Haitian Roots Newsletter July 2009

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education

and catastrophe." ~ H.G. Wells

Dear Supporters and Friends of Haitian Roots,

This is the time of year that most of us are turning our minds towards school. Whether we are going back ourselves, whether we are sending our kids back, or whether it is simply the unmistakable racks of backpacks and binders lining the store shelves in place of the summer merchandise, it is evident that it is “back to school” time! As a mother, I talk to my friends about our feelings about our kids returning to school—will their teachers be good? When is back-to-school night? Did you hear about that sale on notebooks? Is your son on the bus route? How will my daughter do going to school all-day? These are the questions that we discuss. One question that we never ask is, “Will my child be able to go to school this year?” Regrettably in Haiti, this is the question at the forefront of many, many parents minds right now. We want to THANK YOU for helping the children of Haitian Roots to be able to receive an education and answering the prayers of their parents!

What Is New?

• We are excited to provide an education for an additional 20 children this year (bringing our total up to 133). These children live mainly in the Port-au-Prince area and are in desperate need. To see a list of the children, please go to our website: www.haitianroots.com and look at them on our blog or under the “children” tab. It only costs $250/year or $22/month (we can have it deducted automatically from your bank account) to provide education for an entire year for one of these beautiful children!
• These new children will be overseen by a new in-country coordinator, Harry Mardy! We are so happy to have him join our team! Harry is well-known to the Haitian Roots team. He has been a close friend of Isson Joseph’s for over 15 years. The Cox family met Harry four years ago when he was helping to facilitate the adoption of their son from Haiti. Chareyl also became acquainted with Harry through his work with orphans in Haiti. We all love and admire him. Harry is a lifelong resident of Haiti. He lives in and works for an orphanage in Petion-ville. He is married and has two beautiful children. Having worked hard for many years into adulthood to gain his own schooling, Harry truly understands and places great value on education. He and his wife Pascale, have been very excited about Haitian Roots and have been very helpful to us in Haiti long before joining our team. Thanks for joining us, Harry!
• We have a new blog! It is integrated right into our website. You can view the most recent post on our home page www.haitianroots.com. Click on the blog link to read more. We hope this will fill the need for us to have better communication with our supporters. We will be featuring information about the children in Haitian Roots, any experiences we have had with them in Haiti, experiences our supporters have had on their trips to visit Haitian Roots children, and general Haiti information. We also will be featuring information about fundraisers to help give inspiration and ideas. If you have held a fundraiser for Haitian Roots and would be willing to share on our blog, please e-mail us at: info@haitianroots.com

Our Accomplishments and Goals

We are so grateful for the generous support that you have given to us over the past four years. We started with only 23 children in 2005. We now have 135 children in the program. We are so proud of them for working so hard even while in very difficult circumstances outside of the classroom. Our current goals are to find sponsors for all of the children currently in the program as well as raise funds for our first school. We are seeing the need to have a home-base office in Haiti become more and more apparent. There will be many advantages of having our own physical presence in Haiti and we are all excited about it! One major benefit will be that we will have a much better chance of partnering with other organizations to help our children with food and medical needs if we can show these organizations our offices and staff in a specific place in Haiti, whereas right now our children are spread out attending various schools all around Port-au-Prince. We already have the building that we will use but we need to remodel it to turn it into a school. Do you know of any individuals or businesses who are looking for a wonderful project to fund like this?

Reflections on Haiti: June 2009

Board Member Chareyl Moyes traveled to Haiti in June. Haitian Roots advocate and donor Kathy Junk went as well.

Kathy shared the following:

“I had the wonderful privilege of traveling to Haiti in June for a week. Besides being a happy sponsor of Haitian Roots, I also work for Wasatch adoptions in placing children from several orphanages in Haiti. I was able to visit and hold many of the beautiful children available for adoption and was also able to interact with families who were visiting the children they are going to adopt. While I am thrilled anytime a family wants to adopt a child from Haiti and know with complete certainty families are saving a life by adopting a Haitian child, I also came to see that adoption is just a tiny drop in the bucket in helping the children in Haiti. All the children of Haiti cannot be adopted nor should they be. I believe and have faith that one day day ALL the children of Haiti can have the chance for education.

While I knew in theory that education was surely important, it was not until I saw the desperate circumstances Haitians everywhere are facing that I came to realize that educating the children of Haiti is one of the very most important things we can help with. It is through education that these children can grow and become competent, caring leaders for their country.

During my visit to Haiti, I was able to meet the two children my neighborhood has been sponsoring for several years. They are darling children and are continuing to attend school thanks to the financial support of our neighborhood and the support of their parents. The parents of the two children were very respectful and thankful for what Haitian Roots is providing for their children.

Another exciting moment was when I was able to meet all but one of the 20 new children that Haitian Roots is going to be adding to their school program. My heart almost broke to see each child and parent dressed in surely what was their only "nice clothes". I could tell they very much wanted Harry, Chareyl Moyes and I to know that they were serious about their commitment to have their children attend school. They all had to travel some distance by "tap tap" to bring the children to the hotel for their photos and to complete the contracts with Haitian Roots. Each child received a school bag and a soccer ball or doll. You cannot even imagine the look on their faces as they peeked inside their school bag to see colored pencils, clean white notepaper and other school supplies. Each child clutched their school bag to them closely and solemnly nodded as the translator told them these were for school and to take care of them. I just cannot tell you enough about what an amazing experience this was. I actually saw hope in the eyes of parents and children compared to the abject despair I saw in the people living out on the streets.

I am so excited to be a tiny part of Haitian Roots through sponsorship and hope many more sponsors will come forward for this worthy cause.”

To read about Chareyl’s experiences and to learn more about our new coordinator, Harry, please visit our blog at www.haitianroots.com

How You Can Help!

• If you are sponsoring a child, are considering sponsoring a child or making a general donation, please do so TODAY! We still need to raise another $9,000 for our first payment by the end of the August. Mail us a check (609 W. 3850 S., Riverdale, UT 84405) or make a donation through PayPal here.
• Encourage your school to hold a fundraiser.
• Check out the blog on our website for fundraising ideas.
• Invite a member of Haitian Roots to speak to your school, youth group, church group, etc.
• Write about us on your blog and include a link to our website: www.haitianroots.com
• Talk to your place of business about making a charitable donation.
• Can’t make a large donation all at once? That is fine. Contact as at info@haitianroots.com about having a monthly sum of ANY amount deducted directly from your bank account.

You Are Appreciated

In quoting H.G. Wells again, he said, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” It often feels that we truly are in a race. When I feel discouraged, I like to remember these words of Abraham Lincoln: “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.”

We may not save every child in Haiti, but with the light that we have, which shines brighter and brighter with each one of you, we can make a difference. We ARE making a difference. Thank you!

Sincerely,

The Haitian Roots Team

www.haitianroots.com

Soccer Clinic

I have absolutely no time to blog. Okay, I guess its not "absolute" because I am actually trying to blog. I am completely consumed (okay, again, not "completely" but almost) with trying to get things organized and funds raised to be able to send 135 children to school in Haiti this fall. But I do want to record a couple of things.

First, the kids had a super fun time this past week at a free soccer clinic put on by our local Major League Soccer team. We all love soccer and I especially love a free activity. They gave the kids shirts and free water bottles. The coaches were great and there were two players from the team who came. String Cheese was star struck and made me think of my good friend Tia Juana who loves her some celebrity. SC told me that it was one of the best days of her life because these guys, Rafael Cox and Rachid El-Khalifi signed her shirt. But can you blame her?Oh, and the girls got haircuts that day as well. They wanted to go very very short. I loved their long locks but did not want to make a fuss about keeping beautiful hair because, well, who knows when you might lose it so I like to keep a prety nonchalant attitude about hair-importance. And I think they look cute.
A big windstorm started up and there was a bit of rain so we thought it might get canceled, but they pressed on.And there was a lovely rainbow.
I don't know that the kids really learned anything about soccer, but they had a lot of fun. And they had some drill that I have no idea what the point was but they got to run around and scream with Rafael Cox and they thought it was splendid.

Dear Angels,

I used to pray for you constantly while Loumy was in Haiti. I prayed that you would watch over him and talk to him and help him in every way until he could get home to me. You answered my prayers and then some. I recently discovered that you must have liked him so much that you didn't feel like leaving him once he got home. Well, I've actually had indications of that before but the event in my parent's backyard a couple of weeks ago truly confirmed it.

Thank you for paying attention to Loumy while he rode his first 4-wheeler by himself. I thought he was doing just fine, zipping around the yard like all the other little kids had been doing for the past couple hours. I was just up on the deck talking and paying very little attention at all. Chris and Mike were watching him, too, so I thought all was fine.

Luckily you knew better. Suddenly Nancy cried, "Oh my gosh!!! Loumy just drove off the edge!!!" You see, my parents live on the edge of a canyon and there are steep drop-offs all along the north edge of their property.

I don't remember what I said but I think I let out some expletives (saved for only those times you think your child has been killed) as I ran down the stairs and out to the edge of the lawn. I also saw Mike and Chris running towards where Loumy must have driven over--the steepest valley-like area of the gully. My heart was racing and a thousand thoughts went through my mind. I knew my baby was in bad shape. It was impossible for him not to be. The drop is extremely steep and there are dead trees and branches every where. I seriously thought he might be dead. At the very least he had been impaled, had broken bones, and was bleeding to death.

As I got to the edge I saw the 4-wheeler down about 40 feet but I couldn't see Loumy. I began to panic. I heard branches crunching and breaking as Chris called to me, "I've got him, he's all right." I didn't really think he was okay, but assumed at least he was alive if Chris had him. As I got to the spot where Chris was, he handed Loumy up to me and I held him tightly to me and started back towards the house. I held Loumy out for a minute and could see nothing but some leaves and grass in his hair and dirt. I held him close again and began sobbing, which suddenly stopped Loumy's crying. I took him in the house and began to examine him more closely. I got a wet washcloth and began wiping away the dirt. A small scratch on his forehead. A tiny scratch on his back. Mud caked into his toenails. A few scratches on his shins. None of the scratches were even dark or bleeding.

It was then that I realized what had happened. As Loumy flew over the edge, you grabbed him off the ATV and gently set him onto a pile of branches. I can think of no other explanation, dear sweet angels. Thank you thank you thank you!

Love,

A Very Grateful (and still shaken) Mama

This is my parent's beautiful backyard. They live on the edge of a canyon. To the left it drops down into a huge gully. We called it the "hollow" when I was growing up. It is great for adventures. Not so great for 4-year-olds to drive off on ATVs.
You can sort of see the track the kids were taking down the right side of the lawn. They'd circle around a sprinkler placed on that brown spot in the middle and come back and into the front yard. Instead of circling, Loumy went on the track to the right, then only did a 90 degree turn instead of a 180. He headed straight off this point:
Unless somebody were to stand at the bottom, I don't think you could really tell how steep this is from a photo. But this is where he went. It took 4 guys, a rope, and a garden hose to get finally get the ATV back up to the top.

He Talks...

...and he laughs. I love my Finny-Finn Baby!!!

Commercial

This has to be the my favorite commercial ever! Check it out and see if you can guess why I like it so much!


"I love what you've done with your hair."

Hurray for Bald Girls!!!

I first went to a Bald Girls Do Lunch hosted by Thea Chassin in November of 2007. It was the first time that I had gone bald in public at all. It was the catalyst for change for me. I have changed so much since that time. I will be forever grateful. Check out this cool bit on the Today show about Alopecia and Bald Girls Do Lunch. Seriously, don't the women look beautiful when they take their wigs off? I used to not feel that way but I have changed and am forever grateful.

On a side note, my hair did start to fall out again but, as you can see, my friend "confident-bald-girl" came right back, so for that I feel extremely blessed as well. Oh, and there is a pic of me on this segment. Near the beginning some photos come on the screen and I am in the 5th photo.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Little Things that Hurt My Heart

We have 20 new children that we are adding to Haitian Roots. That will bring us up to 133 children. We hope and pray that we will be able to raise the funds necessary to provide them all the education they so desperately need and that their parents dream for.

I recently received their applications and copies of the pictures that Chareyl took in June. The children are, naturally, very beautiful and mostly I am just excited and full of hope. But it is funny how the little things are what break my heart.

Take this cute father and daughter. This little girl is Jesula. She is 6 years old. Her parents love her very much but are currently unemployed. Unemployment rate in Haiti is very high. They know how important education is and took this opportunity to meet Chareyl and fill out an application very seriously. I can only imagine the difficult circumstances surrounding Jesula and her family. But for some reason it is her dad's signature (Joseph Lasson)
and her oversized shoes that I noticed from the corner of another photothat hurt my heart the most.

Hm...