Travel Fund in honor of Deacon Drew Woodruff-support our team

This month at St Mary's Cathedral in Memphis we have created a special travel fund to support the cost of team members travelling to Haiti.  It costs about $1300 per trip to buy a plane ticket and stay in the guest house for a week. Team members pay all their own expenses. For those of us who have been going to Haiti twice a year since 2008, those costs have added up over the years!  So the good people at St Mary's have agreed to establish a special Travel Fund.  Donations to the fund will be separate from donations to support the school itself, or buy food or medicine for the children.
If you would like to donate to support the cost of our team members who travel regularly to St Vincent's, please mail a check to St Mary's Cathedral, 700 Poplar Ave, Memphis TN 38105.  Or click on the DONATE link on this website and designate your donation for travel expenses.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT.

Susan Nelson

Red Thread Promise: HAITI :: FOOD UPDATE :: A big hearted teenager

Red Thread Promise: HAITI :: FOOD UPDATE :: A big hearted teenager: Jaden celebrating his birthday with French silk pie.   Teenagers are amazing…  Words we don't hear strung together often enough!

Follow the link to read more about how one teen can feed a school full of children... [from Red Thread Promise].

Surgical team goes to St Vincents

Early Saturday morning, I went to the airport in Memphis to wave goodbye to Drs Bheki Khumalo and Jenn Holbourn, who are traveling with Kristen, a surgical nurse, to Haiti. They will work with Dr Georges Beauvoir, a Haitian orthopedic surgeon. This is the second surgical trip for Dr Khumalo, who operated on six children last August. He performs limb correction surgeries on children at St

Notes from 2013 pt. 2: Frenel and Geraldo at the Eye Doctor!

We at the WTHP Blog missed a few things in 2013 that we would love to share with you. The following series of posts are from three to nine months ago and provide two different perspectives on the children's lives.
---

Last November, Sonya Yencer traveled with one of our great young friends, Frenel, and Geraldo to visit an ophthalmologist in Haiti and see if sight in any of their eyes could be restored. Even the possibility of a positive outcome is an incredibly welcome one for those of us who know these children. I won't copy the article or spoil what they learned, because Red Thread Promise has a beautiful blog of their own with great photographs from the day. Please read the whole post by Sonya here: http://redthreadpromise.blogspot.com/2013/11/haiti-glimmer-of-hope.html.

Notes from 2013 pt. 1: Sewing Machines!

We at the WTHP Blog missed a few things in 2013 that we would love to share with you. The following series of posts are from three to nine months ago and provide two different perspectives on the children's lives.
---
Janet O'Flynn traveled to St. Vincent's with several sewing machines repaired by Sammie Wakefield. The following is an email from Janet with a few pictures of the children using the machines. 

Dear Sammie, You have given a marvelous gift to these young people at St. Vincent's Center! Here are photos of the very engaged, tireless, young people sewing their beautiful tote bags on the machines you restored. Thank you, and thank you also Alinda for driving them to West Hartford, and thank you Hope for putting them into the barrels!

Blessings and a Happy New Year

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I cannot begin to send to you our best wishes for the New Year without first expressing our deepest gratitude, on behalf of the Partnership Program of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, for your extreme generosity, your gifts to us all on all levels and in all forms, and your Faith in our work here in Haiti during this past year.

Having expressed our sincerest gratitude, please let me go on to wish for you all, for the coming year, our deepest hope that you will enjoy all of the Blessings of Peace, Love, and Health in the True Light of God's Grace.

May God bless you all, forever

In Christ,
The Reverend Kesner Ajax

In the past few weeks, the WTHP has received a number of large donations from individuals and churches, in response to our requests to help feed the children of St. Vincent's during this difficult time. On behalf of the school and its students, we offer our sincere thanks and gratitude for your continued generosity. All those who give are members of the body of this partnership. We succeed and make a difference together, and no other way. For those who have not yet taken advantage of our new and easy donation page or seen the newly designed website, please visit wtnhaitipartnership.org, which was made possible by your ongoing support.

St. Vincent's Year-End Report 2013 from Fr. Leon Sadoni

What follows below is a year end report on the life of the school, including its great successes and its massive challenges. Please read all the way through to get a fuller picture of St. Vincent's in 2013.

Dear Friends in the US,

On behalf of the children of St Vincent, I present to you my greeting. It is an honor for me to give you some news regarding St Vincent from July to December 2013.

We ended the school year 2012-2013 with 230 children. We had a great school year. Certainly we did have some difficulties, but with the donations and expertise of our partners, our experiences, and our dedication, we overcame these situations.

As usual at the end of the school year in July, St Vincent’s students took part in the official exams organized by the government. All the 17 students succeeded in these exams! Apart from the blindness and physical challenges that will always be present at these exams, this year 6 deaf children  took part in these exams for the first time. We accomplished this goal through the training that our Canadian and American friends gave to our teachers this year.

A Donor Challenge to raise money for Food

We have an offer from a very generous donor to match contributions of money for food, up to $6090.   That is the cost of feeding the resident children and staff of St Vincents School for one month

Please take this opportunity to go to our website at wtnhaitipartnership.org and DONATE to take advantage of this tremendous offer.  All donations go directly to Pere Sadoni, the priest in charge of the school. There are no administrative costs. Thank you in advance for your support

Susan Nelson