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Thanks to Youth With A Mission
who worked with us to pack the container.
We were able to visit YWAM
Gonieve. and distribute hundreds of Make Jesus Smile shoebox
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Named "Make Jesus Smile
Shoeboxes" they are variously stuffed with toys, games,
toiletries, clothing and school supplies and any thing that
will bring some joy to children numbered among the most disadvantaged
on the planet
Seen here an Haitian child in the
Maranatha School in St. Marc. |
To give an example of what these
gifts, some second-hand, mean to Haiti's children, Tryhane tells
the story of how a little boy's face lit up when he received
his gift-wrapped box at a previous presentation. "He thought
the box alone was the gift."
A
litte boy at YWAM Gonieve.receiving
his Make Jesus Smile shoebox |
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Some volunteers will make a
four-hour trip across mountains to get to Jacmel, one of the
two districts where distribution will be done, the other being
Bon Repos, just outside Port-Au-Prince.
Seen here a boy receiving his Make Jesus
Smile shoebox at My Father's
House Orphanage in Bon Repos |
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Tryhane expects that distribution
to schools and churches will continue up to the end of January
and that transportation within Haiti will not be as easy as
the collecting, packing and shipping at the Barbados end.
Seen here at the Jacmel
Nazarine Church Party |
| Tryhane said she was confident the mission would be accomplished
despite the challenges - such as money to finance ten Christmas
parties "to bless the children of Haiti as we give out
the gifts". Seen here at the Jacmel Wesleyan Church Party
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"A party would not
be the same without juice, snacks and sweets and we are asking
for financial assistance," she said , with a reminder
that donations to the UCT account can be made at any FirstCaribbean
bank.
A party for 300 children would cost US$500,
she estimates.
Seen here the Jacmel
Community Party |
Tryhane said she was very touched by how individuals
and busineses in Barbados had been responding to UCT. "The
first time we did this Make Jesus Smile Shoebox project three years
ago, we had 300 boxes and now we have almost 3 000.
"I was expecting a 20-foot container but a
40-foot container showed up and it turned out to be just perfect.
Praise God."
Along with the goodies for the children are boxes
of clothing for adults and dried and canned food which will be made
into "family food hampers".
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River Bay has donated over 400
new tee-shirts which will go to church football teams in Jacmel
and PricewaterhouseCoopers has donated numerous printers,
laptops, computers and monitors, which, though used already,
will be treasured tools for schools and church ministries. |
Inside the container are guttering
and downpipes and two 450-gallon water containers, donated
by Rota Plastics, Barbados Ltd and water pumps from Carib
Supplies to be used in avital clean water project.
Seen here the water containers being transported
in Port au Prince. |
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"The water in Haiti is
dirty. It is killing people but this will play a major role
in the collection of clean water and be part of our BioSand
Water Filter project," Tryhane said.
Seen here taking delivery of the
BioSand Water Filter mould that will be used in the Bon
Repos Clean Water for Haiti production plant. |
Carib Supply has sent two water pumps and pressure
tanks to provide running water in an orphanage and school in Bon
Repos and the Mission House in Jacmel.
Two generators donated by Rent-a-Tool will enable
the Yolanda Thurval Foundation Orphanage and School to have electricity
daily instead of once every three days.
A second hand cement mixer donated by Williams Equipment
will be used to make bricks which will be used to make two BioSand
water filters a day.
Tryhane expressed thanks to those companies and
to Eric Hassell and Son Ltd, Seaboard Marine Ltd and Se-Sash Logistics
Ltd for collaborating to have the container shipped to Haiti free
of cost.
Haiti, the poorest country in the hemisphere, is
still reeling from this year's battering by three major hurricanes,
Gustav, Hanna and Ike and Tropical Storm Fay in the space of one
month.
About 1 000 lives were lost and the country was
left a wasteland. Roads and living conditions are shocking.
UTC, birthed out of the devastation of Grenada by
Hurricane Ivan in 2004 "continues to operate out of devastation,"
Tryhane observed.
Sourced by Barbados
Nation News December 21, 2008
by HARRY MAYERS
harrymayers@nationnews.com
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