Tuesday, November 25, 2008

WHERE TO SEND DONATIONS TO HAITI

I emailed the missionary that I know in Haiti and heard back from herwith a current address. Her name is Barbara Walker,and she is a woman of few words,but I have been in Port Au Prince Haiti and followed her around andseen her work. Barb has been described as a "renegade missionary" ,LOL, I think of her more as a "General". She is one tough chick and apowerhouse. Five yrs ago was the last time I was in Haiti with thiswoman who was over 60 yrs old at that time, and I in my early 40'scould not keep up with her. She works with the people and runs thruthe city working on adoptions and doing health care for infants all day long, and then works onpaperwork trying to complete adoptions until the wee hours of themorning; You have to be tough to live in Haiti. Barb does not livelike a fancy American in PAP,no she lives among the Haitians, works w/ them, lives like them(with ZERO luxuries), and helps them. With donations,she has built a small gated community called "Ruska Village",it would be considered too rustic for most of us Americans to livein,but by Haitian standards it is WONDERFUL. The whole village is onless than half a city blcok of rocky , good for nothing , Haitian land. Ithas about 12 little one room houses made of cement block. Cementblock homes are the choicest of building material in Haiti as thesehomes are able to stand up against hurricanes. Barb takes in orphansbrought to her and also young teen mothers. The orphans live in thehouses in Ruska Village until they are able to be adopted out andthey are cared for by the young women that are fortunate enough tocome to Barb for help.Of course she does not have room for all the babies and poor peoplethat come to her,but she also distributes vitamins to the pregnant women, clothing,food, baby formula and diapers.I can testify with 100% certainy,that 100% of any donation sent to Barb will go directly to thepeople. Barb keeps nothing for herself.Below is a copy of the note from Barb:
"Yes I am seeing more starving children coming in with their starvingMothers too. I have been keeping them both to get them back tohealth. My Haiti PO box is 2556 Port au Prince Haiti. I would love toget some photos of your babies. Thank you for asking. May God Blessyou with a very sp[ecial holiday. Barb"and then"Just remember we need anything BUT!! babies and rocks we have plentyof each. Yes we do Christmas gift boxes for all the children andLadies at the village.We do need liquid vit. foe the babies.Prenatalfoe the women that come to the clinic.We all enjoy photos of the kidsso If you have any Haitiens, please send photos too. Barb"
BELOW IS FURTHER INFO FROM JILL;--- ok,the name of the ministry for donations to the orphans and youngmothers/babies in PAP , Haiti is "Reach Out to Haiti" . You can makea check out to that name and Barbara will send you a tax receiptback. Her address in Haiti is:"Barbara WalkerPO Box 2556Port Au Prince, Haiti "Thats it , they dont have a lot of mail down there so no such thingas postal codes.Donations are always welcome,but they also would love prenatal vitamins for the pregnant womenand liquid infant vitamins. Barb cant get those at a store down there. AlsoChristmas shoe boxes for children and ALSO for the moms. Barbarasvillage has a community outhouse and a WELL for clean water which issomething that may sound basic to us, but to the orphans and womenliving in her village it is luxury. Of course they dont have hotwater,but cool(?) water from an outside pump to share is as good as goldthere. One thing they do have tho, that would surprise you,is satelite tv. The Haitians LOVE to watch tv. So even tho they livea meager life they are exposed to the western commercialism. They donow know about Christmas gift giving and such which is new to theirsociety. But if you would like to do a Christmas shoebox, for a youngadult woman in Barbaras village,believe me, she would be beyond thrilled.(the young ladies would be more thrilled than the children even) I am sure it would be theonlyChristmas box she would have to open. For ideas of what to put in it,one big thing, Haitians LOVE cologne, lotions,a summer shirt, maybe a toothbrush andtoothpaste? cheap JEWLERY, anything shiny and over the top,the girls would be as excited as if you got a 2 carot diamond forChristmas:)It *is* really expensive to mail stuff down there,but when you compare it to what they would pay for the sameunattainable merchandise down there,postage is CHEAP.thanx so much for helping warmly,,,,jill

Friday, November 21, 2008

children dying in Haiti from the food crisis

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081121/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_food_crisis