ORPHANS INTERNATIONAL AMERICA

Causes: Children & Youth, Human Services, International, International Development, Youth Development Programs

Mission: In Haiti, we are currently located in a rental house in Cyvadier.  Miraculously, none of our children were injured in the recent 2 earthquakes and multiple aftershocks as buildings fell all around them.  However, many of our neighbors lost homes and family members.  With the devastation all around us, it feel is our job to help the community. As a result of the terrible earthquakes and the great need in the Auban region of Haiti, we have greatly expanded our orphan program.  We now care for a total of 60 children: our original 11 orphans in Home Care and an additional 49 orphan children in Family Care.  In Family Care we work through the extended family to provide them with the necessary financial and emotional support to care for a niece, nephew, cousin or grandchild who is without parents.  These additional children are 4-5 years behind in their education, for example, several 15 year olds are in 2nd grade.  We now provide daily 3-hour after school educational programs. In Africa, For the past 20 months, we have run a successful Family Care Center in Moshi , Tanzania , whereby the surrogate parents learn to work together on a variety of projects such as gardening, teaching, food preparation for group events and fundraising.  Recently, these surrogate families took the initiative and organized a fundraising event without any guidance from us. This kind of group initiative and civic participation is rare in poor countries, but it is extremely important and necessary for future development.  At the Family Care Center we schedule monthly family discussions on such topics as alternative methods of punishment, hygiene, nutrition, AIDs (most families are in denial) and resolution of family problems.  These monthly discussions have become very popular.  The Family Care program is extremely effective in creating an active team happy to work together to solve problems, to take on community projects, and willing to accept new approaches to raising their children.  We expect our Haiti project to become just as successful! Immediately after the Haiti earthquakes, 2 members of our Board of Directors flew to the Dominican Republic and convinced the military there to transport them to Jacmel with their abundant supplies, including tents, powdered milk, water purification tablets,food, first aid kits, toys and books.  Within the past 8 weeks we accomplished the following in the Haitian Auban region: We have taken 49 additional orphans in our new Family Care program.  We have located extended family members who are willing to care for these children with some help from us.  We are now paying for their food, healthcare, school tuition, books and uniforms.