| | Donating Money
to Haiti through Nancy Casey's contacts | |
| | Click
here to donate online. Or mail a check to VP Foundation
PO Box 9757 Moscow, ID 83843. Donations are tax-deductible. What happens to your
money? Read on..... | | |
| | | | |
| |  | The
needs in Haiti are astounding right now. Actually, they have been astounding for
a long time. . | |
| | Many
of us are frustrated and confused about donating money because we know so little
about what happens to money that we give | |
| | The
VP Foundation, a non-profit organization in Moscow, Idaho (my hometown) is serving
as the fiscal agent which makes your donation tax deductible. The mission of the
VP Foundation is to heal the world by creating balance in people lives and communities. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | I have been visiting a rural community
in Haiti for 8 years. I speak the Haitian language (which is not French!)
I first came as a guest of a progressive
school, the Matenwa Community Learning Center. I have since been involved with
groups working for women's and children's rights, agriculture and the environment,
and community organizing. I do not have a project of my own. I choose to support
Haitians working 24/7 to improve their lives and communities. They don't need
us to tell them what to do. They need us to believe in them. | |
| | | | | |
| | Rural Haiti has been invisibly absorbing
the effects of the much-publicized earthquake devastation in the cities. Many
of the dead and injured are people from the countryside who went to the cities
looking for work. Whole branches of people's extended families were lost. Many
of the homeless have gone back to live with relatives who are themselves homeless.
Many homes were destroyed and many others look like they wouldn't survive a strong
wind, much less the upcoming hurricane season. There is an extreme and ongoing
hunger crisis now. People who can't afford adequate food can't buy building materials. | |
| | | | | | | |
| | I am writing this in Haiti, April, 2010.
I am here at my own expense to connect with friends and also "verify"
that your donations are being used wisely. Mostly I am humbled by what I see.
Through my contacts here, I am channeling donations to local projects organized
to receive them, particularly in communities that are so far removed from the
mega-aid machine that they have received little or no financial help ever. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | You can tag your donation for a specific
purpose or just leave it to us to use it where most needed. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | FARMING
supports a coalition of groups dedicated to food self-sufficiency and environmental
restoration.. If Haiti was food self-sufficient, the cities never would have been
full of displaced peasants literally stacked on top of each other in block houses
made with insufficient cement and rebar. Every seed planted now lessens the current
hunger crisis and averts the next one. Every erosion-control structure saves the
soil to plant in. Every tree planted calls back the diminishing rains. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | WOMEN
& CHILDREN are extremely vulnerable in Haiti. Domestic violence, child
servitude, lack of women's health care and birth control are all major issues.
Human rights workers all over the world will tell you that improving the status
of women and children improves societies as a whole. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | SHELTER: It costs about $1000
to build a one-room house that can weather hurricanes and earthquakes. A family
of 5-8 people will live there. | |
| |
| | FOOD:
The Matenwa Community Learning Center is buying food on the open market and
re-selling it to market ladies at minimal prices. This moves the food into communities
through the established distribution system and minimizes the disruption of the
local food economies that food aid causes. Money you donate for food will extend
the program to communities which ordinarily don't receive aid. | |
| | | |
| | HEALTH
CARE: A new project the women's groups are taking on. Health care for women
is particularly scant. Women with serious health problems can't leave their families
to travel to the city for treatment, even if they could afford it. A visit by
Janice Boughton from Moscow, ID has lit the fire under this effort. | |
| | | |
| | THE
ARTS: When artist Ryan Law from Moscow, ID visited in March, not speaking
the Haitian language didn't stop her from recognizing kindred spirits and sharing
her love of drawing, painting, and making things with whatever materials were
at hand. She and the "family" she discovered here are interested in
walking the path that a love of art will lead you down.. | |
| | | |
| | If
you have questions or would like to donate for another purpose, feel free to contact
me. | |
| | Nancy
Casey | |
| | nancy-at-turbonet-dot-com
(Spam-reduction format) | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| |
| |