God's Heart for Haiti

Today we focused on the work of Lespwa Timoun (Hope for Children).  We had an amazing day, we started at the Lespwa Timoun clinic in Croix-des-Bouquet that was filled with a variety of health issues and went from there to the village of Thomazeau.

The nutrition workers associated  with Lespwa Timon were conducting their monthly follow-up with the parent’s and children in the nutrition program in the Thomazeau area.  The children are monitored on a monthly basis and given vaccines, vitamins and food supplements like plumpy nut and AK1000.  They stay in this program from three to six months depending on how they respond.  Today 58 children were monitored and treated at Thomazeau (which is one of  six monitoring stations – with more being planned).

The results are incredible but the need remains staggering.  Toward the end of today’s clinic, Carmel sent the driver to check on a mother who had not been following up with the program.  He brought both mom and child back with him.  The child is very sick and extremely malnourished.  She is two years old, weighs 12 pounds and can neither walk nor talk.  Although extreme, this was not the only child at risk.  Of the 58 who were seen today at Thomazeau least 30 were identified as significantly malnourished.

The work of Lespwa Timoun has been going on for seven years and each year has brought an expansion to the scope of this work both in terms of numbers treated and geographical area covered.  The Haitian government has asked Carmel to oversee basic health care for children in another five villages.  At the present time we are focusing on completing the “base camp” for this ministry.  We have purchased three+ acres of land and are in the process of constructing an expanded clinic.  Donations can be made by using the tab at the top of this page.

Tomorrow we will review plans for construction of the clinic and then go down town Port-au-Prince to meet with the Haitian leadership of College Ste. Pierre.  +TJ

Pere Val, Carmel, Phil Black, Millie Powell, +TJ

I met with the Episcopal Bishop of Haiti (Bishop Zache Duracin) today along with Millie Powell of St. Peter’s Church (Mt. Pleasant, SC) and Mary Balfour VanZandt and Philip Black of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church (Birmingham, AL).  Our time in Haiti will be focused on furthering the medical work of Lespwa Timoun and laying the ground work for re-building the Episcopal High School (College St. Pierre).

I will post an update with pictures tomorrow, but tonight we are thankful for the hospitality of Father Fritz Valdema and his wife, Carmel.  Among the four of us, the image that stands out among the many that we have seen is the countless thousands of people continuing to live in tents and very minimal and temporary shelters.  Lord, have mercy.  +TJ

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.

There is a Haitian proverb that goes like this:  A goat with too many masters dies in the sun.

My blog entries have been few the past couple of days because I have been concentrating on hearing from and working with my friends (local leaders in Haiti) to set projects and opportunities to work on in partnership in the days ahead.  My heart is to be in these partnerships for the long haul and to allow the Lord to use those local leaders, who have a heart for Him and for the people of Haiti, to set the pace.  There are a number of partnership opportunities that are coming together.  I will share them with you over the course of the next couple of days.

You should know that the Anglican Mission’s Haiti fund continues to receive donations as does the fund we have set up at St. Peter’s Church.  The Lord is going before us and preparing resources for the days ahead.  You should also begin to pray for a medical team that will be heading to Haiti from the Diocese of Alabama (Dave Drachlis (leader) dave@stthomashuntsville.org ) around Feb. 15th.  The folks from the Myrtle Beach / Conway SC team are also preparing their third shipment of medical supplies.

TJ

The past 48 hours have been very encouraging as I have talked with a number of Haiti Partners from across the US.  I have also made contact with Laura Stanley who is the point person helping the Bishop of Haiti implement his response plan ( merelaurens@gmail.com ).  I have also briefly touched base with Bishop Duracin – please continue to pray for his wife’s healing (broken leg and multiple surgeries).

I hope to get a very focused disaster management web tool up and running to help us coordinate relief efforts with one another.  It will allow real time information to all those partnering with us in our earthquake response.  A friend has done some research for us and designed this tool with the help of some Asian brothers and sisters who brought it on line after the Tsunami.  This will help those of us partnering with Pere Val and the Crox-des-Bouqet parish, as well as staying in touch with the response to the refugees at, and the rebuilding of, College St. Pierre in Port-au-Prince.

As I am able to pull this information together and share it with you, you are going to be as encouraged as I am.

TJ

TJ returned from his week in Haiti with many insights and plans from the Episcopal Bishop of Haiti, Zache Duracin, and Pere Fritz Valdema.  For his notes prepared for a meeting to discuss ways to move forward, please open the attachment, Reflections on Haiti (pdf, 76kb).