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Pitman Church of Christ Christmas Tea THEA Presentation

12/10/11

Thank you! It’s so great to be with you all today! We want to say thank you to: The Pitman Road Church of

Christ for your amazing support of The Haiti Education Alliance’s work in Haiti- from sharing the funds you

raised through your community yard sale to your enabling the Hutchinsons, Diana, Sarah, Lucas, and Claire,

Lynne Sbaraglia, and Kristy to go to Haiti with us! They were instrumental in beginning our community

education programs in Haiti. And now thank you, Katherine Cooper and all the ladies for inviting THEA and for

organizing this beautiful event. Most of all I Thank God for His grace, power, and the bond of His Spirit

between us. He’s the reason for the season and the reason our hearts and work are also in Haiti.

To give you a bit of the history of THEA…

Kristy and I were part of a medical mission team to Haiti two weeks after the earthquake in January 2010.

Kristy was working as a nurse and I as an occupational therapist in a hospital where patients from PAP were

being transported by helicopter for further medical care. I helped people to do things like walk again with

crutches after an amputation or taught them strategies to do normal every day things with only one hand or 2

broken legs. Being in the medical field, I am around mourning and grieving quite often, but not like this. With

over 300,000 souls who perished, hundreds of thousands more who were left disabled, and over 1 million

people left homeless, the entire country was and is still deeply grieving. I think of the people in those army

cots or on mats on the floor who I worked with. There was a little girl who lost her siblings and father in the

earthquake. Her mother was going in to surgery. There was a teacher who lost the use of his right hand.

“How am I going to teach with only one hand?” He said with tears in his eyes? His wife was there

communicating her anger towards her husband for demonstrating such “weakness” threatening to leave him

if he would not be able to support her and their family- a tough reality in a survivalist culture. Most of the

women who were there for medical care were alone. Many lost their children; and many of the children there

lost their parents. Among the many questions that lingered in my head were “Where will these people go?”

‘Who will be caring for all of these people with disabilities and orphans once the influx of relief workers

leave?’ Rehabilitation and case management are not part of Haitian culture; There are so few doctors, nurses

and other medical professionals in Haiti. “Who could provide the long-term support these people need”.

Orphanages were already over-crowded with the 430,000 orphans even before the earthquake. Here are

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some more statistics to further paint a quick picture of the medical and education situation in Haiti: (I’m going

to go through a bunch of numbers here- hang in there with me…)

40% of Haitians do not have access to medical personnel

40% of children under 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition.

60% of income is spent on food; with the poorest group spending more than 70% on food.

90% of all schools in Haiti are private. So families have to pay for their children to attend school.

An estimated 300,000 children live as slaves. Their parents hope these families with greater means will feed

and educate their children. The children are so often mistreated.

65% of all children in Haiti go to primary school. However 60% of them drop out before 6th grade.

Only 10% of children who complete primary school go on to secondary school; 6% graduate from secondary

school; and

Only 1% attends a university.

53% of Haitians in Haiti can read and write.

70% do not have regular jobs.

When we returned from the trip just after the earthquake, with the encouragement of the Manhattan church

of Christ, a group of diverse people began meeting together to discuss what we can do to help facilitate long-

term sustainable solutions to these overwhelming, systemic needs one community at a time. This group

became The Haiti Education Alliance which now includes members from this congregation, as well as others

from MD and GA. I want to quickly tell you a bit about what we do.

Before I jump in here, I want to say that one of the reasons we are here today is to raise money for beds for

the some of the children without parents who became refugees from PAP after the earthquake in Haiti. They

are living in such cramped quarters. For example, 4 or 5 of the smaller children sleep crossways on a twin

mattress- a nightmare especially when scabies become a problem. On our next project trip in March we will

be taking someone with us to teach how to make bunk beds to the group of young men who have so far been

learning simple carpentry things from us like making planter boxes and garden row markers, etc. So some of

the proceeds of this evening will go towards the wood and hardware needed to make the beds- and the

bedding needed to make it comfortable for the children. We’d like to send some of the bedding ahead of

time, though, since they could certainly use it now. Thank you!!

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The Haiti Education Alliance’s mission statement is: to provide education opportunities to impoverished

individuals and communities in Haiti empowering them to emerge to lives of healing and hope. We want to

empower people to care for their families and communities for generations. We advocate for and teach the

advocacy of vulnerable populations in Haiti including children, women, the family unit, the elderly, and the

disabled.

Currently, we have 4 education programs in Haiti:

- Community sewing training program which Lynne started

- Backyard gardening training

- A Medical Education Program, and

- A Primary and Secondary School Program which has 41 children who are now able to go to school and have

the opportunity to complete secondary school.

I think most of you know about THEA’s programs, and there are brochures in the back which outlines them

concisely. So I don’t want to take up our time describing the programs per se. Just want to give you an

update and sneak peek into the forseeable future- as God wills- with our work there.

First of all THEA’s Sewing Training Program is approaching the graduation of our 1st class of students in 6

months! They have learned to make and repair clothes for men, women, and children; and will now be

focusing on gaining skills for marketing their products. Since beginning the sewing training program, we’ve

learned that sewing everyday clothes is a very important life-skill. However, used clothes are pretty easy to

come by and are fairly inexpensive. So there’s really not enough of a market for the new clothes they make

for them to earn enough money for food for their entire family, education for their children or themselves,

and other needs. So, they needed something more marketable to make and sell. One of the things the

Haitians work with indicated as a need in Haiti is choir and baptistery robes. (need to make a little caveat

here… This may be one of those cultural things that can be a disconnect for our American church culture. We

may think “they don’t have much to clothe themselves with, why would they need choir robes? In their

culture, it’s important to them. And what about “They don’t need choir robes. Martin Luther fought for

everyone in the churches to be able to participate in worship. We don’t want to encourage them to be

separated from everyone else at church! If you’ve ever seen a Haitian worship service, you know that they all

get into it.) It may be a cultural difference for us… but we’re learning. In order for them to take ownership of

the program, for it to be sustainable, it needs to be marketable for their culture. We are excited to be

partnering with another Christian organization out of Little Rock who has been providing business training in

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Haiti for many years. Please pray for our students as they embark on this new, exciting chapter in their lives

soon.

In a similar, yet reversed cultural vein, in July we took down some drip irrigation kits and someone to teach

how to use them for THEA’s Gardening Training Program. However, using drip irrigation was not part of their

culture and was not initially received well. Then after further teaching of the benefits of using the drip

irrigation system, they were able to grasp and embrace the concept- realizing they could then produce

vegetables and fruits year-round even through the dry months. So there are times when we need to go

outside of their culture, yet could fit with their culture to introduce ideas that would improve their situation.

So far the class with 12 students has been successful in growing their 1st crop of vegetables which were given

to THEA’s field director’s, Diony’s family who are caring for 22 orphans. They need more protein in their diets,

so one of the next steps for the gardening training program is to begin the process of building a chicken

program. I look forward to telling you more about that as plans unfold. Angelot, THEA’s agriculture program

coordinator in Haiti is asking for agriculture books so the students could balance their time in the field with

bookwork. Part of the proceeds from today will also go toward books on gardening and nutrition for our 12

students in this program. They also need more tools and quality seeds for the next planting season in

Feb/March. Then within the next 6 months the students will graduate from the training garden and will be

expected to begin their own gardens and teach their families and friends to also plant gardens for their

families. Then once the nutritional needs are met within the community, the graduates will also be eligible to

take the business classes for the purpose of marketing their surplus fruits and vegetables.

Also, the young women and men in the community interested in pursuing careers in medical professions have

been receiving hands-on training in community health and rehabilitation with the doctors, nurses, therapists,

and social workers that go on the trips with us. They have learning materials and medical books in Creole to

study while we are not there. THEA is also hoping to implement this year a volunteer program which we

developed in partnership with the local hospital. Through this program the 8 students who have been part of

our Medical Education Program and have graduated from Secondary School will have the opportunity to

receive further hands-on-training in 5 different departments within the hospital- nursing, radiology, dentistry,

laboratory, and within their rehabilitation department which they are about to open. We are currently

looking for someone who can work with us in THEA states-side to coordinate our medical education program

here and in Haiti. So let me know if you or someone you know feels called in this area of leadership and

service to Haiti.

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All of the young men and women in our medical education program have aspirations to go to college one day

to become medical professionals so that they can help with the overwhelming on-going medical needs in their

country. THEA would love to be able to send all of the students in the medical education program to college

one day. We’ve set up a college fund; and our 1st student, Alan, started medical school at a university in the

Dominican Republic May 1st. Alan is an orphan who spent much of his childhood homeless on the streets of

Cap Haitien. However, despite all of his hardships, he was able to do well in school, finishing within the top

10% of his class and earning high marks on his National Bac 2 exam. Another student, Erlain, who has worked

with me on almost every trip to Haiti over the last few years is excited about the opportunity to receive more

formal training in rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Technician Training Program at the Albert Schweitzer

Hospital in Haiti after completing one more year of secondary school. Erlain continued to volunteer at the

hospital in Milot for months with the patients from PAP after our group left until his mother became sick and

he needed to stay home and help care for her and his family. Last, but certainly not least, I want to tell you

about Wesley who is another remarkable young man (I’m sure you’ve heard about him) who has served as a

translator for us and several doctors, nurses, and therapists during each of our trips the last 2 years. He is in

his last year of secondary school; and because he has been at the top of his class every year, he was awarded

with a trip to the United States. In fact he came here 2 years ago now to this neighborhood and lived with

Margaret Willard and her family. Margaret, are you here? Can you stand so we can see you. She and Chris

(stand) have been working hard to raise funds to enable Wesley to come to college here this Fall. So this Fall

Wesley will start at Glouster County Community College, then go on to a four- year college with the aim

toward medical school. So you can see these ladies for more information (they’ve set up a great website

featuring Wesley) or you can also donate through THEA to designate funds to go toward Wesley’s education or

our other college students.

In closing, I want to tell you what happened with a remarkable young man named Peter. His story illustrates

so poignantly what THEA hopes to accomplish in Haiti- that is, to help equip individuals for caring for and

empowering their families and communities, and most importantly to share the light and hope of Christ.

Peter at the time was 16 years old. It was absolutely clear that Peter is naturally a strong leader.

Peter was sitting on a bench with 4 very young girls during craft time. The children each had a paper plate

with a simple line drawing of a sheep on it. They simply had to put glue on the sheep with a glue stick, tear up

cotton balls, then put the cotton on the sheep. Peter had all the girls passing down their projects for him to

do for them. They each submissively obliged. I sat down next to the girls after observing the scene and

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quietly suggested to Peter that he let them do it themselves. He looked at me in bewilderment and said "They

cannot do it. They are too little." He said it in English! I said, "Peter, you teach them; and they can do it." He

insisted again that they cannot do it. "You can teach them," I replied. I showed him how to give the little girl

(the youngest one- perhaps 2 years old) the glue stick and motioned where she could smear the glue, then

motioned how to tear the cotton balls, and she did, then put them on. The little girl was so happy and proud

of what she'd done.

I tell you, the light shining from that back bench was extraordinary!!- not only eminating from the girl, but also

from Peter who "got it." Well, that light was either from the light bulb that went off so brightly in his head or I

would propose that it was the Light of Christ who came and made an ordinary scene into something

extraordinary; perhaps even anointing Peter and the girls to begin great works in them. They could be

amazing teachers someday. Let's pray that Peter and all the future and current leaders of Haiti become

leaders that empower others rather than leaders that maintain the status quo of forced dependency.

Also please pray for the men and women’s Bible studies in LaVictoire to continue which were started our last

trip. Gail from CA, who was on our team this past July brought several Proclaimers which are audio Bibles in

Creole that work by solar or crank power. The older widows of the congregation were so eager to lead an

ongoing women’s Bible study; and the young girls were so excited to learn how to use the Proclaimers. A new

concept in Haiti for the women to get together and study the Bible.

Joy to the World- prayer for all of us not only this time of year, but always as we make room for Jesus in our

hearts throughout each moment in our lives- with our families, church families, our neighbors, perfect

strangers, even those we have a hard time getting along with! As we sing this song, let’s also have it be a

prayer for our brothers and sisters in Haiti…