During our April trip to Haiti to purchase food for Johnny’s and Jaguar’s orphanages, we were sad to find that conditions have gotten worse at these and many other Haiti orphanages. The 40 hungry and listless children at Johnny’s orphanage broke our hearts. In order to clean up Port au Prince, the tent cities are being closed and people forced out despite the fact that for many people housing alternatives are not available. More and more children are being placed in Haiti orphanages or found in the streets because parents can’t care for them. The population of orphanages like Johnny’s have grown even though they don’t have enough food to go around. Johnny’s relies heavily on organizations like ours because other funding is inconsistent.
We are asking for donations to continue to feed the children in Johnny’s and Jaguar’s orphanages. Our hope is that with more consistency, we can report back that the children look better and are playing like healthier children. We also would like to acquire plastic bed covers, children’s clothing and shoes for Johnny’s orphanage. Jaguar’s school needs money for fabric for uniforms and books; we will purchase these items while we are there. Jaquar’s school also needs sporting equipment in addition to school supplies. If you have a relationship with a business that would consider a donation of any of these items, please let us know.
For the past two years, we have traveled to Haiti to purchase the food so we are assured that every dollar of the money you donate goes directly to food for the children, corruption is still a large problem in Haiti. Although our ultimate goal is to see the orphanages become more self-sustaining, we want to continue our quarterly trips to purchase food. We are also planning to start using our interpreters to monitor and make sure there is food purchased in between our trips to Haiti. One of our accomplishments during our April trip was to figure out more precisely how much food each child needs so we can predict more successfully how much to buy and how long our purchases will last.
After traveling to Haiti for the first time, we decided that feeding starving children in these 2 orphanages was the best way to have a direct impact in a country with an overwhelming number of problems before and since the earthquake. In addition to donating food, we also purchase school supplies for three schools each year. We are fundraising for school supplies at this time as well.
Please donate today. You may donate through our website at headwatersrelief.org/donate or by check to:
Headwaters Haiti Relief
9400 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley
Minnesota 55427.
Thank you all for your continued support of Headwaters’ activities.