Haiti Community Support

10/31/2021

I am back SAFE from Haiti visiting my village for earthquake relief!
I am so thankful for all you expressions of concern and your help to bring relief to a world of suffering. I’m so proud we can do SOMETHING. Our new emphasis on direct aid to families is a real winner. Thanks again for standing alongside people in need.

Please read the following message from Mathilde Aurelien, Portland resident … Ellen Mekjavich needs your support for Direct Support for Haiti Quake Survivors

08/26/2021

Thank you very much to so many friends that have donated!!

12/25/2017

Mathilde Aurelien Wilson Bruce Wilson Mathilde's Kitchen- Haitian Cuisine

Dear HCS supporters HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!
I just returned from Haiti and it’s the Holidays Seasons - A good time to send out thanks and share the NEWS !!! Here’s what got done in the last year:

Agriculture After the Hurricane
Hurricane Matthew devastated the village’s agriculture sector. Valuable shade trees needed for coffee farming were damaged or downed. Fruit trees and food crops took a terrible beating. Right after Matthew passed we delivered emergency food supplies – thousands of pounds of rice and other staples were sent to the village. But farmers urgently needed help to re-establish production. Haiti Community Support constructed two green houses, and to date over 10,000 seedlings have been delivered to farmers. Now we need to KEEP THE GREENHOUSE PROGRAM GOING for farmer’s continued supply of coffee trees, fruit trees (mango, banana, breadfruit, avocado) and food crop seedlings.
Haiti Community Support’s Medical Clinic
The huge demand for medical care after the hurricane had HCS’s staff scrambling to buy medicine and getting doctors up to the villages. We hired a full time nurse to monitor patients between doctor visits. Our pharmacy is one of the only places for many miles were poor farmers can get the medications they need. Since the hurricane, even more people are now coming from further and further away to access care. HCS is maintaining the clinic and weekly doctor visits, and plans to rebuild a separate clinic building as funds are available. Some other accomplishments:
Jump-start village economy with micro-loans to 60 women.
Distribute balls and jerseys for a town soccer team
The school reopened in partnership with Dept of Education.
Paid the pre-school teachers/supplies (not covered by Dept. Education)
To keep the school lunch and pre-school operating, and the clinic delivering services we rely on you, our stalwart supporters, to keep it all going.

Please donate online to our webpage www.haiticommunitysupport.com or you can mail a check to our: Haiti Community Support
2927 NE 89th Ave
Portland, OR 97220

12/25/2017

Dear HCS supporters HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!
I just returned from Haiti and it’s the Holidays Seasons - A good time to send out thanks and share the NEWS !!! Here’s what got done in the last year:

Agriculture After the Hurricane
Hurricane Matthew devastated the village’s agriculture sector. Valuable shade trees needed for coffee farming were damaged or downed. Fruit trees and food crops took a terrible beating. Right after Matthew passed we delivered emergency food supplies – thousands of pounds of rice and other staples were sent to the village. But farmers urgently needed help to re-establish production. Haiti Community Support constructed two green houses, and to date over 10,000 seedlings have been delivered to farmers. Now we need to KEEP THE GREENHOUSE PROGRAM GOING for farmer’s continued supply of coffee trees, fruit trees (mango, banana, breadfruit, avocado) and food crop seedlings.
Haiti Community Support’s Medical Clinic
The huge demand for medical care after the hurricane had HCS’s staff scrambling to buy medicine and getting doctors up to the villages. We hired a full time nurse to monitor patients between doctor visits. Our pharmacy is one of the only places for many miles were poor farmers can get the medications they need. Since the hurricane, even more people are now coming from further and further away to access care. HCS is maintaining the clinic and weekly doctor visits, and plans to rebuild a separate clinic building as funds are available. Some other accomplishments:
Jump-start village economy with micro-loans to 60 women.
Distribute balls and jerseys for a town soccer team
The school reopened in partnership with Dept of Education.
Paid the pre-school teachers/supplies (not covered by Dept. Education)
To keep the school lunch and pre-school operating, and the clinic delivering services we rely on you, our stalwart supporters, to keep it all going.

Please donate online to our webpage www.haiticommunitysupport.com or you can mail a check to our: Haiti Community Support
2927 NE 89th Ave
Portland, OR 97220

03/06/2017

Here is my final summary report detailing the work accomplished thanks to our friends and donors in helping us in the emergency hurricane relief effort. I’m happy to report that the funds we received have been spent to great effect in helping villagers in Au Centre/Beaumont, Haiti in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

Hurricane Matthew’s Aftermath: The hurricane passed directly over the village on October 4, 2016. The winds and rains delivered historic devastation to the coastal cities of Les Cayes and Jeremie at the base of the Southern mountain range. Au Centre/Beaumont, located high in the Peak Makaya mountains between these cities, was hit with stronger winds. The village’s poorly built houses uniformly lost roofs, and many saw their walls collapse. Crop damage was extensive and existing food stocks were spoiled. Hunger was the most immediate problem along with urgent medical needs.

Haiti Community Support (HCS) director in Haiti began purchasing and shipping food to the village, bought medicines and dispatched a medical team, then took actions to help farmers to jump-start crop production. Here are the details:

Food Relief:

Food staples were bought in Port au Prince and transported by bus to the base of the mountains (Camp Perrin) then by moto into the mountains, and finally by mule to the village. Initially we shipped bags of rice, followed by other staples – milk powder, sardines, cooking oil. Early on we utilized the school’s lunch kitchen to prepare food communally, then by family packages as people’s kitchens were restored.

Health Care Program:

A medical team (doctor, nurse and health tech) was assembled and transportion arranged from Camp Perrin. They have been running twice weekly medical clinics from Oct 16- Jan 31 in the school house. Patients from scores of mountain hamlets arrived for care. Around 50 persons per day were treated for traumatic injuries, high blood pressure, diarrhea, fever, flu, undernourished children, prenatal care and deliveries. Medicines were purchased and a pharmacy was stocked. The health tech was housed and remained full time for basic treatments, screening and medication follow-ups.

Farming, Reforestation program:

With the hard hit to food crop production we took actions to help villagers re-start their gardens. 2,500 banana slips were purchased, transported and distributed to over 100 farmers. An agriculture technician (agronomist) was hired to help villagers where possible save their fallen trees and to clean up their gardens. Importantly we started 2 nurseries (ca 20,000 seedlings each). We purchased bags, seeds, local fertilizers. Mango, bread fruit, orange/ citrus, moringa, mahogany, cider, cassia starts – distribution will begin in March and continue through 2017.

School repair:

The HCS school house was damaged by the storm. Shutters and doors needed fixing, and our storage depot lost its roof. The depot roof was replaced, and the building was repurposed as a living quarter for the nurse, agronomists, doctor, teachers.

Administration/ travel :

Mathilde visited the village in February and there are ongoing visits by the HCS Director to the village from P0rt au Prince.

I am very grateful to Vibrant Village Foundation for stepping up to help Au Centre in its time of dire need.

Sincerely,

Mathilde Aurelien Wilson
Co-Director

Mathilde Aurelien Wilson
Bruce Wilson
Jouk Li Jou - Haitian CookShack Cafe
Jouk li Jou - Haitian Cuisine at The Portland Mercado
Justine Lily Thompson

12/29/2016

Jouk Li Jou - Haitian CookShack Cafe

11/29/2016

News from Au Centre - South Haiti

Hurricane Matthew - Update No 5 – Nov 15, 2016:
From: Mathilde Aurelien Wilson

We’re doing it! This fund raising drive allowed us to set up multiple lines of support to the village. Conditions remain extremely difficult and our support is helping a lot of people at a really bad time. Here’s what’s happening:
Food: We are getting a steady flow of food to the village; bags of rice to the communal kitchen and last week 50 families got a 5 gallon bucket filled with rice, beans, oil and canned sardines to help set up their household kitchens. More family packages and bulk rice continue to the village weekly. While the UN and other large aid groups are getting trucks through the mountains to the big population centers on the North Shore, the Washington Post reports: “small towns on the way to Jeremie are starving and resentful to see many aid convoys pass them by.” Validation of HCS’s small-is-beautiful model is that Au Centre is getting direct targeted support from the HCS team in Haiti.
Medical Help: The medical team just ran its second clinic. Mud slides, horrendous road conditions, and a long walk uphill to the school house have not stopped them! Nearly 100 people took the line for last week’s clinic (held in the school house till repairs are done to the health center) The team’s gravest concern is pervasive child malnutrition. They’re treating kids for malaria, scabies, typhoid, gastric and diarrheal issues. Adults have these plus elevated blood pressure.
Crop Assistance: The UN Reports “crop loss reaching a staggering 80 to 100 per cent…food insecurity risks worsening in the coming months if farming activities are not urgently restored by mid November.” Working with fellow agronomists HCS Director has miraculously sourced and readied for delivery this week of two truckloads of yam and banana starts.
Housing: Many families will be living in the school house for some time. While making quick repairs to their homes, few have the funds to actually rebuild. I’m urgently looking for an organization to fund house rebuilding as a second phase to our relief program.
UN Situation Report for November 14 stated there “remains an enormous gap in the people’s ability to meet their basic, day-to-day necessities, such as medication, food, water, hygiene, and the ability to reconstruct their destroyed homes.” Against daunting and dangerous logistical challenges the resourceful and brave HCS team is reaching the village to continue the emergency work.
Thank you all so much. Including the rebuilding part, the team needs support for months to come. Please can you keep helping us in any way you can - help by spreading the word so others may join and with any donations you can make to this major effort.
Love from Mathilde Aurelien Wilson

Bruce Wilson Jouk Li Jou - Haitian CookShack Cafe

10/25/2016

** A Message from Mathilde....

Dear Friends,

The Situation in Au Centre is dire. There is no other way to say it: Au Centre, Haiti, my birth village, has been demolished. We just received our first photos from the villages. The photos show such devastation and suffering that my head is spinning. My mother's house was one of the stronger houses and it is down like pretty much the rest of the town. People perished in the storm, food stores are lost as well as all the food crops and seed supplies. Coffee trees are all down as are many of the beautiful shade trees they depend on. People are living in the school house - we built it strong enough!

For the last 11 years, from time to time, we've sent you information about Haiti Community Support's projects in the isolated rural villages in Haiti's Southern mountains. Usually it was good news about building and running the HCS supported elementary school, getting safe water closer to the village, providing hot lunches and medical care for students and villagers. Many of you chipped in to run HCS's mobile clinics that treated thousands of people after Haiti's 2010 earthquake.

What Haiti Needs Right Now: Within a day of Hurricane Matthew hitting the village, HCS supporters started sending in donations to get food and medicine up to the village. Combining that with what we had in our HCS accounts, I started sending bank wires to our HCS director in Port au Prince. Myriam Valme Joseph right away started buying and shipping food supplies to the village. She's assembled a seasoned expeditionary medical team who is ready to hit the road as soon as landslides are cleared.

My goal is to keep the emergency aid flowing while we plan and assist in the rebuilding work. There's no other group but HCS to help families in this part of Haiti.

It's going to take resources. I hope if you are reading this appeal, that you can help us support these hard-working farm families get their lives back together.

Can you please help us keep the support flowing? You can visit our YouCaring.com site to make a donation or make a donation straight from our Haiti Community Support page.

Thank you,
Mathilde

PS: "Working Together to Rebuild" - The citizens of Au Centre are used to making things happen through group cooperation. It only took some financial help for the villagers to raise up the 4,000 sq ft Renaissance Elementary School in the middle of a bean field. Villagers made the blocks and poured the roof using large labor squads equal part men and women to mine the sand and gravel and carry it to the building site. HCS funding also supported large teams to hand-build the first jeep trail to the village, to rebuild the medical clinic building, and to dig a 2 mile trench to carry water to the village.

With financial help, this village makes miracles happen!

10/14/2016

Friends and family: PLEASE CLICK, POST, and SHARE! Our goal is to raise $40,000 in 4 weeks to get 6-months of water, food, seeds, medical and construction supplies to Au Centre. HCS is on the ground in Haiti, delivering direct services to Au Centre, and your donation will help save lives and relieve suffering right now when it’s needed most.

On October 4th, Hurricane Matthew made a devastating blow to Haiti’s south as a category 4 storm. In the aftermath of the storm the island is reeling from contaminated water, food shortages, displaced residents, and destroyed infrastructure. Worst hit are the mountain villages where the winds were.....