Kidding Around

I recently spent a couple of days visiting World Concern rural projects in Haiti. As we met with the beneficiaries of the "kids who love kids" program, our discussion and photo session was rudely interrupted by a horrific obstruction to this fabulous program, which has seen children multiply a single goat into a herd of 15 goats AND pay for a high school education. See below for information about the roadblocks faced by these kids...




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copyright Frank Thorp 2010.

It is fortunate that the intrepid journalist Frank Thorp, who is constantly keeping his eye out for danger while On the Goat Path, caught this on camera. We now have clear evidence of a bogeyman siezing goats while the children are unaware. Hopefully, steps to mitigate this hazard will be made, and the program can continue to provide school fees, disposable income and food sovereignty to Haitian children, while improving the breeding stock of goat herds.

Humour aside, this is a truly innovative program, designed by the World Concern Haiti Country Director, which not only provides education and income for one child, but multiplies the gift to a second child. Check out this story, which addresses the real problems these children face, and the opportunity a single goat can provide. If you would like to purchase a goat for a Haitian child, please consider the Global Gift Guide, and the Kids who Love Kids program.

Join the Revolution!

I have the opportunity while in Haiti to see great work being done by other agencies as well. One of these if Food for the Hungry, who has a great program with Child Friendly Spaces, a part of the Poverty Revolution. I urge you to click on their site, learn more about their communities and Join the Poverty Revolution! If you're able, sponsor a child today. If you're not able to, you are obligated to share the opportunity with your friends. Right now you can win an iPad if you refer new sponsors. How great is that?

P.S. Yes, I used to work for them, yes some dear friends work for them, yes I work for a close partner agency, and yes, I only plug things I truly believe in. Just read about it.

Time Flies, Despite the Heat

I can't believe another week has gone by:
- a week of irregular connections with my wife - sometimes an hourlong phone call, sometimes no connection whatsoever
- a week of daily thunderstorms, with some of the biggest thunderclaps I've ever heard, each one renewing my desire to get 1.5 million people into better shelter before a hurricane hits.
- a week of reorganizing staff, structures, and procedures to help us keep on track and achieve our goals
- a week of new surprises, new opportunities, and new friends

Now that we're into August, the heat is beginning to break, even as it keeps baking most of the US. Alfred, our new team leader from Zimbabwe can not believe the steady humidity here, like nothing Africa has to offer. For most of my time here, it has been the same temperature at 8 pm and at 5 am as it is at 9 am. We are steadily dripping. Now, however, sleep at night requires at least a sheet over top, and I take a hot shower in the morning, although I start sweating as soon as it's done. A new surprise was our landlord providing a TV connection, so that we boys can watch our beloved Gunners, starting this weekend!

The projects continue to move along, with recent thumbs up from USAID for our work in rubble removal, to build on their appreciation of our housing repairs. The third piece in this work is the transitional shelters which was Scott's labour of love for so long. We rolled out our first round in the field, and did a site visit earlier this week to see how our teams are doing, and how the shelters are being received. We will continue to improve on this distribution, as problems arise, and the community is supporting wholeheartedly our efforts to make this project work for them. Check the photoroll on the right for some shots of our new shelters!

Making progress

Today was one of those days, were I seemed to spend the entire day getting nowhere, only to find at the end it was a successful. This week presents the Haiti Emergency Response team the opportunity to regroup around the new team leader, review the past six months, and renew the vision for the future. And that is exactly what happened...after batting around ideas all day, we finally emerged with a road map for the next six months, which identified targets to achieve, strategies for accomplishing them, and key roles in the process. To see it all mapped out at the end of the day was a revelation. We had accomplished something significant. To top it off, upon getting home we discovered that we know had a cook, which means no more cooking for the team by Chris at 8 pm, and we had a TV. This is important, too, as you can only read a computer and a book so much on Saturday, and we can't really get out at all.

After a swim and an email to my wife, the end to a full day and a well-deserved rest. There are some pics of our team house in the slide show to the right.

Now for a more detailed description of my work in Haiti. For a background, check out my last lazy post, which describes the work in someone else's words. Thanks, Scott, for such a detailed exit report!

So, currently, I am bridging a gap between Scott's departure, and the anticipated hiring of a new project manager. Fortunately, I am aided in this task by the arrival of a new emergency coordinator, Alfred on Friday, to lead our team and be a focal point for national integration. Although we are down here post-earthquake, it is only in support of a commendable World Concern Haiti office, whose programs have been fostering community development for over 20 years. With that in mind, we constantly seek to build the capacity of our national team to handle not only this emergency, but also the next. In addition, we want the communities in which we work to be more resilient and better equipped, so transfer of technology and soft skills is essential. But on to the nitty gritty...