To Hope for Haiti

City of Langford

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:23:52 +0000

The City of Langford is rebuilding an orphanage and school run by two elderly nuns. We are taking books, toys, and clothes for the children.

lililiread

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:15:30 +0000

Lilili Reading out loud program for children living in tent cities. Haitian readers are trained to read story books and use puppets to entertain children and adults. We are taking books to be translated into Creole.

FRADES

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:58:32 +0000

Frades is a Haitian micro loan organization in Croix-des-Bouquets outside Port-au-Prince.Following the earthquake, orphaned children began congregating there and although they are not equipped to care for children, the organization has found tent housing for them. Other children join them during the day, hoping for food. We are taking them food, clothes, food and sanitary supplies.

SOPUDEP

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:44:10 +0000

SOPUDEP is a literacy program for adults and children in Petion-ville, serving the poorest residents of the city. The hot meal served daily is usually the only meal the 700 children have each day. We are taking tents and sanitary products to the school. The program is supported by the Sawatzky Family Foundation of Ontario.

Dube Brothers fundraise for our birth families

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:02:57 +0000

The Dube Brothers rock out for Haiti. Thanks, guys!

The Dube Brothers of Ottawa, “Canada’s Youngest Rock Band”, have raised over $85,000 for Canadian Feed the Children’s House of Hope orphanage in Port au Prince. When they read about our walkathon, they contacted us and offered to raise some money for our birth families. They raised $2K for us at a recent show.

Check the boys on YouTube, or visit their Facebook page. They’re playing this summer with Arcade Fire!

We’re going to Haiti!

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:33:47 +0000

We are leaving on August 30th, taking bags of supplies for our Haitian partners. We will be delivering books, clothes, shoes and medical supplies to several organizations. We’ll also be visiting FIDA’s agricultural coop projects and the House of Hope Orphanage. We will visit Camasiz and Taphatna’s birth families too.

Taphatna gets Citizenship Award

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 13:08:08 +0000

Taphatna and mayor Derek Corrigan.

As part of Youth Week this year, our sister Taphatna received a Citizenship Award from Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan for her local contributions towards international awareness and solidarity.

Taphatna is preparing for our family’s trip to Haiti this year. We’ll post details about that soon.

Family worries

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:59:21 +0000

Today’s edition of The Province has an article about what we’re going through right now. We’re trying our best to stay hopeful and motivated, continuing to fundraise at our school and in our community as we pore over news releases for signs of our friends and relatives in Haiti.

Thanks to The Province, Burnaby Now, Tri-City News, and CBC for helping us fundraise this week.

Canadian Feed the Children Update

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:19:12 +0000

An update from Lisa Doucette at Canadian Feed the Children:

As you can imagine, we are run off our feet trying to do everything we can. We are still anxiously trying to contact our many colleagues and friends in the field, but have not had a lot of luck to date. We are extremely relieved to have received unconfirmed reports indicating that our Country Rep, Madsen Gachette, and his wife and two children are alive and have contacted a family member in Northern Haiti. We have also heard that there has been damage to our office, but we do not know the extent of it yet.

The House of Hope orphanage has been one of our community partners for many years with our supporters providing children with food, shelter, clothing, education and more. It is located in Gressier, where earthquake damage was rated 9 out of 10 on the intensity scale. In spite of this, we just heard that all 200 children and staff in the orphanage are safe and the building remains standing among the rubble of its community. House of Hope Director Alice Barthole reports that the village was “flattened and there many people dead and injured on the streets with very little help”. Some are calling it a miracle - many of the children had left school just moments before the buildings collapsed in the earthquake. Amazingly, when the dust settled, the orphanage was one of the few buildings left standing. Alice says that at this point she has water, power and food but many people are coming to the orphanage for help, so it is difficult to know how long it will last.

Also good news, another partner, Grace Children’s Hospital, is still standing though there is some structural damage. All the children are safe except for one child who was tragically killed due to falling debris. The children are currently being kept outside the building for safety.

We still are awaiting status reports from our other partners, our Field Office and other staff. Please keep checking our website for updates as we receive them. Thanks to everyone for your generous donations and well wishes.

Earthquake: where to donate

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:58:22 +0000

Thanks to all who have emailed, phoned, and interviewed our family to find out how they can help in the aftermath of the tragedy. We’ll post updates here soon. Meanwhile, we encourage people to donate to Canadian Feed the Children, FIDA, or one of the organizations listed on CBC’s Haiti Relief page. Canadians’ donations are being matched by our government.

The CBC is an excellent source right now for details about the disaster.