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.
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