Kay Papa News

Read all about the trip that was filled “C’s.” For Chickens, see page 3, for the new Clinic see page 1, for Celie see page 3, for

Children see page 3, for Cargo see page 4. The other letters of the alphabet are also well represented.

A CLINIC AT UNITY HOUSE The clinic is part of David’s vision to help the people of Haiti. With contributions from a Canadian group, Hero Holidays, and a friend, the clinic opened to provide health care to the neighborhood around Unity House. People from the area receive free medical care. The clinic is staffed by three Haitian volunteer nurses Monday through Friday from 8-3 p.m. An American nurse nicknamed Kez volunteered at the clinic and saw 300 people in four days. She will return again in December. People arrive before the clinic opens to wait on benches for their turn to be seen by the nurses. New mothers receive baby gift packs that were contributed by a charity. The gift pack includes a hand-knitted hat, booties and other new baby items. With help from the administrator at a hospital in Cite Soleil, David hopes to get help to staff the clinic with a volunteer doctor twice a week. With a doctor on staff, David can obtain a license, the next step in obtaining support from an NGO (Non-Government Organization) or the government. The clinic is off to a good start but needs of the following: a baby scale, an Accu-Chek Diabetes Kit, and a 100X power microscope. (Nurses: left to right - Narcisse Marie Carmelle, Sonie Desir, & Labonté Carmelete)

November 2009

Kay Papa News - Govans Presbyterian Church, 5828 York Road, Baltimore, MD 21212 Tel: 410-435-9188 www.govanspres.org

Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn’t commit. - Eli Khamarov

THE SCHOOL The school is going well. The children are divided into four classes: kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grades, 3rd & 4th grades, and 5th & 6th grades. . The classes are held outside in the chapel. With the September communion offering, the teachers will receive pay for the 1st three months of the school year. Four of the oldest children attend an outside school along with Gabby, David and Danny’s three year old daughter.

DAVID David Guillaume has been active in projects to better the lives of Haitians for sometime. In 1998, David created Children of Hope to help children in Haiti in response to his call from God to help the poor. At the time, David owned a store. David explained that God

had called him to devote his life to helping children, but his response at that time was: “How? I need to work and make money.” So, he worked part of his time in the store and the rest with his outreach. Other people were working for him who didn’t share the same Christian values, so he left and began CHRICHA, Christian Concern for Haiti, in 2003. Danny began working with David at CHRICHA, that had three schools. During the 2004 Haiti rebellion and coup, chaos erupted with looting, and many businesses were lost including David’s store/boutique. David was known in the commu-nity as someone who was interested in helping children. As food became scarce, David began receiving knocks on his door to help care for children whose parents had aban-doned them. David ended up with 50 children. Help came from friends, churches, and others in CHRICHA. When food was very scarce, David knocked on doors asking for food for the children. In 2005, the violence subsided. Some of the parents re-turned and took back their children. David and Danny mar-ried and shared their home with 25 children. In 2008, the boys and girls were separated into separate houses, and the boys moved to what is now called Unity House. David’s father Andre overseas Unity House with the care of a loving grandfather. David and Danny care for 40 chil-dren today. David says that because of poverty, solidarity among peo-ple is strong in Haiti. People help each other. He is doing what he has been called to do – care for the poor, care for the children, and teach them Christian principles to grow in Christ and care for others.

RECORD KEEPING Bill Nathan, the director of St. Joseph’s Home for Boys, has been working with David to keep records of his expenses. Danny will be doing most of the record keeping at Bill’s suggestion since David is already overloaded with responsibili-ties. In addition to Kay Papa Nou and Unity House, David also visits schools in the countryside that are part of CHRICHA, the Christian organization he founded to help the poor in Haiti. David has kept a record of all the money that he has received from Govans since first meeting us.

Paul

Diany Simon

Manoucheka

David & Danny Guillaume

CELIE Celie is the energenic 31-year-old younger sister of Danny. Celie’s mother was a street vendor and Celie left home when she was young to live with an older sister. Celie attended secretarial school and later cooking school before living with Danny and Danny and helping with the children. Until recently she also worked each weekday in a preschool. For the last two years, Celie has got-ten up at 5 a.m. with the children to lead them in singing, prayer and wor-ship. She helps care for the children, cooks, washes clothes, cleans house and helps the children with home-work. Her nephews Kenley and Ted live at the orphanage as well as her younger sister Nehmie.

THE CHICKENS The latest additions at Kay Papa Nou are chickens. With a contribution from John Calaghan, the founder of Third World Awareness, David purchased 50 chickens and a chicken coop. He now has 40 chickens (they kill each other).

The eggs from the chickens provide high-quality protein for the children. Extra eggs are occasionally sold. Keeping chickens is fairly common in Port-au-Prince. Chickens can be found wandering about the city in the search of choice bits of food or gravel for their gizzards. In the city, roosters mark the dawn of a new day sometimes as early as 1 a.m. with a loud cock-a-doo-dle-doo.

THE CHILDREN

The focus of the orphanage is always the children. Some of the children have been sick with fevers but were doing better during my visit. The clinic has been treating the girls from KPN for bloodshot eyes and infections with tetracycline. But, these minor aliments have not changed the routine of worship and school for the children.

Celie Desir

SUMMING UP Haiti also adopted the motto of the French Revolution: Liberte, Equalitie and Fraternitie. This motto appears on Haitian coins. Liberty in the sense of political freedom has been scarce dur-ing Haiti’s troubled political history. Equality also has been allusive. But the value of fraternity meaning a sense of solidarity is a strong value in Haiti. This sense of solidarity coupled with a strong faith in God has allowed Hai-tians to endure during what seems like a never ending struggle of daily life. From the people of Haiti, I have learned about the power of faith.

A special donation to David will en-able him to purchase a van. He has been borrowing a VW bus to transport up to 25 people daily. One Haitian described David’s VW bus as “something out of Cambodia.” It is missing a door, seat backs and often needs a push to start. The newer truck will accommodate all the chil-

dren on their daily trips to school. Day trips will be possible with the lar-ger vehicle. The new vehicle also will be used for charters. This type of ve-hicle is in demand for Haitian funer-als. These charters should provide the enough funds to cover the cost of vehicle ownership.

TRANSPORTATION FOR KPN & UNITY HOUSE

TRIP TO HAITI IN

JANUARY 23 Next trip to Haiti will be with Tom Harris, Bonnie Thomson and Stephen Gaede. The tentative schedule is: Saturday: Arrive. Kay Papa Nou and projects with the girls. Sunday: Worship at Unity House with all the children and time to get to know everyone. Monday: ½-day trip to beach at Leogone with all the children. After-noon- paint girls room at KPN. Fix beds with supports for mosquito nets. Tuesday: Visit school and visit a mal-nutrition clinic.

Wednesday: Visit market in Port-au-Prince, slum area, and Artisan’s Coop-erative. Thursday: Leave Haiti. Have an evening meal at St.Joseph’s Home for Boys with Bill, Michael and Kez, the American nurse who is volun-teering at the clinic. Also, we expect to meet Danny and David’s second child who is expected to arrive in late December. The next Kay Papa News will have im-pressions of four Govans’ Haiti travel-ers.

CARGO LIST Every trip involves transport of goods for the orphanage. This trip a partial

list of what was taken: vitamins, clothes, shoes, new sneakers, 25 mu-sical recorders, 2 hula hoops, New Testaments in French, candy, wooden puzzles, 2 basketballs, 2 soccer balls. Lack of dependable transport to Haiti means airport baggage is the only reli-able method to transport goods.

NIGHT AT KPN Evening darkness sets in early before the final meal is prepared. There are almost no lights in the city of Port-au-Prince at night. Only a few candles provide limited light. Evening worship is in the dark as well. Evening is also a time of reflection of the day’s events on everything from mosquito bites to the contagious laughter of children. Roost-ers prematurely announce a new day. But at 5 a.m. the sound of the children singing praise to God is the true begin-ning of a new day.

A SPECIAL CHILD Shesby was introduced to me while in Haiti. She is a sparkling 8-year-old girl who has spent the last year in the United States for leg surgery. Shesby learned English during extended medi-cal care in the United States. She stayed with American families during her rehabilitation. Her father would like to find a good Christian family to adopt Shesby so that she can have a better life. This warm, loving and polite child would be a blessing for someone’s fam-ily. Contact Joyce Kruse for more infor-mation.

VW bus David uses

Shesby