Progress continues. The John Branchizio School will reopen on Monday. Our children are going to finish their school year on time, even though they have missed six weeks due to the earthquake! We are motivated to make sure the children make it through the current school year so that they can move into the next grade. We are planning next year to expand the JB and Cite de Soliel schools and increase in the number of children.

We have a compelling story from one of the school children at Cite de Soliel – his name is Aslan. He was badly injured in the earthquake, and a photograph is attached. He and his brother were both in first grade and it was the first time they had been to school at the Mercy and Sharing school in Cite de Soliel. He was so proud of being in school but he was still wearing his school uniform seven days after the earthquake! Tragically his brother was killed in the earthquake. Susie visited him in what his family calls home, which is no more than wooden sticks and tin with a tarp overhead to protect them from the elements. Please pray for Aslan and his family. We are now getting reports of more missing students. We have at least seven more unaccounted for.

We now have protection from the Canadian military presence as part of the UN team in Haiti. Our special thanks go out to Colonel Norman Lalonde and his team from Canada. They have been coming by each of the projects on a daily basis and asking for things that they can help do. As part of the Canadian military presence in Haiti they are very active and have been extremely helpful. They are going to assist with the demolition at the projects that were damaged, and we are hoping to get their assistance in rebuilding.

They put us in touch with Canadian doctors who are in the country to look at one of our children - Arthur. Arthur has had something wrong with his eyes ever since he was a toddler. We were able to rescue him from the abandoned baby unit into the orphanage at Cazeau, and that he would move out to the Williamson Campus in August. He is blind, and his eyes have been causing him problems for a number of years, as he scratches them and pushes on them, and has gotten to the point now where he can actually pushes his eyeballs out of his eye sockets and onto to his cheek. We have had him checked out before, but no one seems to know what is wrong, and there are no facilities to perform major eye operations in Haiti. Please pray for Arthur that the Canadian doctors will be able to help him.

As widely reported (such as the group from Idaho who attempted to take 33 children as to the Dominican Republic), the Haitian Government is very active in trying to control child trafficking. We have been contacted by a number of organizations who are looking for children to take care of, but many do not understand that the government takes a very active role in controlling which orphanages are allowed to take which children. Haitian Social Services - also known by its acronym IBESR - is very bureaucratic and strictly controls (or attempts to control) the placement of orphans into orphanages in Haiti. We were advised yesterday that we will be getting 11 orphans today, from three months old to four years old, which we believe may be some of the children from the abandoned baby unit!! However, we will not know until the children are actually delivered by IBESR to Williamson.

Mercy and Sharing recently received an award at a Haitian awards ceremony. Through the generous donation of Mark Salter, we have an ambulance that we have loaned for use in the recovery efforts. It has been a true blessing, and was critically needed.

We are extremely grateful for everyone’s donations. The children who have reached out from the United States to the children in Haiti especially touch us. Here are some of the excerpts from letters that we have received:

Pasadena CA: “Enclosed please find a check. It is a donation from the Lower School students at Polytechnic School. Our Student Council coordinated a “loose change” drive and held a hot chocolate sale to earn the money.”

Basalt, CO: “My 8 year-old daughter Ashlyn baked and sold cookies to raise this money. Good luck to all of your children and volunteers.”

Madison Heights MI: “Please accept this small donation on behalf of my three-year-old, Shelby. She wanted to help the orphans in Haiti and was very concerned that they did not have milk or bananas to eat. She asked me how to help and I told her by donating money. Shelby decided to donate her piggy bank money - $2.80. She then asked her friends and family to manager donation. We think you for all the organization does to help the children.”

Crestwood TN: “This donation was collected by Jade who is an eight year old. She collected at her ballet class, neighborhood and bother’s school. Her mom saw the foundation on CNN. Our family is sending as money allows.”

Basalt CO: “Dear Mercy and Sharing, I am 9 and I’m giving you $15. I send you lots of love and peace. And Happy Valentine’s Day!”

Aspen, CO: “From the Ross Montessori School kindergarten class. The money was raised from a bake sale, piggy banks and extra chores!”

Denver, CO: “I enjoyed hearing about Mercy and Sharing and shared the Mercy and Sharing website with my husband and children. The donation amount is odd because my 10 and 8 year-old sons shared their allowance to donate, as well they’ve essentially empty their piggy banks! Keep up the good work.”

Again, thank you for your prayers and donations. www.haitichildren.com

Susie & Joe

Has Haiti been forgotten just five weeks after an estimated 230,000 people were killed, millions left homeless, the country and infrastructure in ruins? The need for medical facilities in Port-au-Prince remains critical. Food is scarce. Other relief organizations have had supplies diverted or stolen because of inadequate protection. The Government itself has estimated that it will take 1,000 trucks at least 1,000 days to clear all the debris.

Fortunately, Mercy & Sharing continues to make incredible progress. Attached are some photos courtesy of Bill Stelzer, including Susie at Williamson with a few of the orphans and Susie in the slums of Cite de Soliel telling jokes with the local children.

Just yesterday we received the Government of Haiti customs approval to release the six containers of approximately 120 tons of relief supplies that have been in the port at Saint Marc for over a week. In quintessential fashion, after going to the Customs office numerous occasions only to be told that we were required to place a “deposit” of close to $40,000.00 to get the containers released, yesterday the same government official who was requiring the deposit agreed to release the containers without the deposit! From 2008 and 2009 we still have over $50,000.00 in un-refunded “deposits” held by the government. While Mercy & Sharing is officially approved by the Haitian Government as a nongovernmental organization exempt from customs fees, they do not characterize the “deposits” as customs fees, but then we do not frequently get them refunded despite our repeated attempts to do so. We celebrate the blessing of being able to get these relief supplies to the site at Williamson, where we will be working with other organizations who have on the ground distribution facilities to distribute these relief supplies to so many who remain in harm’s way.

We are undergoing a major reorganization of operations, working on interviewing and hiring new staff, organizing medical volunteers, updating the training of our current staff and we have joined various cluster groups organized by USAID so we are better able to coordinate with the work of other NGOs in Haiti. We are working on determining how many more orphans we may be able to take it Williamson, depending on what our budget will allow. We have obtained cost estimates for rebuilding our facilities once the government allows rebuilding to proceed.

Last week we had an incredible fundraising event at the Wheeler Opera House and asked them and we raised over $55,000.00. We wanted to give a special thank you to Mary, Melissa and Kelly Gabossi the event coordinators, Liz Shapiro who organized the silent auction with close to 100 donors, and hundreds of others who helped with this event, as well as all of the incredibly talented performers who volunteered their time that evening, including John Oates and Kathy Chiavola, Jimmy Ibbotson, Dan Sadowsky, Cottonwood Acoustic, Starcher Hutsen, the Defiance String Band, the Crowlin Ferlies, Twipr Anderson, John Sommers, Bobby Mason and friends, the Derek Brown Band, Pastor Brian Roessler and Sonja Linman. And also special thanks to the sponsors including Lennie “Boogie” Weinglass & Sandy St. John, and in the Wheeler Opera House, Aspen Marketing Group, the Englehart Family Foundation, Buddy & Connie Bates, the Cantina Restaurant, Aspen Valley Pediatrics, the Paradise Bakery & Café, Estella and David Cockrell, Morris & Fyrwald Sotheby’s Real Estate, TV Aspen 19, Radio Station KUUR, Radio Station KSNO, JRW Energy, Inc., Christine M. Karnes & Richard Check, and the Nancy Taylor & the Children of the World Foundation.

Please continue to support and help us in our efforts to rebuild the projects of Mercy & Sharing as well as aiding others in their efforts to rebuild the country.

We just received incredible news about Falee who is the precious little girl that was the subject of the update sent on Saturday. As you know she was taken aboard to USNS Comfort - The US Navy vessel that is moored in the harbor outside of Port-au-Prince. Falee has been with us for over two years with the problem with her right eye. While we speculated that she actually had an eye that was pushed back into the socket, after a two-hour operation today by an Italian doctor aboard the USNS Comfort they completed the operation in she has sight in both eyes and will have a complete recovery!!! What a miracle from God in the midst of the pain and suffering of Haiti. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

For those of you in Aspen, don’t forget the Wheeler Benefit of Haiti concert tomorrow night. Information is available at www.haitibenefitconcert.com

We have resumed feeding programs at the Cite de Soliel school and at the Cazeau project. We continue to struggle with the Government of Haiti which insists on somewhat ridiculous measures in clearing customs, including requiring the large “deposits” which never seem to get refunded (Mercy & Sharing is Haitian government approved NGO (nongovernmental organization) which is supposed to be exempt from customs duties and fees, but they continue to collect money by calling it something else, and rarely give us any refunds). A beach landing and temporary dock facility has been opened at Lafiteau which is about 10 miles from Williamson, but the Government of Haiti in its infinite wisdom requires all the supplies arriving there to be trucked into Port-au-Prince to clear customs and then trucked back out, which obviously exposes the shipments to looting. There have been a number of supply trucks of other organizations, which have been stuck in traffic, and once the locals realize they are stuck in traffic, they loot the supplies.

We need to urge the international community not to attempt rebuilding efforts in Haiti by going through the Government. Transparency International has ranked Haiti is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. There was a very telling article in the Wall Street Journal last week, which I am attaching as it shows the kind of dysfunction that is going on inside the government. The Prime Minster reportedly makes $2500 per month, but we all know that the government officials have their eyes on the billions of dollars of foreign aid coming into the country.

Adoptions have been completely shut down by the Government of Haiti. We find it extremely ironic that foreigners are being charged with child abduction when we know and have known for many years that the Government of Haiti, and in particular a department that I’d prefer not to mention in this update, has been trafficking in children for years. Susie actually wrote about it in her book, many of the children would have tags with numbers on them as the staff selected the ones they were going to take (only the healthy children who are easily adoptable and can be sold), and so we feel like the proverbial wooden bell but has been clanking for years but getting no attention. Susie’s book – Angels of a Lower Flight – is in its second printing and can be ordered on http://www.amazon.com/Angels-Lower-Flight-Mission-Country/dp/1416535160/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265846188&sr=8-3

One of the underlying problems in Haiti is the drug trafficking, which feeds an insatiable appetite from the United States. The US Drug enforcement agency has long listed Haiti as the top transshipment point for cocaine into the United States. I’m attaching an editorial from Sunday’s New York Times that makes the point quite well.

Finally, the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms have had a grip on the Haiti since it was founded over 200 years ago based on principles of voodoo. If you are one of the people who believe there is no evil in this world, then Haiti is Exhibit A in my evidence that evil will does exists and is alive and well in Haiti. Satan prowls in this world looking for whom to devour. While I realize that many who read this may not be spiritually inclined, prayers do make a HUGE difference in pushing back the gates of the hell. One final item I am attaching for your “reading assignment” is another editorial that appeared last Friday in the Wall Street Journal regarding voodoo. We have met many voodoo priests, and for a number of years knew a voodoo priest in Jacmel who had a school with over 800 children. Susie actually went into his house once, which despite the unbearable heat in Haiti, was extremely cold. He had specimen jars with human body parts (fingers, thumbs etc.) hanging from the ceiling, and kept a zombie in his root cellar. Zombies are people who have been poisoned with a poison from the blowfish that is extracted by the voodoo priests, mixed with other ingredients (including human bones) and when administered essentially results in a pre-frontal lobotomy of the victim, rendering them unable to think cognitively, but without destroying their mobility.

Anyway, enough of the unpleasantness regarding the spiritual and structural problems to recovery in Haiti, just remember to pray in the spirit. Please continue to support Mercy & Sharing because as this catastrophe fades from the headlines and news reports, the real work only now begins. www.haitichildren.com

In today’s update, we are featuring information regarding an incredibly intelligent and sweet girl by the name of Falee.

Falee arrived at the abandoned baby unit 2 and a half years ago with a serious eye injury. After many months inside the ABU We were able to get permission, after complying with the Haitian paperwork requirements, to move her to a Mercy & Sharing orphanage.

Mercy & Sharing immediately had her evaluated by our doctors in Haiti. Apparently her right eye is dislodged from the socket and was somehow pushed back near the edge of her brain and membrane It took 6 more months to work through the bureaucracy (details available) of getting a passport and Visa for Falee. Mercy & Sharing reached out to numerous doctors and medical institutions in the United States to try and get her treatment. The doctors who did the initial evaluation of Falee believe that her eyesight in her right eye could be restored and that her right eye is potentially not damaged because she sees some sort of a light from the right eye even though it is lodged near her brain.

After none of the hospitals contacted approved Falee for their charitable program perform the necessary surgery for Falee’s right eye, so we turned to the hospitals in the Dominican Republic to see if we could place her there for the operation. A hospital in the Dominican Republic agreed to take her into their care and to perform the operation, but due to travel restrictions between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, her travel to the Dominican Republic hospital was delayed while we put together her paperwork. The paperwork was completed early in January, and we funded the costs for her travel to the Dominican Republic and for the surgery.

Then the earthquake hit.

Falee was evacuated to the Williamson project. A couple days after she arrived she had seizures and was treated at the mobile medical clinic that we have located at the Williamson project. The medicine needed to control her seizures had nearly run out, and so we were frantic to try and find someone who would look at her and hopefully perform the necessary operation. Two days ago, through God’s hands and Dr. Rodriguez (our Cuban born doctor who lost 4 members of her family), we were able to get her admitted to a Haitian hospital. Unfortunately, the Haitian hospital was unable to perform the necessary operation because of the high level of equipment that was needed, and the lack of adequate equipment and surgical facilities in the Haitian hospital.

Dr. Rodriguez has a colleque on board the USNS Comfort, the U.S. Navy hospital ship that arrived off the coast of Port-au-Prince Haiti on January 20 and began receiving injured victims of the earthquake. Initially we were told that she would not be allowed to go to the USNS Comfort because they were focusing on trading earthquake victims. Through God’s miraculous work, Dr. Rodriguez was successful in getting them to agree to take her on board, and we are asking for prayers that they will be able to perform the necessary operation and fix her eye.

Falee is an incredibly intelligent girl, and is very mild-mannered. She simply wants to be a little girl and enjoy the pleasures of life that other children have, to dress up in pretty clothes, to play with her toys and dolls, and we ask that everyone please pray that the US Navy doctors will be able to fix her eye and allow her to lead a normal life. Some photos of Falee are attached. It has only been through your donations to www.haitichildren.com that we have been able to care for this child. Thank you for your continued support.

The real work In Haiti is now just beginning, and will continue for many years.

As we mentioned in a prior update, the Government relocated the missing children from the abandoned baby unit to a facility near the General Hospital. We understand from IBESR (Haitian Social Services) that they will no longer have abandoned babies being dropped off at the General Hospital, which is but now being operated by an international relief agency, and that when children are abandoned at the General Hospital they will immediately be moved into a facility operated by a reputable organization. We are hoping that this will actually be the case and that the deplorable conditions of the abandoned baby unit will now be only a horrific memory from the past. My personal opinion is that Mercy and Sharing, spearheaded by Susie’s letter writing campaign, and the international attention that was focused on General Hospital as a result, caused the administration of the General Hospital to change their way of doing business. Only time will tell, as we will continue to monitor the situation at General Hospital.

I wanted to send a personal “THANK YOU” to the World of Children, and Dr. Leibowitz and his wife Kay, for their organization’s support of Mercy and Sharing, which even included a grant from Manitha Neyam Trust in war torn Sri Lanka. While we have received support from a number of organizations throughout the United States and overseas, we want to respect everyone’s privacy and unless requested, we will not be publicizing any donations, but needless to say we all are extremely grateful for the outpouring of support. We are praying that this will continue and that the incredible disaster that befell Haiti will not be quickly forgotten.

Mercy and Sharing’s next major shipment consisting of approximately 120 tons of relief supplies (five containers donated by Feed the Hungry and one container donated by Sun Electronics) have arrived in the Port at Saint Marc. These containers are in the process of clearing customs and we plan to have them available at Williamson within the next few days. At that time, we are going to start distributing them to other NGOs and organizations working in Haiti. Many remain hungry in Haiti. As of last Sunday, of the 2 million estimated to be in need, only approximately 640,000 people had received a meal from the United Nations World Food Program, less than one third of those in need. Remarkably, this catastrophe has been more difficult to manage than the tsunami in Indonesia or famine in Africa.

As of Monday February 8, 2010 we are going to start the feeding programs at the schools. We will be increasing the number of recipients. In Cazeau we will feed 500 and in Cite Soleil we will feed 300. Our top priority continues to be cash donations. Go to www.haitichildren.com and click on the Donate page. We also appreciate everyone’s prayers and continue to seek His guidance and protection for the children and staff.

Many of you have asked us about our rebuilding efforts. One would think in a country racked with such poverty and despair that rebuilding would be a relatively easy process. Unfortunately, Haiti is quite bureaucratic, and we also have to do a “constat” for the office building that has collapsed in Delmas 75. A judge has to do a report before we are allowed to commence the demolition of the building. Same thing for the Cazeau school and wall.

Susie will be likely testifying at a Congressional hearing in Washington, DC next week, then we will keep you advised as to that hearing, and whether it is going to be broadcast on C-SPAN.