Phila Inquirer story about a Haitian girl getting a new leg at Shriners

Haitian girl, 8, fitted for leg by Shriners in Phila.

By Michael Matza

Inquirer Staff Writer
Eight-year-old Sarah Maurice, who lost a leg to Haiti's earthquake, had just one question for doctors Wednesday at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

When the technicians finish building her artificial limb, will it be the color of her chocolate-brown skin?

Prosthetist Jennifer Stieber assured her it would.

Sarah, an irrepressible elf in a blue-striped dress and a single brown sandal, mostly laid her crutches aside to hop about the hospital on her sound left leg during a morning of medical evaluation.

Her spunk belied her tragic backstory: the collapse of her family home that killed her 44-year-old mother and left Sarah trapped with the corpse in the rubble for two days; the amputation of the child's leg above the knee; a stifling week in a tent on a Port-au-Prince street; the agonizing evacuation over broken roads to the undamaged house of a great-aunt in the southwestern town of Port Salut.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20100520_Haitian_girl__8__fitted_for_leg_by_Shriners_in_Phila_.html#ixzz0oSkBsq4a

Travelling with the Corban Team!

This past week we visited 6 schools in Port-au-Prince and then on Friday we ventured out to Leogane to visit 2 more schools.

Everywhere we went the children were excited to see us, and we were happy to see them. We played with them and then shared the Gospel using a "3-ball magic trick" illustration as well as "wordless book" bracelets.

On the way back from Leogane we visited the new property of the "Jehu's Boys" orphanage. The property is on the side of a hill overlooking the Port-au-Prince bay and is a gift from God as it was purchased from the Mayor of Gressier at a very low price. The new building was not damaged hardly at all by the earthquake and will house a school and living quarters for the boys when it is done.

Later in the afternoon on Friday we worked on the basketball court at Quisqueya Chapel that Indian Trail church (the home church of the team leader) gave us money to expand and renovate. It is going to be great when it is done.

Saturday we took a long road trip to Verrettes with a plumber/electrician to plan how to install a water purification system that will supply the whole community with clean drinking water. The team also played with some Bible Club children and Jean Paul shared the Gospel with them and 4 children trusted in Christ.

Later that day we went to the beach for the afternoon and also snorkeled a bit.

Sunday we visited Tabernacle, a Haitian church and then most rested since some of the team were sick.

I took two of the men out with me to a clinic in Cazal along with 4 children and their mothers who were sick. Licia and Laurie, the nurses at the clinic, were very kind to see us and after examining the children gave us lots of medicine to help them get over Diarhea and worms.

Today we are going to visit 2 schools - one near Fort Jacques - a historic fort we will also visit while there.

The team leaves early tomorrow, and we will be sad to part, but rejoice in the over 30 children who have trusted in Christ this week!
Rich

Water system in Verrettes

You may remember reading about the large capacity water systems that were donated after the earthquake. One of them was designated for Verrettes, the town where we have one of our regional divisions of AIS-Haiti and we're in close touch with the UEBH pastor. They have had a shortage of clean drinking water, so the filtration system should really be useful out there.

One of the challenges about setting it up was having a pump to input water into the system because it is meant to filter thousands of gallons a day. One of the times we went to the Dominican Republic (DR), Richard went with a Dominican friend-of-a-friend, Victor, to buy the pump, which really means buying the pieces for it. Then Victor spent hours putting it together. Yesterday, while in Verrettes, Richard found out that it is going to work (I really feel like I should say "Lord willing" here, because, well...experiences...).

Please pray for the use of this filtration system keeping in mind the following conundrum. There are very poor people in the area who really need the water and the system was donated, so it would seem logical to give out the water for free. Plus there are costs to maintaining the system. So the church should probably charge something for the water. But some free services and goods put Haitian small business people out of business and we want businesses to grow and prosper so that those business owners can feed their families. So do they charge less because it was a donated system and the people are so poor and there's a shortage in the area? Or do that charge the fair market value to be fair to the small businesses in the area?
If you have any ideas, go ahead and comment.

Please pray for Sophonie

Please pray for my little friend, Sophonie, who's 3 years old. She's very sick. Today Richard is going to take her out to a clinic that provides long term care for sick children. We're not sure if they're going to suggest keeping her there for a while or not. She has not had good nutrition for most of her life. Pray for her mother, Sophie, a teen mom who as already had a baby of hers die. She is really pulling back from Sophonie, probably fearing another terrible loss like before.

Corban Team stretched with 100 kids showing up on Wednesday

The week is going well with the Corban team, but yesterday was a challenge!

Although they are asking for 40 children each day, that's hard to do when there are thousands of kids in the IDP Camp (Internally Displaced Persons--i.e. internal refugees). They try to have a different 40 kids each day to give as many kids as possible a chance.

But yesterday 100 came. It's great to have all those kids get to do something, but the Corban team consists of only 8 people. Combined with the Haitian workers, it's still not quite enough. (And I'm guessing they didn't have enough supplies, although Richard didn't mention that).

Thanks for your prayers...keep on praying.
Carol

News about Haiti

Here are some recent news articles:

1. You have to see these pictures of a rainy night inside bed-sheet-tents in Haiti - please PRAY while viewing...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/4/Photo-Essay-Across-from-H-by-Mac-McKinney-100511-652.html
(I guess some websites don't allow you to post an actual link, but you can cut and paste or go to www.opednews.com

2. I'm so glad these people are in Haiti:

In Haiti, international relief targets rats and bugs

Large pest control businesses like Terminix and Orkin are part of an international relief effort to improve sanitation in Haiti refugee camps and stop the spread of potentially dangerous pests.

read more from the Christian Science Monitor, www.csmonitor.com:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0510/In-Haiti-international-relief-targets-rats-and-bugs

2. No Wonder Haitians love Brazil

CORRECTED - Brazil pays first donation into Haiti quake fund
(Corrects paragraph 10 to read millions not billions)

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - Brazil became the first contributor to a reconstruction fund for Haiti on Tuesday

Corban College Team

Here's the Richard's report on what's been happening with the Corban College Team:

"The team from Corban College has been doing a great job!!

We have so far visited three schools in the Mornings and done two sessions of camp with 41 children from the Delmas 48 Refugee camp in the afternoons.

The team has done a great job sharing the love of Christ with the kids, sharing their testimonies and doing games and crafts.

Today they got to visit the house of our friends Frere Levi and also walk through a refugee camp.

They are a bit overwhelmed by the poverty but are encouraged by the warmth of the Haitian people.

Thanks for your prayers as we continue the same schedule through Thursday and then will visit Leogane and Verrettes over the weekend!"

Corban College Team Visit

A team of eight from Corban College arrived safely in Port-au-Prince on Sunday.

Their first day went well, running a camp for kids who are survivors of the earthquake. They did a craft with the kids--a decorated sun visor. Then they had a Bible lesson. After that they played games.

Richard has pictures, but internet hasn't been working well at the house. We'll fill you in with more details as we're able. Please pray for their work and safety this week.

NB: Although there was demonstrating in front of the ruined National Palace against the President for his "low profile" after the earthquake, the team was not near that area, so we don't expect any problems for them.
Carol

Interesting video

this is an interesting video with footage from security cameras of the National Palace during the earthquake and much more.

However, they say "not one church is standing in Port-au-Prince." That's not really true--I'm pretty sure that Bolosse Church is within the city limits and it is still standing.

http://vimeo.com/11086636

Fellowship of Christian Athletes visits Haiti

Today I took 4 members of FCA Atlanta on a tour of our work in Leogane.

We visited 2 schools where we have teams and they had a great time meeting the kids we are working with.

They hope to partner with us by sending coaches and other qualified people to help us train our leadership.

Right now, Ronald William and our new coaching friend, Kirby, are training our coaches in the Leogane area.

Thanks for making this possible!

Pray for baby Aiden, son of my niece

Please pray for my niece, Lisa's baby, Aiden. He has been having seizures since he was born.

The neurologists are going to remove the left temporal lobe, left occipital lobe and and part of the left parietal lobe. This is the area causing his seizures as this part of the brain did not finishing developing. Once the drs. do the surgery they will see if there is any more abnormal tissue that needs removed, etc.

The drs. told them all of his functions will transfer to the right side of his brain(!) and hopefully he will be seizure free. He will need a great deal of therapy and will be develpmentally delayed, but the idea is that with the therapy he will get caught up in development since he is so young. He will not have periphal vision on his right side, but they do not think he has it now anyway. He has another eye exam today at 2, another MRI that will assist the dr. in surgery, and a test later today determining how his brain processes energy. It was determined this was not genetic.
Thank you so much,
Carol

Another Aftershock...and progress

There was a 4.4 aftershock today in Haiti. Pray for the people who are struggling with feeling safe.

Many of you have asked us how the reconstruction is going in Haiti. I'm going to try to post links to articles or portions of articles that will give you some updates on activity in Haiti. Here is one by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction .

“More than ever, Haiti is in a vulnerable situation due to the upcoming rainy and hurricane seasons. There is great urgency now to give particular attention to structural safety for temporary schools, hospitals and camp settlements,” said Margareta Wahlström, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. “Camps must be built in safe locations with resistant materials and adequate drainage systems to be able to withstand the next hurricane season. The entire international community shares a collective responsibility to reduce the vulnerability of thousands of Haitians to new, imminent disasters.”

In the past decade, Haiti has suffered significant losses from hurricanes. The 2008 season was particularly severe as Haiti experienced four hurricanes in a row. Mudslides are another risk that Haitians may face if rainfalls are significant.


“It will take a minimum of ten years to rebuild Haiti but it is important to start building safer schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure now. It costs much less to integrate disaster risk reduction principles into the design of new construction than to retrofit existing buildings. The 2009 Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction recommended allocating ten percent of relief aid to disaster risk reduction. It is our hope that 10 percent of the estimated US$ 10 billion reconstruction effort will focus on reducing Haiti’s vulnerability to disasters, which are a recurring threat to the Haitian people,” said Wahlström.

Right to Play team from Moncton University visit AIS in Verrettes

It has been a wonderful week of activity for me as I hosted a team of 26 from Moncton University in New Brunswick in French-speaking Canada.
All the club members are related to the University of Moncton as former or current students. They raised thousands of dollars and collected 3,200 lbs of equipment which they brought over in 64 hockey bags. Each club member had to do a fund-raising activity to be a member of the club. They did everything from bagging groceries to benefit concerts and sports contests like a canoe race across a frozen river!

Once they arrived, we stuffed a school bus with the bags and once it was full, we piled the rest on the roof.
We had three major activities planned for the week:

1)Visiting at least 10 schools (2 a day for 5 days), One Christian and one public.
2)Tearing off a roof on a school and replacing it with painted tin.
3)Organizing a 7-game, single elimination U-13 boys soccer tournament with 8 teams.

By the end of the week we had visited 12 schools, played games with over 3,000 students, and gave each school two sets of soccer uniforms, school supplies, and lots of other sports equipment.

We had torn off the roof and rotten wood and, along with our Haitian helpers, had started to put on the new roof.

The soccer tournament went very well with at least 500 people coming to each game and probably about 1,000 attending the final. We were able to get a local radio station to call the final live and got the opportunity to share the Gospel over the radio at the half-time break and after regulation before the game went to penalty kicks. In the end, the Verrettes team won on penalty kicks and afterwards there was a nice award ceremony.

In addition, we played a woman’s soccer game with local Haitian players, some of which used to be on the Haitian woman’s national team.

Another high-light was visiting the physical therapy and prosthetics center which was helping rehabilitate those earthquake victims that had limbs amputated. We were able to distribute hundreds of Teddy bears and stuffed animals to these victims as well as the children in the mal-nourishment and pediatric wards.

Some of the challenges we faced during the week were:
1) A shortage of gas and diesel
2) Someone stole our generator, but the police recovered it
3) At one of the soccer games, angry fans started to throw rocks at the opposing team when their team lost and some of our players were hit.
4) One of our trucks had a flat tire 3 times.

Thanks to all of us who prayed for us this week. I was very proud of our AIS Haiti leaders and how they performed under pressure. We all grew during this period!

An Article on the Reconstruction Efforts - Housing

Many of you have been asking me how the reconstruction is going in Haiti. Well, the job is so vast, just about any answer is ancecdotal. So, I'm going to start posting links to some articles about the progress, problems and (....hmmmm gotta find something that starts with "P"....) praises (!) in reconstruction.

Here's one for today:
Transitional housing slowly getting built in Haiti
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/30/1606660/transitional-housing-slowly-getting.html#storylink=fbuser#ixzz0mhNhT68i


By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer

PAPETTE, Haiti -- Unlike the vast majority of earthquake victims still crowded into squalid camps, the simple farmers of this hard-hit village have reason to hope as hurricane season looms.