The What If? Foundation has been working hand in hand with the community of Tiplas Kazo neighborhood of Port-au-Prince for over a decade. Their food program, thanks to your donations, serves over 3,000 each weekday. To keep supplies coming in go to their website at www.whatiffoundation.org and see how you can help.
NEWS FLASH! I’m finally going to Haiti!
Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Supporters of Haiti,
I have a fantastic opportunity in late May to travel to Haiti and initiate what I believe is a unique and comprehensive program to support healing for the community of Tiplas Kazo in Port Au Prince.
And I need your financial help to accomplish this.
For more than four years, I’ve been a very vocal supporter and financial contributor to the What If? Foundation (WIF) housed in Berkeley, CA, founded by Margaret Trost. WIF developed almost 11 years ago in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city in order to provide a basic human right for its residents: nutritious food. The WIF provides one hot meal each week day to almost 3,000 children and adults. Immediately after the January, 2010 earthquake those numbers rose to nearly 10,000. Not once has WIF failed to feed those who come seeking food.
I will work with What If Foundation to teach the local community sustainable gardening techniques and assist them in developing a plan for their agricultural site to provide produce for their food program.
I will also have an opportunity to connect the WIF community in Port Au Prince with the work of Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB). AWB is a New Mexico-based non-profit which has been participating in national trauma recovery efforts since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and began relief efforts in Haiti in February of 2010. The organization uses a simple, safe, portable, and low-tech ear acupuncture protocol that is highly effective in helping to reset the nervous system when a person has been traumatized which enables them to function once again. AWB will return to Haiti in May to provide further recovery training to local healers so they can support their countrymen and women in recovering from trauma. I am excited about the possibility of traveling to Haiti with AWB to lay the groundwork for a joint effort.
I believe that healing for Haiti will include both trauma treatment and supporting positive steps for self-empowerment and nourishment, physically, emotionally, economically, and spiritually.
Although Haiti shares characteristics with other communities and nations that have survived natural disasters, it is unique in the many layers of trauma it has experienced over the last two centuries of unrelenting poverty, oppression and political chaos. As a result, this trauma is passed down through successive generations when no relief occurs and hopelessness sets in. I believe that collaboration with AWB is uniquely powerful in the possibility of linking traumatic relief with the ability to create permanent, sustainable food sources for families.
Long-term stress from hunger and malnutrition is in itself a form of trauma. With AWB, we can address both the immediate and generational stress Haitians have experienced while alleviating the day-to-day stress of hunger and malnutrition through the creation of simple gardens providing much-needed daily allotments of micronutrients. At the same time, I will encourage the cultivation of highly nutritious and adaptable Moringa trees and other plants that grow well under difficult circumstances. People living with layers of trauma combined with malnutrition cannot make clear decisions and can easily become stuck in a downward spiral leading to chronic depression, permanent damage to health and even death. Growing one’s own food is empowering on so many levels.
This trip in May would allow me to work with the Haitian community to launch this project between WIF and AWB and provide 3 weeks of support services. In order to make this trip a reality, I must raise $3,000 as soon as possible.
Your generous assistance will make the following possible: travel documents and vaccinations, airfare, room and board, local transportation and security, and translation. Plus your donations are tax deductible. To contribute online, please go to: www.acuwithoutborders.org/donate_online.php. To donate through credit card or Pay Pal mark ‘special instructions’ that the donation is for “Yvonne Scott, Haiti Trip 2011” or mail a check to: Acupuncturists Without Borders, 909 Virginia NE, Suite 211, Albuquerque, NM 87108 and again note the donation as ‘Yvonne Scott, Haiti Trip 2011.’ All donations will be used solely for this unique opportunity.
I look forward to sharing my trip with you. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions or suggestions via email: outrageousgardener@yahoo.com. Keep tabs on What If? Foundation through their website and check out Acupuncturists Without Borders website, www.acuwithoutborders.org to discover the work of trauma relief through a simple acupuncture protocol.
As always, I am deeply grateful for your continued support,
Yvonne
More good folks working in Haiti:
For more information on the PC Relief Corps, this is the website with links to the discussion list and email updates.
Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL)
