Relief Organizations on the Front Lines – A Post for Two Incredible Moms

In my Pink Chalk Fabrics newsletter last Saturday I highlighted Craft Hope for Haiti ($15,350 raised so far!) and invited customers to e-mail me with any projects they were involved with so I could feature them on the blog. The first e-mail I got was from my own Mom. Of course, my own mother does not need to wait for an invitation to ask me to blog about something!

She requested I mention an organization called Meds & Food for Kids. They are located in my home state of Missouri where my parents still live. From the MFK website:

” Meds & Food for Kids is dedicated to saving the lives of Haiti’s malnourished children and other nutritionally vulnerable people. We accomplish our mission by developing, producing, and distributing highly nutritious foods, including the gold-standard Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). We make our food products in Haiti, using Haitian workers and, whenever possible, Haitian raw materials. Haitians call our RUTF “Medika Mamba” or “Peanut Butter Medicine” in Creole. ”

The picture above is of Dr. Jen Halverson (left) and Tara Porter-Livesay (right) treating a baby at a makeshift earthquake clinic in Haiti. I captured this picture from Beth McHoul’s Facebook photo album.

Jen’s mom Connie left a comment on my blog this morning telling me about her daughter. How she’s worried for her and how proud she is of the work she’s doing (yeah, I’ve shed quite a few tears this afternoon re-reading Connie’s comment and exploring Jen’s blog and all the links that led from that).

Connie tells her daughter’s story like only a mother can:

“What a wonderful, giving person you are! I hope I am not taking advantage of your generous invitation to tell you what I’m doing for Haiti relief but I’ve been searching quilting blogs for just such an opportunity. I read many quilt blogs but do not have one of my own.

My daughter is a physician who is board-certified in pediatric medicine and is a little over a year away from completing a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine. She speaks Kreyole (local dialect in Haiti) and has made more than a dozen trips there, including almost a year serving in a hospital and clinic. She has been working for a Children’s Hospital and they gave her time off to serve in Haiti. With the help of Providence Ministries, she found her way there last Saturday with about 400 pounds of supplies and quickly went to work in a makeshift neighborhood “clinic” in Port-au-Prince treating many traumatic injuries (please forgive this graphic statement but yesterday they had to perform an amputation with a reciprocating saw).

So many have already given so generously to many reputable organizations and I applaud those contributions. What I would like to request is that anyone looking for a reputable organization to donate to would consider any of these: Worldwide Village, Heartline Ministries or Providence Ministries. They are so small they’re almost invisible to the larger world but they were all on-the-ground doing good stuff in Haiti when the earthquake struck, which facilitated their ability to get medical assistance up and running so quickly. Now, they need help getting their plea for donations out beyond their core group of supporters.

There were so many unmet needs in Haiti before and so many more now. I’ve personally donated money and now am trying to get their message to a wider audience to support their fund-raising efforts. You can read some of their incredible post-earthquake stories here:

- Jen Halverson’s Blog this isn’t grey’s anatomy
- Blog of Providence Ministries – Haiti
- Blog of Heartline Haiti (Warning: graphic medical pictures)
- The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog (Tara Porter-Livesay is in the photo above)
- Heartline Ministries
- Worldwide Village

To donate, please check out each ministries’ web site and do your own due diligence. There’s a link on each to make your donation. Please also forward this info to anyone you know who might be interested. Most of all, please continue to pray for this small team serving in Haiti and everyone affected by this apocalyptic tragedy.

With my most gracious thanks for any consideration,
Connie Halverson”

I’m going to continue highlighting fund raising efforts as you tell me about them. I’m behind a bit on the store fundraisers but please do add to the comments and I’ll do a round up soon. If the event is of a limited duration please leave the dates.

As Connie points out, it’s important that each of us investigate and use our own judgment in selecting organizations to contribute to. There are many faith-based organizations involved in these efforts that are doing amazing work. As you know, I don’t talk politics or religion on my blog. I’m an equal opportunity forum and welcome the opportunity to highlight all groups doing good work.

My intent is simple: to publicize amazing work being done by unbelievably giving individuals.

Thank you Mom. Thank you Connie. Thank Jen and Tara. I love you all.

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