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Earthquake Relief Efforts – Update 1/25/10
In the two weeks since the earthquake in Haiti, Chances for Children has made significant progress in our relief efforts thanks to the generosity and support of our community. We are touched by the numbers of individuals, foundations and corporations who have graciously stepped up to help our efforts. Here is an update of what we have accomplished so far:
Evacuation of Children
On Thursday, January 24th Chances for Children chartered a plane that flew from Port-au-Prince to Florida and safely evacuated 18 children who were brought into the arms of their adoptive families. This was a herculean effort on the part of our team. Our team in Haiti was able to get one of the first U.S. Embassy appointments allowing them to obtain visas and paperwork quickly. Our team here worked around the clock to orchestrate the logistics of helicopters for the children to the PAP airport, arranged for adoptive families to travel to Ft. Lauderdale, worked with U.S. immigration officials to guarantee streamlined processing of the children, and organized and funded a charter plane to bring the children to the U.S. We arranged to have team members fly with the plane into PAP to coordinate on-the-ground efforts there, as well as have C4C representatives at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale to help adoptive families.
Because of our ability to move quickly, we avoided the difficulties many orphanages are now experiencing trying to get their children home to their adoptive families. None of this could have happened without your support – thank you for making this possible.
Earthquake Relief Supplies
This week a team led by volunteer April Connors will be headed to Florida to load a cargo plane bound for the Dominican Republic. Each team member is bringing donated supplies and will spend a day purchasing food, formula and other items. Medicines have already been shipped to the warehouse as well as another 2,000 pounds of donated food and formula. The Rash family from Utah managed to collect and send 1,000 pounds of donated supplies from their community. On Tuesday, the team will pack 10,000 pounds to send on a cargo plane. The plane will fly to the Dominican where the cargo will be trucked to a small border town on the D.R.- Haiti border. There it will be warehoused and our team in Haiti will be bringing trucks to get the supplies to the village over the next few weeks. Again, the logistics of this effort proved challenging with the conditions and lack of infrastructure and communication in Haiti. But we have accomplished our goal of getting immediate relief to our children in Haiti. Again, thanks to all of our supporters – this would not have been possible without your financial contributions. We will be sending down over $20,000 in aid to our neighbors in Haiti.
Haiti Renewal Fund -- haitirenewal.org
Thanks to the leadership and financial support of Foster and Lynn Friess, a new fund has been established - the Haiti Renewal Fund (www.haitirenewal.org). With this fund, Chances for Children will be partnering with other organizations to begin the long and difficult process of rebuilding and renewing Haiti. Already this fund has gained national exposure in more than 1,000 media outlets, and Craig Juntunen announced the launch of the fund on CNN's "Newsroom" on Sunday January 24th. We look forward to sharing the details of this project along with our partner organizations in the near future.
Adoption Update
Many families have reached out to us in an attempt to help the orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti. At this time, we are only able to assist families who were already in the adoption process. As you may have seen on recent news reports, the bureaucracy of getting adoptive children to their U.S. families is proving very difficult for many orphanages. Once this step is completed, many aid organizations, the Haitian government, and the U.S. State Department will begin to determine how to best process new adoptions and the fate of the many abandoned children in Haiti.
This week, our partners in Haiti will be admitting approximately 90-100 new children as a result of the earthquake. These children will be taken to the orphanage and fed, cared for, and treated for medical conditions while aid organizations in Haiti try to locate members of their extended family. Until that occurs, these children will remain under our care. We are uncertain – due to lack of government institutions in Haiti and other factors -- what the adoption process will look like moving forward. We will continue to lobby our U.S. government for a speedy and effective resolution to this situation.
In closing – thank you again for your support. Your donations have allowed us to make significant improvements in the lives of the children we serve. We are grateful for your help. The road to rebuilding has not yet begun; Haiti and Chances for Children will need to rely on continued generosity and support.
With gratitude,
Chances for Children