Haiti Happenings, Part 3 - SNACK ATTACK CHALLENGE!

Living in a developed (first world) country, few of us know daily, gut-wrenching hunger. How many times have we heard "I'm starving!" and known that it was just a dramatic expression with a shallow meaning? Rarely are we confronted with bare cupboards and completely empty refrigerators. We have experienced discomfort and growling stomachs but not a gnawing pain that doesn't recede. In the year 2013, it is foreign to us that our own children may some day be truly hungry. 

During last week's trip to Haiti, Fr. Sadoni shared a heart-wrenching story about a conversation he had in recent months with his mother. You see, his mother is one of the cooks at St. Vincent’s. She and a handful of other dedicated women are responsible for making mountains out of molehills, stretching the food budget as far as it can go to feed all 250 students, teaching staff and administrators at the school. (This has been especially challenging since September, 2012 when St. Vincent’s food donor ended all distributions in Haiti.)

In recent months, his mother came to him asking for money to prepare meals for the children. With tears in his eyes, Fr. Sadoni told her there simply was none. Two hundred and fifty young mouths to feed and his answer was none. It breaks our hearts to see our friends hurting. Those could be our children and, as in all our work, we treat them as such.

Thankfully, the food situation has improved. Students are currently receiving beans & rice twice a day. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays they receive a third portion. 

Food for residential students

The Red Thread Promise has committed to supplement this meal plan by providing weekly snacks to all children, teachers and administrators through the end of the school year. Snacks will be nutritious as possible and we will support the local economy by purchasing everything in Haiti. 

The weekly cost of snacks is $250 ($0.83 per person), less than one cup of coffee or an order of value-size French fries. We’re challenging you, our supporters, to provide a snack attack for these precious kids. This one small gift is the equivalent of a hug or an “I love you” they will feel on a weekly basis.

The total cost of the project is $2500, covering the last 10 weeks of the school year. Please prayerfully consider joining us in this most basic request. PayPal is always an option as is sending a check via mail. Visit our website for giving options and details.

Fresh bananas will be one of the fruits served as snacks

Thank you for helping to keep the students of St. Vincent’s nourished so they can learn and the staff nourished so they can continue to teach and run the school in the most productive manner possible.

Haiti Happenings, Part 2 - WATER!

What's new at St. Vincent's?

WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEM


St. Vincent's new water purification system is up and running. It uses existing well water from St. Vincent's property. The 
water is pumped up from the ground and goes through the system, which cleans and purifies it. This new system provides clean water for St. Vincent's students 24 / 7. Extra water is sold to the community to help keep the purification system sustainable.

The purification system

One of the roof-top water collection barrels

Haiti Happenings, Part 1 - BRACES!

What's new at St. Vincent's?

THE BRACE SHOP

Sixty or more Haiti Connection participants were able to tour St. Vincent's school, clinic and  brace shop today. Our team popped in to the brace shop to take a quick look before going to St. Vincent's to work with the kids. It was wonderful to see the brace shop up and running in the new space: large rooms, durable shiny tile floors, fresh paint, ample storage, adequate plumbing. The talented workers at the brace shop fashion custom braces and prosthesis for St. Vincent's students as well as referrals from local hospitals. 

Expanded & remodeled facilities

Interesting architecture

Fresh paint

Father Sadoni giving a tour of the facility

Visitors to the brace shop

Journeymen brace shop workers practicing their trade;
one is deaf and one physically-handicapped

New equipment

The old space waiting to be cleared

The retired bus

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

Give For Youth Challenge!

Tony and one of his favorite therapy horses, Pumpkin

Great News! Remember Tony? We’ve featured him on our blog as a Jacob’s Fund scholarship recipient , his heart wrenching personal story growing up as a boy with autism, and his successes in the Equestrian Special Olympics. 

We are excited to share that our Jacob’s Fund project, “Help Youth Like Tony Become Independent,” has been accepted into the GIVE FOR YOUTH CHALLENGE from Microsoft and Global Giving!

After the Equestrian Special Olympics

What does this mean? We have the opportunity to further help youth like Tony move successfully into adulthood, equipping him and others with disabilities with the life-skills needed to become part of the workplace upon high school graduation. Jacob’s Fund has supported Tony since he was sixteen. Now he’s twenty and eager to move into a group home and secure a permanent job. Our dream is to help him with that transition while continuing his much-needed therapeutic riding. 

Now we need your vote to win the chance 

to crowd fund on GiveforYouth.org*!

Microsoft has teamed with GOOD to find 20 outstanding youth-serving nonprofits to feature on GiveforYouth.org. We are excited that our project qualified! The top 20 vote getters in the Give for Youth Challenge will get to crowd fund their projects on GiveforYouth.org. Best of all, Microsoft will match funds raised during the challenge phase up to $100,000 across all organizations.

So you can see why we’re so excited (and we hope you are, too)! This is an outstanding opportunity and we hope you’ll help out.

Please take a moment to cast your vote by March 1st. Please forward this to anyone in your personal or professional network. The more votes we get, the better our chances to get this project off the ground!

Go to the Give For Youth website. Click the big vote button below the project name. Sign in using your Facebook info or create a username and password. Follow the instructions and make a difference in Tony's life!!!
   

During a therapeutic riding session in Georgia

Thanks for your vote!

GiveforYouth.org is a Microsoft YouthSpark program in partnership with Global Giving.

CHINA :: A miracle for Yong!

We believe in miracles! 

Within 24 hours of our post about Yong's needs, our partners at Love Without Boundaries informed us that the full $100,000 needed for his surgery had been raised! We are so happy to hear that he will receive the care that he so desperately needs. Thank you to everyone who shared our post within their networks. 

That's the power of connections!

CHINA :: 100,000 angels for Yong

Connections. That’s what The Red Thread Promise is all about. It is the root of the Chinese proverb from which we take our name and the cornerstone of our work.

• It’s that instant attachment you have to a child in great need, no matter what country they call home.
• It’s the heavy weight on your heart that can only be lifted when that child’s needs are met, no matter how extensive.
• It’s the heights we go to together, ensuring that we are part of the solution for this child, offering hope for the best life possible.

Connections also allow us to come together to solve problems, forging partnerships with other organizations and medical specialists. Through these partnerships, we capitalize on our individual strengths for the collective good.

In the case of this post, the collective good has a name, and it is YONG.

Only a week ago we met Yong through Love Without Boundaries, one of our partners in China. He is a sweet, handsome 5-year-old living in Guizhou. As you can see by the photographs, he has a large facial tumor that is growing rapidly and has recently begun to impact his ability to swallow and chew. While this brings its own set of challenges, the greatest threat at this time is that, at the current rate of growth, the tumor will soon close off this young boy’s airway.

Eating is a challenge

Yong has already received an MRI in his home province and a biopsy of the mass. Thankfully the tumor is benign, but the risks to his health from its rapid growth are grave. Both surgeons and radiologists have determined that an aggressive course of action must be taken to save Yong’s life that involves a series of complex and expensive surgeries. Many of his facial nerves have been massively stretched and the blood supply feeding the tumor are some of the biggest challenges during the operation.

At the hospital

Charming the nurses

Although many hospitals in both China and the US have been approached, none have been able to donate their services due to the intricate nature of the procedure. But there is hope. Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles has agreed to perform the initial operation. However, due to the magnitude of the procedure, his medical costs will be steep.

How do you put any price on the life of an innocent child?

Yong will need an army of angels to come together to fund the medical care he so desperately needs: 100,000 angels to be exact. The Red Thread Promise has agreed to be one of those angels and we invite you to join us in raising the $100,000 needed to cover the American surgeons’ and hospital fees. Together we celebrate that over $30,000 has already been raised for his care..

After the biopsy

Love Without Boundaries is working with the Chinese government to secure his medical visa so he can travel to the US and be seen in Los Angeles on March 1st! Yes, that is less than 2 weeks away. We’ve all seen the miracles that occur when people give from their hearts. Today YOU can be one of Yong’s angels.

If you would like to support Yong, donations can be made to The Red Thread Promise via PayPal or check. Please see the donation information in the left sidebar. Be sure to put his name in the memo line.

More importantly, please share this post with your friends, family, co-workers, employers, churches, civic groups and any others with a heart for children. Help us spread the word about Yong's critical need through your connections as well. Together, we can raise the additional funds necessary for his care, revealing that red thread of destiny.

THANK YOU for your support and prayers and this little guy.