Tag: Caribbean

Recipe to Help Haiti

I know so many of us are riveted to the news, to our emails, to Facebook, or wherever else we can scrap together some information about the Haiti earthquake. Many of us are wishing there was something more we could do to help, some way to respond to the unimaginable things we are seeing.

There is one vital action that is always open to us: Prayer.

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” – Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

If you’re trying to find someway to respond, consider calling together a prayer group. Spend the night praying for Haiti and make one of the most traditional Haitian dishes, Soup Joumou, which they use to celebrate the new year.

Things to Pray:

• For the safety and rescue of David Hames and for peace and encouragement for his family
• For those still trapped in the rubble
• For those working to rescue people
• That roads would be passable to get in water, food, medicine, and other aid
• For our staff, church partners, and children
• That reliable communication channels can be established
• For efficient and strategic responses to the crisis
• For God’s will to be done
• For God to get all the glory

Ask your friends to each bring $5 or $10 to help pay for the soup and give the rest of the money to relief or rebuilding efforts. You can cook the soup together and use it as a time to build relationships, share prayer requests, and support one another.

Soup Joumou (Pumpkin Soup) (more…)

Haiti Earthquake Video Message

Get the latest updates on the Haiti earthquake and it’s affect on Compassion and the children we serve.

2010 Haiti Earthquake Update

Note: This article is about the 2010 earthquake. Learn how to donate to help children affected by the August 2021 Haiti earthquake. 

UPDATED: June 30, 2010 at 1:45 p.m. (MT) – Out of more than 22,000 children affected by the earthquake we are still in the process of locating around 350 children. We are continuing to contact sponsors whose children we do have specific information on.

Our church partners continue to search the tent cities daily to locate the rest of the children. In addition, regionally based partnership facilitators continue to search the countryside to find children who may have relocated outside of the city after the quake.

Classes have resumed in nine of the eleven universities where our Leadership Development Program students are enrolled, 62 students are attending class again. However, 26 of our students for various reasons (sickness linked to the earthquake, stress, trauma, formal interdiction from some parents, etc.) have not returned to school.

Our leadership team is proceeding with the repairs of our three-level office building in Port-au-Prince. Repair work is expected to go until the end of July. A local firm is responsible for the repair but an expert from Engineering Ministries International is in the field for the work supervision.

Two psychologists have been hired for a six-month contract to design a plan to help meet the psychological needs of our registered children, siblings, relatives and church staff members.

Our initial objective for addressing the temporary and transitional shelter needs of our beneficiaries was to provide tarps to 4,000 families in the urban areas, and corrugated metal sheets, wood frames and nails to 2,000 families located in the rural areas.

So far, we have distributed 4,237 tarps to complete the tarp distribution activity. Some families were given two tarps based on need. Also, more than 1,300 families received corrugated metal sheets and wood frames in rural areas. Another 700 will be served as soon as possible.

About 8,000 registered children and 7,000 siblings and parents were seen through our mobile medical clinics. Malaria and typhoid tests have been given to patients who also received medicine, if needed, or are referred to the hospital or a health center for follow-up.

As most of our child development centers also have a school where many of the children attend, our plan to provide transitional meeting places until the damaged centers can be rebuilt is providing school equipment to replace some of what has been lost.

The Haitian government has reopened schools and extended the school term by through August. Most of the schools are allowing children to go home at noon because of the extreme heat, to minimize the amount of time the children are kept under the tarps and canopies.

We are processing letters and gifts for all child development centers in Haiti. If you send a gift, please do not specify how it should be used. It is very difficult for our Haiti staff to follow through with the request.

Until further notice we are not conducting any travel to Haiti (e.g., sponsor visits, individual relief efforts, tours, vision trips, etc.).

All of the affected child development centers have resumed activities, meeting under tarps or tin roofs. All of the significantly affected centers are meeting three times a week.

Although the full scope of regular activities is not currently taking place at child development centers and child survival programs significantly affected by the earthquake, affected church partners are continuing to conduct camps to help address the psychological, physical, nutritional, and cognitive needs of our registered children, as well as the mothers and the babies participating in our Child Survival Program (CSP).

In general, our church partners will host these camps until the development centers are rebuilt or activities can be relocated to a safe indoor location.

Camp activities focus on five areas:

• occupational therapy including art, sports and games
• cognitive therapy including earthquake and natural disaster education
• group therapy for children under 8 years old
• individual therapy for children over 8 years old
• immunization against polio, measles, tetanus and hepatitis A

For the CSP camps, two to three Child Survival Programs are grouped together for efficiency, depending on their geographic location.

Images of Child Development Centers in Haiti

UPDATED: Jan. 29, 2010 – List of child development centers affected by the Haiti earthquake

Here is a Google Earth image showing the approximate location for the earthquake’s epicenter in relation to our child development centers.

The image is just intended to give perspective not definitively identify where all the centers are located. However, there is a discussion thread in Facebook about the location of some centers.

The fact that many development centers are so close to one another means that some centers can’t be seen. And obviously the size of the image makes it difficult to read the numbers that are visible. We published a larger image in Twitpic and in Facebook.

The blue icons represent child development centers, and the red icons represent child survival programs. Most red icons hide behind the blue ones, but for some reason a few show through.

The orange circles represent earthquake activity in the last week (or so).

Here is an additional Google Earth image that highlights a 750 square mile section of Haiti relative to the earthquake so you can more clearly see which child development centers are closest to the epicenter. (more…)

Who Can You Sponsor a Leadership Student With?

In 2006 my wife and I went on a sponsor trip to the Dominican Republic. Before our trip, we thought we knew what Compassion did, but our understanding of the ministry fell far short of what we saw.

When I came home from that trip, I signed up to be a volunteer. I made coffee mugs with photos of my sponsored children on them, and I spoke of the kids often.

“Hey Patterson, you know those kids that you’re so fond of? ”

“Yeah, Norm.”

“I think we should sponsor one of those kids as a shift.”

I explained to Norm that a typical child sponsorship is under $40, but then I told him about the Leadership Development Program. I suggested that if we were able to get 12 firefighters together, we could sponsor a Leadership Development Program student and it would cost only $25 per person each month. (more…)

What Does God Want From Me?

Jesus is traveling with a crowd, teaching as He walks. A blind man sitting by the road hears the passing commotion and asks what is going on. When he learns that Jesus of Nazareth is near, he calls out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Several times the man calls out, even louder after some in the crowd tell him to be quiet. “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

– Luke 18:40-41 (NIV)

I am that blind man calling out to God.

Encourage me. Strengthen me. Provide for me. Comfort me. Save me. Give me. Help me.

That’s what I want.

What do you think these kids want? What are they crying out for?

Fifty kids in Haiti. All at the same center. All need God’s love. All need God’s mercy.

How about you? What are you calling out to God for?

All the while we cry out, God is calling out to us. Follow me. Be like me. Share my love.

Is it possible that my needs and your needs complement these kids’ needs? That we offer one another an opportunity to give God what He wants?

Christmas in Haiti

In Haiti, Christmas is widely celebrated by Christians and non-Christians alike as a holiday with non-religious aspects.

Letter Writing Ideas From the Moody Bible Institute Scholars

Four Leadership Development Program graduates now attending Moody Bible Institute share some tips on what you should include in the letters you write to your sponsored children.

Fighting the Restavèk Curse in Haiti

Restavèk is a Creole word for a Haitian child who stays with and works for another family. A restavèk child can be a boy or a girl who is given away by a poor family in order to survive. Frequently, the restavèk’s most basic rights to health and education are denied.

Of these children, 65 percent are girls between age 6 and 14. They are forced to work long hours under harsh conditions and are subject to mistreatment, including sexual abuse.

The restavèk child is the first person to wake up in the morning and the last one to go to bed, sometimes after 14 hours of work that consists of, among other chores, carrying water, washing clothes, taking the owner’s children to school, doing errands, and cleaning the home.

The restavèk child is often beaten for the simplest mistakes. Laws against child abuse exist in Haiti, but unfortunately, they are seldom enforced as children’s rights don’t have a high a priority.

The number of restavèk children reported nationally is between 250,000 and 300,000, and this domestic phenomenon is due to several reasons. (more…)

Was My Sponsored Child Affected by That Crisis?

In a perfect world, here’s how the process would work: