Three Girls Build a School for 350 Students in Haiti

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 27, 2012) — When 12-year-old Rachel Wheeler met the college-aged twins who helped her build Rachel’s School through Food For The Poor, the reaction was what one would expect from a group of girls. Rachel talked and laughed and teased with Ashton and Chesney Hellmuth all the way from South Florida to Haiti. When they climbed off the bus in Leogane, however, and saw what they had done, they were silent with awe as they walked toward a crowd of children waiting for them outside a sturdy 10-classroom school, and singing a welcome song of gratitude.

Rachel Wheeler, 12, left, and twins Chesney and Ashton Hellmuth cut the ribbon on a new school in Leogane, Haiti. The community's old school was destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake. The three girls' desire to help Haiti resulted in a 10-classroom school for more than 350 children in Leogane

“If you have a dream you follow it, and you don’t let anyone stand in your way,” Rachel told the crowd, when she found her voice.” It doesn’t matter if you’re old or young like me and my friends Ashton and Chesney.”

Ecole Reap de Morel was destroyed during the earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, but the principal and teachers were determined to continue educating the children in the community. With the help of the local residents and the church congregation, a shelter of wood, zinc and tarps was constructed to provide some protection from the elements. Bedsheets separated the classrooms with dirt floors.

Factors cited in the recent Honduras prison fire were severe overcrowding and an unstable environment. Prisoners were reported to be suffering from malnutrition and a lack of adequate sanitation. It has also been reported that inmates with mental illnesses, as well as those with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, are routinely held among the general prison population. Similarly, the potential spread of cholera in Haiti prisons remains a concern.

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Transforming Lives by Educating Children, One Step at a Time

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 22, 2012) – Hope For Haitians has teamed up with Food For The Poor for its first 5K Walk/Run For Education fundraiser. Every step taken by each participant will be a step toward raising much needed funds for school supplies and uniforms for children in Haiti.

The event is set to kick-off on Saturday, May 12, at 8:30 a.m. at the Kane County Government Center located at 719 South Batavia Ave. in Geneva, Ill. But in order to help, you must register to participate. Please visit www.HopeForHaitians.org and click on the Hope For Haitians logo to register or make a donation. Take advantage of the Participant Center to create a fundraising page, share your goal with family, friends, co-workers and contacts, while you monitor your progress.

Cost of pre-registration is $20 for adults, $15 for children ages 6-10, and there’s no fee for children 5 years old and under. The registration cost includes a T-shirt. Special awards will be given to the individuals who raise a certain amount of pledges.

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Haiti houses funded in February will be finished in June

Construction has started on houses in Haiti pledged at February’s Food For The Poor Building Hope Gala in Boca Raton, Fla. This year’s gala raised enough money to construct 100 housing units, as well as a community center, and an animal husbandry project of 20 cows in Olivier, Deuxieme Plaine, Haiti.

“We were fortunate to have so many people support the event and donate money to build a home for a family,” said René Mahfood, Publisher of The Light Magazine and the event’s Honorary Chairperson in 2012. “We would like to thank each and every one of these generous donors for changing a life for a homeless family in Haiti.”

This year, guests pledged enough funding to construct a record number of homes to restore hope and to shelter the destitute in Olivier. Construction on the first 40 Food For The Poor housing units in this community are scheduled to be completed by the end of March.

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Providing safe, clean water for families: Food For The Poor’s Water Week 2012 campaign

Many living in developed countries do not give much thought to their daily water use for cooking, cleaning or even drinking. They simply head to the nearest sink and turn on the faucet.

As World Water Day celebrates its 19th year on March 22, Food For The Poor will launch its third annual Water Week fundraising campaign, March 18 through March 25. During this weeklong donation drive, the ministry will partner with local participating restaurants and businesses to raise money for water filtration units, water wells and pumps.

According to the World Health Organization, 11 percent of the world’s population or around 783 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. Many initiatives to supply the world with access to clean water have been successful, but sadly this precious resource remains out of reach for far too many people. By supporting Water Week 2012 you will be helping to provide a community with safe drinking water. It only takes a little bit to make a big difference.

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Deadly prison fire highlights need for Food For The Poor prison ministry – nonviolent offenders to be freed

Food For The Poor will release nonviolent offenders in the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Jamaica in time to spend Easter Holy Week with their families. These prisoners were incarcerated due to their inability to pay the required fines, even though the amounts in some cases are minimal. Sometimes by the time they are tried, they have spent years longer in jail than their prison sentence requires.

Since the inception of Food For The Poor’s Prison Ministry Program in 1998, Food For The Poor has assisted in freeing, training and reintroducing prisoners back into the community as productive citizens.

“Prison conditions and poverty are drastically worse in developing countries than they are in the United States,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “Overcrowded prisons are common, and perpetuate the spread of disease and violence. Through Food For The Poor’s Prison Ministry program, we want to help nonviolent offenders make a fresh start.”

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A voice for the voiceless: Radio hosts speak on behalf of Guatemala’s poor

A home in the mountains overlooking lush green tree tops, hazy blue skies as far as the eye can see and a crisp clean breeze to caress the skin would be considered by most an ideal place to live.

Ironically, one of the most beautiful places in Central America is also one the poorest places in which Food For The Poor works. People who live in the mountainous region of Quetzaltenango, which is a five-hour bus ride from Guatemala’s capital of Guatemala City, are some of the poorest of the poor. Most are surprised to learn that Guatemala, not Haiti, has by far the worst situation in regards to childhood malnutrition in the Western Hemisphere.

“Families are dying daily,” said Doug Bursch, Radio Host on KGNW 820 AM in Seattle, Wash. “They are dying physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Poverty steals their dreams, stunts their growth, destroys their youth, and takes away their children.”

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Student reporters from Saint Andrew’s Middle School tour Food For The Poor

As field reporters and community service volunteers, 19 students from Saint Andrew’s Middle School held a “mud cookie” from Haiti and learned what it means to be destitute in a developing country while touring Food For The Poor’s headquarters in Coconut Creek, Fla. on March 2. Their mission was to bring awareness about the agency and the wider international community it serves to their peers on the Boca Raton campus.

As an introduction to Food For The Poor, the group was shown a video documenting the charity’s 30 years of service to the destitute. The ministry, through its dedicated donors, has built more than 77,000 homes, sent more than 60,000 containers filled with essential goods to the 17 countries it serves, and has delivered more than $9 billion in aid since its inception. Optimistic about the challenges that lay ahead, Food For The Poor shared its goal for 2012 to build 12,000 homes, dig 1,200 water wells, and ship 1,200 containers of food to help the destitute.

During the group’s orientation, they heard about the harsh realities of life in developing countries and firsthand accounts from the South Florida-based charity’s President/CEO, Robin Mahfood. One of the photos shared with the group was of a young Nicaraguan girl. Mahfood explained how destitute families do not enjoy the luxury of access to water in their homes with the simple twist of a faucet. As part of their daily chores, little girls in developing countries often have to carry heavy water buckets on their heads for miles over rocky ground to gather water for the family to drink, cook and clean.

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Food For The Poor, partners move 2,000 into Haiti homes

Food For The Poor joined with key partners on Feb. 27 to move 400 families displaced by the 2010 earthquake into sturdy homes. The Inter-American Development Bank, and Fonds d' Assistance Économique et Social, along with Food For The Poor committed to building the homes on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince in the fall of 2011.

“The people who will live in these homes are among the poorest of the displaced people directly affected by the earthquake, and living in tents and other makeshift shelters around the city,” said Alvaro Pereira, Executive Vice President of Food For The Poor. “This development is not only providing the dignity and safety of homes, but also offering hope through jobs. Local residents have found jobs building the homes, and with those skills they are able to go find other work.”

More than 2,700 two-room homes have been built by Food For The Poor in Haiti since the January 2010 earthquake. While 1.3 million people were initially left homeless by the earthquake, about 500,000 are still without shelter, according to the United Nations’ shelter committee. Moving the people out of the makeshift tents pitched in the city’s parks, plazas and public places is a challenge because most have no place to go. Through the charity’s housing initiative, about 13,500 people have a safe place to live.

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Atlanta attorneys host wine tasting to bring water, hope to Haiti

Atlanta-area attorneys will host an evening of art and wine tasting at The Art House Gallery Atlanta on March 21. Hosts Edward Buckley (Decatur), Amanda Farahany (Atlanta), and Sheryl McCalla (Avondale Estates) will talk about the realities of life in developing countries and discuss long term solutions. The event will be on the eve of World Water Day.

“In our view, the right to clean drinking water is the most fundamental human right we have,” said Buckley, who for eight years has partnered with the nonprofit Food For The Poor to drill and install lifesaving water wells throughout Jamaica and Haiti. “The water wells that have already been installed in Haiti have made an extraordinary difference to the people in the communities they serve.”

As the rainy season approaches, the Associated Press reports that Haiti may experience a surge in cholera cases. An outbreak of the waterborne disease has killed nearly 7,000 people and sickened a half-million. When the cholera outbreak was confirmed in Haiti in 2010, Buckley donated a water filtration unit to help prevent the spread of the waterborne illness. Each water filtration unit has the capacity to purify 10,000 gallons of water a day.

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Help Food For The Poor meet the “Fight Hunger” Challenge

For more than three decades, Food For The Poor has been a dedicated servant of the poor. One of the ministry’s priorities in 2012 is to ship 1,200 containers of food to feed the destitute in the countries it serves.

One way the organization is looking to meet that goal is by participating in the 15th Annual $1 Million Giveaway to Fight Hunger Challenge. Food For The Poor is one of dozens of nonprofits that will benefit from this challenge, but the more donations made on behalf of the ministry, the more money the organization will get.

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