“Seven Students Head for Haiti With Children’s Hope”
Fans whirl madly as our new puppy busies himself taste-testing each duffle bag. Braving the heat of our donated storage space (thank you kind neighbors) we are crazy with delight knowing we have luggage space for 1800 pounds of medical and school supplies. The July 2013 Children’s Hope team leaves for Haiti in less than two weeks. Which means its time for me to place our prescription drug order, and for me to ask for help reaching that “1800 pound” goal.
Your generosity has been steady and unwavering. When the devastating 2010 quake killed more than 300,000, your generous donations to Children’s Hope literally saved lives.
At that time, the UN added to an already excessive military force with troops from Nepal who unintentionally introduced cholera to the island. Without clean drinking water, the unchecked cholera epidemic continues to kill - more than 8,000 dead and rising. Hopefully, public pressure will motivate the UN to accept responsibility to build a water purification system, but for now, the cholera rages. With your help, Children’s Hope teams have provided constant support to small free clinics in “dangerous red zones” where larger aid organizations won’t go, like into Cité Soleil.
Now, with the packing, I’ve found my mind drifting to the small clinics, schools and orphanages we support. I see the faces and feel the fevered touch of a child’s hand, as if my hand has a memory of its own. Yesterday, while watering deckflowers I used the hose to wash down remnants of our puppy’s failed attempts to make it “to the ivy” in time. I was suspended for a moment, cold clean water bouncing off the deck, as I came face to face with our privilege. I was really using precious, clean, safe drinking water to wash off puppy’s failures. I felt obscene for that moment as I recalled those waiting, hopeful Haitian children.
I know we can’t bring safe, clean drinking water (the best preventative for cholera) to all the children in Haiti, but we can buy a truck-load of water for MABE Orphanage. I know we can’t give every hungry child in Haiti a nutritious meal even once a day, but we can bring children’s vitamins to The Lamp Clinic in Cité Soleil. We can take a team of young, earnest volunteers to visit the rural health clinic and into Port au Prince to hold acutely ill babies at Mother Teresa’s hospital for infants. This we can do. This we have been doing since 2004, but only with your help.
This year, we are out-numbered by seven hardworking student team members who have worked the better part of one year raising their own travel expenses and in-country costs. I am so proud of them. Please don’t let them go in empty handed. Consider making a donation to Children’s Hope (address below) so that we can launch these young adults into a lifetime of commitment to service. Thank you in advance for your continued solidarity.
For your convenience, you may also donate online by hitting the "donate" button at the top of this page.
Your donations are tax deductible. EIN: 20-2863867
Peace,
All ways and always, Leisa
Children’s Hope
3025A Cambridge Road, Cameron Park, CA 95682
lfaulkner@pacific.edu
1 comment:
This is cool!
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