Haiti Happenings, Part 4 - HEARS for YEARS!

Sonya visiting with the kids

It was such a joy to visit St. Vincent’s last week. As soon as the kids saw us on campus, we savored hug after hug, kiss after kiss, and greetings in sign, Kreyol, English and French. After more than 2 years of work at St. Vincent’s, we can’t begin to express how wonderful it is that we now know these children so well that all of our faces light up when we see one another. We wouldn’t exchange those moments for the world! 

Danika and Sandee, 2 deaf students

Students donned new (to us) school uniforms, the latest trend in hair braids and proudly showed off their new digital hearing aids! Thanks to our partnership with Team Canada Healing Hands, many more students are reaping the benefits of better hearing. 

Little gifts of love

To date, The Red Thread Promise has purchased $21,000 worth of brand new digital hearing aids for hearing impaired students at St. Vincent’s. Team Canada purchases the aids at a deep discount and brings teams of audiologists to test the children in Haiti. Much like eye tests for prescription glasses, these specialized tests—performed in a sound-proof booth—help audiologists determine the exact type of hearing loss (i.e. high pitch vs. low pitch) for each individual child.

Kathy preparing for hearing testing in the sound-proof booth

Team Canada's Krystelle performing the testing

Learning about the inner ear

Following testing, if it has been determined that hearing aids will help the child, molds are made of their ear(s) for a custom fit. St. Vincent’s staff is working directly with the audiologists to learn the process of mold making, practicing every step of the way under the tutelage of Team Canada’s professionals. After the molds have set, the hearing aids are programmed specifically for each child’s individual hearing loss. The aids wrap around the ear and are fed through the mold directly into the ear. 

St. Vincent's staff taking a mold of a student's ear 

In the past, the children have received analog aids, which act simply as a volume amplifier, increasing all sounds like a remote control on a TV. Digital hearing aids will better serve the children’s individual needs. Each is customized to amplify only what needs to be amplified, maximizing the benefit of the hearing aid for each child. And, if treated with care, they should last 5 or more years!

Following hearing testing and fitting, ready to go back to class

Our goal is to ensure that EVERY hearing impaired student at St. Vincent’s receives aids as necessary. With new students coming through their gates on a regular basis, the need continues. Your support helps us realize this dream and for this we thank you! 

HAITI :: A Team United

Hearing impaired students at St. Vincent's (photo by Al Laus)

In April 2013, The Red Thread Promise will team up with Team Canada Healing Hands on the ground in Haiti for the first time! We are excited for this opportunity to work hands on—as one unified team—at St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children (Port-au-Prince).

Forty-two new children will be tested and fitted for digital hearing aids during this trip. This includes students who were too young to test in 2012 as well as any new hearing-impaired students enrolled at St. Vincent’s. While this is an increase in the number of students expected, we are up to the challenge of providing hearing aids for every one of them!

During the trip, Kathy (Red Thread President) will take a turn in the sound isolation chamber and go through the same testing a child would endure to better understand the process. We plan to videotape our auditory adventure and share it with you.

Following the testing, we need to purchase the digital hearing aids that will be customized for each child’s hearing loss. As an extended part of our team, we need your help to complete the process for the kids. The estimated cost of 50 hearing aids is $11,520 (US).

Your continued support is the difference between living in a world of silence and a world filled with laughter. Thank you!

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This report and many others from The Red Thread Promise can be found on GlobalGiving.org, a powerful crowd-funding website. We are blessed to have 5 active projects on this site. It's a great way to share our work with many we may never meet but feel a connection to our cause. Feel free to check them out and share the links with others! 

• Provide Medical Care to Haitian Orphans
• Nutritious Meals for 200 Disabled Haitian Children
• Provide All Terrain Wheelchairs in Haiti
• Give Hippotherapy to Children with Disabilities
• Fund Critical Surgery for 6 Chinese Orphans

HAITI :: Society of Young Black Professionals fundraises for The Red Thread!

Petera and Brandon, two of our counselors from the January session of Camp Jake, are both active members of The Society of Young Black Public Health Professionals in New Orleans. Following their work with our team in Haiti, they wanted to do more for the kids they met from St. Vincent's Center for Handicapped Children. 

Petera with Danika, a hearing impaired girl

 Brandon with the blind guys

Since so many of St. Vincent's students are hearing impaired, Petera and Brandon decided to support our efforts to provide 500 digital hearing aids for the hearing clinic. This would provide enough hearing aids for every child as well as stock the clinic to provide for others in the community where hearing aids are a priceless gift. 

If you are in the New Orleans area, please come out and support The Society of Young Black Public Health Professionals, The Red Thread Promise and the beautiful children of St. Vincent's.

An Evening In Haiti

Saturday, April 28th from 7 - 10pm

1834 Club • $5 cover • Cocktail attire suggested

Enjoy an evening of delectable hors d'oeuvres, door prizes, 50/50 raffle and the rhythmic sounds of the BRASS-A-HOLICS as they vibrate through the 1834 Club on the second floor of the Laven-Berick Center. 

All proceeds go directly to The Red Thread Promise and their efforts in Haiti. Please read below for more information about this amazing organization and their effort. 

The Red Thread Promise (TRTP) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to bringing hope and healing to needy and orphaned children. TRTP has taken on the challenge of raising funds and awareness for new digital hearing aids and establishment of distribution of hearing aids in a permanent hearing aid clinic for St. Vincent’s children. Previous to this venture, children at St. Vincent’s were tested and given refurbished analog hearing aids. 

The Society of Young Black Public Health Professionals, along with your support, would allow TRTP to provide the children of St. Vincent’s and the surrounding community to receive new digital hearing aids.  

Sponsored by The Society of Young Public Health Professionals.

For any questions or concerns please contact: Brandon Darrington bdarring@tulane.edu 

High schooler's passion for Haiti's hearing impaired really pays off

Remember Marigny, the high school senior from New Orleans who chose The Red Thread Promise for her senior project? She is living testimony of how one person can truly make a difference when they put their mind to it.

Through hard work, determination, and a successful fundraiser, this 17 year old not only completed all the requirements for her senior project, but also raised $5,719 which she donated to The Red Thread Promise. These funds allowed us to purchase 17 brand new digital hearing aids for deaf children at St. Vincent's in Port-au-Prince.

Approximately one half of the students at St. Vincent's are hearing impaired. Many have secondhand analog hearing aids that are only available for use during school hours. At the end of the day, they are required to turn them back in. Some children need two but only have access to one.

Our goal is to give EVERY student their own digital hearing aids, programmed for their specific needs; hearing aids that they can keep for the full life of the device; ones that don't have to be turned back in at the end of the day.

One girl with a vision helped us kick start a new campaign—Hearing for Haiti—to raise funds and awareness for Haiti's hearing impaired. We'd like to introduce you to some of the kids that will benefit from this program. Their voices resonate with ours when we say, "Thank you, Marigny!"

Raffle winners

Congratulations to the following folks who won the raffle items from our hearing aid fundraiser:

Raffle 1: Betty from Metairie, LA

Raffle 2: Brittany from Luling, LA

Raffle 3: Jeanne from New Orleans, LA

Raffle 4: Mary from New Orleans, LA

Raffle 5: Amber from New Orleans, LA

Thank you to everyone who purchased raffle tickets to support hearing impaired children in Haiti! Due to your generosity, we are able to purchase new digital hearing aids for children at St. Vincent's.

New Orleans youth takes fundraiser for the hearing impaired to new heights

Marigny and Kathy, Red Thread President,

preparing for the fundraiser

Remember Marigny, the high school senior from Louisiana who took on a large philanthropic project for The Red Thread Promise as part of her requirement for graduation? Well, we wanted to share her success and offer the opportunity to continue supporting her efforts of bringing new digital hearing aids to the children of St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children.

On December 2nd, 2011, Marigny teamed with Modern Market, a lifestyle boutique in New Orleans, to host a fundraiser benefitting hearing impaired children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Raffle tickets were sold for five dynamic prizes and, on the day of the event, Modern Market donated 10% of all sales to the project.

On the street, directing people inside

Marigny (left) and friends who helped throughout the evening

Her original goal was $2,500, quite an undertaking for a single high school student. Following the fundraiser and sales at Modern Market, donations reached $3,700. Rather than simply basking in the satisfaction of a successful fundraiser, this ambitious teen increased her goal and kept right on going!

As of this post, Marigny has doubled her original goal, bringing in over $5,000! And still she keeps going with a passion, our little red Energizer bunny, extending the timeframe for fundraising to January 10, 2012 and increasing her goal yet again.

Marigny has done an incredible job and we couldn’t be more proud of her. The Red Thread team LOVES getting youth involved in philanthropy! We are equally excited to be able to purchase 16 brand new digital hearing aids for the children at St. Vincent’s due to the efforts of a single high school student. Imagine what we could do if we were each so passionate!

Marigny has jump-started this fundraising campaign and we invite you to be a part of it. Many more hearing aids are needed to provide for all of St. Vincent’s children. The goal of the campaign is to purchase 75 hearing aids by February 2012 and a whopping 500 aids by the end of December 2012. Each hearing aid costs $300, a small price to pay to make a huge improvement in the life of a hearing-impaired child.

A note from Marigny: As an American teenager, this project has made me realize that life is not about the materialistic possessions we may have or wish to have, but about the people who are a part of our lives. In the midst of everything, we need to consider those who are less fortunate. This project has certainly made me look at my own life in a completely different way. In the future, I plan to travel to Haiti with The Red Thread Promise to see the children who will benefit from your generosity. This is a perfect way for me to become a global citizen and help those who do not have the means to help themselves. By coming together as a community of caring individuals, we are able to make a tremendous impact on the lives of the deaf orphans of St. Vincent's. We did this together!

If you are interested in joining The Red Thread Promise to give the gift of hearing to these precious children, please contact Kathy@redthreadpromise.org. Donations can be made by PayPal (link at top right) or by sending a check to the address at top right.

Marigny (far right) and the Modern Market team