The Life of a Sponsor

Vi Isaac became a sponsor with Heart to Heart over 15 years ago and she came to visit her kids (& grand kids!!) in Haiti for the first time last month.

Her first child was Enorck Honorat - Vi sponsored him until he finished mechanics school in Port-au-Prince and he is now our Driver/Mechanic and lives very close to the H2H compound. He is married to Chantel and has 3 boys; Theo, Theo-Dad and Theo-Joe. You may remember hearing about Theo-Joe being born on the US Marine Ship just after the earthquake. Enorck was very proud to be the one to pick Vi up at the airport and then to sit with her on his patio as he introduced her to his family.



Vi's next child was Sylfanai Noel - he was her sponsor child until he received his teaching diploma and he is now the grade 4 teacher of our School. He is also a very talented musician... he plays the trumpet, base guitar and can make a tune on almost any instrument his picks up! He feels very blessed to have gone through the H2H program and believes in giving back. He runs the music program at H2H (the Children's Home and the Church) and teaches at all 4 levels; theory classes, apprentice program, Jr Band & Senior Band. The Senior Band, which Noel conducts, plays at Church and also at functions in town. It is a huge time commitment for Noel and he does it cheerfully and as a volunteer! Many of the instruments were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake so they are slowly building up their resources again (you can donate money towards the music program through the H2H gift catalogue: www.hearttohearthaiti.com).

At the time of the earthquake, January 12th, Noel was engaged to be married and just finished pouring the cement roof on his house - his house was flattened. He was determined to stick with his plans & not be discouraged by his loss (as he felt it was minimal compared to what some lost) and he was married to Darline in July. They are living in a rented house close to the H2H compound.

Like Enorck, he was very excited to finally meet Vi and was especially proud when she came to Band Practice.





Her current sponsor child, Wilkenson, was shy to meet Vi but broke out of his shell when he took her to the open air market and skillfully lead her through the crowds of people. Vi was so impacted to meet the people she has affected over the years that she has added a second child, Jason, to her family... they will be the next Enorck & Noel!! She also hand picked 2 grand kids... for her daughter to sponsor :)



Vi has not only been a sponsor herself, she has signed up friends and family, and she has encouraged her Church's Sunday School Program to sponsor 4 kids. The effort she is making is not only impacting the kids at H2H, the ripple effect has reached back home and continues to spread!



If you have considered sponsoring a child through H2H and haven't done it yet, please email me and I'll get you signed up! Or... if you're already a sponsor, like Vi... considered talking to your friends and family about our sponsorship program and encouraging them to jump on board. It's only $35 per month - check out H2H's website for the details: www.hearttohearthaiti.com.

A new regime

The cholera outbreak is continuing to spread and the increased cases in Grand Goave are keeping us diligent with our new regime of washing hands and keeping things clean. The kids are grumbling with having to clean the kitchen & bathrooms more frequently but the seriousness of the illness is being hammered home... even with the election scandals the radios are almost entirely focused on the cholera outbreak and Social Services are sending field workers to check up on our procedures almost daily.

Thankfully, kids are kids and they can find the bright side in anything! Here are some of the younger boys cleaning the water tanks... we had to clean them again when they were done :)



Many of you are asking how the election riots are affecting us here in Grand Goave...

Other than a few protests and burning tires on the streets we haven't had too many problems but we're affected because the road between us and Port-au-Prince has been blocked for several days so people aren't able to travel... this especially affects the cost & availability of food as our markets depend on goods coming from Port-au-Prince. Saturday is our big market day and the pickings were slim and almost 3 times the price!

We are also being affected because the airport in Port-au-Prince has been closed since the middle of last week and we have teams here that were booked to leave. At the moment we have changed their flights and are hoping the airport will be reopened on Tuesday as announced by American Airlines.

I won't pretend to know the true source of the problem but here is what I hear...

None of the presidential candidates received more than 50% of the votes so there will be a re-election between the top 2 candidates - Jude Celestin & Mirlande Manigat. The people are upset because they believe the current President (Preval) has tampered with the votes to allow Celestin to advance to the 2nd round in the place of another candidate, Michel Martelly (aka Sweet Mickey... backed by Wyclef). Martelly is a musician & is very popular. The rumor is that Celestin is dating Preval's daughter and is willing to cover some of Preval's deeds... a few nasty ones as the rumor goes.

Again, I really don't know anything... this is just what I hear on the radio and from the people on the streets. If you're interested in knowing more, here is a local newspaper that is written mostly in English: http://www.haitilibre.com/en/

Shawna & Colleen

Shawna & Colleen are H2H board members and they visited this week to do some business... it was Colleen's first time in Haiti but you'd never know it by the way the kids hugged her :)