July 19, 2010
First of all, a HUGE thank you to all of you who are supporting Nerlande and I and the work we are doing in Haiti. You gave in a myriad of different ways for this recent trip and really made this grassroots work we are involved in down there possible. Due to your generous responses to my SOS emails for funds to support the food distribution project (see receipts attached) we were able to provide even more food than we had initially envisioned & I contacted some of you to confirm that I could use some of the funds for other needed items (such as mosquito nets).
We personally brought aid in the form of food, clothes, shoes, non-battery powered flashlights, school supplies, and medical supplies (including essential oil healing blends) to 6 communities (2 in Leogane, 1 in downtown Port au Prince, 2 in the La Pleine area close to the PAP airport, and one other community in greater PAP). We cargo shipped and brought with us what seemed like a huge quantity of items! As you’ve probably seen from some of the media coverage, the need is so great and some of the larger organizations just aren’t following through with getting the aid to the people, so our supplies were in great demand and we can’t wait to return and bring more.
We also followed up with using your donations of cell phones and jewelry to help set up 7 individuals with goods to start their own small businesses in hopes of them becoming self-sufficient. On my final day there, I had the joy of observing a couple of women in the community excitedly brandishing 3 colourful pairs of sandals which had been donated by a local company (Deals & Steals of Northampton, MA) to help set up some of our friends in La Pleine with their own business. Our friends had already begun setting up their stand to vend them and their first customers were encouraging other women to go and purchase the sandals too!
Another one of the women in La Pleine who had worked hard at teaching me Kreyol on my trip in March, was excited to show me exactly how she had put to good use some of our support money we had sent down to help her and her family. She had purchased food items and containers and explained how she got up around 4.30am to haul the goods out to the local streets and set up a charcoal fire to cook breakfasts and lunches for people so that she had sufficient funds to send her children to school. This was also the woman who received the laptop computer, which was donated. She had never used a computer before, but she and her children were quick studies and were already navigating the program I’d downloaded for them to learn English by the end of my first evening there!
There are so many other stories to tell. I will attach a few visuals from the relief work this month. Look closely and you’ll find items that you personally donated/funded. Future plans and dreams are focusing more in the La Pleine area of PAP, as we enter into further discussions with individuals and other groups in regards to community rebuilding efforts. There are approximately 250 displaced families in the area of La Pleine where we’ve been staying (called Sarthe) who are living in makeshift tents. We hope to go back down for further planning with community leaders in October. We have been meeting with UNESCA (an established Haitian organization in this community) to provide them with medical supplies and discuss possibilities for connecting medical workers from here to run clinics in Sarthe. Others of you have contacted me with great ideas for running jewelry making workshops and ESL intensives. All of this is very exciting and possible. Keep your ideas and support flowing. Blessings and peace to you all!
Samantha Mjenzi
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