Newsletter December 2021

Posted on by chris Updates

Thank you for your support during 2021. It has been a difficult year, corona virus continues to disrupt the best laid plans. Life for the people in Haiti has not got any easier. Gang warfare and political chaos has meant many disruptions including road blocks and riots. Food is ever more expensive and local currency becomes increasingly devalued against the US dollar. This makes your support even more important to families and communities on La Gonave island. The island is recognised by the World Health Organisation as one of the most deprived areas in the world.

Haiti Help works closely with 3 Haitian organisations to ensure that the money we raise is spent wisely and used for the greatest benefit in the community. We send approximately £2000 every quarter to each group.

The Wesleyan Hospital

The small hospital is the only medical facility on the island. Their main work is funded by the Wesleyan Foundation from USA but there is NEVER enough money to treat all of the people who require help. Haiti Help sends money to the hospital “indigent fund”. This allows many more local people to access essential or urgent medical care.

The OKIPE Children’s Village.

The Children’s Village can house up to 80 children and the school there provides education for over 200 more. The children are given a healthy meal during the school day. This encourages attendance and helps alleviate the common problem of malnutrition among the poorest families. OKIPE is an alliance of charities from US, Canada and Scotland who work together to help the Haitian director, Mme Solliette, offer the best care and education for the children. This year we sent £3000 extra to pay for cement floors in the school, the dust in the dry season was causing respiratory problems for some of the children.

ASHOG

ASHOG is a well established self help group operating on the island. It is organised by a local pastor who works tirelessly to improve things for his community. We fund a teacher in one of their schools, we provide financial support for 2 families, we contribute to the “Elderly and Disabled Food Programme”, and help finance the care of 4 orphaned children who live with the pastor’s family.

Following the earthquake in August 2021, we were able to send £2500 from our emergency fund to pay for antibiotics, painkillers and dressings to treat the injured.

The current political situation, as well as coronavirus make it impossible for us to travel to Haiti. We do remain in close contact with all 3 of our projects via the internet. All the funds we send go direct from the Bank of Scotland to the project bank accounts in Haiti so we are as certain as we can be that the money raised is used in the best possible way.

We can only work with the donations we receive from you, our supporters. The people of La Gonave are grateful and always ask us to pass on their thanks and best wishes to the people who provide help for them.

We have a good power point presentation and are always keen to talk to interested groups or individuals. Please contact our Secretary Lou with any enquiries, telephone 07732263467 or email admin@haitihelp.org.uk

Find out more on our website www.haitihelp.org.uk Donations are always welcome and can be made as one off or monthly on https://www.goldengiving.com/wall/haiti-help

Haiti Earthquake update

Posted on by chris Updates

Thankfully the epicentre of the recent earthquake in Haiti was a long way away from La Gonave, the area we work in. There is minimal damage to our project buildings and all our people are safe and well.

Haiti is such a poor country there are just not enough resources to help everyone in the affected area.  There are thousands dead and hundreds of thousands injured! Rescue work has been hampered by torrential rain from Storm Grace which hit Haiti 2 days after the quake. Many injured are waiting to be treated in the open air or in tents.

We have sent money (£2300) to a Hatian medical team who are already on site, there is a huge ongoing need to fund medical supplies and to transport the injured to hospitals away from the quake area.  The money we sent is a drop in the ocean, please donate if you can. 

Remember we are a volunteer run charity and 100% of the money donated will go directly to the medical team. 

January £50 Draw

Posted on by Lou Davidson Updates

January winner is number 36. Sadly this number has not been chosen 😥 so no one gets £50. There are still a few numbers available if you would like to take part. You can see the draws here https://www.facebook.com/haitihelp.org.uk

£50 draw

Posted on by Lou Davidson Updates

This month number 4 was drawn. Congratulations to Mike Gray from Kirkcaldy. £50 is on it’s way to you. Happy new year everyone, we hope 2021 is an improvement on 2020!

Here is how to take part, there are still numbers avaialable. https://www.facebook.com/haitihelp.org.uk/photos/a.294358280582156/4872301369454468/

Newsletter DECEMBER 2020

Posted on by Lou Davidson Updates

2020 has been a difficult year for so many people, in so many ways but we hope you are in good spirits and looking forward to 2021.

In 2020 Haiti Help’s income has been drastically reduced, we normally held at least one fundraising event each month and of course these events have not been happening.  In order to try to offset this loss we have two new ways to increase funds, a £50 monthly draw, and a recycling scheme. Details of both schemes are on the website, we hope you will have a look and help if you can. 

Thanks to you, our regular donors and supporters we have been able to continue our core support to the people of La Gonave island, Haiti.  

The Hospital

Haiti Help sends a quarterly payment of £2000 to the hospital “indigent fund”  There is no free medical care in Haiti.  The fund allows people with no money to access urgent or necessary healthcare.

The Okipe Children's Village

Haiti help sent quarterly payments of £2000 and an extra £1000 in December to the Children’s Village. Mme. Soliette the director uses the money wisely. She cares for 60 orphans and the village school provides education for around 200 local children.  There is no free state education in Haiti, so this is a huge benefit for local families who might otherwise  have to choose between food or education for their children.

ASHOG

ASHOG is a well established self help group operating on the island.  It is organised by a local pastor who works tirelessly to improve things for the poorest people in his community.  We help fund a teacher in one of their “free schools”, we support 2 families enabling them to feed their children, we contribute regularly to the “Elderly and Disabled Food Program”   When we can, we contribute to the “School Lunch Club”.  The children who attend the “Free Schools” are from the poorest families, they are often malnourished, it can make a tremendous difference to their wellbeing if they can be provided with a healthy meal at school.

RAFFLE

Normally we have a grand raffle at the Haiti Help Christmas Fair.  There is no Fair this year due to Covid, but we have put the raffle online. The prize is a magnificent Christmas Drink Hamper, tickets are £5 and you can buy them here:

goldengiving.com/raffle/ChristmasDrink

Good luck but remember, if you don’t win, your money will feed a family for a day! 

 Haiti Help’s 3 trustees, Carole, Elaine and Lou took part in the virtual “Kilt Walk” in Sept and raised £5790 to pay for specialist medical treatment for a man who’s problem couldn’t be dealt with on La Gonave. The 2021 Kilt Walk is the weekend of 23rd April, it’s a “virtual event” so you can walk at a time and place that suits you or come to join our trustees at Loch Leven Heritage Trail.  It’s a great fundraiser even if you can only raise a few pounds because Sir Tom Farmer tops up the total by 50%.

If you would  like to help with our work to relieve the devastating poverty in Haiti, you can make one off, or a regular monthly donation on our fundraising platform below.  Haiti Help is run entirely by volunteers so every penny donated is put to good use. 

https://www.goldengiving.com/wall/haiti-help 

All that remains is to say “thank you” for your support over the past year!  Haiti Help could do nothing without your help.  The people of La Gonave send their grateful thanks to each and every one of you! 

This newsletter has been sent out to people who support Haiti Help. We will never ever give out your details to anyone else.  However, if you would like taken off our mailing list please email or call us. We won’t ask any awkward questions.  admin@haitihelp.org.uk.  Phone or text 07732263467

Haiti Help registered charity SC042062

Can you Help Clotere?

Posted on by Lou Davidson Updates

As a charity we have a policy of not helping individuals, rather we donate to groups in La Gonave where the local people are able to use the money for the greatest benefit within their community. However, recently we were approached to help a man called Clotere.

He has a problem of swelling within his left testicle and as you can see from the picture that is quite an understatement. His problem requires surgery and is not straightforward. He needs to go to a hospital on the mainland for treatment. This is likely to be quite costly. Having seen the extent of his problem we felt we could not refuse to help. We hope you will want to help too! Problems on this scale are not uncommon in Haiti where many people have little or no access to medical advice. If you donate to our Kiltwalk appeal here

https://edinburghkiltwalk2020.everydayhero.com/uk/HelpClotere

we receive a 50% uplift from Tom Farmer on your donation. We hope this makes you just a wee bit more appreciative of a Scottish NHS which means problems for you will never get this big! If we raise more money than the cost of surgery for Clotere the excess will go to the hospital fund to help other people in similar circumstances.