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YOU HAVE TOUCHED OUR HEARTS

You have touched our hearts these last weeks.

You may not know it, but your recent support of Haiti Community Support has already built a vibrant, caring medical clinic in the midst of the most anguished scene on earth.

By believing in what Haitians can accomplish, I thank you for being a partner, not a patron; for being a neighbor, not an outsider. You’ve made it possible for us to build a facility that is delivering immense comfort to a shocked and traumatized people.

We’re still treating the blunt trauma, and deep cuts from the quake. But it is now the overwhelming sickness of all varieties that plague us. Emaciated newborns, horrendous fungal infections, migraines and panic attacks, skyrocketing blood pressure, these are some of the challenges that inhabit the lives of Haiti’s survivors.

Thank you for sharing our belief that it is Haitians who can build their society.

Many days before we saw the first US military or Red Cross assessment teams in our neighborhood, we had already been delivering life-saving help to hundreds. We were already supporting a 20 person team of Haitian doctors and nurses , community leaders, and porters, cooks, and security that formed effortlessly to support the clinic.

Few would believe reading the press coverage of Haiti that the greatest resources for quake relief are the Haitians themselves. We find them everywhere; forming community committees, chipping in with good will and help, sharing with neighbors. It is this power we tap into, and with this power we are able to get so much accomplished.

You will read a lot about Haiti in the coming months. I’m sorry to tell you that the immensity of the tragedy is likely to bring harrowing images to your news screens for some time to come.

Many of you know that we have been doing rural development projects in the remote regions of the Southern mountains. Our villages of Au Centre/ Beaumont didn’t suffer directly from the quake.

But, right now, today, these villages are confronted with a population explosion of sick and injured, and homeless from Port au Prince. Many come home already burdened with TB/AIDs or other diseases contacted in the slums.

Even in the best of times, our rural region suffers from extreme food insecurity. Reports coming to us from our villages indicate the population has ballooned more than 300% in the last week.

Considering that the big food operations in Port au Prince are only now distributing their first bags of food, how on earth can we expect to see a timely deployment of emergency food to the scattered rural populations? The scale is huge, the response far too slow.

For this reason, small direct-action groups like ours have an important role to play on the ground in Haiti. It is imperative that we build our logistics and capacity, expand our Bon Repos clinic in Port au Prince, and move to greatly increase clinic capacity in Au Centre/Beaumont.

Please, can you continue supporting our sustained efforts to lift Haiti, by tapping into the power of the world’s strongest people – the Haitians.

With love for life,

Mathilde and Bruce Wilson

 

 

PHOTOS FROM OUR CAMP

 

 

 

 

 

St. Croix VIFD Raises over 12K For HCS!

 

 

 

 

 

Haiti First Response Team Update

 

 

 

Haiti Community Support, Co-Director Mathilde Aurelien-Wilson arrived in Port au Prince last Thursday Three days after the quake, with the Port au Prince airport closed, she flew to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic . On the way overland into Haiti, she survived a near fatal bus collision.

Since arrival in Port au Prince last Thursday Mathilde has recruited 25 survivors to staff and run a neighborhood medical station. Many of the staff themselves are wounded: doctors and nurses, security and logistics, cooks and drivers, porters. Some staff are assigned to simply hold hands to comfort the sick and the shattered.

HCS Medical Leader for Bon Repos is First Responder Peter Dybing, who has coordinated and administered care to hundreds of untreated people. He has been tireless, and heroic. He told me that the thing he just can't understand is where are the other medics? Why are these wounds now threatening lives, and headed for amputation just for lack of medics?

Mathilde and her team have been sharing the life of their patients and of her family members. They sleep each night on the ground, no tent, no roof of any kind. I asked her what those nights are like. She paused a long time, and she told me that each night, as she sits amongst her family with 40 neighbors huddled together under the sky, she said there are times where she's felt a peace unlike anything she’s ever felt before. She finished by saying, "I know I am in the right place"... I asked her what the world should know about Haiti tonight. Here's what she had to say:

"Please tell the world that we Haitians are peaceful. The people of Port au Prince have suffered a terrible loss, they are confused why the aid is behind fences. Tell the world that I, a Haitian woman, organizing my people, am forbidden access to your supply depots. Please stop worrying about security! People are dying of thirst, of starvation, of simple fractures or deep cuts. Please step down your security and move your medics and supply trucks into our neighborhoods. We Haitians are the First Responders. Help us. Gauze pads please!”

Please donate on-line. WWW.HAITISUPPORT.ORG Help us keep treating the wounded.

With gratitude,
Bruce & Mathilde Wilson

 

 

Dear Supporters

This is the first of our bimonthly bulletins from Haiti and St Croix, telling you about our progress and the conditions in Haiti. HCS now also has a Facebook Group - hope you will join!

IN ST CROIX
In January we had our Annual Fundraiser which was a big success, thanks to everyone who participated, volunteered, and came to enjoy the day! We raised OVER $35,000. See photos, attached.

IN HAITI
In January HCS staff also made two trips to Haiti, by direct private jet-flight from STX to Port au Prince, thanks to an anonymous donor.
We delivered twelve crates of baby and child clothes and shoes, and several more of dental and medical/hygiene supplies including toothbrushes, bandages, multivitamins, folic acid for pregnant women - all donated by YOU, OUR SUPPORTERS.

THE CREW
Mathilde and Bruce were accompanied by Helene Shearer from Arizona, an experienced accountant and former CFO for non-profits, who is setting up a system of accounting and financial management for us here and in Haiti, and donated a laptop to be used in the village.
Also on the trip were Doug Mockett, who is coordinating the logistics of delivery to the villages of clinic and school equipment donated by a Stateside recycling organization; and Hillair Bell, who will be spearheading our future coffee-marketing program to bring economic growth to the region, as well as finding a Public Health Professional for our clinic's set-up and the vital health survey of our villages' population .

THE SCHOOL
While in the village the expedition saw the huge progress on the 4000 sq. ft school-building - all roofed and stuccoed, with classes already going on inside. Doors, windows and furnishings are being built. A large area around the school has been planted, with 2 to 3 acres of beans for the food program, to help with providing school-lunches, construction worker meals, and delivery of cooked food to nearby hamlets. Cooking is done in three huge 10 gallon pots on open fires, we are currently researching improvements to provide useful stoves and increase fuel efficiency.

ADULT EDUCATION
The women's education and sewing group was active and received some bales of fabric with joy, they are soon to begin making clothes. A men's tailoring class is also planned, run by the incomparable Myrlene Dutrueil who will have a great opportunity to start educating the villages' men!

WATER SUPPLY
The visitors also saw the improvements to the current spring used by the village, with a concrete catchment, cover, and standpipe. Unfortunately in the dry season (January) the flow was only a trickle, and Mathilde observed children she had never seen before who have had to climb long distances up the mountain from other areas to use our village's water... We have just completed our MAJOR water survey, engineering proposal and funding estimates to give the village piped water from a much stronger and purer spring further up-mountain, and are sending it out to the first big donor organizations and individuals who we hope will help us!

SPONSOR A CHILD
The Sponsor a Child program has proved very difficult to manage due to the lack of experience and expertise in the village with cameras, computers, limited access to translation, to communications media, and the speed of growth of the school. WE THANK ALL OUR FAITHFUL CHILD SPONSORS FOR THEIR PATIENCE... NOW INFORMATION AND PHOTOS OF THE KIDS ARE SOON TO COME! Mathilde will begin training Sophie Dorlus, our future Health Outreach worker, to survey the families and children, photograph them, recording important data for the Clinic, and for Sponsors to receive annual updates on their child, and information on the family's living conditions and future needs. Current pictures of the children we have photos of to date are online at

http://picasaweb.google.com/haitisupport/AuCentreStudentsRenaissanceSchool2008

NEXT
Mathilde arrives in Haiti in April for six weeks intensive action, including hosting another expedition of volunteers from STX (again by donated jet-flight) in May. A news-reporter will be going on the trip, as well as Mandy Thody, HCS admin secretary, who will assist with organizing data collection, and conduct a feasibility study on the local clay sources for villagers to produce pottery for use in the area. We hope that one of our water proposal donors will also accompany us!

ROADS
Mathilde will also be facilitating the building of a new road, initially for motorcycles, that will bring Au Centre almost an hour closer to the outside world, by cutting off a huge loop of the journey from the national highway.
This will cut the hour-long motorbike or mule ride for the medical staff to ten minutes! Labor will be donated by the villagers while we provide our engineer, "Boss" Roland, and our Local Executive Director Timou Montina, who oversees the entire program in Au Centre.

We think you will all agree that things are progressing wonderfully well especially given the current economic climate, and we, and the villagers of Au Centre/Beaumont are so very grateful for all your help! Do you have a laptop you could donate? We are bringing our Haiti organization on-line and need laptops. Do you have a vehicle? a motorcycle? We urgently need these on St Croix and in Haiti. We'll ship from anywhere!
We also need treadle sewing machines...

WE THANK YOU FOR STANDING STRONG ALONGSIDE HAITI COMMUNITY SUPPORT IN MAKING SURE THE HUMAN TRAGEDIES IN HAITI ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. EVERY DAY WE ARE AMAZED AND ENCOURAGED BY THE WORLD'S POOREST PEOPLE - CHANGE IS POSSIBLE WHERE HOPE IS NOT ABANDONED!

MATHILDE AND BRUCE WILSON