CURE doctors after successful surgery

The center of operations for CURE International in Haiti is currently at the Hôpital Adventiste d’Haiti and is led by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Nelson. CURE volunteer teams have been arriving on a regular basis to provide essential support to the hospital, with most of their work focused on surgery and follow-up care for Haitians with injuries sustained in the earthquake. Thanks to their dedicated contributions, more than 1,600 surgeries, castings and other procedures have been performed.  The organization has also sent in teams of counselors on a regular basis to offer comfort and spiritual support to patients.

The CURE pediatric orthopedic hospital in Santo Domingo of the Dominican Republic has played an important role in CURE’s Haitian response. Since the initial days after the earthquake, it has provided orthopedic surgical services to Haitians who have come to the DR in need of medical care.

CURE’s current plans for Haiti are to continue to send more teams in support of the Adventist hospital for the foreseeable future. CURE is also working with government officials in the DR and Haiti to identify Haitian patients in need of critical, specialized care and arrange for their transport to the CURE Dominican Republic hospital for further treatment.

www.HelpCureNow.org

Our photos cannot capture the devastation our Haitian neighbors feel. Fearful of collapsing homes, they sleep in the streets, many with no tents. Thursday it rained. Tents are still badly needed. Even after a month, the home in which we stayed has no electricity; huge lines of people three and four blocks long line up for a bag of rice; dozens of women with five gallon pails on their head stride back to their families with water for the day.

Boarding 1941 DC-3 to Port-au-Prince

If hope is to gain traction in Haiti it’s up to folks like you and me. Conditions were terrible before the earthquake. The media frenzy will soon dissipate. Then what?

Travel is still not easy. A 1941 vintage DC-3 cracking along at 225 mile per hour top speeds made our 16 ½ hour trip possible. With daylight slicing through the edges of the closed cargo door, I felt like Indiana Jones.

I came to Haiti to encourage and verify avenues to distribute your funds that come from the $2 million matching grant through Haiti Renewal Fund. (Over a million dollars arrived so far!) We came away imminently impressed with Water Missions International, which served Haiti long before the quake.

They have 40 of their water purification units in place. The partners they work with such as Samaritan’s Purse sang their praises. Your dollars are at work and also provide 40,000 meals of beans and rice to two ministries serving children. One of these ministries addresses the needs of children literally enslaved as domestic servants.

Less than a mile from where I slept, a tent city of 35,000 people sprang up on Haiti’s best golf course. Bed sheets, blankets and blue plastic tarps served as shelter. Your Haiti Renewal Fund is working on final details with an Atlanta church to get tents to more of the 700,000 people without shelter.

Defeat and dejectedness looms in the people of Haiti with a sense of hope struggling to emerge. With offices flattened and no jobs there is no place for people to go. Schools are flattened. During my visit, three days of official mourning began; songs soared from the crowds and others gathered along makeshift street side churches.

Women in their 70’s pluck huge rocks with their ungloved bare hands from the crumbled Episcopal Cathedral, piling them to await the rebuilding process. Frescos dating back to its 1924 construction date still remain, as the rector ponders in desperation, “How do we preserve them?”

Yet God is always at work, connecting random people serving in His name. That night at dinner I sat with three strangers from the U.S. who had come to help. “What do you do?” I asked, “We are specialists in restoration” they responded. Wow! Adding to the “coincidence” was the emblem on one of the men’s ball cap — the emblem of the Episcopal Church! The next morning he and the rector connected.

Haiti's future!

A heartwarming visit with two U.S. Air Force men who dispatched planes carrying passengers and other cargo showed me how the entire world responded. Nicaraguans brought beans, Cubans brought medical supplies, Iranians flew in mattresses, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada, Spain —– Everyone came —– putting aside deep differences to bond together in a spirit of selflessness and brotherhood to help those who are hurting so badly. FedEx, who played a huge role in Katrina recovery, continues with incredible support of getting key supplies to Haiti.

Water Missions International was particularly grateful when a FedEx manager facilitated a special, expedited shipment for their water treatment systems and hand delivered it to their home at 10 pm! FedEx transported component parts from Denmark and California all without charge. Now, when I use FedEx, I can feel I also support clean water in Haiti.

It was exciting to learn of the hundreds of Christian missionary groups that were active before the quake and which now increase their commitment for the long haul. As a Christian, I’m humbled to see so many serving as Christ’s hands and feet. As an American, I’m inspired to see the amazing role private citizens and corporations play in responding to disaster — men and women heeding the call, not out of duty or obligation, but with a heart of compassion. America is good. I am proud to be an American!

Partner with us at HaitiRenewal.org—Lynn and I match your donations (up to $2 million).

God Bless, Foster Friess (:>)*********

Shaun King has a solution.  The 30-year old pastor from Atlanta launches effort to send 200,000 tents to Haiti before this spring’s rainy season begins.  Partner with Shaun’ s initiative, A Home In Haiti — give money or buy a tent online.

Visit www.aHomeInHaiti.org

ABC News article on perils of Haiti’s fast-approaching rainy season.

MSNBC story:  Haiti’s homeless get tarps, want tents.

While most relief efforts are short-term, the Churches Helping Churches model seeks to empower local, Haitian churches for long-term renewal.  The model recognizes that churches in poor countries are not only conduits of spiritual aid, but of physical, medical, educational and financial support in communities.

Churches Helping Churches highlighted in Chicago Tribune (story here) and Christian Free Press (story here).

Visit www.ChurchesHelpingChurches.com

As a part of ongoing effort to promote the long-term rebuilding and revitalization of Haiti, Haiti Renewal Fund partners with Chances for Children to launch the Kids Helping Kids Hope for Haiti Program.

Donations are doubled through Haiti Renewal Fund’s matching grant.  This program is designed for schools and youth groups to gather coins to help rebuild schools in Haiti following the January 12, 2010 earthquake that damaged or destroyed 90% of the schools in Port Au Prince.

We ask for your help in changing the lives of the children of Haiti.  Please contact schools or youth groups in your area and invite them to participate in the program. Or, forward school email contacts to april@chances4children.org and we can email the school on your behalf. The program begins the week of February 16th – so we need to get information to schools quickly.

All the materials a school or youth group will need to get started can be found here.

Haiti doesn’t need to be rebuilt.  Haiti needs to be reimagined.

Van Zandt pens article highlighting facts (from Congressional Research Service) before the earthquake…

• 76 percent of the population live on less than $2 a day.

• 54 percent live on less than $1 a day.

• 81 percent do not receive the minimum daily ration of food as defined by the World Health Organization.

• 66 percent had no access to electricity.

• 52 percent do not have access to clean water, basic sanitation, basic health needs and basic education.

Full Van Zandt article here.

“It is time for some child advocacy organizations to stop calling international adoption the ‘last resort,’” Juntunen said. “For many of these children, intercountry adoption is the ‘best resort.’”

Craig Juntenen and son, Quinn (adopted from Haiti)

In fact, Juntunen noted, a majority of Americans have a favorable opinion of intercountry adoption and believe that adoptive parents are as likely — if not more likely — to be responsible parents than biological parents.

Juntunen announced he will release the full results of a new survey on international adoption Feb. 10. The first of its kind in 12 years, the survey of 1,000 respondents — conducted by M4 Strategies of Costa Mesa, Calif. — indicates that many Americans have a higher opinion of intercountry adoption than those espoused by a handful of organizations.

Some estimates indicate Haiti had as many as 380,000 orphans prior to the earthquake. Now, surely, there are many thousands more, Juntunen noted. “My fear is that many of these children will be left behind — neglected — by the narrow-minded agendas of special interest groups,” he said. “When it comes to the best interests of a child, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution.”

In many cases, the best answer for orphaned children is to remain in Haiti if there is a chance they can be re-united with parents or immediate extended family, said Juntunen. That is one reason why Chances for Children has partnered with the Haiti Renewal Fund to assist with the long-term rebuilding efforts in Haiti, especially those geared toward improving the welfare of children. Chances for Children supports a creche in Haiti, and is dedicated to the rebuilding of children’s homes, children’s hospitals, and schools in the stricken nation.

However, many other children will be left to fend for themselves in an environment that cannot meet their basic needs: safe drinking water, food, shelter, clothing, health care, education and security, he said. “Neglect is as bad as abuse,” he said. “We all need to open our eyes to the dire situation facing these children today.”

Juntunen believes labeling intercountry adoption as a “last resort” is an insult to the thousands of American families who have opened their homes to orphaned children from around the world. “I have firsthand experience with this, as my wife Kathi and I adopted our three children from Haiti,” he said. “I live this experience day in and day out … I know international adoption works.”

Haiti Renewal Fund was launched Jan. 20 with an initial matching grant of $2 million from Jackson Hole residents Lynn and Foster Friess augmented by a subsequent $1 million from Childhelp, drawn from donations specifically designated to the fund.

Donations to “Haiti Renewal Fund/NCF” may be sent to the National Christian Foundation, 11625 Rainwater Drive, Suite 500, Alpharetta, Georgia 30009.

Visit www.Chances4Children.org.