I am from a family with 10 children, five girls and five boys.
We all contribute to society in our own ways but two of my younger brothers really go out of their way to make a difference in people’s lives.
My youngest brother, Rick, has three children and has become involved in the Mission of the Felician sisters in Haiti.
He has already made a dozen trips over the last two years to Haiti and his eldest, Abby (16), has begun to go with him. Next month, they will be travelling there again to build a playground and further set up a computer lab. This time they will be joined by 7 other fathers with their daughters.
Rick has been working with Sister Marilyn who is from New Jersey and Sister Inga from Poland. They have lived in Jacmel Haiti for the past 5 years. The sisters hire two doctors and two nurses to run a mobile medical clinic. They pack up a truck with medicines and drive to a different village every day to offer free medical care. They also employ a few local women to cook for the children of their village. Forty to fifty children come every day to eat. It is their only meal.
They have 15 or so donated computers (10 from Rick’s employer, JetBlue) with which Rick has set up a computer lab for the children where they can educate themselves. There is an off-line server with Khan Academy, Wikipedia etc.
The nuns also run a "water with blessings" program where they give water filters to young mothers who are breast-feeding so they can stay hydrated with clean water.
Rick writes, "When we go in June, we will install some playground equipment
for the young children to play on. It is built by a company in Port-au-Prince. Very sturdy metal.
We will also be helping the kids learn how to use the computers. They really have no idea what a mouse or keyboard is.
The sisters just moved into a new facility so we will also be helping them by painting and hanging pictures etc. And, of course, we will spend a good amount of time just playing with the children.The money is needed to partially fund the girls’ airfare. We also pay the nuns a nominal fee per night for food and housing. Any money left over will be used to send some to the kids to school. It costs about $150 per year to send one child to school. We will also be bringing them some toys like soccer balls and things."
I realize there are a lot of requests for financial help here right now but as we say
around here, EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS and I think this is a worthy project. If you are able, please consider tossing $5, $10 or $20 into the pot, Abby's gofundme page
I am so proud of my baby brother he is one of those folks who not only talk the talk, he walks the walk… Rick’s Facebook entry. He says, “Please pray for our safe travels and that this experience instills the Christlike love of others in these young ladies’ hearts.”
Side story:
Other brother, Tom, started helping out the mission of the Christian Brothers in Haiti years ago and, at the risk of this becoming overly long, just wanted to share one story he told.
The Christian Brothers compound is surrounded by a security fence. The Brothers do not have much, they have very little but it is more than most of the people have. At night, the gates are locked and the compound is patrolled by dogs.
Tom was told the story of one of the young men he met there.
The Brothers must travel to the Dominican Republic for supplies every few months and they must pay a toll to cross the border. Years ago, as the Brother got to the border, he noticed an infant child lying in the side of the road. He asked the guard whose baby that was and the guard responded, "It is no one's baby" - the brother picked up the little one who had long since stopped crying and carried him with him on his trip. He bought supplies for the child and took him back to the compound.
That saved infant now works to help his fellow Haitians, the brothers never again had to pay the toll to cross into the Dominican Republic.
I am republishing this because it got zero responses the first time. Please consider a small donation so that they can acco p
Please consider a small contribution so that they can do the most for the improvised children of Haiti. If anyone has further suggestt
Suggestions on how
If anyone has suggestions on how I can I improve this, I would love to hear them. Thanks!