Dear Friends of Haitian Roots,
Most of us are gearing up for Summer. School is out! A childhood song I used to sing went like this, “Oh what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? Do you sit by a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by?…Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high?…Do you march in parades, or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky? Is that what you do? So do I!”* Oh how I love summertime and singing that song always makes me sigh with contentedness. I plan to do ALL of those things with my kids this summer as they “lazily dream” and don’t take a second thought about school!
However, at Haitian Roots, we have SCHOOL on our minds BIG TIME! Typically we wait until the beginning of August to start reminding everybody that school is starting soon. This year we have a volunteer trip the second week of August and will need to have the first installment of scholarship funds ready to distribute at that time. I believe we’ve written you about this already, but the pressure on our Haitian coordinators to distribute the funds became increasingly great and even dangerous as the program grew. Jason and Isson have personally gone to Haiti the past two times and we’ve found that having a US board member doing the distribution has been a much better solution. Because Chareyl and I will be in Haiti in August and school will begin just a few weeks later, we are really hoping and praying to be able to do the distribution at that time.
So…we are asking you to please help us! If you normally sponsor a child at the beginning of the school year, would you please consider sending in your payment for them now (or by the end of July) rather than waiting until the end of August or September? Also, in case you missed the last update, we are now supporting a small orphanage and have added those children to our program (4 of them were already in the program). Education is important to ALL of our children in the program and their families. But when it comes to these orphans, the situation feels even more desperate. As you will soon see, most of these children are not young little ones who have adoptive families pounding down adoption agency doors to adopt them. Most of these children will continue to live in the orphanage as long as they can but eventually will “age out” and they absolutely must have education and training to give them any chance of a future. Once again, I feel to quote H.G. Wells, “Civilization is in a race between education and catastrophe.” With these older children, we truly are in a race. We absolutely must find sponsors to provide them with an education.
Here are a few ways you can help: 1. Consider sponsoring a child (or additional children) now. Is the $250/child lump sum difficult to come up with? It can be for me, too! Ask us how to do the monthly bill pay. Just $22/month will send one of these beautiful children to school! 2. “Like” our Facebook page and share it with all of your friends. Whether or not you’re a huge fan of Facebook, we have already seen how sharing our page and information often is helping to reach people who are ready and willing to help but haven’t known how. 3. Hold a fundraiser. We love any creative ideas you have. A simple one would be to get your kids involved by holding a baked goods and soda stand for a couple of Saturdays on a busy corner. Another fairly simple idea is to hold a yard sale or, better yet, get your entire neighborhood to pitch in to do a large sale with proceeds to send a child to school. 4. Forward this email to your friends and family members. 5. Talk to your place of business about making a charitable donation or doing a fundraiser for Haitian Roots. 6. Talk to your school age children, especially those involved in Student Government positions, about doing a fundraiser at school in the Fall.
To donate, send a check written to Haitian Roots, 235 East 5600 South, Ogden, UT 84405.
Remember, Haitian Roots is composed of all unpaid volunteers and we promise to you that we take every donation and every penny seriously so that we can help as many children as possible.
Thank you for your support!
Shannon Cox Haitian Roots
*Dorothy S. Anderson