Poupe Konfo (Comfort Dolls) for the Haiti Rescue Center

This past Sunday was "Social Service Sunday" at church. This is my yearlong project on the CYRE Council (Council for Youth Religious Education), we do it 4 times a year. During RE (aka in other circles as Sunday School) the kids learn about what they will be doing, and the instructions to create the item (it could be dog biscuits for the SPCA, simple fleecy blankets for the crisis nursery, doing a sport-a-thon to raise money for the soup kitchen, etc), then spend about 20 minutes to a half hour creating the items, then we send them off!

First the kids all gathered together while I explained the project, where Haiti is, and why they need our help. Then we showed a video that Diane mashed up for us from existing videos from the Rescue Center. I am having some trouble posting it, so I will show you the main video that talks about Real Hope for Haiti...the Clinic and the Rescue Center....plus the myriad of community work they do in and around Cazale (Kazal).


Real Hope For Haiti from Corrigan Clay on Vimeo.

This time we made easy fleece "knot dolls" which I call "comfort dolls." In Kreyol, this would be Poupe Konfo. It was simply a piece of fleece with a knot in each corner, a slit cut where the head would attach, and then you insert a long strip of brown fleece, knot that onto the first piece of fleece, and then slice the excess into strips to make "hair." The kids had a GREAT time making these.

We made 89 dolls between all the RE classes! The littlest class, our Rainbows, also made paper hearts as cards to go with them. Now we will send them off to Real Hope for Haiti's HQ in the USA, and they will ship them down to the Rescue Center. Licia will then get us photos of the babies and kids with their new comfort dolls! I can't wait for that!

We want as many people to come to this blog and see what we are doing as we can. We hope that you will consider donating anything to help our fund grow. Remember, all funds go to help Haiti and will be sent there at the end of our church year, June 2011. I really want to get the kids fired up by increasing our Haiti fund from people online...there are SOOO many of you out there passionate to help Haiti! They will be so excited to see that people from all over are seeing what they are doing and are helping too! Even just leave a comment and where you are from, so I can read it to them on Sunday.

Thank you! 

Stephanie

Social Service Sunday: Comfort Dolls for the Rescue Center

This Sunday we made Comfort Dolls (or Poupe Konfo) as our Social Service Sunday project. We will send them to the sick kids at the Rescue Center.

Everyone had lots of fun doing this. And they are SO EASY. Just 4 knots, and a knot for the head. Clip the fleece into hair, and there ya go! They are soft and easy to wash, and no parts to come off and swallow. No sewing, either.

Some of the kids wanted to stay late and make more and more dolls! They braided the "hair," and even made "bonnets" for them out of small scrap material.

89 dolls total were made. A great success!

We also raised another $26 dollars in Spirited Worship for Haiti. Won't you please donate a dollar or two to help match our funds? ALL MONEY goes to Haiti.

We hope to hear more soon about the UUSC's potential work trip to Haiti. Our Youth Group really wants to go, and so do I!

Blessings!

This little girl....

I was not expecting to read this at the Haiti Rescue Center blog today.

Below is a photo of Elita. Out of the probably hundreds and hundreds on the RC's blog, I printed out this particular picture to use on the display board I made to use in Spirited Worship last week, to put our stickers on as we collect money:

I used several photos, mostly of kids who were smiling, or of the directors of the center, or of happy kids getting donations. I didn't want to use a photo that was too shocking, of a child that was too starving or sick. Elita's photo definitely showed her malnutrition, and that she was not well, but it was not "too bad," if you will. Not too bad for the kids to see. All the kids listened so intently while I talked about Haiti and what we were going to do this year, and when I was done they all came up close to look at all the pictures. I could see them studying Elita's photo carefully as she was the "sickest" one in all the pictures.

Here is her story, starting on August 22.

Elita is 5 years old and weighs 24 pounds.  She is in the beginning stages of kwashiorkor (a disease rampant among children in Haiti).  She is an only child that has been living with her papa.  He goes in the gardens and market each day and leaves her with his mother.  She is house-bound and cannot get out at all.  They only are eating one meal per day.  She has tested negative for TB and HIV.  She is very, very, very sick.  Yesterday worms began crawling out of her nose and mouth.  We are in the process of de-worming her in the next few days.  I usually wait until the kids are a little stronger to de-worm them.  But in her case we are going to have to go ahead and give her the meds now.  She is on IV fluids and needs a lot of prayer.  She is very weak and has lost her will to live.

Four days later, she was improving some. This is the photo I used on our display board. She had passed over 50 worms:

By September 1, she was walking and had gained 3 lbs that week!

October 11, she had improved SO much! She has been on the medika mamba program, a lifesaving "medical peanut butter" that is made in Haiti and fed to severely malnourished kids, and virtually works miracles. Here she is, looking great:

Two days later, she began having seizures, and died at 3 in the morning. Something neurological. They couldn't do anything for her.

I loved this smiley photo of her so much, and when I read this entry, that she had died, it just hit me in the heart. She had come so far since August. I could picture her walking around and playing with the other kids.

Now that little girl I put on our poster board is not alive any more. Somehow that makes it so much sadder to me.

I guess I don't need to share that with all the kids. But I had to get it out.

Please donate so we can help these children!

Blessings....

Rain Forest and Flower Garden

Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis 2010-2011 Spirited Worship offering blog! This church year we are very happy to have voted to help children in the Caribbean nation of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but a country RICH with traditions and culture, kindness and strength. We decided to help in two ways....a "Macro" and a "Micro," if you will. I would explain it to the children in Spirited Worship this way:

Macro is like a Rain Forest. It's big, expansive, and is made up of so many smaller components. It's like looking at a whole puzzle after it's all put together. It's the "BIG PICTURE."

Micro is like your own Flower Garden. You are right in there touching it, smelling it, feeling it. You know each plant individually and get your hands right in there to care for each one. It's what's right in your "OWN WINDOW."

This year, we are going to split the Spirited Worship collection between a "Rain Forest" and a "Flower Garden." Our Rain Forest will be the UUSC - Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. They are doing big work in Haiti, helping in a broad range of areas. From their web page on their work in Haiti:

"UUSC stands with those who are working to reverse the cycle of collapse and dependence that has plagued Haiti throughout its history. Including policy and advocacy initiatives and constituent engagement in its approach, UUSC is using all of its tools to respond to this emergency. By partnering with Haitian organizations and social movements, UUSC will help their vision become reality." 

We are happy to support this UU organization that is helping Haiti in so many ways. Please check out their website!


Our Flower Garden is Real Hope for Haiti, a small, family-run organization doing big things for their community in Cazale, Haiti. Sisters Lori and Licia and their families run a Rescue Center which houses around 60 severely malnourished and sick children in a rural area. They also work in community development, food boxes, clean drinking water, and environmental sustainability. We have a personal connection to them and they will correspond with us. We will start by sending them handmade (at Social Service Sunday on Oct. 17) fleecy knot dolls to comfort the sick children, as well as photos and pictures from our UUCD kids!


The Rescue Center has a very active blog written by Licia. Her sister Lori also has a blog but she doesn't post as often as she did in the past (you can imagine how busy they are, seeing hundreds of patients each day). If you want to see what life is like for the poor in Haiti, not just in Cazale but in every corner, I urge you to read their blog and share what they and the UUSC organizations are doing in Haiti. Send people you know to this blog to donate!


Parents, before going to the Haiti Rescue Center blog with your children beside you, please check out their latest blog entry that will show at the top of the page first yourself, and make sure that your children will be ok seeing any photos that may be posted. Some of the children come into the Rescue Center in a very shocking condition...it is not something that your kids will be used to seeing. But it's reality. And these organizations can HELP!

Gerald admitted to the Rescue Center at 30 lbs

Gerald in the Rescue Center now at 35 lbs!

Thank you so much for supporting Spirited Worship! We hope to get the word out about this blog to the general blogging public who has a heart for Haiti. I would love to see each Sunday's collection matched, and watch our collection meter grow! Please become a follower of this blog (see right column) so you can be alerted when there is a new post.

Of course you can donate to both Real Hope for Haiti and the UUSC on their respective websites, but we would love it if you would be part of our yearlong church collection to help encourage the children and youth at our church to always strive to reach higher and do more. We even have our Youth group and some church families wanting to go on the UUSC Work trip to Haiti in early 2011! 

If you donate using the button, please leave a comment and tell me what you donated so I can update the tracker! We would love to be able to share the comments you leave with our kids at church! Let them know they are helping make a difference and the world hears them!


Thanks, and Blessed Be!


Steph