TRTP in the news - PRESS RELEASE

St. Paul's Episcopal Church in New Orleans issued the following press release regarding their Haiti: New Orleans Will Stand By You outreach campaign on 3/2/10.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

The Rev. Dr. Scott P. Albergate, Rector

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

504.488.3749

salbergate@stpauls-lakeview.org

Kathy Korge Albergate, President

The Red Thread Promise

817.320.6522

kathy@redthreadpromise.org

Lisa Davis, Director of Institutional Advancement

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

504.488.3749

ldavis@stpauls-lakeview.org

ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND THE RED THREAD PROMISE

SEND HOPE TO HAITI

Organizations prepare to send their first Haiti relief team to the devastated area.

NEW ORLEANS - (March 1, 2010) Immediately following the devastating earthquakes in Haiti, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and The Red Thread Promise (TRTP) joined together in support of the people of Haiti by establishing the “Haiti: New Orleans Will Stand By You” outreach campaign. In the weeks following, organizers have been working hard to assemble a group to travel to the region to assist in their relief efforts. Through connections locally and nationally, a Haiti relief team has been formed and the group will make their first trip to the devastated area departing, Saturday, March 6th from New Orleans National Airport at 6:00 am arriving in Port-au-Prince at noon.

The Haiti relief team is a dedicated group of volunteer professionals with a passion for helping the people in the region and offering hope to those in the area who desperately need it. The group will be working with two Haitian organizations, Mountain Top Ministries (MTM), located in the town of Gramothe. MTM is an organization serving three mountain top communities providing a school, medical clinic, and church to the approximately 1,500 children. Since the devastation, MTM is also serving countless earthquake victims and Rivers of Hope orphanage, also located in Gramothe, which provides a home and care for 15 Haitian orphans.

The seven member team offers a wide-range of experience and expertise all sharing in the unified goal of helping Haitians with their recovery in both the short and long term. The team’s focus for this trip and future trips will be on helping to support the community’s medical, rebuilding, and educational needs. The group is also raising funds to support the disabled by providing All Terrain Wheelchairs to the handicapped. Team Leader, Kathy Korge Albergate, president of The Red Thread Promise (an organization dedicated to providing medical care to orphans across the world) has made several trips to Haiti before the earthquake working with the above mentioned organizations and brings years of experience working with orphans and children in foreign countries. On this trip, Albergate will serve as the group’s mentor and guide in the region while working with the Haitians to access their rebuilding needs and supplies. She will also spend time teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to kindergarten and 1st graders at the MTM school.

Joining Albergate are:

• Erin Hardin, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church member and The Red Thread Promise, board member. Hardin is a child advocate and will be working with Rivers of Hope orphanage to organize food donations, medical supplies, and long term care for the residing orphans.
• Tom Landry II, Interior Architect, will work with Mountain Top Ministries consulting on their needs for an extension of their medical clinic to include a surgical building. Landry will be on a fact finding mission taking extensive notes, photographs, and interviews. This will equip him with the knowledge and understanding needed to begin the design work and fundraising for the facility.
• Wade Shields, Physician Assistant, serves on the medical team and will be assisting the thousands of Haitians in need of medical care at Mountain Top Ministries clinic. He brings his experience of similar mission trips taken to Nicaragua.
• Three New Orleans medical residents bring much enthusiasm and talents to the table. They will be working five very full days at Mountain Top Ministries seeing patients as needed.

Through Albergate’s Haitian connections her team will have immediate access to the Haitians and a direct link to helping those whose needs are so high. The entire team is excited and devoted to making an impact in Haiti and feel fortunate to have the opportunity to share their talents and expertise with the people in the region. When the group returns from their first Haiti mission, they will work together to evaluate, access, and plan the future steps to continuing their service and commitment to the people of Haiti. Funds are being raised to help support the “Haiti: New Orleans Will Stand By You” campaign and can be made by visiting www.redthreadpromise.org. There is a PayPal button on the website as well as TRTP's mailing address. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. You can also send checks payable to The Red Thread Promise and mailed to:

Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund

c/o St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

6249 Canal Boulevard

New Orleans, LA 70124

100% of all financial donations earmarked Haiti Relief will go directly to provide earthquake relief.

It's A Small World After All...

Yes, that song is humming through my mind right now. As I am still trying to catch up on emails, I ran across links sent to me a few days ago to 2 different news articles that I'd like to share with you.

Chicago-Area Volunteers Treat Hundreds in Haiti (WLS-TV Chicago)

North Shore Medical Team in Haiti Pressed into Action (Chicago Tribune)

Both are about the amazing 23 person medical team from Chicago that was serving at Mountain Top Ministries while Kathy was there teaching ESL classes. She was blessed to meet all of the members of the group since their trips overlapped by several days and they were sharing the same space. The energetic team remained in Haiti after Kathy wrapped up the first week of English classes and returned to the US. Little did the team members know how much their services would be needed in the coming days.

The group was led by Sue Walsh, a dynamic lady that The Red Thread Promise was privileged to meet in July 2009. She was hosting a fundraiser for (drumroll please...) Mountain Top Ministries. The event happened to be over the same weekend that TRTP was having a board meeting in Chicago. At the fundraiser, the TRTP board met Willem, his wife Beth and their sons in person for the first time. [Pictured from left to right: Sonja (TRTP), Jen (TRTP), Laney (TRTP), Willem (MTM), Kathy (TRTP), Doug (TRTP)] Their energy was infectious and their passion for Willem's home country, Haiti, was overwhelming. It was an evening to remember and so I did tonight, over 6 months later.

I find these kind of coincidences and ironies comforting in a way. It reinforces in my mind that there truly is a red thread of destiny connecting us all. If only we are willing to grasp it and keep an open mind as to where it may lead. That same red thread is pulling us to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti. If you feel the tug of the unseen thread, please consider contributing to our Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund. Our mailing address, Global Giving and PayPal buttons are on the right in the sidebar. Mark your donation with "earthquake" in the subject line and 100% of the donation will go directly to Haiti.

Light in the Darkness

With all of the news of the devastation in Haiti, there is a bit of light in the darkness. A group of 14 seventh and eighth graders in a small Montessori school in Ohio decided to help.

After hearing the news on Tuesday, I asked for permission to do a presentation at my children's school on Wednesday afternoon to suggest a community service project for the children. As always, they welcomed me into the class during their community meeting at the end of the school day.

You see, I was already Haiti-bound prior to the earthquake. Plans had been made and tickets had been purchased for me to accompany Kathy on the next ESL trip Jan 30 - Feb 5. We were organizing a supply collection of items that are expensive to purchase in Haiti to take along for the orphanage. I was tasked with 2T and 3T toddler pull-ups as well as children's chewable vitamins. Following the news of the earthquake, it seemed like it was even more important that we gather as much as American Airlines will allow us to carry in our suitcases!

So, I met with the kids. We sat in the small ampi-theater and they listened to me tell about my involvement with The Red Thread. We discussed the earthquake, the Richter magnitude scale, the island of Hispanola, the unemployment and poverty of Haiti, Rivers of Hope orphanage and Mountain Top Ministries. They asked thoughtful questions such as:

• Why is the unemployment level so high?
• Are there not enough jobs?
• Do people not want the jobs?
• How can people live on so little?
• How many people are hurt?
• Do you know how many died?

Then we talked about ways they could help. I told them about the pull-ups and the vitamins. But they wanted to know what else was on the list since it wasn't enough just to collect those items. Then one of them suggested doing a pizza fundraiser for the entire elementary school and everyone readily agreed. They even decided to write an article for the school newspaper and made fliers for the fundraiser (which were in the parent mailboxes today!).

As students were picked up by their parents, they told them excitedly about the items they "have to go buy". For them, helping wasn't something to think about doing—it was what they were going to do and they had already begun! When I left the classroom, my heart was ready to burst. These kids were on fire and so willing to help people that they will probably never meet.

We can learn something from these children. Even at 11, 12, 13 and 14 years old, we can join these young adults and be compassion in action. I can't wait to see what these kids accomplish. Regardless of the amount of money or supplies, it will be something to be remembered.

DAY 5 IN HAITI: Kindergarten

Kathy's in the midst of a swirl of activity at Mountain Top Ministries/Rivers of Hope. A 24-person medical team arrived Wednesday evening and began work early this morning at the clinic.

Kathy began teaching at 8:00 a.m. Kindergartners, first graders and four teachers poured into the classroom and sang "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes." After naming more body parts, Kathy expanded the vocabulary lesson to include clothing and furniture and other objects in the classroom.

Tomorrow she'll review these words and add the words for eating utensils. In February she'll begin work with these words, flash cards, and items on the computer.

Once classroom work was finished, Kathy joined the children and the medical team at the clinic. She helped the children make potholders while they waited in the reception area. Soon adults joined the children, and potholder making continued throughout the day.

Kathy's taken some photos of the new hospital under construction (pictured above). Work is at a standstill now, waiting until funds can be raised to complete the building. Once the hospital is operational, it will provide maternity care, house overnight patients and allow doctors to perform surgeries. An on-site lab and pharmacy will cut down on the time patients must wait for diagnoses and medications.

Another large medical team will arrive March 4 and stay through the March 13. The team needs an RN or physician to run a station: seeing patients, assisting with patients, and serving as the primary contact for patients. Kathy will be in Haiti March 6-12 and is hoping that the RN or physician can accompany her.

If this is something you are interested in (and it may well be a life-changing experience), let us know and we'll get started making the arrangements. Costs are $450-$800 plane fare and $55 per night for lodging, which includes bed, tub, two meals and a beautiful view.

ESL program starts in Haiti

What an exciting day for TRTP! Kathy is on a plane bound for Miami and then she is off to Haiti to begin our English as a Second Language (ESL) program at Mountain Top Ministries (MTM) School.

The children of Gramothe, Haiti and surrounding areas are some of the most impoverished children The Red Thread Promise has pledged to help. With Haiti’s 80% unemployment level, it is unlikely that these young ones will find work as adults. We want to change that statistic.

We have the opportunity to teach English to these children who are eager to end the cycle of poverty in their home country. Laying down a strong educational foundation will give them priceless communication skills, opening doors for them into Haiti’s workforce and beyond.

Through this program, we can show these children that we care about them and reinforce the fact that they are each valuable human beings. So valuable that volunteers are traveling from other parts of the world to improve their education in their home country.

Kathy, TRTP co-founder, will travel for one week each month, January through May 2010, laying down the ground work for this program. She will begin work this Monday with two kindergarten classes at MTM School. The program will be fun and energizing for children and adults as they jump, spin, hop, color, all the while learning English. Children will begin by learning the names for objects they see and touch each day in their own environment. If they can see it, they can learn it! Together, we will be giving a precious gift that even poverty can not take away.

Your support is critical to the success of this program. We are in need of $5,400 to complete the classes through May 2010, the largest portion being airfare ($3,000). We appreciate the airline miles and funds that were donated in the last days of 2009 - what a great way to ring in the new decade! We’d like to keep the momentum going. Please consider starting 2010 on a positive note with a charitable donation or airline miles toward our ESL program. Our contact information is on the right as well as a convenient PayPay button.

The Red Thread Promise is also looking for volunteers to travel to Haiti during the 2010/11 school year to continue the program. Interested individuals or groups may contact Kathy at Kathy@redthreadpromise.org for more information.