It doesn’t seem possible that it has already been two years since the earthquake that shook the literal and virtual foundations of Haiti.  If you lived in a tent under constant threat of violence, disease, and the elements, it would feel like an eternity.

Servants for Haiti isn’t looking at the years but the lives.  With your support, we have educated more students, helped more hopeful entrepreneurs, and housed families.  For those folks, two years ago seems a lifetime away.

Stay with us as we look forward to more changed lives and a better Haiti.

God bless you for your support.

SFH wants to wipe the tears away. You can help.

More good news from Haiti.  The children who live at the Kingdom Kids Orphanage have begun sleeping inside again.  Until now, the kids and some of the staff have been afraid to sleep inside the building, and were in tents just outside the house.

Clearly, the resilient people of Haiti are making progress in their recovery from the earthquake.  This is a major step, especially considering the upcoming rainy season.

The small team that returned on March 4 brought home many photos of the situation in Haiti.  Some are in the previous post.  Here are some more (click to see larger versions):

The kids at KKO seem to be taking it all in stride.

Food is still being served to kids at CJRA even while the school is closed.

The littlest ones at KKO may never fully know what they survived.

The ruins of the once beautiful National Cathedral.

A grafitti artist captures the situation in Haiti with this poignant creation.

Here are some photos taken by the small team that traveled to Haiti at the end of February.  Click on the pictures to see a larger view.

Tents are set up everywhere and anywhere.

Many first floors collapsed under the weight of a second floor.

Some buildings were partially destroyed and are unsafe but are still used by their occupants.

More to come…

The two buildings that house the work of SFH, the orphanage and school, have both been inspected by officials and declared structurally sound.  While the children at the orphanage still sleep outside for fear of continuing aftershocks, they spend their days inside the orphanage, playing and eating there.

The school needs some minor repair work – a couple of non-structural walls collapsed because they were not quite completed  – but it survived the quake miraculously well, for a building of its size and proximity to the quake’s epicenter.

CJRA School sustained minimal non-structural damage

Another small team heads down to Haiti on Friday, February 26.  We will bring you updates as we receive them.  At the very least, we will have a complete trip report and photos after they return on March 4.

Servants for Haiti is committed to bringing consistent and long term support to our Haitian friends.  Your financial support will help us.  Also, give serious consideration to coming with us on a future trip.   You can make a difference in Haiti.  And Haiti will make a difference in you.

[Update:  This team is home. We'll post a trip report as soon as possible.]

Here are some photos from the small team that went to Haiti to do recovery work in January 2010.  Go here for the trip report.

John checks out the new water filtration system.

Tents set up outside the orphanage. Kids and staff are staying outside due to continuing aftershocks.

Working with World Vision to plan food distribution at CJRA.

Back on Monday, January 25, Servants for Haiti sent its first team to work in post-earthquake Haiti.  Three people, including two members of the SFH board, stayed between one and two weeks and accomplished a great deal.  Here is a “diary” of their trip, mostly reprinted from an earlier blog from before this new site came online:

Tuesday,  Jan 26, 2010:

They brought with them four heavy duty tents for the orphans, a water purifier, medical supplies, diapers, infant formula, and food: tuna, peanut butter, and more. They also brought money to purchase food and water. The money was especially helpful because the larger aid agencies had not yet made it to the Cite Militaire and Village Solidarite neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. Your generosity has made all this possible.

Thursday, Jan 28, 2010:

The team managed to get to the Dominican Republic to buy food. They purchased enough to supply the orphanage for a few weeks!

The smell of decaying bodies is still evident.

One child from KKO has been hospitalized for dehydration.

The US Army gave our team more tents to protect the children. These are desperately needed to protect them from the elements.

The Army also supplied the orphanage with some water. No food has been received from the larger aid services, so any food we get is because of your donations.

Our missionary friends, Karl and Ann Olsson, brought food and drink mixes over.

Pastor Rigaud (for those who don’t know, the school and orphanage were founded and are run by him) has arrived back in Haiti after a few days in the US. He had accompanied the four adopted orphans to FL last week. With him, he has brought a small generator that will be used to run the water filtration system the team brought with them.

A member of our team got another generator and some water from the US Army. The new generator will supply other essential electrical.

Friday, Jan 29, 2010:

Here is a text message received just this morning from one of our board members in Haiti:

Tonight I walked over to the school with Jacnel (who works for Pastor Rigaud). Usually at this time the streets are crowded, not tonight. It was a ghost town, no one was on the street, it was empty. Still people aren’t sleeping in homes that appear safe. There are makeshift cities everywhere but few are lucky enough to have real tents, most are made from sheets. The kids and staff continue to sleep outside and seem to manage amazingly well. The staff is unbelievable with how they are handling things. Everywhere we go people are praising God for saving them. So many have no idea what the future holds for them, no home, no job, nothing.

This kind of strength is yet another reason why we love serving our Haitian friends.

Saturday, Jan 30, 2010:

Today had lots of positive activity. Here’s a summary:

• The orphan that had been taken to the hospital for dehydration has been released and is well.
• Every night, our friends at the orphanage are making rice and whatever else is available. They feed anyone from the neighborhood who is in need.
• Our SFH team worked hard making connections and collecting supplies at the airport. In the end, they came away up with more medical supplies, diapers, water, blankets, food, and toiletries. A good haul!
• The team also went to a local hospital for some meds to treat conjunctivitis, which many of the children have contracted.
• Very exciting partnership news: World Vision is going to be using the CJRA school and the adjacent Bethlehem Baptist Church as a distribution point for food for the entire area. They will be distributing 5,000 boxes of food, each of which contains enough to feed someone for a month!
• Rigaud Antoine has been working with a Haitian judge all day to help facilitate more adoptions. (As we’ve said on our web site, you can contact SFH if you are interested in adopting a child. Write to info@servantsforhaiti.org and we’ll send you a packet of information.)

This is all great news. We are very excited to see people going to great lengths to help our Haitian friends. We are thrilled and humbled to be part of such a great worldwide effort.

Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010:

One member of our team in Haiti returned Sunday night.

Meanwhile progress continues to be made. There was a distribution of water from the school and church yesterday. This should help prepare for the large scale food distribution that World Vision will be doing later in the week. People from SFH and WV met to plan this effort. They have been collecting names of people in the Cite Militaire and Village Solidarite neighborhoods who will be given food. As was mentioned in the previous post, they plan to distribute enough food to feed 5,000 people for a month.

Pastor Rigaud continues to work through the adoption process for the children in the orphanage. While four children have made it to the US, we hope that more can find their permanent homes soon.

Church was held on Sunday, just one service at 6:30 AM. There were 1,000 in the congregation, compared to the usual 3,000.

Wednesday, Feb 3, 2010:

Behind every great man is… his mother. In this case we’re talking about Pastor Rigaud Antoine’s mother. For those of you who are unaware, Pastor Rigaud is the driving force behind the CJRA school and Kingdom Kids orphanage. His mother is an amazing presence at any time, but she has truly stepped up in this disaster.

Meanwhile, our team is searching for additional sources of food for the people living there.

Thursday, Feb 4, 2010:

We have been able to buy food to supply “Grandma’s Tent City” (see previous post). People in the neighborhood of KKO have also been fed with food purchased by SFH.

World Vision arrived today and distributed food boxes to 1700 people in Village Solidarite, using the school as a base. They will give out the same amount each of the next two days.

One of the two people from SFH that are in Haiti is planning to return today.

Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010:

The three team members have all returned to the US.

Things are going as well as can be expected down at the school and orphanage. Thank God, we still have not heard of any serious casualties among the people we work with or serve there. With the exodus of people to the countryside, it may be a long time before we know the fate of all our friends. Some we may never know about.

Pastor Rigaud is still doing what he can to expedite adoptions. Food, water, and medical care are still in short supply. People are still living in tents, uncertain about their future.

Of one thing they can be sure. Servants for Haiti will always care and will be there for them if at all possible. We plan to send another small team as soon as commercial flights to Haiti resume.

Your help will go a long way to ensuring that we are doing as much as we can. In return for your generosity, we pledge our greatest efforts to help the children and all people of Haiti.

God bless you all…

Earthquake devastation

The massive earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday, January 12, hit just 10 miles from Port-au-Prince where SFH supports a school (College Jean Rigaud Antoine) and an orphanage (Kingdom Kids Orphanage).  International news media have carried the story in detail but many are anxious about the fate of SFH’s projects and the children we support.

We are happy to say that neither the orphanage nor the school had any serious damage and no one involved with either work is known to be hurt. The children in the orphanage have been staying outside in case there are more aftershocks that cause further damage.  The fate of many of the children who attended the school, over 100 of whom are supported by SFH sponsors, is unknown.  We are aware of some who are fine, but we don’t know about all.

An initial assessment of the effects of the earthquake follows:

• The one injury that we are aware of is to our medical school student, Georges Dorilien. He suffered a broken arm and leg. While those injuries are considered routine under the best of conditions, they can be very dangerous with the medical care situation that now exists in Haiti.
• Two of the three water cisterns at the orphanage are broken and cannot hold water. We are sending money down to repair or replace them as soon as possible.
• About 10,000 people who live in the vicinity of the school and orphanage are looking to Pastor Rigaud and SFH for help. We will attempt to reach out to all those in need if at all possible. We need your help to do so.
• One bright spot: Because of the conditions for the orphans in Haiti, officials are expediting the adoption process in some cases. As a result, four of the orphans at KKO have already arrived at their new permanent homes in the U.S!

In a place where access to clean water, food, and health care are limited and tenuous at best, this disaster has proven to be devastating.  And it comes just 18 months after a series of destructive hurricanes last year.

Please be in prayer for our friends in Haiti.  Servants for Haiti has already had a small team at work there, delivering money, food, and other supplies.

If you are interested in sending emergency funds to help, you can contact us at info@servantsforhaiti.org or send a check designated for earthquake relief to:

Servants for Haiti

P.O. Box 1214
Westford, MA 01886

Finally, if you are interested in possibly adopting one of the children currently living at the orphanage, we can send you some helpful information if you contact us at info@servantsforhaiti.org .

Thank you for your concern and any help you can give.

Many Haitians are living in tents and will be for a long time.