Merry Christmas from the Haiti Hospital Appeal!

We want to take this opportunity to wish all our supporters the very best of seasons greetings. Christmas can be a wonderful time of the year, yet it can also hide us from the realities of life for the hurting and the broken, wherever they might be.  For us, we seek to continue to bring hope and new life to the people of Haiti through health care services. It really has been an exciting year. Even today, construction continues on our site. Yet, we look to next year believing greater things are yet to come.

Family Training

A really exciting development of our kids work in the last few months has been the introduction of more regular parent support and training sessions.  For many of our parents in Haiti, looking after a child with a disability can be a hard and lonely task, often alienating families from the rest of their community.  Yet, our new training is providing valuable support and encouragement to these families, giving them a place to share, learn and encourage one another.  Parents have been filled with great joy attending these meetings, and feeling more able to tackle some of the tasks they face back in their towns.  

Filled with greater confidence and assurance, the families are able to feel more confident integrating into the community, and providing the valuable care their children need.  It's just another little step to a more inclusive Haiti, as we see families and communities transformed, as their understanding of disability is changed.

This work is only possible through you.  Could you help further?  If so, please donate today.

Please also check out our website in the coming few weeks as we look at ways to remember the second anniversary of the earthquake.

Thanks again for all your support in 2011, and may we once again wish you all a happy and blessed new year.

Kind regards,

The Haiti Hospital Appeal Team

Links:

• Check out our web-site

A few weeks ago, a little girl called Esther with cerebral palsy had been abandoned by the rubbish dump on the main road in Cap-Haitien.  It was a sad reminder of the reality of living with disability in Haiti, and we can’t help but wonder what her little mind and heart must be feeling having been left by a pile of rubbish.  It’s easy to presume that it’s simple neglect, but from our experience the causes are often much deeper and more tragic.  It’s normally incredibly poor mothers, with limited support networks, in seemingly hopeless situations, not knowing whom to turn too.  We’ve now found a foster family for Esther as we do with all children who are abandoned at our centre.

That’s why community outreach is a huge element of our work. We have a team of 6 outreach workers who reach out into the community and provide support for families with disabilities. This includes providing pastoral support within the homes of families who are struggling, and making sure they’re connected with appropriate support.  These teams also advocate for child rights within the community, and link with schools, churches and other community groups to develop a more inclusive society. 

Furthermore, our children’s home “Maison de Benediction” has been extended to include Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) that challenges the issues of disability within the communities close to the home.  In the end of August, the CBR team organised a conference for school teachers in Haiti.  We ran a two-day conference for 50 schools and 150 teachers training them how to include disabled children in the classroom.  Children with disabilities are denied basic education in Haiti as classrooms are not inclusive.  It is normal for teachers to whip children for lack of co-operation or bad behaviour. The session on positive behaviour management was a completely new concept especially as teachers normally use the bible to back up their beating of children.

On September 21 ^st we received an International Team of Orthopaedic surgeons to assess 54 of the disabled children we have identified within the community. This event was a combination of the work of the Community Based Rehabilitation of the Children’s Home and the Rehabilitation Ward at the hospital. Although the Rehab building was only completed the week before this was an ideal opportunity to put it into use for this important day.  This work is made possible because of the integrated approach HHA has to disability and rehabilitation, we believe that we can bring life changing interventions through this work to the many children who would otherwise have no access to  surgery or prosthetics.

If you’d like to help transform the lives of some of these children please make a donation towards this project today.  It is only thanks to you that such positive change is being made!  Thanks again and please keep up the great support.

Families waiting for orthopaedic assessment

Links:

• For more information about the project:-

A huge thanks to all those who have supported our children's work in Haiti!  It makes a massive difference and we really appreciate all your love and support!

In the last few months we've seen some huge changes which we thought you'd like to know about.  Solar power now supports the Maison de Benediction and our hospital, providing about 80% of our energy needs!  This makes it a more workable and productive environment for our projects to grow in, and a safer environment for the children. 

The last months have also seen a very welcome refurbishment to the children’s home which has included the opening of a new sensory room to meet the developmental needs of the children.  Many of the children we care for are so severely disabled, that we wanted to invest in this specialist equipment to provide them the most suitable environment to grow in.  With a mix of lights, sensory toys, fiber optics, a ball pool, and soft play mats, it's the perfect environment for many of our children to develop, and a long term dream come true.

In addition to the exciting new sensory room, the home has been re-painted and re-tiled!  Our school room is looking bright and cheerful, we have new disability accessible ramps around the site (a rarity in Haiti), a basket ball net for wheelchair basketball and much more!  

The kids are loving the new home and with over 100 children on the scheme there's plenty more work to be done!  Perhaps the best way to see how you've helped support a range of changes is through a recent film our team in Haiti made.  It's only short and is definitely a good use of two minutes of your time.  Check it out now:  http://haitihospitalappeal.org/news/2011/06/change/

If you'd like to continue supporting this urgent work, please contact us today or make a donation via Globalgiving. It's only thanks to you that such positive change is being made!  Thanks again, and please keep up the great support.

Children's home solar panels

Kid's room

Links:

• New film which is well worth a watch!

A huge thanks to all those who have supported our Children's work in Haiti!  It makes a massive difference and we really appreciate all your love and support!

For those of you who don't have the opportunity to visit our web-site much, to give you a little flavor, we thought we'd share an extract of a recent news post which shows just what an impact you're making.  It's a little article by a community leader who's village is from your support!

'Through HHA, we have obtained psychological and social support in a way to accept our children and love them.  In our community the families who have at least one handicapped child are considered like cursed parents and these ones hid the children at a corner and didn’t socialize them or didn’t show them love. When such people become young persons, other children throw rocks on them through the streets in the locality, and bother them calling them by the disability they have.

The parents have been always put into shame with such children, that’s why they didn’t really socialize those kids, every one could stop and look at them sadly or contemptuously . From now on, in the village there is a new understanding about how we can treat people with a cerebral palsy problem, with autism, with any kind of handicap.

The work helps the parents too on an economical point of view, not only did some parents neglect those children on purpose, but some parents because they don’t have lots of economical opportunities and were obliged to neglect the disabled children in order to care for the rest of their families.

The whole families feel a handicapped child like a burden.  For example, when they want to care for this child, some of the parents neglect their occupations to stay and look after them which causes a huge deficit in the economical life of the families.

Through this work the parents find more space and time to go and trade, to teach etc.  They feel supported in their heavy-loaded burdens and in their stress.

With the presence of HHA, since September we are helping these kids, they are given care, teachings, physiotherapy, good hygienic treatment three days a week, and daily feeding too, some are given baby carriers, wheelchairs, boots, and the like.  Every one who is affected in the work is very proud of it,  the children, the parents and the workers.'

If you'd like to continue supporting this urgent work, please contact us today or make a donation via Globalgiving.  We hope you like the photo's as well - apologies if they're poor quality.  They were sent from Haiti via e-mail.

Thanks for all your help and we look forward to working with you further through out 2011.

One of the families you've helped us support

Links:

• Visit our web-site and find out more!

Dear Supporters

Happy New Year 2011

2010 was without doubt the hardest year Haiti Hospital Appeal has ever faced.  The tragic events of the earthquake in the first weeks of last year shook the world, and for a few short months Haiti rested upon the hearts of many nations.  Yet for HHA, we have been blessed with a support network of people who have remained broken for this nation beyond the initial trauma, and helped achieve some incredible things.  For this commitment and support we are deeply grateful, and can’t possibly thank you enough for your love throughout the last 12 months, or put into words the difference you’ve made.

Thank you for your continued support on our Children's Home and Outreach Project in North Haiti. This project has enabled us to establish and develop two children's homes that provide vital support to children with physical and mental special needs. We provide a real family atmosphere where children are growing day by day. We are amazed at how much progress the children have made.

Grace: A life changed in 2010

Many of you will remember the story of our finding her abandoned, severely malnourished and suffering from hydrocephalus at the end of 2009, which was mentioned in the previous project report.  Supported through HHA and Cure International, Grace was provided with an urgent and lifesaving operation that has given her a new lease of life.  Because of the impact of such dedicated and compassionate staff at Maison de Benediction, she is now unrecognisable from when she was first found.  She is a regular attendee of Maison de Benediction, adopted within a wonderful foster family.  Grace is just one example of the difference you have made in 2010.  Despite many feeling that we would only be able to offer palliative care to this desperate girl, one year on she has been completely transformed thanks to your support.

Petit Maison de Benediction

In September 2010 we opened our first satellite centre, with 2 childcare staff and 1 cook, to bring day-care, support, education and information to a small rural community called La Victiore. It was chosen as it’s a community with a high number of disabled children, but no support or help for them. The centre has enabled us to support children who live too far away to come to our central Maison de Benediction.  We have trained and mobilised church leaders and members to open a community outreach day project for disabled children.

So far the project has been really welcomed by the people and the assistance it provides is already making a big difference.

The majority of these children have spent their whole lives at home due to their lack of mobility.  However with education and support, families are benefiting greatly from the project.  The children play and learn basic skills, while the parents get an opportunity to cook, work and have a rest.  Each child is provided with meals and some basic physiotherapy. 

This photo is Elisha from La Victoire. She cannot sit so has spent her whole life lying on a bed. Her family loves her very much but had never had training or support on how to look after their daughter so her muscles have seized up and she cannot move, but now we are providing support for them now at the Petit Maison de Benediction.

We are really happy by the welcome the project has received from the local community, and finding more and more families coming forward to receive support and care.  We heard the moving stories of families who explained how the opening of our new centre had unleashed new life for their families.  This photo is Elisha from La Victoire, for instance, she cannot sit so has spent her whole life lying on a bed. Her family loves her very much but had never had training or support on how to look after their daughter so her muscles have seized up and she cannot move, but now we are providing support for them now at the Petit Maison de Benediction. Disabled children for the first time offered care outside of the house, and families given the respite a few days a week to grow.  Hearing the stories for the first time was moving, challenging, but also deeply encouraging.  This centre only costs about $5,000 US to run per year, yet the affect it’s having upon the whole community is priceless.  Our hope is that in the coming years many more of these little centres will spring up.

Thanks again for your contributions you have helped changed the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in Haiti.

Carwyn Hill and The Haiti Hospital Appeal Team

Elisha: Peiti Maison de Benediction's new child

Links:

• To view our video "Cherish a Child - Change the World"
• Find out more about the project in our website

Dear all,

What a busy few months it's been for the Haiti Hospital Appeal.

The Children's Home has developed incredibly over the last few months thanks to all your support.  Over the summer we refurbished a room within the home for a new member of our staff...a teacher!  We now have a fantastic little classroom which allows our new team member to work one to one with the children with special needs.  Everything we do aims to provide these children with the best chance of independence when they're older.  This includes teaching them to walk, feeding themselves, playing, communicating and now learning vital skills through the class room.  Many of the kids have really come alive through this exciting development, and we're looking forward to expanding this work.  

Thanks to 'Living Water' we also have a new nurse who comes to the home every morning Monday - Thursday and checks all the kids are doing OK.  Sadly the health situation for children in Haiti is still dire and even with our new nurse there are some times cases we struggle to deal with.  About a month ago one of the children we support had a seizure.  The government hospital which the child was taken too lacked the basic resources to deal with this child's needs.  We asked one of the doctors what the prognosis was, and he turned to us and said, 'Not great.  I know what to do for this child but I don't have the right equipment to help.'  The next day the doctor came to our sight and shared the sad news that the child had died in the night.  This tragic news was just one story of the continued need for more action.

Many children have been saved thanks to your support in this home!  Where there was no hope they have been given hope.  Where there was no future they have been given one.  Yet, the sad story of this little child reminds us at the Haiti Hospital Appeal of the continuous urgent need for further help.  We cannot stop.  

That's why in the coming months we're going to be pushing forward with some more exciting developments.  This includes launching a mobile outreach clinic for women and children, opening our maternity and pediatric unit, and progressing the work of a new Children's Centre we've just opened in the heart of Haiti.  This centre will eventually provide day care for 20 disabled children.  It's a new and exciting piece of work literally in its first few weeks of life.  Next time we'll share a little more about this specific piece of work.

As with daily life in Haiti, this little update is full of highs and lows.  The highs of knowing we have made a difference, the lows of knowing there are still children in need who we haven't yet got the capability of supporting.  That's why we'd call upon you again to make a donation towards this work, to encourage your friends and family to get on board and to spread the word.  If you'd like to find out more information please visit our web-site which is packed full of blogs, news items and much more: www.haitihospitalappeal.org

Thanks for your continued support and we look forward to writing to you again soon and sharing some more stories of what your support has helped achieve!

Kind regards,

The Haiti Hospital Appeal team 

Play time!

Links:

• Check out our site for more stories, photos and films...

Last week, representatives of Handicap International and IOM (International Organisation for Migration) visited the Children's home and commented on how special the project was and the positive feeling that the home has. We continue to care for some of Haiti’s most vulnerable children currently we have about 70 children on the program, though at least 20 of these are on a waiting list. Each week we have new families arrive with their children who are physically or mentally disabled. Sadly, unless we can raise more money we can’t help these new families. We’re already at full capacity, but have a desire to see the project expand and to be able to care for more children. Each child is treated individually, so we do not want to bring more children into the program until we are sure we have to staff and resources to be able to show them the love and care they deserve. At the moment we limit the number of children a day to 15 to ensure this. By continuing your help and support we can continue to provide respite care for these children and hopefully expand the project to give more physically and mentally disabled children the support they might not receive anywhere else. The project is soon to invest in a motorbike for the children’s home administrator to enable us to increase the influence of the project. The bike will enable him to go and minister to children who live further from the home, support struggling families and to transport some children to the home on specific days if necessary. We want him to be able to invite more children to come join the children’s home, as there is no other centre that cares particularly for disabled children in the surrounding area, but unfortunately children currently have to be added to a waiting list.

On the six month anniversary of the tragic earthquake that devastated Haiti we've launched a new campaign called 'We Won't Forget.' So many in the world have already forgotten this desperate little nation. The call we're making to our supporters is to declare that you won't forget. We would ask that you spend just a few minutes to visit our new website: www.haitihospitalappeal.org.

It has new blogs, photo's, films, news, and a special page dedicated to our campaign.. 'We Won't Forget.' Please join with us and declare to the world that this country hasn't been forgotten. We need your help to continue all our work. The emergency remains, and the crisis is still urgent. Thank you for all your support! We would ask you to continue your support, to enable us to expand our work to enable us to help the huge numbers of children who desperately need it.

One of our kids in afternoon play

Links:

• Visit our new site and campaign 'We Won't Forget'

A few days ago we were called to a little 5 month old baby with hydrocephalus, who’d been abandoned at the Government hospital in North Haiti. We were called to the hospital to see her by our medical director. When we arrived we found her lying in her own excrement in a room on her own, severely malnourished, and desperately weak. Thanks to the support you’ve offered us, our Children’s Home was able to rescue this little girl who we’ve since named ‘Grace.’ Grace is now being offered the care she so desperately needs. Had we not been able to intervene, the doctors feared that Grace would not have survived. Her little story represents just one of the many children we’re now supporting thanks to your help. We have over 45 children on the programme, many with their own sad stories like that of Grace. Yet, thanks to your intervention, such children have been saved, and now offered a future of hope and love.

Grace’s arrival was a particularly powerful and moving experience for a team of UK building volunteers who’ve been on the ground in Haiti, with the realisation of just how important the work they are doing with us is. For two weeks the team have been able to help transform the Children’s Home thanks to the funds you’ve helped raise, with a new play area, some final painting work, and landscaping. As well as working tirelessly on our Children’s Home, they’ve also been working on a new Maternity and Paediatric Unit we’re seeking to open soon. Had Grace received the appropriate medical support at birth, her life like so many other thousands of children in Haiti would have had a completely different outlook. As part of our work we’re keen to help prevent other children like Grace being left with an uncertain future. These new wards are urgent, and you can find out more about them at www.haitihospitalappeal.org. As Grace rested in our home, her future very uncertain due to her condition, one minute up the track from our Children’s Home to the site of the hospital, other children watched on in excitement, helped paint, and enthusiastically joined with us in building Haiti a brighter future. In building future children like Grace a brighter hope, and the chance to be cared for as they deserve.

It’s incredible what a powerful difference this small UK building team have made to the Children’s Home and the Hospital, and really that’s the story of the appeal as a whole. Small youth groups, schools, churches, families, or even individuals such as you who have captured something of the injustice of Haiti and decided to take a stand! It’s thanks to those people who have seen and acted that as you read this update, major life saving steps are being made to see our dream completed. By saying ‘our’ dream, we sincerely mean this. This dream belongs to everyone who has ever donated even as little as 1p to the appeal. It’s thanks to you that Grace has been saved, and its thanks to you that many other children’s lives will follow and be saved as our work progresses.

Please continue to support us as together we seek to bring justice and hope to thousands of women and children. For more information about our work please check out www.haitihospitalappeal.org, or feel free to contact us at info@haitihospitalappeal.org.

One of our children playing

One of our most recent children who's joined the home

Links:

• Find out more about Grace and all our work on our web site!

In February a team from the UK came to Haiti to put into good use the money you'd helped raise and refurbish an old building into a home for orphaned or abandoned children.

Since February the home has come into life, and evolved into a major home in North Haiti for some of the country’s most vulnerable children. Since February the home has evolved more specifically into a Home for special needs children, and children with HIV/AID's.

The home has the capability to look after orphans, as well as children whose families need some support. For instance, we support a father who came to us a few months ago with his beautiful 3 month old daughter called Jesula who like him has AID's. The father is only 22 years old and recently lost his partner who died of AID's. He didn't want to abandon his baby but seek some support so he could try and find work as well to provide a future for Jesula. We now look after Jesula for two days a week. Another of our children has cerebral palsy and was abandoned by her mum and dad into her grandmother’s care. Like many of our other children, the grandmother was sometimes forced to leave her granddaughter at home alone has she went out to desperately seek some work.

We now support over 20 families on this scheme, and are excited by the way the project grows week by week thanks to your help! We’ll be updating our main Global Giving Page for this project soon, but before then please take the time to look at our attached most recent news sheet! You'll also find a few pics from some of the children you're helping to support!

Many thanks for all your help! Please continue to remember this urgent work, and also the difference you can continue to make.

Priscaille - one of the kids on the scheme

Links:

• Haiti Hospital Appeal Web-site

• Haiti Hospital Appeal April Newsletter (PDF)
  

Over the last few weeks the Children’s Home project has really progressed. Two of our UK workers have headed out to Haiti for one year to oversee the project, and have been delighted to see firsthand the progress of the work. Building work on the home is coming along well, and over the next few weeks a team of 12 volunteers from the UK will be adding the finishing touches to the home ready for use! We’d like to thank all of you who have generously supported this work through Global Giving. Thanks to your kind support a huge difference is going to be made to many vulnerable and at risk children. Part of the purpose of the home is to provide outreach support and respite care to families with special needs children who need help. Three weeks ago we met a single mother and her six children who live in a little shack on a mountain side. Her two youngest children are twins, and like 75% of children in Haiti were given birth to at a home without any medical support. Sadly the mother faced some difficulties during birth and one of the twins now has Cerebral Palsy. With no job or husband she had been looking at giving up this baby, but thanks to your support has now been offered the care and support she needs in order to avoid this. Each week the twins will come and spend some time with us at the home allowing the mother to go and work. The family is already receiving weekly food packages, medical treatment and respite care thanks to your support. We wish you could witness the warm smile of thanks we receive each time we visit the family. This family marks just one example of how you’ve helped. With the continued support of individuals like you we hope to offer the love, support and care that many other families need, and ensure that children can where possible be kept within their real families. Please continue to help us help them. We pray and hope you may be encouraged and inspired by the difference you’ve helped make! Many thanks, the Haiti Hospital Appeal Team.