The Friends of St. Vincent's Center mission statement is to provide service, supplies and support to the children and staff at St. Vincent's Center, a residential school, day school, orphanage and hospital for over 428 handicapped children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
During the past few years this group of devoted folks has been involved in the following areas:
Service
Our prosthetic maker, David Hewett of Glastonbury, Ct., has been going to Haiti yearly and brings prosthetic supplies and support to their prosthetic shop.(St. Vincent's prosthetic shop is the only one in Haiti). Last year we brought back Magna Felix, a 16 year old young lady, and fitted her with bilateral, below the knee prosthetics. She stayed with host families during her rehabilitation. She was with us for about 8 weeks while learning to speak English and walk on her "new sticks. " This summer we were notified that she had passed her 8th grade national examination. The Friends have raised scholarship money to send her on for further studies of English at the language school.
In February we fitted 2 other children while we were down in Haiti for our four-day mission. Mirose Casseus was born without a leg and this was her first prosthetic. Fritzner Pienistil was also fitted with a prosthetic leg. He had outgrown his first and was hopping around with a crutch.
The main purpose of our trips (four so far) is to bring needed supplies and continue the need assessments of the hospital, school and orphanage. Our visits also provide an opportunity for first hand Haitian immersion experience : "Haiti 101." The team usually consists of mostly medical and nursing staff, educators, clergy and parish members. All who have gone down to Haiti have come back with a better understanding about the problems of the underdeveloped nations and especially the needs of handicapped children at St. Vincent's.
Janet O'Flynn, a Registered Occupational Therapist, has gone down to the Center a number of times to provide service to the children in their OT Outpatient Program. She recently attended a workshop to learn about cardboard carpentry. Cardboard is used to make equipment and splints. Janet went down this August to evaluate the PT and OT programs. She found a great need for parent and staff education. She believes we are making a difference.
Education
Education is a vital part of our work. Frequently we find that our schools and local parishes have little knowledge about the needs and problems of the underdeveloped nations. By using slide and video presentations we mobilize groups to help us provide needed supplies and services. For example, St. John's Episcopal Church, West Hartford became part of our canned tuna fish drive. The young children of this parish colored fishes on brown lunch bags to be given to members of the parish during Lent. This was a reminder to bring tuna the following Sunday. This tuna drive was a great success. All the tuna has been delivered in Haiti!
The Silas Deane Middle School, a local public school, has become very involved with the needs of St. Vincent's. Last year they collected 375 bars of soap and 375 face cloths, and packed them in zip locked bags with Christmas greetings in French for each child. The American school children were shocked and had a difficult time understanding the great value of their gifts. (A bar of soap and a face cloth is worth a days wage in Haiti). This year they did a penny drive to support the feeding program. Since the price of food has doubled this year, funds for food is so very important. This years the Friends has collected $3200 for the feeding program which included $2000 from St. James's Episcopal Church, West Hartford. We are finding more parents are abandoning their children at St. Vincent's since they cannot feed them at home. The number of abandoned and orphaned children changed from 9 in 1997 to 60 in 2000.
Supplies
One of the largest problems at the Center is the lack of medications. It is not unusual to receive urgent e-mails from the Director of the Center for simple medications such as vitamins, antibiotics and Tylenol. Each month we airship boxes of donated medications to the Center through the Adopt-A-Box program. A special request has been made recently for old analog and digital cell phones. The phone lines in Haiti are made of copper wire and it is not uncommon to have a phone line removed from under the street to be sold on the copper market. This July we had a packing party to fill a 40 foot land-sea container. Members of the Friends of St. Vincent's, parish members from St. James's Episcopal Church, Hartford Jaycees, and neighbors helped fill the container with 444 boxes, 16 wheelchairs, 362 crutches, 23 bicycles, 1 x-ray machine and screen , 3 inverters, 1 organ, 1 copier and 1 car.
Support
Grant writing has become a part of this ongoing ministry. This year we received the Connecticut ECW White Envelope grant. These funds will be used to purchase needed Montessori equipment. We have also received funds to build 1 of the 3 classrooms needed for the high school.
This Spring we received a call from USAID looking for a host family for a Haitian mother and baby. This child was being brought up to the States for open-heart surgery. Jones Jose was evaluated at CCMC and it was determined that he was misdiagnosed in Haiti and was not a candidate for cardiac surgery. We hosted them for 6 weeks.
The Friends of St. Vincent's Center chapter in Massachusetts is working on establishing a savings and loan at the Center for the graduates and students. This would allow them to obtain credit to purchase musical instruments, tools, sewing machines or other items for income-producing activities at the time of graduation. The poor of Haiti have little access to financial services. It is even more difficult for poor handicapped children and young adults to establish a savings program or obtain business credit.
This fall St. James's Episcopal Church, West Hartford, raised funds to purchase a diesel generator for the hospital, specifically for the operating room. St. James's hard work and success in this area has motivated some other individuals, businesses and parishes who have shown an interest in underwriting more such projects. Our dream is to obtain enough funds to give the gift of electricity to the total complex.
Thank you again for your interest and support.
Hope C. Lennartz
RN MSN CS Volunteer Executive Director of the Friends of St. Vincent's Center
Updated on 8/28/06