti’s Debt HAS been cancelled!!!!!!

I just received this email announcement. Finally at last the news we have been praying and working for for so long!!!!!!

Jubilee USA Network | 212 E Capitol St NE | Washington DC 20003 | 202.783.3566 

Last week, we got some great news.  After years of delay, Haiti finally received $1.2 billion in permanent debt cancellation!

Together with partner organizations and allies in Congress, Jubilee USA has been working for more than five years to win this victory.

Haiti’s debt cancellation is an important step forward that we share with the Jubilee supporters across the country who helped make it possible.  With debt cancellation, Haiti’s government can permanently re-direct spending on debt service to vital social services like clean water, education, and health care.

Cap Haitian, Haiti street. March 2009

Bill Clinton says “There is still hope for Haiti.

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“Haiti has best chance in decades” B. Clinton “Haiti has best chance in decades”, says Bill Clinton. Read article from Caribbean News:
Published on Tuesday, June 16, 2009	Email To Friend    Print Version
NEW YORK, USA — The new United Nations envoy on Haiti, Bill Clinton, on Monday laid out his vision to advance development in the small and impoverished Caribbean nation, stressing that, more than ever before, the country has the opportunity to advance.“Haiti, not withstanding the total devastation wreaked by the four storms last year, has the best chance to escape the darker aspects of its history in the 35 years that I have been going there,” Clinton told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York. Former US President Bill Clinton. AFP PHOTO Clinton joined forces with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help Haiti when they visited the country in March to raise awareness of efforts to help its people and Government bolster their economic security. “No one is better placed for this mission,” Ban, who appointed the former United States president to the UN post last month, told reporters. “He knows the country. He loves the people. They love him. This is the strong wish of the Haitian people and the Haitian Government and myself as Secretary-General.” Ban stressed that Haiti is at a “turning point,” adding that it has a real chance for stability and potential prosperity. Clinton said that what he wanted to do first is to follow the plan Haiti has set out for its recovery and its future. “All I want to do is help the Haitians take over control of their own destiny. It’s all I have ever wanted for Haiti.” This involves several elements, the first of which is to support the Government in the implementation of its programme “Haiti: a new paradigm,” to generate new jobs and enhance the delivery of basic services. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with an annual estimated gross domestic product (per capita) of $390. In addition, 78 per cent of Haitians live on less than $2 per day and 54 per cent on less than $1 per day. Clinton, who previously served as the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, said another important element is to assist the recovery effort in Haiti with the same fervour that was brought to the tsunami nations to ‘build back better.’ It is also vital to focus on disaster prevention and mitigation, he added. “We know from experience in other places we can do a lot to mitigate disasters and we can do a lot in Haiti. We’re about to face another storm season without that kind of mitigation and I don’t want to go another year without it.” The new envoy also plans to encourage more private sector investment in Haiti, and to make Haiti more competitive to attract such investment. He also wants to encourage donors to honour the commitments they have already made at a pledging conference in Washington, DC in April. “We also want to do everything we can to make sure that these donor commitments are aligned as closely as possible with the Haitian programme we have been given.” Clinton said another area he will focus on is dealing with the energy crisis and accelerating what is being done in the area of clean energy. “We believe there’s a lot of economically viable opportunity yet untapped for clean energy and also for energy efficiency, particularly in manufacturing facilities and in the way the homes, and the schools and the hospitals and the public buildings that have to be rebuilt are rebuilt. “I hope that in the process of doing all this, we will continue to elevate awareness of both the pain and the promise of Haiti in the international community, and there are real genuine economic opportunities there,” he stated.

Let’s NOT forget Haiti !!!

The kids are back in school, we have been smothered with the political campains, we are getting ready for the winter …………………but we cannot forget about Haiti.

They are still without homes, food, water, clothes and a blanket at night. Many are starving….and even though much help has come to their aid, we must not forget “OUR PART” in helping.  How small an effort it is…..we must continue to help.

This recent photo shows this child suffering from skin disease and orange hair due to severe malnutrision.

Kwashiorkor is the name of the disease that causes these severe symptons of starvation.  This condition is prevalent in many Haitian children even before the four deadly hurricanes.  It is a common disease they battle everyday from lack of nutritian and clean water.  It is very painful causing the limbs to swell so much that they cannot even touch it without screaming out in pain.

We also cannot forget these images of the many children who lost their lives in the floods.  We must find a way to help those who survived, if not just from the pain of lost, but at least from the pain of want.  Go to www.hishandsforhaiti.org or http://www.loveachild.com/donate/ both of these organizations help the people in Haiti.

People standing in line for food in Bethel, Haiti, just above Caberet. Love A Child, Inc. distributing.

My little children let us not love in word, neither in tongue;

but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:11, 16-18

Video of Haiti (His Hands for Haiti).

I made this video of the work that we did in Haiti for the Child Sponsorship Program, His Hands for Haiti. If you are interested in more information go to www.hishandsforhaiti.org and see the beautiful photographs of children who need sponsorship. You can pick the age, gender, name and birthday of your choice. Only two payments a year of $40.00 each. For $1.54 a WEEK you can change a child’s life or even save it.  God bless you.

Isaiah 58:10 NIV  “…and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

Village children in Terrier Rouge. One with typical burn from boiling water on hot charcoal stove in yard.

More images of hurricanes in Haiti.

These photos were taken from various sources:

People fleeing Gonaives...Sept. 13

Gonaives was the worst hit area in Haiti, as photos show water is almost to roof tops.

Hinche, Haiti.....

                                                       Notice head of pig looking on!!

Gonaives, just in the beginning.

Gonaives after Hanna....more to come.

Jackmel River...taken by the Red Cross in Haiti.

Only the beginning with Hurricane Gustave.

Haiti...floods. Grieving her loss of family member.

All that can be said is that it will be a long time before Haiti will recover, if it ever does.  They had so little to begin with but now what little they had is gone, and all crops are gone. Water is polluted, death will spread disease.  Starvation is close to follow. All we can do is pray……..and give what we can to help.

I have experienced the poverty in Haiti first hand, even before the four hurricanes the conditions were hard to believe, I cannot even imagine what it is like now.

If anyone wants to donate now and have it be quickly put to use, send donations to info@lachaiti.org and visit this site for reports from Haiti.   http://loveachild.com/blogs.php?id=journal Love A Child, Inc. in Haiti, and also hishandsforhaiti@tds.net on Paypal. Also go to www.hishandsforhaiti.org to see children in need.

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Haiti Devastation from Hurricanes

Haiti’s string of Hurricanes, Fay, Gustave, Hannah & Ike

Gonave River (Gustave)

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Hurricane Hannah Sept. 2008

After Gustave in higher ground of Gonaives. Family living in mud but made out better than most.

Gonaives, Haiti, fleeing flood waters. Hurricane Ike.

Can’t get Haiti out of my mind!

Meeting my child Emerlie for the first time. 2007

 

Haiti and it’s images are so impressed in my mind that I cannot stop thinking about it.  At first I thought that I did not have to return, but it does not work like that.  It gets into you and won’t let go. I keep thinking about Haiti all the time, I wake up thinking about the faces of the children, the dusty streets, the sounds, the smells, the feel of it on my skin………and then again as I lay down at night. The images play a slide show in my mind, and I find myself wanting to go back again and looking with excitement to my return. I have spoken with others and they have experienced the same thing. Once you go you cannot forget about it, you cannot get it out of your mind and your heart.

So, that is why I went on another mission trip with His Hands for Haiti Child Sponsorship Program at the same time as I did in 2007.  On this trip there were only seven people and it was deemed the “Seven for Heaven” team.  A wonderful combination of women with different and valuable abilities, Jamie and Julienne who together spoke Creole and French were a perfect pair to interview and get information from the children who were either being updated or newly listed in the program. Tammy and Lorraine worked harmoniously getting and recording the weight and measurements of the children to see how much they have grown and what their new sizes are.  Deborah (myself) and Becky were the portrait photographers and enjoyed helping each other get those smiles that would steal someone’s heart on the website.

The "Seven for Heaven" Team 2008.

  While we were there in March 2008, the country was in an upheavel over the food crisis. They stormed the presidents palace with demands for help in getting more food.  The prime minister was ousted and it was a tense time of political unrest.  However, being in Terrier Rouge in the Northeastern part of Haiti kept us pretty much away from any of the troubles. The food situation is desperate and even the World Food Program is having trouble getting food into the country. Most of the problems is in the custom fees and the corruption of the ports.  Some foods lie rotting at the ports because custome fees are too high to be paid.  Of course, it is the children that suffer the most.  Once you see the face of a hungry or even starving child…….you will never be the same. Let me share some images that I took of hungry children with you.

 

 

 

These are a few of the images that play in my mind.  The eyes will never stop watching you.  As you look in each face they speak a universal language “hunger”.

Please think about sponsoring a child like these through our child sponsorship program.  Guaranteed that 100% of the donation fee goes to the child. 

Go to www.hishandsforhaiti.org and click on the “Child in Need” page.

Please Help.

 

Taking that first step…Haiti or Bust!

Newest team members for HH4H.

      March 2007 was my first trip to Haiti and I was a new member with the “His Hands for Haiti Child Sponsorship Program” team.  We all met in West Palm Beach, Florida and traveled together to Ft. Pierce were we boarded the small Missionary Flights International plane to Cap Haitian, the second largest city in Haiti. The team consisted of eleven who came from Maine, Ohio, Virginia and New York (myself). We were led by the program’s co-founder Jamie Charles.  Four of us were what they called the “Newbies”.  From the moment we stepped off the plane one could feel that this was a place of never ending experiences with a culture steeped in fascinating history and color. The smells and heat permeated you with a  mixture of confustion and chaos.  Trying to get out of the airport and into our waiting vans was a pressing of hot sticky bodies and numerous outstretched hands begging for “a dollar”. 

 I was overwhelmed with the continous and never ending images of abject poverty so concentrated that I could not believe such neglect, filth, decay, dirt, mud, and garbage could exist in any one place.  My disbelieving eyes could not even comprehend of just how poor this country that is an actual neighbor of the United States of America really is.  I had seen the photographs but they didn’t come close to the reality of this country’s physical condition. I think it was the emmenceness of it all, so much everywhere.  Not one inch was cared for or clean. Animals such as pigs and goats roamed the city streets and alleys freely eating what ever they could find or cooling off in a stagnant puddle or ditch of water. 

 

Garbage and Pig at the Port, Cap Haitian.

 

It wasn’t long before we were on the edge of the city and the shacks and huts were starting to be more spread out. The dusty dirt road we were traveling on I think was their version of a “high way” that was the main route to the border of the Dominican Republic. Our destination was Terrier Rouge which stood somewhere in between the two, CAP and the D.R. The countryside seemed fairly lush, but the dust from the road covered all the vegetation and even into the yards of the houses that we passed. Children most of them naked ran to the edge of the road and yelled “blanc, blanc” and men and women with large white smiles who were coming and going back to the fields on donkeys and ragged looking horses, gave us a look that seemed to mean that perhaps for a short while someone somewhere was going to get some help. 

Mountain range of Northeastern Haiti.

When a Haitian sees a white person they instantly think “money”, white means money.  The biggest reality that I learned was that I had to overcome the first reaction of wanting to give when I was asked, but to understand that I needed to portray that to receive something one must work for it, and because they were without was not necessarily our responsibility to remedy that with a hand out. However, finding them ways to work was a very big necessity and that was what we wanted to accomplish. Our personal major work there was to interview, process, measure and photograph the children, so we could have the information we needed to find sponsors for them in the United States and other prosperous nations. Maybe, with an education the children will be able to break the bondage of poverty and hopelessness. 

 

 As we continured on this road, the countryside was breathtaking to see.  The mountain ranges were beautiful. The word “Haiti” means “”mountainous”.  It was hard to comprehend that this gorgeous country was the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.  I was thinking that it must be somehow easier to live in the countryside than in the crowded cities who depended on their food from the markets instead of growing them themselves.  But, living in the country also had it’s draw backs of rural isolation and lack of clinics and doctors.  One

way or another life in Haiti was hard beyond anything we in America must endure.

And the people, the people can laugh and smile and enjoy the most simplest things which to me is a richness many people never acquire. There is a strong sense of survival and a pride that keeps them centered and gives them a part of life that is sacred and rare.

Tap Tap going through Terrier Rouge.

I often found myself going through periods of anger.  Angry at a government that will not support it’s people.  That even though they were the first country to proclaim their freedon from slavery and become a democratic nation.  That that democracy does not work.  Angry at the rest of the world for not helping more.  Angry at the Haitians for not fighting hard enough and becoming a people who expects help with a chip on their shoulder.  Angry at the children who are helpless.  Angry at the land for not holding up to supply food for it’s people.  And even sometimes angry at God for allowing it all to happen.  But, you know there is hope and if we all did what we were suppose to do, we can make a difference in the smallest way. If only for a few children who know they have someone who sponsors them and cares about them and sends them letters and gifts. 
 

 Please check this site out and see the many faces of the children who need sponsors.  http://www.hishandsforhaiti.org/children.asp?pg=