Dear friends,
Many of you know that my family and I have been working in SW Haiti since January of 2011. During that time we have formed a 501(c)3 charity called Give Hope Global and partnered with a Haitian based ministry called El Shaddai Ministries Int’l (ESMI, whose board I serve on) to change the odds for several hundred young people there. About 300 volunteers have come alongside us to provide the necessary ingredients and resources to help these young people thrive.
Hurricane Matthew took dead aim on the area where we work and live there and left a path of destruction in its wake. The damage, loss of life and disruption to life is almost unimaginable.
In advance of the storm, we moved about 300 kids from 3 other orphanages to the primary orphanage we support called Cambry , leaving us with over 450 kids to weather the storm there. Our compound at Cambry includes dormitories, schools, vocational training center, church medical clinic, agricultural project with traditional vegetable crops and aquaponics and a guest house with kitchen/outdoor dining pavilion. Over the years, we have built Cambry into the nerve center of the community and have trained and sent out 12 Community Health Workers to serve over 120 Haitian families in the surrounding area.
I am pleased to report that all of the children made it through the storm without any serious injuries. However, the storm severely damaged the buildings in our compound and wiped out most of the beautiful fruit trees and landscape there. It also devastated the 3 home orphanages of the 300 extra children, making those orphanages uninhabitable for the time being. This leaves us in a very precarious position with far too many children in a space designed for about 1/3 the number that are there. We know most of these children personally. One of them, a beautiful 16 year old girl named Ernise , lived with our family in the states while attending private school for a year in 2014 and 2015. Ernise is like one of my own grandchildren. We thank God for sustaining her and all the others through the storm but now fear potential tragedy in the aftermath .
We are anxious to move the children back to their respective orphanages to avoid cholera and other diseases that can run rampant in an overcrowded third world environment. I leave for Haiti on Thursday with my daughter and co-founder, Angela Quinn and Give Hope Medical Director, Dr Will Caldwell to further assess damage and prepare for a 16 member team who will join us on Saturday for medical relief and reconstruction efforts. If any of you are willing and able to help underwrite the cost of cleaning up, rebuilding and refurnishing these sites, I would be forever grateful. Keep in mind that in Haiti we do not have ready resources of equipment, trucks and materials so it will be necessary for us to purchase those items, some in Haiti (whenever available) and some in the states. We estimate the cost of fully restoring ESMI and Give Hope facilities to be north of $2 mil.
You can make a tax deductible donation of any size, of course, but you can also go with us to help in the cleanup/rebuild effort if you are so inclined. You can pay for a much needed 4×4 pickup truck for about $30k or underwrite the cost of repairing our medical clinic for about the same amount …you get the idea. People are really hurting there and Give Hope Global can put your gift to work in a very precise and efficient manner. Please reach out to me if I can answer any questions or you can go to our website at www.givehopeglobal.org to learn more or to make a gift through PayPal. Our mailing address is PO Box 2071 Fort Mill SC 29716. Thank you for any support you can provide.
All the best,
Roger