Aid Still Required

01/18/2018

It's easy to forget. Unless you live there…

In minutes the earthquake in Haiti killed more than 260,000 people and displaced over a million more. Did you know that most Haitians still live in shantytown conditions eight years later, without water, electricity, proper beds, or more than one meal each day?

Please join me in supporting Aid Still Required/ - - long-term solutions bringing self-sufficiency through schooling, computer training, adult literacy and vocational programs, and the reunion of orphans with their families.
bit.ly/ASRHaiti

01/18/2018

01/15/2018

Our beautiful Haiti...

Through our seven years in Haiti, we've had the honor of working with some of the finest people we've ever met - bright, skilled, dedicated, open-hearted, entreprenurial, committed. Our trainers, teachers and participants have been through far more adversity than most of us could ever imagine and their ability to bounce back again and again defies logic.

Haitians are a people who, no matter how difficult life is, just want opportunity.

Let's show them that we do not agree with the rhetoric coming out of Washington. Let's show them that we know their hearts, we recognize their courage, and we stand with them as they struggle against all odds to make better lives for themselves.

One way to do this is to support Aid Still Required's work in Haiti, bringing education (including English and computer training) to Haiti's children; literacy and vocational training to its adults; micro-loans to men and women looking to start their own small businesses enterprises; training to farmers to revitalize land devastated by natural disasters and deforestation; and so much more.

With our deepest gratitude,

Hunter and Andrea Herz Payne
Founders

01/12/2018

"Piti piti wazo fech ni li "
Kreyol proverb
(art work by Raw Art Letterpress)

“Step by step the little bird builds its nest"

Today is the 8th Anniversary of the Haitian Earthquake where an estimated 300,000 died in moments, and is the event which brought Aid Still Required to Haiti.

Our Haitian communities live with circumstances few of us can imagine. They are resilient, they are strong; in the direst of circumstances, they still hope and still seek to move forward.

Our Haitian team members inspire us on a constant basis with their unswerving dedication, patience, and resourcefulness.

Today we honor them, their faith and their service to their country.

Together, collaborating with our team, NGO colleagues, and communities, ASR supports a children’s center for 200 kids, has built a school for 135 kids. offer English, computer, and art classes, and supplementary nutrition, we’ ve delivered trauma relief, reunited abused “orphans” with their families, provide adult literacy and vocational training, and are establishing a small atelier.

Please visit our website www.AIdStillRequired to learn more

12/06/2017

Thank you Jill Tate Higgins and Bella Leigh Jewelry 🙏 To all Aid Still Required's SoCA supporters, please check out this special event for your Holiday shopping! A 🎁 from the 💓 !

07/22/2017

Moving tribute in the New Yorker re Chester Bennington. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/chester-bennington-and-the-cathartic-anger-of-linkin-park

Thank you. Chester, for your staggering openness and consummate artistry, and for being such a stand for people in the wake of disasters.

The singer, whose body was found Thursday, led what was easily the most popular, omnipresent new rock band of its decade.

06/28/2017

Several studies are pointing the way to achieving self-sufficiency in developing communities by attending to family behaviors and nutrition during early childhood.

In most marginalized communities, even those in industrialized nations, parenting practices generally parallel economic level. Kids in at-risk communities are far more likely to be neglected or treated with disdain or violence, whereas children in wealthier climes are generally treated with regard, included in family events on a near equal basis, and empowered to become their own agents beginning at an early age.

We believe it's important to engage prospective parents in conscious family planning (why do you want kids?, are you equally happy with either gender?, can you afford a family now?, what is your nutrition plan for the gestating mother and child?), and in growth-oriented family behavior practices during early childhood (engaging children with activities, treating them with respect and dignity, challenging them with thought and activities) and onwards through their kids’ first few decades.

None of which is rocket science. All of which can make lives successful and happy in any environment.

05/23/2017

US Homeland Security has given 58,000 Haitians 6 months to "resolve their affairs" and prepare to move out of the US. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-offers-six-month-extensions-some-haitians-advises-recipients-n763186

The Trump administration will extend until January a humanitarian program that has allowed roughly 58,000 Haitians to live in the United States.

05/16/2017

Been reading Amy Wilentz's ‘Farewell, Fred Voodoo’ on life in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake. If you’d like to immerse in Haitian communities and their legendary resilience, this is the avenue, and the agony and the ecstasy.

Hundreds of years of brutality, from slave masters to murderous dictators, have failed to break the people in the neighborhoods where we work. There’s an openness to new ideas there that consistently inspires. It's this spirit that keeps us wanting more for them.

We’ve introduced a full plate of programs to some of Haiti's most neglected communities – schooling, adult literacy, adult vocational training, orphan reunification, computer labs and training, English classes, dance, chorale, yoga, meditation – many of which were utterly foreign to our participants at the onset. Nevertheless these programs have been met with enthusiasm and, today, years later, they continue to thrive.

Self-reliance – one community at a time.

04/10/2017

UN World Happiness Report -
HAPPIEST COUNTRIES: Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden
LEAST HAPPY COUNTRIES: Haiti, Yemen, South Sudan, Liberia, Guinea, Togo, Rwanda, Syria, Tanzania, Burundi and Central African Republic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report

The World Happiness Report is a measure of happiness published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

01/23/2017

Waka Waka has donated thousands of solar lights to ASR for our participants. Now they can study at night! What a remarkable difference that makes. Thank you Waka Waka and BrightVibes!

12/05/2016

Dear ASR Community,

Today, President Obama denied Energy Transfer Partners an easement to continue construction of The Dakota Access Pipeline adjacent to The Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. The Army Corps of Engineers is now demanding a full environmental review…however… it is unclear if North Dakota’s governor will honor the Federal government’s directive and if he will still move forward to attempt to evacuate The Water Protectors.

As an advocate for those who have been left behind as a result of natural disasters or crises brought on by human conflict, Aid Still Required supports the protection of our Native American citizens’ rights.

Our friends at Lakota Law Project have been working with The Lakota Sioux for the past decade on issues of Children and Foster Care. Among other things, Lakota Law Project is now providing legal defense for protesters who have been arrested. The lead attorney, Dan Sheehan has a career spanning The Pentagon Papers, Silkwood, 3 Mile Island, among a few notable cases

Please take a look at the petition below. Your signature asks President Obama to put pressure on North Dakota’s governor to stop evacuations and militarized police actions and to continue to work with The Army Corps of Engineers and other officials and investors to ensure that the DAPL at Standing Rock is denied permanently and that a viable alternative is found.

Thank you for your consideration. ASR appreciates your partnership in speaking out on behalf of those who have been marginalized.

http://lakotalaw.org/peace-at-standing-rock