Latest Update from Field Director

This is part of the extra 25+ bags full of supplies for Haiti that a team brought.


We unpacked, sorted, and repacked all the bags into plastic bags.

God is so good at providing and I(we) am so grateful to those who contributed. All these bags were loaded up and taken to Cap-Haitian, Haiti (where our KAI site is) earlier this week.

Latest Email Update from the Field Director

I wanted to pass along the latest news regarding the possibility of receiving Haitian children in our facilities.

Today, our board president, Victor Herrera, attended another meeting in Santo Domingo regarding protection care of children in this crisis. The UNICEF, the Red Cross and CONANI are exerting more control and things seem be getting more organized. We are engaged and involved which puts us in a good position to use our abilities to help.

Here is what we are expecting over the next few days.

1. Tomorrow, the Red Cross and CONANI will survey all the hospitals in the country to understand how many Haitians need transitory care.

2. Monday at 9AM, we will participate in a meeting where these results will be shared and decisions will be made where children and adults will go who need to recuperate

3. Perhaps, Tuesday we will be able to bring some children into our care but many of these may come with a caregiver (e.g. mom, older sibling, aunt)

Apparently, there are not a lot of children in the country who are separated from family. This would make our role temporary for the recovery period and one of hospitality for the adult caregiver. In discussing this role, we feel it would be a privilege to help a child who was badly hurt in the earthquake in any way and also a privilege to show Biblical hospitality to their family. If this is the opportunity we are given, we will attempt to set up housing for family where they can visit children during the day but sleep outside of one of our facilities at night.

Finally, it seems that there is much tighter control being exerted to protect from trafficking or worse. This probably means no children would move directly out of Haiti any time in the very short term. In While this gets sorted out, we will continue to build capacity in Haiti, participate in the supply line work with which we are helping (fuel, medicine, food through the northern border), and care for any children that we can help coming out of the DR hospitals. I will continue to write updates as I have news.

God bless you all.

English Class

As many of you know I have been teaching English to 3rd-8th graders at Anija for the past 5 months. It's been quite challenging as I do most of the instruction for activities in Spanish (and I'm still learning the Spanish language myself). Although taking English class is a requirement for 5th-8th grade, a lot of the kids are interested in learning English as they want to be able to speak to the teams that come and help. And then of course there are others who have no interest in learning English. When preparing lessons, I try to think of the process it is taking me to learn Spanish and what is helpful for me and apply that to helping them learn English. I also like to think about when I was in those grades and how I felt towards school and life and be able to relate to them in that way. My favorite days of class are when teams come and help with my English classes. I love watching each kid have the opportunity to actually speak English and not be intimidated by the rest of the class watching. Below are some pictures from my 3rd and 4th grade classes.

Last week third grade learned colors and shapes.


The fourth graders were also learning colors and shapes.

I told my students that if they worked quietly and did their best we would take a picture together. They LOVE taking pictures :)

Arrival of Haitian Kids Delayed

Here is an email I received this morning-

Many of your by now know this news but the much anticipated arrival of Haitian refugee children to our facilities in the Dominican Republic did not happen as planned. A week ago, we requested permission through the government agency through whom we report to receive any kids who had been separated from family that needed a place of refuge temporarily. They were grateful for our offer and said they would have children for us shortly. By the middle of this week, 26 children were identified that were arriving from the border to a hospital in the capital. Today, as planned, we went down with hired Christian Haitian caregivers and other Kids Alive helpers with the Ark bus to pick up the children. On the way, we learned the hospital wasn’t ready to release the children to us. Consequently, we went directly to the government agency where we anticipated we would get the help we needed to leave with the kids.

Over the next few hours we learned the following:

-the hospital controls the children more than our government agency at this point and they prefer to release this particular group of children to a group of nuns who are helping out patients

- there are relative few refugee children that have made their way to the Dominican Republic so the likelihood of having more children in the wings is not high

- there is no organized effort to import children here to get them away from areas of crisis in Haiti

While there, we participated in a meeting about child protection and through this made a few more connections(UNICEF, World Vision). These may help us connect with needy children. However, one conclusion from the day is that we should look outside the Dominican government to find children that need to be rescued from the crisis in Port au Prince.

We are ready more than ever to receive 50-60 children into our facilities. We have begun trying to contact others who may have access to children in immediate need and offer our services. We are continuing to help with supply logistics from Santiago to Cape Haitian and Port au Prince as well.

We are disappointed but not broken by the events of the day. We will see what God has in store for us tomorrow.

Thanks again for your continued prayers!

Jan 21- Most recent update on receiving kids!

We are on plan to receive our first refugee children tomorrow. We will travel in the orphanage bus 2.5 hours to the main trauma center in Santo Domingo. We are not sure what to expect but have heard many of the hospitals are jammed with patients from the disaster. We learned that there are now 26 children slated to come back with us. The 27^th child has an uncle whom they have located so will not need our help. We also learned that all the children are being given intravenous fluids to help rehydrate them. Apparently, these kids had been wandering in the streets of Port au Prince and no relatives were ever located. We suspect that they had gone a number of days without food and water. Though we are not 100% sure we can leave with all the kids tomorrow, we believe the DR government will want them out of the hospital so we are headed down and will be ready. We would like to be back in Jarabacoa before dark.

Our sites have been preparing and God has provided. We have Haitian care givers lined up for both ANIJA and the Ark from our contacts in the community. Interestingly, God has also provided a professional photographer in the form of a visiting team member who has agreed to go along on the trip tomorrow. Also, we are planning to seek donations of clothing and food through a network of local Jarabacoa churches. If successful, this will allow us to extend our financial resources further. We know we may be entering a chapter of life here that could last for many months.

Finally, our sites in Constanza, Monte Plata and Caraballo are also ready for children. We anticipate more will be available next week.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We hope to have good news to report tomorrow.

Click on the link "Donate to Haiti Relief" if you would like to contribute financially.

Update on Kids Alive helping Haiti- Jan. 21

The big news is that we expect to receive up to 27 children tomorrow or Friday. A representative of CONANI (DR child protection services) said that they have transported 27 children from the border to a DR hospital in the capital because these children apparently could not find their parents or relatives and were wandering dazed in the streets in Haiti. The children are being identified and evaluated for trauma at the Contreras Hospital in Santo Domingo. CONANI want us to care for the children when their process is complete. Our plan is to move this first group of children to Jarabacoa then distribute them to the Ark, ANIJA and possibly the Ark in Constanza. As we receive more children at later dates, we will utilize Casa Monte Plata and the care center in Caraballo.

In other news, we helped with the logistics (money, containers, location) to send a truck with 1,000 gallons of fuel in small containers through the Dajabon(northern) boarder today. Interestingly, the fuel supply chain that we have been assisting has been so successful and necessary that reportedly hundreds of requests are being received in Haiti including one from the U.S. military. We also helped a Haitian doctor locate the medicine and supplies he needs for his hospital in Haiti through a contact in Santiago. Finally, we made more purchases of materials that will go over next week to set up the tent camp for 50 children at the current KAI site.

Update from Al Lackey- Jan. 15

Kids Alive has just received word from the Dominican Republic (DR) government that first orphans identified from the Haiti earthquake will be brought to our homes in the DR. Staff and missionaries are preparing to welcome 50 young survivors into our homes as soon as Monday.

We are humbled to be the first organization asked to rescue the orphans and lost children. The children coming from Haiti will be traumatized, scared, hungry, thirsty, and possibilty injured. Please pray for them and the staff caring for them.

At the same time in Haiti, fuel has become scarce even in the north and prices have dramatically increased for basic needs. Our children in Cap Haiten have adequate food, water, and fuel for now and we hope to keep them supplied directly from the DR.

Thanks to all of you who have already given to our relief efforts. Having the funding to provide the food, shelter, and medical care for these victims will be a God-send.

Be assured, your gift today will be helping the smallest survivors of this enormous catastrophy.

Please help us rescue the Haitian orphans! ( http://e2ma.net/go/2762490904/2499027/90496736/24714/goto:http://www.kidsalive.org/haiti-relief )

Thank you for your generous gift and prayers. Please stay up to date with our relief efforts on our website www.kidsalive.org/haiti-relief ( http://e2ma.net/go/2762490904/2499027/90496737/24714/goto:http://www.kidsalive.org/haiti-relief ).

Al Lackey,
President
Kids Alive International

Thoughts from today

I am overwhelmed by a feeling of sadness for the people of Haiti. I think back on Tuesday night when I felt the tremor. I said to my roommate as I watched the fan shake and felt the house sway, "I think there's an earthquake," as if it were no big deal. Only later did we find out that it is a big deal- life changing. I've received emails from other missionaries that live in Port-au-prince describing the destruction, loss of lives, and fear that they won't be able to recover from this.
I am glad to be a part of an organization that is already taking action in supplying relief but we can't help but ask here in Jarabacoa, "What can we do right now," as we are so close and as we have friends from Haiti who don't know if their family and friends are alright.
I started thinking about 'what if this happened in Jarabacoa and my family or friends died and everything was destroyed.' I am grateful beyond words that I have hope in Jesus Christ. And that made me think of what I can do right now. I can pray that the people of Haiti (a country that has been dedicated to the devil in the past) will find not only hope in future days but an eternal hope through the saving grace of our Mighty God.
Please pray for Kids Alive as they are brain storming ways we can help, whether that may be taking supplies in the very near future or opening our ministry site to kids left with no families.

Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

Kings Day

Celebrating Kinds Day with the kids at the Ark was a great experience. Kings Day is what we know as Epiphany, celebrating the 3 King's that visited Jesus after He was born.
In the Dominican Republic, Kings Day is the day people open their presents. The students at Anija that have sponsors but do not live at the Ark received gifts before breaking for Christmas but the kids at the Ark received their presents today on Kings Day. There were a total of 100 people KAI provided gifts for and each person received 4 gifts, a couple small and a couple bigger. There gifts came from donations that teams have brought, through donations of sponsors, and others were brought through KAI. I never thought of how much work putting gifts together would be but if you think of it, we needed to have about 400 gifts total! After one of our missionaries bought the rest of the gifts not donated, we spent a few days wrapping them and then transporting them to the Ark.
The morning of Kings Day, all of the house dad and guy missionaries cook a big pancake breakfast for everyone and the missionary kids and the rest of us help set-up, serve the food, pass out gifts, and clean up. It was such a blessing to be apart of this day and to see how each child living at the Ark has become apart of a healthy family and was able to celebrate the day by receiving gifts. Below are some pictures from the day.




You can see all the gifts piled behind Leslie.

Loida and I were there to help.