Earlier this year, HFF received a call from our friends at Steel City Mission Group in Pittsburgh who had a desire to help us in our work in Haiti.
Marie Winter, Esther Kanfoush, and the rest of the SCMG team visited us recently to provide medical services to hundreds of children in our communities and many families in our programs. Additionally, their team of medical professionals provided our staff in Haiti with supplies and training so that we can improve and continue the medical support services we’ve been providing for years.
What a fantastic effort from all involved, which just goes to show how much of an impact we can make together.
Whether you can travel to Haiti to provide medical services or donate $10 from the comfort of your own home in the US, your effort does not go unnoticed and it really makes a difference in the lives of the families we serve. Marie Winter explains how in the interview below.
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Vivian Lee Croft: What did you do with HFF in Haiti?
Marie Winter: We put together medical bags for families filled with over-the-counter medications and toiletries for children and adults [so that HFF can provide a family with quick care, as needed]. We also brought medications to administer.
VLC: You’ve followed HFF for years. What surprised you about the work?
MW: What HFF is trying to do [keeping families together] is amazing. Haitians have a very strong sense of family. We served about 800 families while we were there, and they all have a very strong sense of family. I was amazed by how many kids we served. HFF’s work is really amazing.
VLC: Is there a story that particularly affected you or your team?
MW: I saw a young women, 30 maybe, with two little kids, and she had heart failure. It’s stuff like that that strikes you – these are common things to get care for in the Unites Stated but there, they can’t get it. And kids are in crowded spaces and living in poor conditions so many of them have skin problems. They are easy to treat. That’s another thing about Jamie [and HFF]. She said, ‘Tell me what this is and how to treat it, and I can take care of 20 more kids after you leave.’ We were all really impressed by that.
VLC: The hundreds of children and adults in our programs were very grateful. HFF still has a lot of work to do though, because families approach us every day and we have to turn many away due to lack of funding to serve them. Are you interested in coming back?
MW: We’re already talking about coming back next year.
Ylionise: we helped her get life-saving heart surgery in the US shortly after we met her several years ago.
We cannot say it enough. 2013 was a year of movement.
The global movement of keeping families together is growing, and you have been a part of that movement with us for a long time.
We recently held our end of the year gathering for the families in our programs—we actually had to have 2 parties to accommodate the families from all 7 communities we serve—and were inspired by their growth this year. So inspired in fact, that we have to share with you some of the highlights of our work in 2013.
2013 highlights:101: children in our 3 programs
99: percent of families we’ve helped remain together through our programs
76: percent of kids who were going to live in an orphanage but are living with immediate family
60: children in school
50: families in our 3 programs
23: percent of kids who were going to live in an orphanage but are living with extended family
7: communities in Haiti
Unlimited: ways you can help us continue our work
We’ve touched hundreds of people in Haiti and continue to provide even more with valuable resources, education, training, and support that helps them find stability and self-sufficiency. What better gift to give than that of human dignity.
Please consider a year-end, tax-deductible donation of $10 or more, which will go directly toward programming to help more families find their own movement in 2014.
Give Bernardo (above) and Seth (below) a reason to enjoy next year’s party!
2-year-old Edanson was abandoned at a hospital, sick and dying, weighing only 10 pounds.
Knowing that most mothers only abandon a child when they are afraid, desperate, and feel they have no other options, Haitian Families First asked hospital staff and members of the community to help us find the mother.
We’ve helped in this situation before and knew we could do it again.
The next day, we found Clamene who told us that she had searched for help for a long time, but was unable to find it, and now she didn’t think Edanson would live.
Because she had no money, she left him at the hospital, hoping doctors would care for him. If she’d stayed with him, she would have been forced to pay, otherwise, the doctors would have refused to treat him. Leaving him seemed her only hope of having him treated.
With our promise to help her, she came back to the hospital bringing along her infant daughter Nashka. Doctors took care of both children during their hospital stay and, true to our word, we helped with the bill. Edanson spent close to a month in the hospital recovering from illness surrounding malnutrition. During this time we also found that Clamene suffered from pneumonia and anemia. This meant that her infant daughter Nashka was not getting proper nutrients from breast feeding and was not growing adequately.
With the help of Haitian Families First’s basic medical and nutrition programs, Edanson and Nashka are home with their loving mother, and their older brother Esteven. Nashka is breast feeding and growing every day. Esteven recently started his first year of school. Edanson may not realize how close he was to not making it, but we will certainly remember in order to help the next family in need.
