How To Help In Haiti

The Knights of Columbus and Project Medishare are joining together to form a new program called "Hope for Haiti's Children". The Knights of Columbus are donating $1 million to Project Medishare to provide prostheses to Haitian children who lost limbs in the January 2010 earthquake. An estimated 1,000 children underwent amputations because of severe injuries from the earthquake. The Knights of Columbus will underwrite the program which will provide both prostheses and therapy for the children who need them. The children will be provided with up to three prostheses (as they outgrow them) and two years of therapy.

The Knights of Columbus already has sent 1,000 wheelchairs to Haiti for victums of the earthquake.

You may have seen a recent advertisement on TV about the Knights of Columbus program. It shows a child being fitted with a prosthesis, and then she is seen walking with it. What a wonderful sight.

You can go to this website for information on how to donate: http://www.kofc.org/un/en/charities/relief.html

Mission of Hope is a charity that is currently in Haiti actually helping Haitians, and building them new homes. Mission of Hope, partnered with Hope for Haiti, began a project in 2010 called MOH 500. Its goal is to build 500 new homes for families in Haiti in the next two years. I am very impressed with their project. They are not only building sturdy block homes, they are including a garden area and 16 fruit trees for each family.

They have a good website at www.mohhaiti.org/what_we_do/moh_500/ . It says, "The objective of MOH 500 is to build a community, not just a housing project. This will be accomplished by establishing a church, school, market place, and playing fields. Mission of Hope believes that with the larger lots and peroper utilization of the garden area, many of the families can grow enough food not only for themselves but also to sell in the markets."

"The families will receive their homes free of charge: however each family will be required to pay a marginal monthly community fee ( $50 Haitian/$6.25 U.S.) for a period of five years. These fees are designed to create a vested interest by the families throughout the process. After the five year period, each family will receive a deed for their home and land, and will have 100% ownership."

"Our desire for this project is to build homes with, by, and through Haitians, which helps aid the local economy and builds community. On any given day there are about 100 Haitians employed through this project, with only a handful of visiting North American volunteers.
Our cost to provide a home for a Haitian family is $5,500 USD. Each 42' X 90' lot provides a 16' X 19' three room block home, with a patio and a patio awning. Haitians can eventually add-on if they wish. Each home will have a tiolet (outhouse) and a shower room (outside). The home will also be painted inside and out. The perimeter of the lot will be lined with a cactus-like plant which is common in Haiti. Each home will also have 6 moringa trees, 2 almond trees, 1 orange tree, 1 citron tree, 3 banana trees, 1 coconut tree, 1 mango tree and 1 papaya tree."

"If you're thinking of adopting a home building project, please know that 100% of your donation will go to the comprehensive construction plan that involves much more than the simple building of a home. You are contributing to the construction of a community."

If you click on the "View photos of progress" at the bottom of the Home Construction page, you can see dozens of photos of the actual construction and many finished homes. They are being painted colorful pastel colors. And the cactus shrubs are already outlining each plot.

Mission of Hope also has active programs for Education, Orphan Care, Nutrition, Disaster Relief, and Earthquake Relief in Haiti. Currently they are caring for 60 orphans, and have 2500 students enrolled in their schools. Check out these divisions in their website.

Mission of Hope has started a sulf-sufficiency work program called 3 Cord where earthquake amputees victums make products for sale. Currently their main product is a colorful braided headband. These are shown in videos in the 3 Cords section of their website.

Instructions for donating are listed in their website. I am very impressed by their plans. They are involving Haitians in the creation of their own new community. They have made generous allowances for the new home owners to grow their own food. MOH 500 has plans for 500 homes now. Eventually they plan on 2500 homes in new communities. And they have been given 55 additional acres for future homes and communities in another location. I hope you can support these efforts. It looks like their efforts will have a lasting positive impact on earthquake ravenged Haiti.

Samaritan's Purse is an international charity, doing relief work all over the world. Go to www.samaritanspurse.org to learn about them. Type in "Haiti" in their search bar to see articles about their work in Haiti.

Last night I watched a program on TV on Fox Channel's Greta vanSustern Show. She recently went to Haiti with the Samaritan's Purse charity. There she connected with Rev. Franklin Graham (son of Rev Billy Graham) who has been doing relief work there with that charity. I was very impressed with his efforts. He has designed a 12' X 12' shelter. It is made of some basic 2 X 4 lumber, and had plastic sides. There is room for several children to sleep on mats, and a place for the parents to sleep. The roof is metal to help collect rainwater. That water is then channeled to a big metal tank in the shelter. Clean water is very scarce in Haiti. The barrel has to be kept within the shelter so no one would steal it. This shelter is small, inexpensive, and easy to duplicate.

During that visit, Greta and the Palin family helped pass out shoeboxes of Christmas gifts for hundreds of orphan children in Haiti. Those had been filled and donated by people in the United States. They were the first gifts many of the children had ever received. Shyly the children opened the boxes to explore the contents. Then several shyly came up and thanked Greta and the others. It was a very heartwarming scene.

The charity also had a cholera clinic which was treating patients of all ages. Several of the very young children were very small. The doctor commented that malnutrition was almost as bad as the cholera.

The Samaritan's Purse website tells how you can donate money for their relief efforts, and how you can become a volunteer. It also has a list of videos you can click on to see more of Haiti's needs.

Additional information about Samaritan's Purse and the gift shoeboxes can be found at www.squidoo.com/shoeboxes.

Haiti Relief-2010 by AFinerDesigner
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