I need your help! My checked luggage (all 50lbs of it) is reserved for the items that have been requested below. These items are desperately needed to help provide children in Haiti with precious care and education. If you are able to help, I ask that you might consider making a donation by either buying an item listed below or making a monetary donation towards these goods. I need all donations by August 3rd so feel free to contact me if we need to coordinate!
All donated items will be hand delivered by myself or my team mates to orphanages, schools, and homes for disabled and sick children in Haiti.
Any donation small or large would be incredible!
Needs:
White Card Stock
Manila File Folders
Pocket Folders (cheap school ones)
Typing Paper
Dry Erase Markers
Clear packing Tape
Laminating sheets
Straight Edge razors
Extra Heavy Thread
Large snaps
Gallon size ziplock bags
Baby wipes
Rice
Beans (pinto & black)
canned chicken
canned tuna
Standard staples
Paper Clips (large)
Scotch Tape
small pencil sharpeners
plastic pencil holders
shoe laces or something for the kids to hang their library cards around their necks
Monday, July 25, 2011
Foundation for Children in Need
So a little more about the organization that is making all this possible.
You can go to this link (http://www.ffcin.org) to find out more!
Also, if you want to see some incredible images and video of what the experience may look like go here http://www.ffcin.org/gallery.html.
Here are some of my favorites:
You can go to this link (http://www.ffcin.org) to find out more!
Also, if you want to see some incredible images and video of what the experience may look like go here http://www.ffcin.org/gallery.html.
Here are some of my favorites:
A Portrait of Haiti from Jesse Erasmus on Vimeo.
Rebuild Haiti's Orphanages from Amber Media on Vimeo.
HAITI from Amber Media on Vimeo.
Why oh why?
I can never remember not wanting to go to Haiti. For some reason, a thought, a seed was planted years ago that Haiti was simply somewhere I had to go.
It's hard to explain and there's very little rationale behind it--some, but very little. I can begin to rationalize it by saying it's the poorest country in the western hemisphere surrounded by countries of wealth (in comparison) and a mere hop, skip, and jump from the mightiest of them all, the US. Despite its neighbors, Haiti is home to a population where 70% live on less than $2 a day. It is a country that continues to struggle with the devastating effects of mother nature and in many minds has been written off as a lost cause, an impossible, hopeless land. And maybe this is where the two initial reasons play out. First, I don't think I believe in lost causes at all. Any situation that is labelled as a lost cause immediately calls me forth because I wholeheartedly believe that there is hope and possibility in every situation, in every person, and in every land. I believe in the power of hope and possibility and the strength of people coming together for a common good. I love the underdog and his or her story and desperately try to see the potential, the possibility in them. No one or nowhere is a lost cause. And secondly, I am completely confounded by how Haiti has found itself where it is. I want to know why it's resources have been stripped away, why corruption runs rampant, and why development has had such a hard time finding fertile ground in this land. I want to understand it--and yes, in one week I will probably leave with more questions than answers, but it's a start.
Another rationale may be a selfish desire for challenge. So many times I find myself comfortable with occasional bumps along the way but generally undisturbed, content. I don't want to be comfortable. I want to be challenged by what I see. I want to be challenged to share love when my heart is breaking, to be overwhelmed by a new language and a new land, and to work with and share with a team of people I do not know. I want to be scared, to be nervous, and to have that invigorating question filled feeling of aliveness.
Of course, I want to give and maybe even help. I know that the impact of one week and a handful of visits may not be huge, but I hope that a presence of love and compassion may help sustain the work of the organization and also beautifully burden me with the stories, the awareness, and the plight of those I meet. I want to befriend, laugh with, play with, and be a source of love to those I meet--knowing fully that they may be an even greater source of love to me.
All these reasons can explain why I would want to go to Haiti or any other developing country for that matter, but in my mind and more importantly my heart, these reasons merely scratch the surface of my desire to go to Haiti. Call it a calling, a voice, an attraction or simply an insatiable appetite for adventure--but for me, going to Haiti is a response to a deep soul-drawing call that beckons me forth.
I don't know what I will find, but I can't wait.
It's hard to explain and there's very little rationale behind it--some, but very little. I can begin to rationalize it by saying it's the poorest country in the western hemisphere surrounded by countries of wealth (in comparison) and a mere hop, skip, and jump from the mightiest of them all, the US. Despite its neighbors, Haiti is home to a population where 70% live on less than $2 a day. It is a country that continues to struggle with the devastating effects of mother nature and in many minds has been written off as a lost cause, an impossible, hopeless land. And maybe this is where the two initial reasons play out. First, I don't think I believe in lost causes at all. Any situation that is labelled as a lost cause immediately calls me forth because I wholeheartedly believe that there is hope and possibility in every situation, in every person, and in every land. I believe in the power of hope and possibility and the strength of people coming together for a common good. I love the underdog and his or her story and desperately try to see the potential, the possibility in them. No one or nowhere is a lost cause. And secondly, I am completely confounded by how Haiti has found itself where it is. I want to know why it's resources have been stripped away, why corruption runs rampant, and why development has had such a hard time finding fertile ground in this land. I want to understand it--and yes, in one week I will probably leave with more questions than answers, but it's a start.
Another rationale may be a selfish desire for challenge. So many times I find myself comfortable with occasional bumps along the way but generally undisturbed, content. I don't want to be comfortable. I want to be challenged by what I see. I want to be challenged to share love when my heart is breaking, to be overwhelmed by a new language and a new land, and to work with and share with a team of people I do not know. I want to be scared, to be nervous, and to have that invigorating question filled feeling of aliveness.
Of course, I want to give and maybe even help. I know that the impact of one week and a handful of visits may not be huge, but I hope that a presence of love and compassion may help sustain the work of the organization and also beautifully burden me with the stories, the awareness, and the plight of those I meet. I want to befriend, laugh with, play with, and be a source of love to those I meet--knowing fully that they may be an even greater source of love to me.
All these reasons can explain why I would want to go to Haiti or any other developing country for that matter, but in my mind and more importantly my heart, these reasons merely scratch the surface of my desire to go to Haiti. Call it a calling, a voice, an attraction or simply an insatiable appetite for adventure--but for me, going to Haiti is a response to a deep soul-drawing call that beckons me forth.
I don't know what I will find, but I can't wait.
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