This morning I received Valerie's update on the situation on the ground in Mizak, Haiti. She and her mission service team will leave on Saturday for Haiti with cash for food and some emergency supplies and help in time of need.
Paul Prevost, who lives there and deals daily with increasing needs and desperate demands for food and shelter, is trying to feed 500 kids 3 days a week in the "Peace Park" next to his house that still stands. He needs cash now not only to buy rice and beans, but to buy materials and hire local labor to build a security wall around Peace Park to protect the kids in his care. And there is a continuing need for tarps, tents, and sanitation for the children of Mizak. Here's Valerie's update:
Paul called again today and if you could only hear!! the kids are so loud! He said they have more coming above the 500 that came last week, and he is unsure how to respond, given that he has no means to enclose the inscribed children from those who are not registered for the program. Plus, more and more of the new children are from Port au Prince families who are relocating--and likely the most in need. The Port kids are likely the ones with more acute trauma. It's becoming clear that the security wall has moved from the wish list to the 'essentials' list! And that he needs to limit the number of children he feeds to 500.
I told Paul that we cannot guarantee a particular amount of food per week and I am starting to get the challenge out there for $5000 per week for 500 families, until we can access one of the Big AID groups in PAP.
As of this morning, a couple hours before the wire deadline!!), we met the original goal of $2500 per week to feed 250 kids this week. A team from W VA will sponsor next week and has offered to challenge some
other teams to do the same.Does Drew or Shalom want to sponsor a week of food aid when you come in March?
For material donations, here is our list of needs this month:
Peace,
Valerie
To support HAPI Community of Shalom please visit their website: www.haitianartisans.com
Paul Prevost, who lives there and deals daily with increasing needs and desperate demands for food and shelter, is trying to feed 500 kids 3 days a week in the "Peace Park" next to his house that still stands. He needs cash now not only to buy rice and beans, but to buy materials and hire local labor to build a security wall around Peace Park to protect the kids in his care. And there is a continuing need for tarps, tents, and sanitation for the children of Mizak. Here's Valerie's update:
Paul called again today and if you could only hear!! the kids are so loud! He said they have more coming above the 500 that came last week, and he is unsure how to respond, given that he has no means to enclose the inscribed children from those who are not registered for the program. Plus, more and more of the new children are from Port au Prince families who are relocating--and likely the most in need. The Port kids are likely the ones with more acute trauma. It's becoming clear that the security wall has moved from the wish list to the 'essentials' list! And that he needs to limit the number of children he feeds to 500.
I told Paul that we cannot guarantee a particular amount of food per week and I am starting to get the challenge out there for $5000 per week for 500 families, until we can access one of the Big AID groups in PAP.
As of this morning, a couple hours before the wire deadline!!), we met the original goal of $2500 per week to feed 250 kids this week. A team from W VA will sponsor next week and has offered to challenge some
other teams to do the same.Does Drew or Shalom want to sponsor a week of food aid when you come in March?
For material donations, here is our list of needs this month:
- Heavy duty Army Surplus for 8-12 persons. Or Coleman quality durable tents. No limit. If we had them today, we could easily distribute over 500 within the shalom zone.
- Heavy duty Tarps for Peace Park enclosure. About $250 each. If they are multipurpose, we can't
- go wrong. We could have used 100s following the hurricane to cover lost roofs! Now we need them for shelter.
- Cash to buy rice, beans vegetables locally
- Cash to buy materials and hire labor to build security wall around Peace
- 2 notebook computers for staff and volunteers organizing feeding and activity program.
Peace,
Valerie
To support HAPI Community of Shalom please visit their website: www.haitianartisans.com