Provide a safe home for Haitian Orphans

Thank you so much for providing a safe home for Haitian orphans! 

Since we launched this project on GlobalGiving in 2010 we’ve raised a staggering $252,000 (or almost £173,000) because of you. This has been key to providing a safe home, nutritious food, quality education, health care, and enriching activities for some of Port-au-Prince’s most vulnerable children for just over 12 years.

When we first started working with the HTDC orphanage it was home to almost 50 children, who were all living in one small room and some tents. Your donations enabled us to rent them a safe home at a much bigger house nearby, as well as covering all of the orphanage’s running costs. 

The stability this provided gave the orphanage Director Carlo badly neededbreathing space. As a result, the number of children at HTDC has steadily decreased over the years to around 12, thanks to Carlo’s efforts to reunite children with remaining relatives, or in facilitating adoptions with safe, loving families.

At the same time we’ve encouraged HTDC to seek other sources of income to make the orphanage less reliant on us as its only means of support. As a result, for the last several years we’ve provided the orphanage with around $1,000 per month as our contribution to meeting the childrens’ overall needs - including food, water, fuel, cleaning supplies and the costs of caregivers and teaching staff. Your generosity has also allowed us to provide an annual transfer of $6,000 to pay the orphanage’s rent, which is currently covered until May of 2023.

Your ongoing donations have truly been vital, especially as political chaos and violence has swirled outside HTDC’s gates for the last few years.

Unfortunately, uncertainty has once again reared its head as we’ve recently had to make the sad but necessary decision to close down our charity, International Disaster Volunteers (IDV) in early 2023. We’ve genuinely done everything we can to keep support flowing to HTDC, but we’ve also been entirely run by volunteers for over 5 years, and this is now becoming unsustainable.

While the orphanage already receives support from other sources, at the moment this isn’t able to fill the gap that will be created by IDV shutting down. So, our goal now is to raise funds over Christmas and the wider holiday season to provide HTDC with a “cushion” until other support can be ramped up. 

We started discussing these plans with Carlo in September, and he’s already taking steps to register a 501(c)3, non-profit organization in the USA. We want to be able to share details on that soon, but for now we’re hoping you’ll consider donating to this project on GlobalGiving to ensure the children at HTDC have security for 1 more year.

We currently have funding in hand to maintain our existing monthly commitment of $1,000 per month until February 2023. We would love to extend this for a further 6 months until August 2023, which will cover 1 year’s payments from when we first started making plans with Carlo. We’d also love to cover the next annual rent payment of $6,000 due in full in June 2023. 

This will require us to raise a further $12,000, which we plan to transfer to HTDC as a lump sum no later than the end of February 2023.

We know you’ve already given so much, and that this may come as sad news to many of the orphanage’s regular supporters. So, if you have questions, concerns, etc please don’t hesitate to email Andy@IDVolunteers.org. I’d be delighted to hear from you as always.

You can also find out more about our plans to close down IDV on our website.

Thanks to your incredible generosity we recently made the annual rent payment of $6,000 for the HTDC Orphanage in Haiti. While HTDC is home to far fewer children than when we originally rented them a home back in 2010, the orphanage remains critical to the kids who now live in its care.

This is especially true given the chaos that continues to reign on the streets of Port-au-Prince. According to the United Nations gangs have killed and kidnapped hundreds of people in Port-au-Prince since early July 2022.

Because of you the children remain safe behind the orphanages walls for another year, but HTDC is still affected by the situation outside. Orphanage Director Carlo had this to say:

“They kids enjoy the summer but we did not do much activity because of kidnapping situation in Haiti

The kids are doing pretty good and now they are ready to start school. But school will open in October now - it was suppose to be this September but because of what's happening in Haiti they will open next month.

For some of them it does matter if they get behind in study. but I am glad because that gives me more time to be ready for school.

The political and gang problem in Haiti is getting worst and worst and everything is become more expensive. We are trying our best”

With your support we’ll help Carlo to get the school open soon, but the rent payment has taken a good dent out of our funding. So, if you are able to spare anything your gift will be vital.

If you have any questions about the orphanage and how we use your donations then please don’t hesitate to email Andy@IDVolunteers.org. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Thank you so much for your amazing support of the HTDC Orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Your generosity is vital as the situation on the streets of the city has continued to worsen in the power vacuum created since the President’s assassination last year. Gangs control entire neighbourhoods and fighting between them has forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

Many schools and businesses remain closed and just this week the United Nations raised concerns that gangs are now recruiting children into the fight. Kidnappings continue, even in the orphanage’s own neighbourhood, which used to be safe due to its proximity to the US Embassy.

The orphanage director, Carlo, had this to say:

“All the kids are doing OK but the country is getting crazy and the prices are even higher.

We are trying our best but so many kidnappings [are] happening in the orphanage neighborhood and all the kids and adults are stressing out.

The kids would like to go out because we haven’t take them out for a very long time - since Covid. But going to the beach would be too risky because gangs in Haiti are everywhere - nobody can go far with the kidnapping situation.

We would like to maybe have a swimming pool party for them but the cost is high. The kids need to have more clothing as they are growing every day, and shoes. So we cannot afford a party. It’s hard to explain to the young ones.

We would at least like to have a bigger dinner for Easter weekend for the kids, they will have a week of vacation For Easter and need to have some fun, even if only small.

We were moved by Carlo’s words and so sent a small amount extra last month so the children could have a modest Easter celebration. It’s only because of your kindness that we were able to do this as well as meeting their basic, every day needs.

If you have any questions about the orphanage and how we use your donation then please don’t hesitate to email Andy@IDVolunteers.org. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Although we only sent our last project report a few weeks ago we wanted to send another quick update today to wish you a Happy New Year and send an ENORMOUS thank you from the HTDC Orphanage in Haiti!

With the situation on the streets of Haiti still very dire we made an appeal for donations in our last report, and we’ve been overwhelmed with your subsequent generosity. 

Between Nov 30 last year and today you’ve given over $8,500 (£6,200) to support the children in the orphanage’s care. This is truly incredible and we really can’t thank you enough!

These funds will be vital as we continue to help the orphanage provide a safe home, food, education and more for all the children. What’s more your support meant that the children could also enjoy some much needed Christmas cheers by way of gifts and a special Christmas meal.

We asked the orphanage director Carlo to send some photos to help show you what your gifts have made possible, and we’re including some of these in this report. As always we’ll send more reports in the months ahead to keep you updated.

If you have any questions about the orphanage and how we use your donation then please don’t hesitate to email Andy@IDVolunteers.org. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

A huge thank you to everyone who’s donated to the HTDC Oprhanage since our last project report. Because of you we’ve been able to raise almost $10,500 (£7,870) in the last 3 months.

Your donations have been doubly critical as the security situation in Haiti has continued to deteriorate after the asassination of the President in July. Gangs now rule in large areas and around 800 kidnappings have been reported so far this year. Fuel supplies have come under attack and scared truck drivers have refused to work, paralysing a country reliant on generators for electricity.

Businesses, banks and phone towers have been forced to shut down, and hospitals have teetered on the brink. The crises are hurting everyone, especially the poor as prices rise and access to basic essentials gets harder all the time. It’s only because of your generosity that we’ve been able to help HTDC orphanage meet its running costs.

With no sign of the situation improving your continued support is vital, but the orphanage has found some breathing space recently. After months of delays due to Covid a number of adoption cases have been completed and several children are now scheduled to leave the orphanage for loving, permanent homes.

These children include five year old Matialdo who we posted a microproject for in August of this year. At the time of posting that project we weren’t aware Matialdo would be leaving, and we want to apologise if this has caused any confusion. Donations that were received to that microproject will still be spent on children at the orphanage, including Matialdo until his final departure.

The departure of Matialdo and the other adopted children will lower the orphanage’s overall running costs, but around 12 children will remain at HTDC and they still need your support.

If you can please consider making a donation today to support children like eleven year old Chedline. Chedline came to the HTDC orphanage with her twin brother in 2019 after their dad died. Their mum is still alive but is desperately poor and made the heartbreaking decision to leave the twins at HTDC. 

The HTDC Orphanage does its very best for Chedline and all the children in its care, but the situation in Haiti remains incredibly challenging.

If you have any questions about the orphanage and how we use your donation then please don’t hesitate to email Andy@IDVolunteers.org. I’d be delighted to hear from you.