Nutritious meals for 200 disabled Haitian children

Our hearts break a little more with each new conversation with Father Sadoni Leon (Director of St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince) only to hear that the food for the children at St. Vincent’s is becoming even more scarce. The Center—which serves as a dormitory, school and community for the deaf and blind as well as those missing limbs and children who have impaired cognitive abilities—lost it’s main food donor in 2013. Ever since, Fr. Sadoni has been working fervently to establish a new food source for the children so they can grow and thrive while in his care.

Currently, the residential students and the live-in caregivers receive two meals per day. The breakfast is light, usually bread and butter. Lunch consists of a single plate of beans and rice. All meal service for non-residential students (close to 200 children) has been put on hold with no reinstatement date in sight.

In an attempt to ward off hunger pains at bedtime, older residents—mainly teens and young adults—set aside a portion of their lunch to eat in the evening. The younger kids often don’t fare as well. No doubt it is difficult for the smallest ones to set aside part of their meal when their stomachs are still growling.

To add to their plight, the filter on the Center’s water purification system needed to be changed and the system shut down, cutting off the water supply. When the technician came to replace the filter, the custodian of the building wasn’t available so the water service has been temporarily interrupted. Thankfully, this should be rectified quickly, hopefully by the end of this week.

The situation is bleak now, but there is hope! Our partners from West Tennessee were at St. Vincent’s last week to provide well-child checkups and reported that the kids are still relatively healthy. They were kind enough to snap a few pics of the kids at lunch time which we share in this report. The kids’ spirits were high and, as usual, they thoroughly enjoyed having the US team in their midst for the week. They are doing remarkably well under the circumstances.

While a partnership of teams researches both aquaponic and aeroponic garden solutions for the Center’s long-term sustainability and to minimize future food shortages, there is still a real need to fill the children’s bellies. This, friends, is where your support is critical.

With your gifts to this project, we are able to continue to feed the children in the short-term. THANK YOU for both your gifts and sharing this need with others who may be in a position to help. Every gift counts.

Links:

• Food crisis escalates
• The case for nutrition
• Turning a crisis into a miracle