Update from Our Friends at Haitian Roots

Dear Friends,

We have been in contact with one of our coordinators, Harry Mardy, via e-mail. He and his family are taking shelter at the LDS ward building in Petion-ville. The church and grounds are packed with people, including the orphans from his orphanage, and, most likely, several of our Haitian Roots children. We have several children who live right in that area and are likely seeking refuge at the church. Petion-ville was hit VERY hard and, because it is in the more mountainous area and the roads are all blocked, has not been able to receive any aid. Harry says they are running out of food and that they are going to start losing people within the next 24 hours. Many of them are starting to get sick, as well. This is especially heartbreaking to me because there was nothing we could do about the earthquake happening but these people have survived and are fine but will die from things that could be easily prevented. If you are the praying sort, we ask that you please pray specifically that aid will be able to get to Petion-ville.

One specific way that we have planned for aid to get to them is through one of our donors, Dr. Jeremy Booth. He is an ER doctor, speaks fluent Creole, loves the Haitian people, and is set to travel to Haiti with a special medical team put together by the LDS church. The team was supposed to fly to Haiti today but have been delayed because of flight restrictions. They hope to fly tomorrow but have been told it may be as late as Monday or Tuesday. Not only is this disturbing because of the immediate needs in Haiti, but the team is losing doctors with each day that passes (due to scheduling difficulties). Harry said that food is available to purchase (although the prices are astronomical) but they don’t have any money and the banks are all shutdown. Dr. Booth is willing to take funds down (and they are available with help from our friends www.hopeforlittleangelsofhaiti.org ) to get to Harry.

So, at this time we would aks you to specifically pray for our loved ones in Petion-ville, that roads can be cleared and that they can receive aid. Also, please pray that Dr. Booth will be able to travel tomorrow so that he and his team can help with this aid.

Thank you all for your continued support. Thank you to those of you who have donated to Haitian Roots and to any other aid organization working in Haiti. We are so grateful that Haiti is receiving worldwide attention and response. If you feel inclined to donate through Haitian Roots, we will use every penny of your donation to help ease the suffering in Haiti. You can donate through our website: www.haitianroots.com.

To view photos that go along with this message, visit our website home page.

Thank you.

The Haitian Roots Team

Christmas Giving

People have asked me what they can do to help things in Haiti or with our orphanage or make a difference in general.

I'll throw out two options from our experience with two non-profits that work in Haiti. Contributions to either are tax deductible as well.

First, there is a non-profit organization that supports the orphanage where our children live. Both the orphanage and the non-profit are called "Hope for Little Angels of Haiti". There are no administrative expenses with this non-profit so 100% of the donation goes directly to supporting the orphanage by paying for the facility, the workers, food for the children, etc.

The website is being redone with the help of some nice designers and developers who are donating their expertise.

You can find that on Facebook here:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/187192/38726751?m=71bb3202

and become a Facebook Fan here:

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=hope+for+little+angels+of+haiti&init=quick#/pages/Hope-for-Little-Angels-of-Haiti/223557492064


Another organization that we believe in is HaitianRoots.com. The only way to break the cycle in Haiti is with education. You need to teach people that there are options... that there is another way to live and interact with the world.

HaitianRoots helps the children of Haiti get an education by matching individual children to sponsors. It costs $250 a year to send a child in Haiti to school. That is an astronomical figure for most families in Haiti. Here in America... come on... who hasn't something like that during a trip to Costco!

We know the people who run this non-profit and know that they also use their funds for the children and we know they work very hard at what they do. They are making a difference, one child at a time.

Brent and I have personal experience with HaitianRoots. We support a little boy named Mackenson through them. This is him
Our measly $250 sends him to school for a year. He's learning English and math and he's getting information to help him see how to make his world better.

This last trip, we brought a few little things down for Makenson, hoping he and his family would be able to come to the hotel to meet us while we were there.

It turned out Makenson was sick, but his father made the trip alone. He wanted to thank us for helping his little boy get an education. This is Brent and me with Makenson's dad.
There are so many wonderful people in Haiti. Good people who want the best for their children. They just don't have the means to help them even get an education.

You can choose to make a difference - even if it's a dollar at a time.

Happy Holidays!