Denny, Kevin and Tim’s Trip to Haiti in March

Hey! This is Denny. As many of you know, I will be going to Haiti NEXT week.  Many of you have asked how you can help (Thank you!). Before I let you know about the different ways you could help  here is a little more information about my upcoming trip.

I will be gone March 23rd to April 1st.

I will be going with these awesome guys:

Kevin Boss

Tim Shaw

Aside from giving up 10 days to come with me to Haiti and being willing to help out at the orphanage in any way possible during the trip, they will also be bringing loads of shoes for all the kids.   Typically, we try and purchase goods in Haiti to help support their local economy (and because of the high fees associated with the mail/bringing luggage in).  However, high quality shoes are hard to come by in Haiti and Kevin and Tim will be bringing close to 100 shoes!  They will also be bringing soccer balls and will  introduce many of these children to American football for their first time!

               
(Playing soccer last year)                                         (New shoes last year)

Back to you guys, many of you have asked how can you help support this trip.  Here are some practical ways:

Since Mark arrived at the orphanage 3 weeks ago we have received MANY donations. Thank you! Because of the donated funds, we have the means to get a good start on the fence which both Mark and Francois agree is the most immediate need. Mark wrote up a great post describing the necessity of the fence,  you can find it here.  We will be using MY manly muscles (someone has to pull the weight around little guys like Kevin and Tim), and we will be building part of the cinder block fence.  Our goal is to build the ENTIRE fence, but we don’t have enough money…yet. We need about $4,000 more. I know $4,000 seems like a TON of money but this is a big property and we have to build the fence high enough to keep out strangers, robbers, etc.

 (An area where the fence NEEDS to be built)

While in Haiti we would also like to be able to restock Francois’ medical and vitamin supplies.  Again, most of these things we will try to buy in Haiti to support their economy.  It is amazing the difference simple vitamins can make in these children’s lives.  Examples of medicine we would like to purchase are: anti-diarrhea, Tylenol, aspirin, burn cream, antibiotic ointment, etc.  We will provide the children with de-worming medicine, cheap ($55 TOTAL) that can literally save lives.  Through Loving Haiti’s monthly supporters, many of these children are getting enough food and nutrients but they have parasites/worms inside them taking the nutrients and not allowing their bodies to reap the full nutritional benefits of the food they are eating.

(Treating impetigo)

I will be having the Haitian school kids create an ‘A, B, C’ list of Creole words that represent Haitian culture and then through a newly formed club at my high school here in Aurora, students will actually create a coloring book and an alphabet book with drawings to give back to the students in Haiti.  This is a small step and partnership with the ultimate goal of starting a library at Loving Haiti through the high school students at Hinkley High School, where I teach.

I will also be checking in on the many projects currently being done there through Loving Haiti, as well as assessing additional needs and how they can be met.

If you would like to contribute to the wall that we would like to build on my trip you can click here.

Mark and Francois are pouring the concrete foundation for the wall this week in hopes that we can raise enough money to finish it!

Please remember if you donate through JustGive, please designate “Haiti” and then write the specific project “Fence” you want your money to go towards and finally, please email me so we know we can expect the donation (denny@lovinghaiti.org).  Remember that we do not take any of your money for administrative costs, JustGive takes a small percentage (4.5) and the rest of the money goes exactly where you have designated it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for your donations and support!

I  am so excited about the work being done already through Loving Haiti and I can’t wait to head out there with two great guys next week!

Thank you!