Thanks from Haiti

NPH stands for Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, and has homes throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to care and raise orphaned and abandoned children.  (www.nph.org) (English translation “Our Little Brothers and Sisters”)

In Canada, we worked with Friends of the Orphans Canada, or better known as FOTOCAN.  (www.fotocan.org)

After a few years of travelling to Dominican Republic, an earthquake hit Haiti, more specifically the capital of Port Au Prince .

NPH had sister homes in Haiti and so the Dominican home quickly became a depot for an international relief effort.  They contacts FOTOCAN looking for drivers to haul medical teams, supplies, water and food.  So I went for 3 weeks and drove in the convoy.

I arrived just a week before I met a new friend from New York, Wynn Walent.  He stayed for 5 years.  The NPH presence in Haiti is large, employing over 2,000 people.  They operate under Nos Petit Freres et Souers or NPFS.  The main presence is their hospital in the capital, St. Damiens (http://saintdamienhospital.nph.org/)  This hospital and extension arm is the result of 30 years of dedication from Father Rick Frechete.  He is a Catholic priest who arrived in the 80’s to help at one of the NPH/NPFS homes.  He felt the country needed doctors as well, so he returned to USA to become a medical surgeon, then back to Haiti to begin St. Damiens Hospital, as part of the NPH family.

Outreach continued, and the St. Luke’s Program began.  IT develops schools and vocations to help Haitians help themselves.  It was through he St. Lukes Program that I worked with Wynn, and my second trip to build 180 homes donated through FOTOCAN (1/2 of which came from donation s in Nova Scotia) (http://stlukehaiti.org/)

One new idea was to start to work in rural Haiti, so they began a pilot project in a remote community of Fond des Blancs, 3 hours outside of the capital.  With no clean water, electricity or even roads/bridges, rural Haiti is a forgotten place.  Ferel Bruno, an assistant director in NPH/NPFS Haiti took on the job as a volunteer position himself.  With help from many agencies connected to their programs, he started many initiatives as seen at www.friendsoffonddesblancs.org.

One such initiative was to establish a clinic in the community.  When I was there in 2013 I saw a beautiful clinic that was totally bare of equipment or electricity.  We were about to build a new hospital in Truro, so that’s when the idea hit me...I know who needs the old equipment from Truro.  Yet, back home, that simple idea took two years to convince the government to release their excess. Thankfully, our MLA’s did their job and we were given 90 days to get the stuff out.  Volunteers came from nowhere and the Rotary Club leaped in faith to help get our equipment to the Sister Margaret Clinic in Fond des Blancs, Haiti.

Thank you for that.  In February 2015, with my wife Brenda Leenders, we drove back to my friends to encourage them to keep doing what they are doing.  They were proud to show us a newly equipped clinic and all the other work they have done.

It is worth every smile and hug we received.  Again, thank you Truro.

Ferel never stops, so he is now looking for a new truck at https://www.gofundme.com/vb6za4r8. If you can help, please check it out.

Wynn has moved back to New York, and just posted a fundraiser CD on line.  If you do nothing else with this message than to view his video, see below. He does a great job to combine the faith and hope of Haitians with their hardships, and to show the great work done by the people of St.Damiens Hospital, St. Lukes, and NPH.  It is just an honour to have worked beside them. As truthful as the video is, it does contain harsh scenes and comments, so it is meant for mature audiences only. Click here to view!

On behalf of all those listed above, thank you for the help, and please follow us on-line. 

Ian MacHattie

A Friend of Fond des Blancs and NPH