Home Again...

Safely returned November 7th. Over 425 people seen and treated by our Medical Team.  Bob Fairchild, designed and built a "gassifier stove". This is incredibly exciting technology that we will be sharing about soon.
We brought back fresh roasted coffee, and some very beautiful artwork that we will be selling for this Christmas Season. We are looking forward to seeing everyone soon in our travels.
Will post more soon.
Our heartfelt thanks,
Bob and Denise

October 20th 2011 update

For all of the faithful collaborators and supporters of the Haiti Project, here is a quick update. We always intend to keep everyone currant but it seems like time fly's by, and we forget to update everyone. We are a very grassroots organization, everyone volunteers, so sometimes unfortunately we get behind.

        We are preparing to leave on our eleventh trip. We are bringing a medical team and lots of mostly donated meds. We will also be surveying our newly purchased land. This property is for The Fr.Jim Bretl Agricultural Center. We need to discern how much money is needed to build a wall around the 4.5 acres. We will plant mango trees as soon as we can secure the property from goats and vandals. Once the mango trees are established we will the plant vanilla orchids. The mango trees will start producing in five years. At that point the center will begin to be self sustainable. 

        Our vision is to create training and jobs in an environment that you will feel the presence of Christ when you enter.

        This center is a big vision but when we started the school lunch program that seemed impossible also.

Bob and Denise

If you would like to contribute to the shipping container this year, Please look at this list Needs of Haiti 2011

Paint Plumbing Hardware /materials Tools Electric Miscellaneous Children Medical Food paint trays pipe dope cabinet locks wood chisels 24 elect ceiling lamp fixtures and bulbs folding table with adj legs Clothes Empty pill containers (with the labels removed Rice (in a plastic sealed container) rollers sealers cabinet hardware screw driver sets electric connectors wire nuts,etc duck boards shoes Ibuprofen (Adult, Infants and children's Dried Beans in a plastic sealed container brushes plumber putty keyed alike padlocks 1/2" socket set 12-2/w/grnd dish dryer racks Formula Tylenol (adult, children, and infant ladders ext and step caulk gun hardware cloth ext and adapters metal recep boxes and covers scale for weighing bags Hair Bows Liquid tears Chicken feed paint for tools handles (3colors) silicone Masonite and plywood deep well sockets receptacles dust pans School supplies Eye drops vegetable seed toilet seats nails and screws breaker bar switches brooms erasers Anti fungal cream black bd paint electric water pump to increase pressure assorted hardware electric tool kits (3) assorted plastic zip lock bags composition books Stretchers transporting the sick sinks Phillips bits generators anti biotic hand sanitizer pencils Lotion ball cock valves chicken wire meters engine cleaner chalk Cream for Vaginal yeast infection water wand fence and post Machetes carburetor cleaner small toys Vitamins (adult, children, Infants. Prenatal) hose bibs #9 wire Shovels Iron tablets laundry tubs elect fence wire and insulators Hoes maps Anti biotic Cream 3/4 and 1" fittings pvc solar lites Garden Hoses globes glue and cleaner Rakes flash cards 3/4 and 1" pvc pipes Rotor tiller class room clocks roll black pipe 3/4 Wagons 3/4 black pipe fittings Wheel Barrels Generators hammers hand saws files hack saws carpenter pencils

Volunteers?

We have 2 projects that need someone to head up. 1st, we need a small engine mechanic to tune up and repair generators and other items that are donated to ship to Haiti. 2nd we need some one to head up a soap project. Any one feel called to help

How Haiti can reclaim sovereignty

Follow the link to a thoughtful article on NGOs and Haiti's sovereignty. I believe the work we are doing to serve Fr.Jadotte and the people of Rivere Mancelle is in contrast to the shot gun approach of many of the well meaning groups working there. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/03/haiti-voluntarysector

A perspective on where the money is being spent in Haiti.

Following is quoted from Sunday, January 16, 2011 http://www.jamaicaobserver.com

...former President Bill Clinton -- who co-chairs the 26-member Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (IHRC) -- about equal representation on the IHRC from the international donors and Haiti? Does she realise that the IHRC is dominated by non-Haitian policy-makers and management to the point of provoking complaints over 'sovereignty' from the Haitian Cabinet?

President Clinton would have told the congresswoman of some of his own deep disappointments over the US failure to match DELIVERY of aid with PLEDGES made. By last year end, an official assessment had pointed to a mere 10 per cent delivery, at best, of the original US$9 billion identified as 'recovery' aid from the US and its allies.

The Haitian professor of sociology at Wesleyan University and author of The Prophet and Power -- Jean Bertrand Aristide, the International Community and Haiti, noted in a recent article in the Washington Post that of the estimated US$267 million doled out so far in more than 1,500 contracts, only 20 of those, worth US$4.03 million, or $1.60 out of every $100: have gone to Haitian firms. The rest went to US firms with 23 per cent awarded to two large American firms in "no-bid contracts..."

In the meanwhile, the BBC, as well as CNN and other leading US media continue to report on the nightmarish existence that an estimated one million Haitian earthquake victims continue to face every day and every night. They live in the most dehumanising conditions in make-shift tents where women and girls are routinely raped and are unable to get protection from whatever the designated security arrangements might be.

In more recent reports Amnesty International and the UK-based charity, Oxfam, have expressed deep concerns about the hellish survival conditions for more than 800,000 Haitians, huddled in these tents that offer no proper security and where criminality and sexual violence against women and girls have become a way of life.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Is-Caricom-too-timid-to-speak-up-for-Haiti-_8291609#ixzz1BDQLZ5nN