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Trip Blog
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| Please share your favorite HTF trip story here. |
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Posted
by da name is Peterson Prezeau AkA PD on 12/13/2008 at 7:24:02 PM EST.
Subject: wats craccin' |
| iight hereshow it goes to all ma haitian pplz haiti is a beautiful country we just gotta figure how to show it...get at me !!! |
Posted
by Elizabeth on 11/29/2008 at 11:28:04 AM EST.
Subject: MATH |
| RAEDING |
Posted
by John Bost on 11/6/2008 at 1:47:50 AM EST.
Subject: correction |
| Sorry, Lori. I called you "Lord." High compliment! |
Posted
by John Bost on 11/6/2008 at 1:47:06 AM EST.
Subject: Commenting on Lori Mitchell's post |
| Well said, Lord...well said! |
Posted
by Lori Mitchell on 11/3/2008 at 9:10:47 PM EST.
Subject: October 2008 Immersion Trip |
| This was my 3rd trip to Haiti and wow how much our kids have grown and how happy they are. It was so great to see all of them and the new partners. I was amazed at how the HELP students are going to change Haiti and the world and this is in part because of all you supporters who have helped put them through school, they will really make a difference in the lives of others in Haiti. Going out to the Central Plateau was an unbelievable experience, I was just happy to have made the treck though the mud and heat, it had to of been a God thing. And to see how the lives of these people making less than 1$ a day and having malnourised children have totally turned around with the help of the CLM Program and Fonkoze, they now have cement houses with floors vs. their banana leaf huts, their kids are going to school and are healthy, they are drinking clean filtered water, and they all have some form of enterprise - it is just amazing!!!!! And all this can happen for just $1000 which changes a persons life forever. My kids know they are not getting anything for christmas this year except the satifiaction to know they saved someone's life by giving up their christmas gifts. I pray that everyone will pray and follow their heart when it comes to the "It's Not Your Birthday" CLM program and help a family raise themselves out of poverty. One of the most memorable events during this trip was going to the deaf school with Arnold. He is from one of our Partner Congregations "Sheridan Lutheran" he is deaf and it was amazing that American Sign Language is such a universal language, when most of us could not converse with the locals because they speak creole, he talked and shared with those kids for almost 3 hours. I sat in ahw!!! as I watched this exchange go on, I was the outsider not knowing how to sign. Those kids loved him and he loved being with them and sharing. It was totally unbelievable, I could see God working in all of them as they interacted. It was awesome. If you are on the fence as to weather to go on a trip or not I say get off the fence because this trip will change your life. |
Posted
by Gini Knueppel on 10/17/2008 at 11:25:09 AM EST.
Subject: Good morning |
| Looking forward to your stories (and pictures?) as well as to welcoming all of you Epiphany folk back home this weekend. You've been missed and prayerfully thought about. Safe journey, peace and joy! |
Posted
by Tom Condon on 10/16/2008 at 3:23:48 PM EST.
Subject: Thoughts and blessings to all |
| The description of the conference and the first couple days of the trip by John are great. God's blessings in your remaining work and safe travel home |
Posted
by Steve Belfield on 10/16/2008 at 3:04:50 PM EST.
Subject: Just thinking about y'all |
| Howdy all. It sounds as though the trip is going well. Peace, saftey and happiness to all. Safe travels homee and see you Sunday! Great write up John. Thanks for sharing |
Posted
by John Bost on 10/15/2008 at 1:49:08 PM EST.
Subject: Words and Insight from Current Haiti Trip |
| Friends and Family:
All is well here in Haiti. Everyone is safe, inspired,
tired, happy, moved, and on the go.
Below is a blog entry I created for Haiti Innovation,
a think tank for all things Haiti, comprised mainly
of formed Haiti Peace Corps members. They bring
a wealth of experience and information to the joyful
the Haiti conversation.
See everyone on Saturday!
Peace,
Pastor John Bost
Executive Director for Partnerships
Haitian Timoun Foundation
Wings of Hope
Fermathe, Haiti
October 15, 2008
Fonkoze USA Haiti Solidarity Conference
October 10 -11, 2008
Wyndham Hotel and Conference Center,
Miami, Florida
I had the distinct privilege to attend the Second
Fonkoze USA Haiti Solidarity Conference held
October 10-11, 2008. I went as a representative of
the Haitian Timoun Foundation (HTF), a non-profit
organization committed to raising up the children
of Haiti through investment in poverty eradication,
public health, education, and leadership
development. We were afforded the opportunity to
present at the conference on an upcoming
campaign, entitled – “It’s Not Your Birthday”, a
project aimed at partnership with Fonkoze’s
“Chemin Lavi Miyo” Project or “Pathway to a Better
Life.” The CLM Project is a dual project of the World
Bank and Haitian Timoun Foundation directed at
implementing strategies for the poorest of the poor
in Haiti that will lift them up out of extreme poverty
and steward them to a place where they have the
resources, material and emotional, to have a
fighting chance.
I did not attend the inaugural Fonkoze Solidarity
Conference held two years ago, but I can say there
was very much a sense of urgency at this one. Two
very distinguished voices in the Microcredit Finance
world joined the conference as keynote speakers.
Alex Counts, President and Chief Executive Officer
of Grameen Foundation USA, and Syed Hashemi,
Director of BRAC Development Institute, both
provided us with a framework on why Fonkoze’s
CLM project represents a pivotal time for
Microfinace in the world. I left the conference with
a single message: If the CLM project can work in
Haiti, then it can work anywhere.
CLM is not one more cookie-cutter approach to
eradicating extreme poverty. While many of the
same conditions exist in Haiti that exist in
Bangladesh, Haiti is not Bangladesh. Haiti presents
certain geographical challenges that Bangladesh
does not. This requires a different approach to
caseworker staffing and strategy. Bangladesh also
does not have nearly the odds stacked against is as
Haiti. For many, Haiti is categorized as either a
“failed state” at worst or a “fragile state” at best. I
will not go into the details of why Haiti has been
given either distinction, but I will say that for as
long as the World Bank has been in the business of
outlining the specifics of failed and fragile states,
Haiti has been the only country in the world that
has been in the top ten every year.
In many respects, Haiti is Custard’s last stand for
microfinance’s place in the marketplace of ideas
where extreme poverty eradication is priority
number one. If the poorest of the poor can be
lifted out of poverty and given a fighting here in
Haiti, then it can happen anywhere. While a similar
project like CLM did not have the intended results
in Somalia, we cannot afford to let CLM be one
more failed project in the fight against extreme
poverty eradication.
I had the opportunity on Tuesday to travel with 22
other representatives from the Haitian Timoun
Foundation to Boukan Khare in the Central Plateau,
a very important battleground for Fonkoze’s CLM
project, and I met with family after family, that have
hope for the first time in their lives. I saw homes
that will not be swept away by the rain. I saw
livestock that provide enterprise and commerce. I
saw latrines that are safe and clean. I saw children
in school. I saw single mothers with heads held
high and immaculate personal care. I heard stories
of poor families who are now invited to birthdays
and first communions because people finally see
them. They are no longer invisible.
Projects like CLM aren’t simply about money or
sustainability. They are projects that are about
social capital and a place to stand.
The price for the CLM project is currently $1000 per
family. For $1000 a family can be lifted out of
extreme poverty and given a chance. Through a
partnership with the World Bank and Haitian
Timoun Foundation, 150 families are now enrolled
in CLM. The Haitian Timoun Foundation has
committed $5,000,000 by 2012 to the CLM project
which will raise 5000 families out of poverty and
put them on the “pathway to a better life.”
The first step towards the goal of 2012 is a
campaign called “It’s Not Your Birthday!” Beginning
with faith-based communities across the Unites
States, we are asking people of faith to cut out the
spend-a-thon that occurs around Christmas time,
and to redirect that money to the CLM project. The
very conservative estimate of what American’s will
spend on Christmas gifts this year is $996. For
$1000 an individual or family can give the gift of
life to a family living in Haiti, pulling them out of
extreme poverty and giving them a chance at life.
We’re not asking that people don’t celebrate
Christmas; only that they celebrate it differently.
Americans do not need more “stuff.” What we do
need is the opportunity to stand with those living at
the fringes of society, and the recognition that we
can invest in other human beings in a way that
quite literally can change the world one family at a
time.
The challenges that face Haiti are quite complex,
but the thing that remains simple amidst such
complexity is one simple truth - Haiti needs us, and
we need Haiti. This is not rocket science. The
greatest fear for us all, religious and non-religious
alike, is not that we don’t know what to do as it
concerns the poorest of the poor in Haiti; it is that
in knowing what to do we will actively and/or
passively refuse to do it. Whatever we ultimately do
or don’t do, we dare not create the rationalization
that there is nothing that can be done for the
poorest of the poor in Haiti.
I join an entire throng of individuals, communities,
and organizations that cannot and will not ever give
in to the notion that Haiti is beyond the threshold
for eliminating extreme poverty. Indeed, Fonkoze,
Haitian Timoun Foundation, and a whole host of
others will spend themselves and their treasuries in
ushering in a Pathway to a Better Life.
We cannot afford – emotionally, economically,
anthropologically, or spiritually – to fail in Haiti,
and so we won’t.
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves,
the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the
energies of love, and then, for a second time in the
history of the world, [humankind] will have
discovered fire.” Teilhard de Chardin
Fonkoze USA Haiti Solidarity Conference
October 15, 2008
John Bost, Executive Direction for Partnerships
The Haitian Timoun Foundation (HTF)
http://www.hopeinhaiti.org |
Posted
by Stacia Bluhm on 10/15/2008 at 11:23:26 AM EST.
Subject: hello |
| You all are in our thoughts and prayers! Give the children an extra hug from all your friends at Epiphany. Be well, and God bless! Stacia :) |
Posted
by Erin Murphy on 10/14/2008 at 9:20:02 AM EST.
Subject: Bonjou! |
| Greetings from Suwanee, GA! I send prayers and good wishes out to all of the travelers on the HTF fall mission trip and especially my friends from Epiphany! I look forward to reading about your trip on the blog (hopefully!) and hearing stories when you return.
Lapé, Erin
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Posted
by Jeanne Slowik on 10/13/2008 at 12:22:20 PM EST.
Subject: |
| Prayeing for you folks as you share the joy of God's love with the people of Haiti. |
Posted
by Alice on 10/5/2008 at 6:47:42 PM EST.
Subject: The Dance |
| Ok, I thought I would get the new travelers started with a story from my trip in May. You have so much fun ahead of you.
Our first night in Haiti we were entertained by the Dance Theater. I have seen the troupe perform a few times in Colorado, but they still move me. This time they performed excerpts from Godspell. The songs they chose from Godspell are extremely poignant coming from Walnes (playing Jesus) and Bill. Among them I loved when they performed 'It's All for the Best' because it's a fun song. But the most moving was when they sang 'God Save the People'. In many ways it made me think it was written for the people of Haiti.
Beyond Godspell they also performed a few of their other dances, including Lord of the Dance. Since I last saw them I swear Patrick had grown 6 inches and his grace was unbelievable. After having been with them more on their last trip to Colorado I feel like they are family. So watching them grow in maturity and size is delightful.
After the dances as always Michael circled everyone up (their were about 10 Canadians at the guest house too) and we sang 'Let There Be Peace On Earth'. Then we sang more songs, some in Creole some in English. It ended with Bill drumming and all of us in a conga line. Then as the line broke apart one of the boys (about 12 years old and my height) took my hands to dance. I wish I had half his moves. But since he was holding my hands it made my arms look more graceful. One of the women insisted Bill play another song so we kept dancing. Everyone was laughing and dancing and I couldn't let go of this boy's hands. These boys have been rejected so much that I can't do that, even if I am exhausted. Plus their joy is so contagious you just keep dancing. It was a fun way to end our first night in Haiti. |
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