God's Heart for Haiti

An update from Father Fritz Valdema and his wife and nurse, Carmel relating to their work with Lespwa Timoun in the refugee camps around Croix-des-Bouquet (which is on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince).

Dear friends

We would like to share with you the work has been done through Lespwa timoun this week with the homeless.  Lespwa has been working with children and mothers under the tent, we weigh them, provide education for mothers, distribute Plumpy-nut and AK1000, vit A, vaccins for measles, DTP, dT, and they don’t have to payfor the  medicines at the clinic.  Now the  Communal health office Croix des Bouquets asked Lespwa Timoun to work in 6 more villages 5kms  around the clinic  where we have to do all the activities. Thank you for your effort to allow us to do all that.

Carmel and Pere Val

One of the Refugee Camps where Lespwa Timoun is at work
Vitamin and supplements for this little girl	Carmel is wearing the blue shirt
Plumpy’nut Plumpy’nut is a peanut-based food for use in famine relief which was formulated in 1999 by André Briend, a French Paediatric Nutritionist. The Plumpy’nut product is a high protein and high energy peanut-based paste in a foil wrapper. It tastes slightly sweeter than peanut butter. It is categorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). Plumpy’nut contains vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E, and K, and minerals calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, iodine, sodium, and selenium. – Plumpy’nut, Wikipedia

The Clinic at Croix-des-Bouquets

Construction in Progress

Lespwa Timoun means Hope for Children in Creole.  We can give the people of Haiti hope by helping complete the Lespwa Timoun Clinic.  This nutrition clinic will bring medical, dental, nutrition and education programs to the neediest children in Croix-des-Bouquets area.  Children in the program are weighed monthly, receive monthly food supplements, vaccinations, vitamins and worm medicine.  Their parents receive education in health and nutrition.

Lespwa Timoun is even more essential to build after last month’s devastating earthquake.  Many, many refugees are now in the Croix-des-Bouquets area and they need medical attention desperately.  $200,000 is needed to finish the clinic and roughly $95,000 has been raised in the last month.  This money has been raised from all over the USA, but we need more! You can make your donation through this blog or by sending checks to St. Mary-on-the-Highlands Episcopal Church in Birmingham, AL.  P.O. Box 55245 Birmingham, AL 35255.  Please put Haiti Relief in the for line and remember all checks are tax deductible.

Thank you for your prayers and assistance to our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

According to the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Special Crisis Commission, College St. Pierre, one of the best high schools in Port-au-Prince, is completely destroyed.  The College’s soccer field has been turned into an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) staging area, providing shelter for approximately 3000 displaced people coming from all over the capital without any consideration given to religion, creed and social class.

The satellite images below show the devastation to College St. Pierre.  You will be able to see the College camp or IDP area (marked in yellow) where the Diocese of Alabama will hold its first medical clinic under the direction of Carmel and Pere Valdema.  Please keep this school and its families in your prayers as they try to heal from their grief and loss and attempt to rebuild their lives and their school.

Note: Click on photos for larger images.

Before the Earthquake	After the Earthquake
College St. Pierre (Aug 25, 2009)	College St. Pierre (Jan 17, 2010)
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Internally displaced persons are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border. – Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, United Nations	College St. Pierre Camp (Jan 24, 2010)

I have been asked by the Bishop of Haiti to assist him in the rebuilding efforts in Haiti – focusing on the mission and ministry of the Anglican Church in Haiti.  I have known him and worked with him for over 20 years. Personally, his house was destroyed and his wife seriously injured.  She has a broken leg and has had two surgeries to date.

His highest priority in this effort is to re-establish the education structure throughout the areas affected by the earth quake.  In Haiti, schools provide not only intellectual opportunities, but they are also a delivery structure for faith, food, medicine, and the basic social services that we might expect municipalities to offer.

One of those is an Episcopal High School called College St. Pierre (800 students). It was totally destroyed and still has over 300 students entombed in its rubble.  The Bishop’s heart, as a first priority, is to re-build this school which all the other schools  ( Anglican and otherwise – and those currently functioning and those destroyed) feed into.  The Country simply can not put on hold for years to come the education of its brightest and best.

I have felt called by God to step up to this opportunity and I am attempting to put a team in place to work with me in developing a strategy to accomplish this work.   I believe that this project has the potential not only to re-build a high school, but also to bring hope and encouragement to a next generation of leaders for a country that lacks Godly leadership at every level of its national life.