Mize pa konn doule met li
“Misery knows not the pain of its owner”

Just a few weeks after the hurricane bypassed northern Haiti, a tropical storm has dumped massive torrents of rain on the north; the area which your foundation supports. Many deaths have occurred with near total loss of family gardens in the mountains and great loss of personal property.

Sadly, this will be followed by an increased incidence of illness carried by polluted water. Institute Maranatha and the elderly village have survived, soaked but safe.

Below is a video taken from our recent visit this past weekend, November 11-13, 2016. 

Please consider making a donation to support the cholera prevention and treatment efforts led by
Dr. Eugene and our team.

(aka: Orphelinet de Grison--Garde)

Tan pare pa di lapli pou sa
A gathering storm doesn’t necessarily mean rain

“Impending danger may not mean disaster”. How often this has not been true for Haiti, but this
time the disaster that decimated the southwest of Haiti spared the north entirely. Expecting to see the
worst when we arrived three days after the hurricane, all was normal (“normal” in Haiti being a relative
word). No significant flooding or loss of life or home.

“Haiti” is derived from the Taino Indian word “Ayiti” which means “ land of mountains”. They
do have them in the center of that island: over 2,000 feet higher than the highest of our eastern
mountains. To some extent this geologic feature can save them.

The astounding Dr. Maklin Eugene is finishing his beautiful hospital (pictured below), overcoming odds that seemed impossibly stacked against him. Your foundation has been very helpful to him in this project--see photos including one inside the new building featuring your “band of bands”. The brass band from Institute Maranatha was featured, playing their incredibly spirited (to say the very least) rendition of the Haitian National Anthem. Good for them and by the way, y’all can donate brass instruments anytime!

We are working now with several groups and individuals to provide hygiene kits for adolescent girls, forced to miss school and social life during their menstrual periods. There has been great success so far in both acceptance and recognition of that obvious need. We and the medical Haiti Mission Foundation are vigorously pursuing a solution to this sad fact: profound poverty creates life survival difficulties that we in our relative luxury can but imagine.

Although spared the storm, the medical problems (especially cholera) go on in nearby communities. Certainly medications and supplies help, but nothing comes close to educaton in helping rural folks avoid disease. {See photo of sanitation supplies} So often it seems that projects such as churches and schools offered from the “first world” fall flat after initial investment partly due to deep cultural differences, but education regarding health and future employment is accepted by all.

Although we generally do not publicly announce gifts, we must mention the yard sale to end them all. “Friends of the Robert Ford Foundation of Albemarle” represented by 52! volunteers, recently raised over $14,000 in their annual 2 day sale. You can but imagine the amount of work and time that created that huge success. Just try to match that one, OK?

The schools, both primary and secondary, seem to be in great shape. Bulging at the seams and still free of charges for students, offering noon meals daily to about 200. Remembering that no uniform means no school in Haiti, we are continuing to provide uniforms through our professional school to several nearby primary schools (total 500 students) at minimal or no cost. As donations allow, we feel obliged to offer help to all children and young adults regardless of whether their schools are secular, national or have religious affiliation. Poukisa PA? Why NOT?

Keeping the college students numbers: we still have but 8 young adults in college, five of whom were raised in the orphanage. Two more to be added in 2017… still not enough.

Peace and Love to All from about 1250 of us at Institute Maranatha. First to wish you a Happy 2017!!