updates

        So the reason for the lack of posts lately, not that there should be an excuse, is because we are all on spring break and have not had the chance to get together. We will be making more bracelets soon and as of recent we have begun a wait list, so if you would like to get on the list let us know either on the blog or we will create a facebook page that people can join. Hopefully, that will be up an running within the next week :)
      -kim


Oh and if anyone has heard any recent news on either Haiti, Uganda, and Ethiopia and would like to raise awareness about the issues you can email the group (giveletlive@gmail.com). Thanks!


Want new information on Haiti? This web/blog has great updates: http://rainbowwarrior2005.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/update-disease-threatens-haitian-children/

            When the earthquake hit Haiti a few months ago people knew that the number of deaths would be high, and they were right. With around 100,000 dead (CNN) the Haitian people and volunteers from all over the world work together to bring back the world they once had, this time a world that won't crumble in the next quake. One headline for the Washington Post reads: Haiti to unveil $3.9B restructuring plan at the U.N. written by Colum Lynch (to read more go here -http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/29/AR2010032903872.html).

Despite everyone's efforts and support, despite the Haitians immense courage, the aftereffects of the earthquake keep some survivors from living in their homes:


         "Some quake survivors prefer living outside of the places they called home ever since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the country Jan. 12 because they're worried their undamaged houses won't stand up to the next temblor to hit the country." -a CBS report
(for more of the story go here -http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20001500-503543.html)


It's easy to give when a huge event is all over the news, but as weeks go by and the news begins to focus on new and up-and-coming stories, people can forget the little countries or towns, research organizations or people in suffering that still desperately need help. Haiti is one of those places. For them, life has not settled down yet.
Kim 

Hospital Staff Returns From Haiti

taken from courant.com     Hospital Staff Returns From Haiti

Hearts for Haiti team members are (from left): Jonathan Torres, Patricia Alfieri, Dr. Anthony Ciardella, Brenda Jaramillo, Salena Devoe, Angela Torres, Ashley Dizon, Terry Kamens, Sarah Wells, and Deborah Ferretti. (Courtesy of The Hospital of Central Connecticut / March 26, 2010)

Each morning in Haiti, nurse practitioner Deborah Ferretti awoke to the sounds of roosters crowing and brooms sweeping entrances to tents, the makeshift homes born of the Jan. 12 earthquake that ravaged the country. She'd have a power bar and some water before leaving her tent for a medical clinic in Port-au-Prince where she and other staff members of The Hospital of Central Connecticut would see up to 70 patients daily during a recent medical missionary trip.

"Most patients would already be sitting and waiting for us to arrive," said Ferretti, who with other Hearts for Haiti team members cared for Haitians, both young and old, for illnesses that included breathing problems, hypertension, gastrointestinal ailments, typhoid fever, skin conditions and stress-related headaches and stomachaches.

The 10-member Hearts for Haiti team returned from Haiti March 19, after embarking March 8. Primary care physician Dr. Anthony Ciardella, who practices in  Southington, coordinated the trip through World Cares Center with support from ReadyResponders Network and Housing Works, Inc. Other team members from the Hospital of Central Connecticut were Ferretti, who lives in Beacon Falls; physician assistant Sarah Wells of Plainville; registerednurses Patricia Alfieri of Simsbury, Salena Devoe of Plainville, Ashley Dizon of Manchester, Brenda Jaramillo of New Britain and Terry Kamens of Harwinton; and Angela Torres, a nurse technician from Bristol. Torres' husband, Jonathan Torres, an emergency medical technician who is not an employee of the hospital, was also on the team.

"Most of us have the sense that we shouldn't have left," said Ciardella upon return. "There was so much to do there. Realistically, we know we did what we could."

The team was split among three camps, two at Port-au-Prince, the area hardest hit by the quake, and the other at Saint-Marc. On two nights, some team members traveled to an orphanage, providing care to 22 youngsters. Supporting the team's effort were medical supplies and medications the team brought, many through donations.

"We were seeing 75 patients a day," said Ciardella, who worked from a clinic at Saint-Marc, where patients would start lining up at 5:30 a.m. "It was so hot and there was no power the whole time we were there. The only power we had was a generator that worked intermittently."

Alfieri, who worked at a Port-au-Prince clinic, recalls seeing a mother who complained of a backache and wasn't sleeping well. "I listened to her tell her story," said Alfieri, who says the woman conveyed she was homeless and sleeping on the streets with her baby. "The best thing she could do," Alfieri counseled the woman, "was to keep her eyes and ears open to find shelter."

Ferretti recalls two twin boys, age 1½, who had trouble breathing; one of the boys also had a broken femur (thighbone). Since the twins needed more care besides breathing treatments provided, the family, accompanied by team members, went to the pediatric hospital in Port-au-Prince, only to be denied admission because they weren't sick enough.

Hampering the team's efforts were limited resources for medical testing, forcing team members to rely primarily on patients' symptoms and medical histories, said Ciardella. "We treated according to their symptoms and what we found."

Without a formalized health care system, Ferretti said Haitians often rely on street vendors wearing pill baskets on their heads vs. quality medical care. "They use antibiotics like we use Motrin," she said. "We were floored by how broken their healthcare system had been."

Despite the Haitians' plight, Ferretti was inspired by their strength and pride, adding that they came to the clinics wearing their best clothing. "Just to see how they were trying to hold on to normal life was really admirable."

Alfieri returned with a sense of having done something good.

"These people give so much back to you while you're helping them that you don't feel like you're doing anything extraordinary. They were so grateful for everything you did for them."

Haiti Update from American Red Cross

The McMurtie sisters

This was taken off glamour.com -http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2010/03/an-update-from-haiti.html

A great thing these girls are doing, just proves our point that anyone can help. 


These Sisters Rescued 54 Orphans in Haiti: Here's How You Can Help

Thursday, 03/ 4/2010 at 5:00 PMComments (6)

Hi everyone. I’m Geraldine Sealey, a Glamour editor who oversees Katie Couric’s column. For our April issue, Katie interviewed two young women you may have heard about: Ali and Jamie McMutrie, Pittsburgh sisters who for years had been helping to run a Haitian orphanage that was destroyed by the quake in January. They rescued 54 orphans, bringing them to Pennsylvania so they could be adopted by American families (read the interview here).

I’ve been e-mailing the sisters to see what they’ve been up to since January. They just returned from another rescue run to Haiti—turns out that 12 kids from their orphanage, who were supposed to be adopted by French families, never left because of legal issues. The kids were with caretakers but in pretty horrible conditions. “The sickest child, a 13-month-old boy, weighed only 9 pounds,” the McMutries said. “He was lying on a mattress with bugs swarming all over him.” Thankfully, he and all 12 children are now out of danger, and Ali and Jamie are trying to get them adopted, saying: “We will not give up on these children.”

I also asked the McMutries about a New York Times story that raised questions about a dozen of the 54 children flown to Pittsburgh in January—including whether they were even orphans. Ali and Jamie—who are working with the Red Cross to locate the kids’ relatives—say their families legally relinquished them, adding that, “All 12 have adoptive families waiting for them.”

This passage from their interview with Katie explains their belief that adoption is just one way to assist Haiti.

Katie Couric: What were your immediate impressions of Haiti?

Ali McMutrie: I remember feeling so sorry for everybody. That changed. After a few years you realize that everybody there isn’t miserable.

Jamie McMutrie: They’re not just sitting there waiting for someone to come and do something.

KC: You didn’t like that rescue fantasy that people might ascribe to your motives.

JM: We believe that Haitians should stay in Haiti, and sometimes they can’t. The ones that definitely can’t stay, they need someone else, so we try to help those people.

Ali and Jamie hope to build a new orphanage in Haiti with funds from their foundation, Haitian Orphan Rescue. You can get more info and send them a donation here.

Haitian 'Orphans' Return To Families

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ― Joyful parents on Wednesday recovered the children that they gave to American missionaries about six weeks ago.

The 33 children had been living at the SOS Orphanage on Port-au-Prince's outskirts since police stopped a group of 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries from taking them across the Dominican border on Jan. 29 following Haiti's devastating earthquake.

Orphanage officials said all but one of the children were given back to 22 families. A remaining child, whose age and gender were not given, is awaiting further verification of her parents' identities.

The children had been underfed and some were incontinent from stress, the orphanage said. On Wednesday they were dressed in their Sunday best to return home with parents who had given them away to foreigners a month and a half before.

Many will go back to living under bed sheets or in tin shacks because their parents homes were destroyed by the quake. Some children and orphanage workers cried as they left. The parents, who have had some contact with the children in recent weeks, wore broad smiles.

Each family was given about $260 along with food and blankets. The orphanage has also been providing counseling to the children, who they fear will feel rejected, and to parents about the dangers of child trafficking, said spokeswoman Line Wolf Nielsen.


For more information go here
 http://cbs3.com/national/haiti.orphans.american.2.1570410.html

Haiti says it needs $11.5 billion to rebuild after earthquake

Mexico City – The Haiti government said that it will need $11.5 billion to rebuild after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12 left more than 220,000 dead and large swaths of the capital, Port-au-Prince, in ruins.

The estimate comes from a draft Preliminary Damage and NeedsAssessment (PDNA) that was released as delegations from 28 countries wrapped up a two-day meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic today. The assessment will be presented to a donor’s conference for Haiti on March 31 in New York.

“The earthquake has created an unprecedented situation, amplified by the fact that it struck the country’s most populous region and its economic and administrative centre,â€

The draft lays out specifics on what Haiti’s financial needs will be over the next three years to rebuild the homes, schools, roads, government offices and businesses destroyed. But it also lays out a vision for a new Haiti, which includes a stronger sense of government and justice and a plan to decentralize power and economic opportunity to lessen the pressures on Port-au-Prince.

Kind of an eye opener. 

For the rest of the article go here http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100317/wl_csm/288293_1