iGive, YouGive, WeAllGive!

Online shopping. 

Everybody does it. 

If you're reading our blog, 

you probably do it too. 

iGive.com is one of the simplest online fundraising tools we've ever used! You can make a donation to The Red Thread Promise every time you shop online. Even better, if you sign up as a new member before November 12, 2013, The Red Thread receives a $5 bonus!

1. Sign up — no cost, obligations or hidden fees.
2. Choose The Red Thread Promise as your charity.
3. Search from over 1,350 participating stores on iGive.
4. Click on the store name and you'll be directed to that store's website.
5. Then SHOP!
6. You can even track how much you've given to your cause.

iGive takes care of the rest. They make arrangements with online retailers to give a percentage of the profits directly to your charity of choice. No additional cost to you. Just begin your transaction from iGive so they can track the purchase and make the donation.

We've received over $600 in donations from iGive members - that's enough to feed one hungry child in Haiti for the ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR with leftovers ($540 = 810 meals).

Here's a handful of stores you can choose from (and we didn't even make it past C!):

• 1-800-flowers.com
• Aeropostale
• Amazon.com
• American Airlines
• Apple Store
• AT&T
• Autism Speaks
• Avon
• Bath & Body Works
• Brooks Brothers
• Burger King
• Build-A-Bear Workshop
• Cabela's
• Caché
• Cafe Press

Let's take that headline to heart. 

If WeAllGive, together, we'll provide more hippotherapy, more surgeries, more fresh food and more love to kids with disabilities.

Change shopping for good through iGive.

TEN YEARS AND COUNTING!

On behalf of The Red Thread Promise, we want to thank you for your continued support of our organization. Without people like you, we wouldn't be where we are today, beginning our 10th anniversary celebration! 

We have served countless children in China, Haiti, Uganda and the USA over the past decade. We look forward to continuing our mission—providing hope and healing to needy and orphaned children—with you at our side! 

As 2014 approaches, we wanted to share some exciting opportunities to serve and be in mission with us.

DOMESTIC TRAVEL
In the US, we will continue offering bi-annual trips in the spring and fall to McKenna Farms, our partner providing hippotherapy and therapeutic riding in the south (Dallas, GA). We are excited to announce that we will begin hosting mission trips to our new partner farm in the north, HillTop Equestrian Center (West Alexandria, OH) as well! During these missions, each team performs a variety of stable, grounds and facility work, learns about the therapy offered and the impact it has on young lives, and—most importantly—meets some of the kids we sponsor in our own backyards.

McKenna Farms, Georgia

HillTop Equestrian Center, Ohio

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
With more than 15 trips to St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children over the past three years, The Red Thread will continue offering medical and non-medical mission trips to St. Vincent’s in Port-au-Prince and other areas in Haiti. We have an exciting opportunity to visit a Haitian hippotherapy farm during our upcoming trip (Nov. 2013) and are hopeful to begin a relationship there. This would allow us to offer both hippotherapy and therapeutic riding to kids at St. Vincent's. As we focus on these major medical issues, we will no longer offer Camp Jake. The Red Thread celebrates the three successful sessions we completed over the past two years and we look forward to offering new opportunities that will enrich the children’s lives and improve their health.

St. Vincent's Center for Handicapped Children, Haiti

LOOKING FORWARD
As The Red Thread team reflects on our years of service and looks to the future, we feel our organization is poised to delve deeper into life-changing medical care for disadvantaged children. We will continue to provide services that the child would not receive without intervention, including surgeries, long-term medical treatment, therapy and nutrition. By improving the state of these kids’ health, together, we make a lasting irreversible positive impact on a child’s life, increase their self-confidence, and open doors to a better future. 
  
Who knows where 2014 will lead? It may be the perfect time for our first trips to China and Uganda. Wouldn’t that be a grand way to celebrate our anniversary?!

We look forward to sharing details of upcoming travel and gifting opportunities as we work together to care for needy and orphaned children, TEN YEARS and counting!

HAITI :: Fresh-squeezed philanthropy

Anthony, aka "the Lemonade Guy" 

Contrary to popular belief, goodwill surrounds us. Sometimes we just have to open our eyes wide enough to see it. It is a beautiful sight wherever we find it, especially when we recognize it as the twinkle in an 8-year-old's eye. 

Meet Anthony, a second grader from Houston, Texas whose goodwill materialized in the form of a lemonade stand. For two days he operated his lemonade stand with a sign stating "50 cents for each cup. Goes to charity." Over that time he raised nearly $50 for The Red Thread to benefit kids in Haiti.

We are extremely blessed to know young people like Anthony, Kimmie, Zach, Maggie, Elyse, Brookie, Marigny, Emily, Carleigh and Zach, and students at Columbus Montessori Education Center who follow their heart and take time to serve others in a meaningful way. We hope these stories encourage other youth to find ways to make a difference in our world.

UGANDA :: What's new in Uganda?

Missy and one of the girls in Kampala

Something BIG! 

We are pleased to share that the new temporary shelter for women and girls in Kampala, Uganda is open and operational, the first of its kind in the city! What a blessing for sexually abused, battered and traumatized refugee women to have a safe place to go, sheltered from their oppressors, where they can begin to heal, both inside and out. 

Did you know… The United Nations (UNFPA) estimates that 1 in 3 women, worldwide will be affected by violence in their lifetime. One in THREE daughters of God will be violated, abused, oppressed. For refugee women and girls, this reality is much harsher because this violence is compounded by war, the loss of family members and friends, inadequate food, shelter, access to medical care or education.

Our partners at Refuge and Hope worked tirelessly throughout the summer to find the perfect property to house these victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. This safe haven will be where the girls live, eat, sleep and learn trades; receive medical care (physical and gynecological exams, lab test and medications funded by The Red Thread Promise); have access to legal assistance, counseling and other critical services. 

But more importantly…

It is where they will take their first steps to leaving their past behind.
It is where they begin to move forward with their lives.
It is where they will learn to hope again. 

As we consider the dire circumstances these women and children endure, we begin to have a better understanding of the shelter’s importance. The Red Thread is proud to be a part of this ministry. 

A word of thanks from Missy in Uganda:

“Thank you [Red Thread] for tangibly assisting these women and girls in their healing process by providing medical care for these residents. It is absolutely crucial! The physical ailments that they are experiencing are also triggers and painful reminders of the traumas that they have endured. It is difficult to focus on receiving training, education or counseling when one is physically in pain.” 

The emergency shelter

Living room

Classroom

Community center

JACOB'S FUND :: Round 2 for Kyle

Amy, Kyle's therapist, helping him get ready to ride.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to see the world tilt a little toward the good. This past Thursday night was one of those times. 

There was Kyle, riding his horse, Dallas, during a hippotherapy session at Hilltop Equestrian Center in western Ohio. Alongside him were his therapist and horse handler. Concentrating intensely, Kyle had just completed a matching and sequencing exercise with colored rings and flags.  

During the sequencing exercise atop his horse, Dallas

He urged the horse forward, using the muscles he is developing through therapy, and Dallas began to trot gently. Suddenly all eyes and ears were on Kyle whose laughter filled the entire indoor arena with the sound.  

“This is music to my ears,” said Kelli, Kyle’s mom. We couldn’t agree more!

Kyle completed his first six-week session of hippotherapy over this past summer thanks to your financial support. Amy, his therapist, reports that his core strength increased, his balance improved, and toward the end of the six weeks, she saw (and heard) him vocalizing much more. At this first night of his second session, he picked right up where he left off, building on the strength and skill he’d gained during the last session.

Therapy includes many trips around the arena

The Red Thread team loves hippotherapy because we see measurable results. But what we love more than anything is the changes that we see happening to families when:

• Their child is at last able to communicate their needs or express the pleasure he or she feels when playing with their brothers and sisters.  
• A little one—who could not stand independently—walks into the living room unaided. 
• Their child—who could not talk—whispers “Good night, Mommy” for the first time.  
• A child gets out of the car at the carpool drop off, is greeted by another child and they walk away hand-in-hand.

These are the small miracles that we witness, made possible by your gifts to Jacob’s Fund.

We’re thrilled, as we know you are, that Kyle is growing in strength and capability. We eagerly look forward to seeing him reach new goals and sharing those accomplishments with you.

But we’re ecstatic that, on Thursday evening as the sun began to set over the rolling hills and farmland surrounding Hilltop, Kyle, not waiting for his parents to hold his hand, hurried into the barn to find his horse and begin riding.

Kelli holding Kyle up to peek in at a horse

HAITI :: Shifting the paradigm from immobility to mobility

TRTP President, Kathy, showing off one of our ATWs

Independence is a precious gift, especially to people with disabilities. 

Each time The Red Thread Promise gives an All Terrain Wheelchair (ATW) to an impoverished child, teen or adult in Haiti, we shift the paradigm from immobility toward mobility. Through these gifts—gifts that you have made possible—lives are being changed. 

In the US and other countries, many resources are available for people who can't walk:

• quality medical care and treatment
• insurance policies and governmental programs to offset costs 
• readily available manual wheelchairs
• wheelchair-accessible vehicles and public transportation
• facilities with wide doors, railings, ramps and elevators
• solid infrastructure with smooth streets and sidewalks 

These opportunities give a wheelchair-bound person the chance to actively engage in life, moving about in their homes, schools and communities.

The scenario is quite different for a person under the same circumstances in a developing country like Haiti:

• limited quality medical care is extremely costly with no subsidy 
• lack of infrastructure—dirt roads, sand, rocky surfaces—makes passage in a standard wheelchair nearly impossible
• wheelchairs that perform well on rough terrain are financially out of reach for most Haitians, often costing upwards of 6 years wages* 

But there is hope! 

We are committed to raising the funds for another full container of wheelchairs that will change more lives. Each shipment holds 100 - 120 ATWs plus maintenance parts. These durable wheelchairs are made from inexpensive bicycle parts that keep the cost low—$350 each—and simplify upkeep and maintenance. They are specifically designed to pass over Haiti's rough terrain, giving independence that most recipients have never experienced.

With your support, we will fill this container and continue giving the gift of mobility to those in need. Donations can be made through our website. Thank you!

*The gross national income per capita in Haiti is US$660. Source: World Bank 2010

HAITI :: The Case for Nutrition

Providing a constant source of nutrition is critical for a child’s development. 

This comes as no big surprise in 2013.


Article after article and study after study confirms that nutrition is directly linked to all aspects of a child’s growth and development, factors that have direct ties to their level of health as adults. We all know that vitamin rich food helps children fight off colds and other illnesses, keeping them healthier longer. It is common knowledge that establishing nutritious eating habits as a child sets the foundation for healthy choices as an adult.


These are such widely accepted concepts in developed countries, but so challenging to implement in Haiti. Dire poverty, lack of environmental resources for farming and high food prices are just a few of the numerous obstacles contributing to childhood malnutrition in developing countries.


According to Dr. Charlotte G. Neumann (UCLA School of Public Health):

“The combination of malnutrition and infection is the leading cause of death among young children in developing countries. Malnutrition alone is estimated to account for over half of children’s deaths annually. Other leading causes of deaths are malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrheal disease [cholera], tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, frequently complicated by varying degrees of malnutrition.” 

What are we doing about it? 

Everything we can thanks to your continued support.

Oxilus, a St. Vincent's student, enjoying a meal

During each trip, we hand-carry food and snacks to St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children. We prepare meals with the children and staff in their kitchen that often exceeds 110 degrees. When we take St. Vincent’s students to Camp Jake—our annual summer camp for children with disabilities in Haiti—we provide 3 nutritious meals every day for every camper. We teach nutrition classes at camp and work with campers to make healthy choices whenever possible. We teach trades so the children can better support themselves as adults and they are able to purchase healthy food for their families.

That’s what we’re doing about it. We hope you will continue helping us bring food to these precious kids. Donations can be made through our website. Thank you!


Sources: Children’s Heart Center, UCLA School of Public Health / Charlotte G. Neumann, MD, MPH