New Orleans – Day 2, Part 3

After hearing about what a special place St. Vincent’s was to the disabled population in and around Port-au-Prince, the room fell silent as Fr. Sadoni recounted his personal experience the day Haiti shook.

The day that changed everything...

On January 12, 2010, Fr. Sadoni was driving to meet with a parishioner. He felt the car begin to shake violently and they were suddenly being pulled off the road. The air was thick with clouds of dust, forcing Sadoni and his 2 passengers to stay with the car, waiting for the air to clear. When they could see again, they realized that the streets were impassible. So they moved the car to the sidewalk, and journeyed on foot to the parish and then on to St. Vincent’s.

People walked the streets in shock, searching for family members

The destruction was unimaginable. They passed “people sobbing, body parts in the streets”, people wandering around in shock, buildings flattened, rubble everywhere. When they reached St. Vincent’s, the two-story buildings that housed the dormitories, clinics and school had collapsed into the middle of the street. It was as if someone had given the building a nudge and tipped it over.

St. Vincent's buildings collapsed into the street

The students were terrified and confused. Thankfully, St. Vincent’s staff moved swiftly and were already evacuating the children from the damaged buildings when Sadoni arrived. (Author’s note: I can not imagine helping 350 healthy children during these circumstances, let alone blind, deaf and disabled children using crutches, canes and wheelchairs.)

Ten people from St. Vincent’s lost their life that day: 7 precious children and 3 dedicated employees. In the midst of their mourning, the group continued to focus on the living, helping to reunite families and caring for those whose permanent home was St. Vincent’s.

After 5 long days, the staff was able to locate one of the missing children, whom they presumed was dead. Instead, she had made her way to her family’s church. She was trapped in the debris there for 4 days before she was rescued and returned to St. Vincent’s.

With no shelter, the staff, children and Sadoni spent one week living on an open soccer field. They received no support from the locals who didn’t sustain damage from the quake. It was truly “every family for himself”.

The “growing smell of decay” forced the group to move out of Port-au-Prince in one of the only things they had left: their bus. They headed north to Montrouis where they lived in tents on church property for several weeks. The kids loved being out of Port-au-Prince but they were deathly afraid of the ocean with threats of a tsunami. Warner, a faithful employee of St. Vincent’s, played guitar every day, a blessing that helped to soothe the children.

Students with Fr. Sadoni and Fr. Squire in Montrouis

During their time in Montrouis, everything that was not destroyed in the earthquake was stolen from St. Vincent’s campus. Desperate people looted everything, including all documentation.

Upon the groups’ return to Port-au-Prince, Sadoni worked to find someone to clear the rubble from property. With help from Children Mission for the Blind, they were able to coordinate with the French Army to clear the area. Thankfully some of the doors, tables, furniture that was not destroyed or stolen was salvaged. But most everything was gone.

The French Army clearing the site

Today, the entire space has been cleared and is ready for rebuilding

And that’s where The Red Thread Promise steps in.

New Orleans - Day 2, Part 2

We’d like to paint a picture of St. Vincent’s for you, based on our conversations with Fr. Sadoni, Priest in Charge of Ephiphanie Church and St. Vincent’s Director for the past 3 years.

BEFORE JANUARY 12, 2010

Exterior of St. Vincent's

St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children School and Medical Facility was, and still is, a unique place in the heart of Port-au-Prince. It was the first school in Haiti to care for disabled children and, over the past 65 years, has never lost its focus. Located just one block away from the Presidential palace, St. Vincent’s serves some of the most disadvantaged children in the city—blind, deaf and mute children as well as those with other physical disabilities—with ages ranging from 5 to 18. It is the only facility in Haiti to work with the blind.

The school began with just 70 children and has grown to serve 350, 150 of which are living in the dormitories. The center provides education and continuous health care to these exceptional young people, teaching them the skills necessary to take care of themselves beyond their time at St. Vincent’s and prepares them to become productive members of Haitian society.

Another equally important goal of the center is to change Haitian’s perception of people with disabilities. They envision a future where these exceptional children receive high quality care and access to mainstream opportunities in both school and work no matter where they are in Haiti.

Three different groups of children arrive at St. Vincent’s door on a daily basis:

• Day students come to school every day but return home in the evening.
• Boarding students stay year round but go home during vacation.
• Displaced and orphaned students live at the center year round. It is their home.

The school provides both elementary and secondary education. The basics of reading, writing, math, history and geography are taught. English is taught during the 3rd cycle. The classroom structure for the school is as follows:

• Kindergarten: 5 year olds
• 1st cycle: 6-9 year olds
• 2nd cycle: 9-12 year olds
• 3rd cycle: 12-15 year olds

One of the many classrooms

St. Vincent’s respects the different learning styles and capabilities of its varied student population. The center seeks out the highest level of teachers for the classrooms. They are also committed to developing partnerships with other organizations that work with disabled people in order to insure that the services delivered on site are of the highest caliber.

Some of the deaf students

The school deals with its deaf children differently than all other schools in Port-au-Prince. While everyone else teaches lip reading, St. Vincent’s teaches its students sign language. Unlike Braille, which is universal, sign language is not. It is generally taught in the spoken language of each country. Since the nuns who started St. Vincent’s were from Massachusetts, both American and French sign is taught.

Blind students learn to read and write in Braille and also work with music. The school had a music room where the students have lessons and study. Many excel in this field and aid in teaching the younger students.

St. Vincent’s housed multiple single-room clinics including orthopedic, auditory, optical, neurological and general where children could be seen for their various maladies as well as a surgical room, pharmacy and brace shop where orthopedic braces and prosthesis are made. Operated by local physicians and volunteers, these services were made available to both the students of the center as well as local residents.

The brace shop was another unique aspect of the center. Not only was it the first facility to fit and make prostheses and braces in Haiti, but it also has the distinction of being the only facility in Haiti that is entirely staffed by deaf employees. Full-time workers make and repair prosthetics, orthopedic bracing, crutches, and other apparatus needed to correct many deformities for residents and local people.

St. Vincent’s was (and still is) truly a gem, deep in the heart of Haiti.

JACOB'S FUND - McKenna Farms spruced up by Home Depot teams

Three Home Depot teams from the Atlanta area joined forces this week on a Team Depot project to help a local non-profit, McKenna Farms Therapy Services. On Thursday, November 4th, district teams 2, 87 and 234 in the Atlanta market sent 30 volunteers to work at McKenna Farms, an organization that specializes in therapy for special needs children.

Volunteers worked diligently throughout the day to greatly enhance the landscaping around the non-profit's main building. They cleaned up the existing landscaping, planted over 30 new live plants including azaleas and other shrubs, and spread new mulch.

Another group of volunteers erected a fence and spread gravel in an area that would be a new employee parking lot, while others provided much needed maintenance to a horse trail. This trail, The Jacob Beachy Memorial Sensory Trail, was originally built two years ago by a Team Depot project with a team from the Mid-South region.

The trail is named after Jacob Beachy, the namesake of The Red Thread's own Jacob's Fund. Jacob’s Fund provides hippotherapy to children with chronic disabling conditions in the Atlanta area. It is a specialized form of physical therapy in which a horse is used for treatment. Numerous children at McKenna Farms have received our help through Jacob’s Fund. The results are amazing improvements in speech and vocabulary as well as improved muscle control and balance.

Thank you, Home Depot, for caring about these exceptional children.

Jacob Noah Beachy was born on May 21, 2004; he died on July 21, 2007. Our work through Jacob's Fund is to honor his life by helping other children enjoy the fullest possible lives.

CHINA :: ORPHAN UPDATE - Yin Xi, part 2

Please keep Yin Xi in your thoughts and prayers. We just found out that he was admitted to the ICU yesterday with meningitis. They suspect it is viral because the IV therapy that he received last week should have killed nearly anything. This complication will affect his surgery date. But it is certainly better to wait until he is 100% well before doing such an invasive procedure.

Also on our minds today are the 35 other babies and toddlers as well as their caregivers at Swallows Nest. The weather has already changed in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and is much colder. The heat in the building is regulated by the city and the "turn on" date isn't for a few more weeks. So they bundle the babies up and use space heaters but it is still cold, thus increasing the chance for sickness and pneumonia.

CHINA :: ORPHAN UPDATE - Yin Xi

Little Yin Xi is now 5 weeks old and gaining much needed weight in preparation for his upcoming spina bifida surgery. Unfortunately, harsh winters can take a toll on these fragile children.

Since our last update, Yin Xi developed pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital on October 30th. He has since been released into the care of Swallows Nest where, under the doctor's direction, they administer his medications and give him the love and affection needed for his full recovery. Thankfully, all pre-surgical testing is complete and now we wait for his health to stabilize so we can proceed.

According to Swallows Nest, he is eating well again but cries alot and appears uncomfortable. He will be taken back to the hospital on Wednesday but his caregivers are unsure if he will be well enough to admit and receive the procedure. We will keep you updated on his health and progress.

To date, The Red Thread Promise has raised and sent $2,000 toward his surgery (total cost is $5,000). Although we have not yet reached the full amount, having given nearly half will help Swallows Nest in their efforts to secure additional funding. Every little bit counts.

In late October 2010, a post-surgical 18 month old from Swallows Nest was adopted. We are hopeful with this early intervention, Yin Xi will also be so fortunate. Next year we want to give you an update that he has gone to his forever family all because of your generosity - all because you cared about the health of a baby you will probably never meet.

We encourage you to prayerfully consider support Yin Xi by making a donation to The Red Thread Promise. Simply put "Yin Xi" or alternately "China baby" in the memo line of your check or PayPal.

CHINA :: Give More, Get More

We have exciting news! You can increase the impact of your donation to The Red Thread Promise by making a donation starting on October 12, 2010 at midnight EDT! We are participating in GlobalGiving's Give More, Get More campaign, in which every donation made to our project to fund Yin Xi's spina bifida surgery will be matched at the following scale:

• $10 - $499 donation --- 30% match
• $500 - $999 donation --- 40% match
• $1,000 - $2,500 donation --- 50% match

This is GlobalGiving's last matching campaign of 2010 and the perfect opportunity for you to have your donations to The Red Thread Promise matched. GlobalGiving's campaign will run until October 21st or until all matching funds ($100,000) are depleted.

Making the pot even sweeter, on Oct 12, 13 & 14, your donation goes even farther when paired with our own Spina Bifida Challenge. The Red Thread Promise will match your donation, dollar for dollar, until all matching funds ($2,000) are depleted.

So let's think about this: if you give a $100 donation through Global Giving, TRTP will match your gift by 100% ($100) AND Global Giving will match your gift by 30% ($30). Your donation just grew from $100 to $230.

This year The Red Thread Promise has raised over $85,000. As a result, we have been able to send earthquake relief and wheelchairs to Haiti, provide spina bifida surgeries for orphans in China, and give hippotherapy treatments to needy children in the USA. With the funds we receive during the Give More, Get More campaign, The Red Thread Promise plans to completely fund Yin Xi's spina bifida surgery.

Help us continue to make a difference in Haiti, China and the United States! If you would like to support Yin Xi and babies like him, please donate through our spina bifida project on Global Giving. Thank you for your continued support.

New Orleans - Day 2, Part 1

The partners: Randa El gayar, Sally Carlson,

Sadoni Leon (Director of St. Vincent’s), Tom Landry II,

Kathy Korge Albergate, Scott Albergate,

Sonya Yencer at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church–Lakeview

So, how does one condense 14 pages of notes from our last 2 days in New Orleans into a blog post or two so as not to put our readership into a coma? Well, here is our feeble attempt.

Wednesday, 9/15 – Our second day in New Orleans with Fr. Sadoni was very fruitful. Our meetings spanned the entire day. We learned much about each other as individuals as part of our respective organizations, and about the organizations themselves.

A common passion for children

We introduced you to Fr. Sadoni, Director of St. Vincent’s, in our previous post so we’ll introduce everyone else briefly and how we are all connected.

Kathy, President of The Red Thread Promise (TRTP), is passionate about the well-being of children and has been working with kids since her teens. She is one of the co-founders of TRTP and has been dedicated to the organization since day one. Kathy is currently overseeing the Haiti Task Force for the Diocese of Louisiana while she juggles her “real job” and all of her volunteer work for TRTP. (We secretly suspect that Kathy has been given more hours in her day than the typical 24 based on the volume of work she can do in a short time!)

Sonya, Vice President of TRTP, connected with Kathy 15 years ago in her professional career as a brand specialist and graphic artist. Sonya has been involved with TRTP since its inception in 2003 and has been using her skills from her business to spread TRTP’s messages through all print and digital media. She has many adopted family members and friends and a huge soft spot in her heart for the health and education of children.

Tom and Randa are both business owners and interior architects who volunteer their time and innumerable talents to TRTP and the disadvantaged children we serve. They are especially interested in our re-building efforts at St. Vincent’s where their areas of expertise, including accessibility, safety and sustainability, will be most useful.

Erin is a special education inclusion consultant and works with all teachers to develop strategies to support even the most challenging children in their educational environment. She is TRTP's Child Advocate and board member and will work directly with St. Vincent's teachers to create individual educational plans so that every student can be successful both in the classroom and in their communities

Last, but certainly not least, is Sally, Deacon at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, Seattle. Sally heads the bishop’s task force to help rebuild Haiti in the Diocese of Olympia, Western Washington. Her passion is improving the lives of the children in our world. The Diocese of Olympia supported St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Lakeview as it worked to rebuild following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina five years ago. Sally was first responder to Louisiana out of Olympia after the storm, and has spent a considerable amount of time at St. Paul’s. The relationship between the Diocese of Olympia and St. Paul’s in Lakeview continues to grow as they work together to support the children of St. Vincent’s.