With the spotlight now moving away from Haiti, especially in light of the earthquake that hit Chili yesterday it is so important to not let the plight of the people and especially the orphaned children fade away.
Here is a picture of Hope for the Orphans of Haiti - Yank Barry and an orphanage just outside of Port-au-Prince. These children are the lucky ones..they are safe inside of the walls of the orphanage and have hope. Our foundation has committed to support these beautiful children.
Here is an excerpt from an email sent to our Foundations Executive Director. This was a group of private citizens that made the trip to Haiti to see first hand what was happening. I must warn you that parts are very difficult to read:
"When we arrived, it was not like that at all. The destruction was beyond belief trust me. Buildings were in pieces and the entire infrastructure of the Country is gone. It seemed very unorganized and no one knew who reported to whom. Even our military who was based at the airport had no clue what they were doing there. On the news there are pleas for Doctors and Nurses. We brought down 12 Doctors and Nurses on the first plane and an additional 15 on the 2nd. When they got there and went to University Hospital they were turned away, told that they were not needed and were not "Federalized". Even though there are thousands of people dying each day and thousands waiting in line for medical help at these hospitals, they did not want our medical supplies or help from our Doctors. It was unreal.....
We convoyed to Leogane, where the epicenter was about a 2 1/2 hour drive. It was beyond devastating there. We were the FIRST people to go there and this was 15 days after the earthquake! Not one relief mission, military force, UN group, NGO, etc was there before us and this is where the most devastation was. Everybody was scared to go there and even though we have tons of military troops on the ground and the airport is overflowing with supplies, none of it is getting to these people.....
We treated over 600 patients at that location in 6 hours with 2 Doctors, 3 Nurses and 6 volunteers. It was heart breaking. We saw horrible infections and some massive injuries. We ended up evacuating some people and bringing them back with us to the airport to the University of Miami Medical Center tent. Our evacuations included a 6 year old girl with a crushed finger that needed to get amputated, a 6 year old girl with Tetanus ( she ended up dying later that night), a 3 month old girl with a skull fracture, a 12 year old boy with a bad leg infection, etc.. It was like the Apocalypse. We couldn't believe how many people had such serious injuries and were unattended to for over 2 weeks.....
In 3 days we treated over 1,000 people, saved at least 100 lives, administered tons of antibiotics, distributed thousands of pounds of food and water, etc.. We became the "Robin Hood" gang of the airport base. After we saw that the supplies were not being distributed and were sitting there for days, including 1000's of cases of water from the UN and tons of meals from the Indian Army, we took it all and brought it to the people. Never once did they riot or get out of hand. I think the way food is being distributed by the Army and UN is sad. They throw the food at them from the back of a truck. That is why they act like animals. Treat them like animals and people will act that way"
When I read this email, I cried and couldn't believe what I was reading..where are all the charities and organizations that received millions of dollars in donations...where is the money going...you need to decide
Video footage of a Tent Village from our trip February 23rd. 2010
So, I come back to the original question: Your $10.00 multiplied will have a huge impact. We are a private foundation, we have no red tape to contend with, we have an existing network that we work with in Haiti. We have partnerships with the churches and leaders in Haiti. The work ahead is monumental, but we are experienced, we are committed. We need the funds to help us reach our goals.
A Day Without Hunger - Help Haiti
Thank you for your commitment to our cause.
Written by:
Jackie Bigford
Global Village Leader
Social Media Co-ordinator
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