Photos of Blanc and his ATW

(Author's note: I always have to laugh when I've finished a post. Inevitably, as soon as it's up, additional information about a project or photos shows up in my inbox. This is no exception!)

Kathy (foreground), Willem (left), Blanc's wife and son (background)

and Blanc at the entrance of his home

Blanc demonstrating how the chair works

Explaining to Kathy how the chair has helped him with his therapy

Joking with the team

A grateful smile and thank you

Visiting Blanc

The team visited Blanc during the May trip. It was great to see how the all-terrain wheelchair is making a difference in his life. He was very thankful for the transformative gift and expressed his deep gratitude to The Red Thread Promise.

Blanc and his wife in front of their home in Gramothe

Blanc shared that he is now able to do his prescribed therapy more comfortably and that his upper body strength has greatly increased. He appears much stronger and healthier than the photos taken just weeks earlier when the wheelchair was delivered in April.

The path to Blanc's home

The Haitian terrain is a constant barrier to mobility for disabled citizens. Pictured above is the roof of their home. As with many residences, it has been built into the side of the mountain. The path leading to the front door runs steeply down the left side of the house. Due to the rainy season, many mountain roads and foot paths are completely washed out and the wheelchair has allowed Blanc mobility that he would not have had otherwise.

Saying goodbye

The Importance of Education in Haiti

We'd like to share a heart-wrenching story of a man we met in Gramothe back in March. His story is one of many that demonstrate the urgency of bringing education to the people of Haiti. (Author's note: some photos may be disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.)

Before we begin, we'd like to share some basic facts about education in Haiti*.

• Fifty percent of primary school age children are not enrolled in school.
• One third of girls over six never go to school.
• Approximately 30% of children attending primary school will not make it to third grade; 60% will abandon school before sixth grade.
• Only 15% of teachers at the primary level have basic teacher qualifications (including university degrees), and nearly 25% have never even attended secondary school.
• The most startling statistic: 37.9% of the population is unable to read or write as compared to only 12% illiteracy in the rest of Latin America

Sainristil

We'd like to introduce you to Sainristil, father of 15 children, a farmer and long-time resident of Gramothe. We met him bright and early on the first day we worked at MTM's clinic in March. He was delirious with pain and showed us the cause: his hand was grossly swollen and black with injuries that none of us could identify. The tips of the fingers on his left hand were shaved down to pointy nubs, showing exposed dried tissue.

Sainristil (right) showing his injuries to Shawn, TRTP doctor (left) prior to treatment

After examination by the doctors, it was determined that he had dry gangrene on all of his fingers. The doctors treated him with strong antibiotics and referred him to a surgical center because his injuries were beyond the capabilities of MTM's clinic. But what could have caused such an injury?

Through an interpreter, we heard this sad, unfortunate story unravel.

On January 12th, Sainristil was walking his youngest daughter, Kenia, home from school. While walking along the river bed, the earthquake triggered a rockslide, striking this beautiful 6 year old. Two medical volunteers at MTM's clinic who witnessed the landslide, labored to breathe life into the little girl while transporting her via ATV to the closest hospital. Tragically, Kenia's injuries brought her short life to an end.

Six year old Kenia at school (photo courtesy of MTM)

In the midst of his substantial grief and loss, Sainristil stood strong and chose to help at rice distribution points set up to give much needed food to fellow Haitians. Sainristil explained to us that he was in serious pain following his work handling 100 lb sacks of rice. His left hand caused him such pain that a well-meaning friend suggested that he put his hand in boiling water for relief. Sadly, he took his friend's advice.

According to Sainristil, the pain subsided temporarily, but as you can imagine, the boiling water damaged his hand even further. His hand swelled up like a balloon and, being a farmer, he questioned how he would be able to farm with such a hand. So he did what he thought would be best—he began to carve away the swollen tissue from his fingers. As the gangrene developed, the real pain set in which is what brought him to the clinic seeking help.

Injury prior to treatment

Following the advice of the clinic doctors, Sainristil was able to get the treatment he needed from a local surgical center with help from MTM. Unfortunately, by the time we saw him again on Friday morning, four of his fingers had been amputated. He expressed his gratitude for the surgery and shared that the pain was much more manageable.

Following the amputation of 4 fingers

During The Red Thread Promise's most recent trip to Haiti in May, Kathy and the team were fortunate enough to see Sainristil again. Eight weeks had past since our last visit. Unfortunately, he had returned to the surgical center to have the remaining part of his hand removed. Angie, one of our team members, was able to measure him for a prosthesis that we hope to provide for him.

Following the amputation of entire hand

This true story weighs on our hearts and minds and demonstrates the value of education, which could have prevented this tragedy.

• A basic anatomy class would have provided Sainristil sufficient knowledge about the human body that he would have known putting his hand in boiling water would cause more long-term problems than possible pain relief.
• Literacy and access to a library or the internet would have allowed him to research his ailment before making life-altering decisions.
• Understanding the importance of a medical consultation for diagnosis, treatment options and pain management in lieu of superstitious cures would have drastically changed the rest of his life.

Instead, in Gramothe, there is a well-meaning father who is now an amputee for life, whose capacity to be a provider for his remaining 14 children has been greatly diminished.

It is time for change.

* Unicef website, 2009; Haiti Interim Cooperation Framework Report, 2004; Unicef Humanitarian Action Report 2008; World Bank 2007 Project Appraisal Document for Education for All Program; Human Development Report 2009; UNDP Haiti Rapport National Sur Le Development Humain 2002

Kathy & Tom - Days 1 & 2 in Haiti

Kathy, Tom and the team made it safely to Haiti despite late flights from New Orleans and Miami. They were greeted by Willem (MTM), Rachoul (Rivers of Hope orphanage director) and Jean Michelle (Rachoul's son) who took them to the guest house in the midst of a slow drizzle.

Haiti is in its second week of the rainy season, which normally lasts for approximately 6 weeks. The roads are taking a beating in all of the rain. Large potholes are now huge potholes. Vast areas of road has washed away leaving behind deep ruts that are difficult to traverse even in a truck. Large rocks and boulders have been washed into the streets making many impassible. Tomorrow the team will go to Port au Prince to see the affect the rain is having on the tent cities.

There are 7 people on the team, pictured from left to right:

• Sally, representing the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia
• Kathy, TRTP President
• Randa, interior architect
• Noor, urban planner
• Tom, interior architect
• Jennifer, former TRTP board member working for SDG Adoption
• Angie, occupational therapist

Kindergardeners singing at the Gramothe School

A tour of MTM's school and church followed. Willem showed them the site for the new Children's Home orphanage on MTM's property. Then a trip up the mountain on foot to visit the village of Gramothe and surrounding areas.

Sally holding Rose at Rivers of Hope

Christopher

Finally, they drove to Rivers of Hope to tour the facility and, of course, play with the beautiful children in Rachoul's care. There are 6 boys and 1 girl at this time. Praise God Christopher was feeling well today and running around like a typical healthy boy.

Tomorrow's schedule will be just as full. Check back for an update.

Wheelchair Promise Program Delivery

We are happy to announce that we have delivered our first all terrain wheelchair to Haiti! (Author's note: Actually, it was done about 2 weeks ago and I am just now getting the post on the blog. Sorry for the delay!)

Willem (in the pale green shirt) was able to give the wheelchair to a very deserving man named Robert who had been an accomplished welder and farmer in Gramothe until some time ago. "Blanc" (as he has been nicknamed because of his light colored skin) has a progressive condition that is causing him to lose the ability to use his legs. The doctor has not given a prognosis of Blanc's condition. He has been immobile for quite some time.

Blanc was very thankful to receive the wheelchair and even more excited about the prospect of having the mobility that the all terrain wheel chair will provide him. He is still young and hopeful to return to welding and farming to some degree with the use of the chair. He is married and has two boys that both attend the MTM school at Gramothe, one of which hopes to become an engineer.

Below is a video of Blanc's first "spin" around the house as Willem is teaching him how to operate the wheelchair and maneuver through the doorway. The video is not great, especially when trying to shoot inside a cement and stone house with no electricity and little natural light.

We are excited about the shipment of 100 wheelchairs that is bound for Haiti! It is scheduled to dock in late June and then we work to get them through customs, which could be a lengthy process, following which we will identify candidates for the wheelchairs and begin distribution.

Mountain Top Ministries School

When we visited Gramothe in March, the Haitian government had not yet allowed the schools to open. Thankfully they opened shortly after we returned to the states. We are privileged to share this video from the Gramothe school where Kathy taught English the week prior to the quake.

Students are engaged in a beautiful song, When The Saints Go Marching In. At the end you will hear Willem talking about how important school is for these children.

Special thanks to Little By Little Haiti for sharing this video with us.

Your Donations at Work in Haiti

Your contributions are truly making a difference in the lives of others. Whether it is the treatment of an individual orphan like Zheng LuYuan, or bringing supplies to an entire mountainside in Haiti, it is news like this that warms our hearts and reinforces that our work is effective. Thanks to your generous support, we have sent over $13,000 directly to the directors of Mountain Top Ministries and Rivers of Hope orphanage in the past few weeks! Your donations have directly impacted the lives of thousands of Haitians and we wanted to share some of the news with you.

Mid January
Willem was, and still is, highly engaged in helping relief supplies get to the people of Haiti. He met with the Minister of Commerce, the Prime Minister and President Preval on January 21st to discuss this massive undertaking in the mountains outside Port au Prince, where Mountain Top Ministries and Rivers of Hope orphanage are located. Willem worked closely with a team to set up food distribution points in Gramothe and Dumay. The villages of Madeleine, Boucan, Planchet, Tala and Depense were also served at the distribution point in Gramothe. Beth and their sons, David and Stephen, spent hours organizing supplies for rationing. They packaged medical items creating health kits as well as organized and filled large bags of medical supplies from the MTM clinic.

Hugs were shared and tears shed as they said goodbye to friends who evacuated to the Dominican Republic. Those remaining at MTM tried their best to keep their spirits up as they continued to search for classmates and friends. Even though the work was exhausting, sleep was an elusive luxury that many were unable to find for themselves.

Late January
Willem was instrumental in food distribution in the outer lying areas of Port Au Prince as well as in the immediate areas around MTM. The people's desperation was mounting as their need for clean water and food escalated. Willem and Beth reported that there were a few "close calls", but thankfully, God brought them through without incident.

Mountain Top Ministries' school principals reported that all of their teachers survived the earthquake. Sadly, they could not reach each and every family at both the Gramothe and Dumay schools. They prayed for word from all families.

On January 28th, a dry food distribution was done in Gramothe. There was enough for each family to get a 100 lb. bag of food items. On the 30th, Willem, Stephen and a crew from the Gramothe / Thomassin area arrived in the village of Dumay with rice. They handed out one 50 lb. bag of rice for every 4 villagers to be shared; the very elderly received 1 full bag. Once the line of adults was complete, a new line was formed with children. There was enough rice remaining that every 5 children were allowed a full bag to share. Everyone in the village that came for distribution left with food.

Early February
The village of Madeleine is 2 mountain sides walk from Gramothe and is home to some of the poorest children that attend the MTM School. Coordinating a food distribution for this village was challenging. Only a tiny footpath leads to the village making it impossible to take a truck there. MTM assigned one of the older MTM high school students from Madeleine the task of making a list of one name from each family in the village who would receive rice for their family. That one person would come to the Gramothe church to receive their provisions. On February 5th, a large crowd of Madeleine family representatives appeared on the basketball court just below the MTM church. Two by two the family representatives came forward when their names were called and received a bag of rice to be divided between them. 127 families were given food that they otherwise had no way of getting.

Stephen and David were able to assist Willem in the food distribution to the remote village of Boucan on February 9th. 192 more families received rice and oil through the distribution work of MTM.

On February 12th, a family representative from each of the villages of Planchet, Tala and Depense gathered at the church in Gramothe to receive rice and oil. The villagers cooperated so well that Willem was able to give rice to two villages simultaneously, enabling the distribution to move quickly. The people were able to return to their homes before the night settled. 250 more families were served that evening.

From Willem and Beth: Together on behalf of the Haitian people, we are grateful for the donors that are helping to make these kinds of food distributions possible.

From The Red Thread Promise: Thank you for showing your love of humankind by supporting The Red Thread Promise's Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

Haiti trip

You may have noticed that the posts this week are still coming from the US. Our trip to Gramothe, Haiti, was originally planned for January 30 - February 5 to complete our second week of the ESL program. However, due to the unrest in Haiti following the earthquake, our hosts at Mountain Top Ministries (MTM) requested that we wait a few more weeks before visiting.

In the words of Willem and Beth: At this time, Haiti is far too volatile and MTM cannot guarantee provisions nor security for our groups [visitors]. WE STILL NEED YOU! Please, we ask that you stand ready to come and that you would stand with us in prayer to make wise decisions about Mountain Top Ministries teams that travel to Haiti.

In a short while, all of the aid will leave Haiti, but the people will continue to desperately need your care and assistance. There will still be much work to do.

• Please, do what you can where you are at to keep people praying for Haiti and giving toward the purchase of medical supplies, food and building materials. Encourage Red Thread supporters to do the same. MTM is totally engaged in relief aid at this time. Again, we must all be busy doing what we can, where we are.
• Please, pray, pray, pray and pray some more for this little country. We are confident that God is in control. We can never encompass the scope of His plan, but we trust that He has one and we will continue to be obedient to what He has called us to do.

Thank you for your faithfulness to this ministry, we can't do it without you. We deeply appreciate your friendship as well as your partnership for the glory of God in Haiti.

And that's just what The Red Thread Promise has been doing: praying, coordinating Christopher's care, helping to identify potential adoptive families for Rivers of Hope's orphans, collecting much needed supplies that we will hand carry in suitcases when we travel to Haiti, and (of course) raising money to send to MTM and ROH. We have already sent over $6,000 to Willem, Beth and Rachoul so they can purchase the supplies they need for Mountain Top Ministries and Rivers of Hope orphanage. And the donations keep coming.

Please take heed to Willem and Beth's request and continue to support Haiti through your prayers and donations to The Red Thread Promise. Our plan prior to the earthquake was to create a long-term relationship with the country of Haiti. This plan has not changed. Our support of the Haitian people will not wane with time, when the earthquake is no longer a top news story. Rest assured, we will be there, on the ground, working with the orphans, providing medical care and teaching English for many years to come.

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.