Celebrate our Birthday!
Thanks to your unwavering support, we are celebrating our first year anniversary. You can’t imagine what we’ve accomplished together in our first year. From June 24, 2010 through June 30, 2011 Help for Haiti has received $68,774 in donations. Not bad for our first year, but we are just beginning! Lets look at how your donations have been spent.
FEED
- 107, 000 meals. After almost 700 volunteers showed up on May 21st to hand pack meals in Portsmouth, NH, we are able to supply a school lunch to 180 kids in Marmalade, Haiti for an entire school year starting this September. Because of you these children will have a nutritious lunch every day at school. Cost with shipping the food to Haiti: $36,000 or less than 34 cents per meal
EDUCATE
- 5 School Teachers, $500 each. Marmalade teachers do not currently make enough to support their families. These stipends from Help for Haiti fill the gap to help meet their basic living expenses. Cost: $2500.
- Building Schools in 2011. We will purchase building supplies on my trip in July 2011 to completely rebuild the Marmalade School. New roof, new cement floor, new doors and repaired walls. Our hope is that he construction will be finished before school starts in September. Cost: $12,310.
EMPLOY
- Salary Assistance. Pastor Pierre Villience founder of the Marmalade School. This stipend helps meet his living and travel expenses. Cost: $1,000.
- Fresh Drinking Water. We are drilling a well on the Marmalade School site this summer and it will be completed this year. Cost: $3,750.
- Construction Jobs. We believe in hiring local skilled laborers like carpenters and cement masons to build the Marmalade school. The crew will have about 8 men and they will be paid for two months work this summer. These are fair wages for skilled workers in Haiti. Cost: $ 3,125.
- Business Loans. We will shortly commit to our first business loan to an established business in Haiti. This loan will have a payback period of 36 months at a 4% or 5% interest rate. This loan will allow this business to expand to a larger facility. Today this company employs 22 people and with our loan they expect to add many more employees. Cost: $3000.
- Employment on the Ground. We have two part time employees in Haiti to oversee Help for Haiti projects. Monsieur Marcot Vernois is in charge of administration. His assistant is Monsieur Jean Nelson Denis who helps oversee the construction projects. I hope to make them employees when we can afford to do it.
Because of You
All of this has only been made possible because of your generous donations, your volunteerism at the food pack event, and your tireless time and effort. As of September of 2011, Help for Haiti will have spent almost $70,000 on these very specific projects. We are not quite there yet as you can see from what has come in so far, but I am confident that by September we will have donations to fully cover our current projects.Little to No OverheadThe overhead expenses to run Help for Haiti are very low. To date we have spent less than $1000 on accounting, legal and marketing, so be encouraged your donated dollars are at work in Haiti. All marketing materials have been created pro bono or from non-donated funds.God’s CallWe cannot express the way we all felt when 685 people showed up at the Frank Jones Center to pack the food for children. You were the hands and feet that Jesus spoke about when he said, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’Thanks for being there, stay tuned for the next food pack event and send a donation if you can. Together we have just begun to make a difference in Haiti.Warmest Regards,Jim & Betsy Willey