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In the summer of 2011, GAiN looked into starting feeding programs at two rural schools in Haiti. They quickly learned that roughly 50% of the children at the schools did not eat daily. With the desire to see these children receive a daily meal, an agreement was made to help their local Haitian partner begin the initiative.

After assessing the needs for an efficient and sustainable feeding program, a new kitchen was built at the school in Desarme, which has 160 students and is about four hours northeast of Carrefour, and then fixed up the already-existing kitchen at the Taifer school, which has 200 students and is about an hour south of Carrefour.

In February, Lindsey Schacter, GAiN’s LIFE Teams Manager, visited the school in Taifer for the second time. She was encouraged as the feeding program was no longer in the planning phase. Instead, she had the privilege of seeing the renovated kitchen, meeting the local staff hired to run the program as well as interacting with the students.

“I was so thankful and humbled to be there on behalf of GAiN and our donors on the first day,” shares Schacter. After the formal kick-off for the first meal of the feeding program was given, the children cheered with excitement.

An instant buzz was in the air as the kids raced over to line up for the food. For girls like Darlene, who is 19 years-old and still in grade six, this was most likely her first meal of the day. Darlene was responsible for finding food each day for her family of 11. If she couldn’t find any food…then her family didn’t eat.

Many of these children live in difficult and often hopeless situations. Some of the parents are so poor that they can’t afford to feed their kids and won’t send their hungry children to school. Whereas other children, regardless if they have any food in their stomach, still walk several miles every day to get to school because they have a dream for their life and want to learn. However, after walking for an hour or so and with no food to replenish their energy,  their education is usually affected.

In fact, one grade four teacher shared, “I realize that after ten o’clock in the morning the children have no energy left to learn and no matter how hard we try to retain the attention of the students, the kids don’t seem to listen or understand. For me…this feeding program needs to be implemented immediately.”

To ensure this program continues long-term, GAiN’s local partner is trying to raise money within the local church. Unfortunately, since Haiti is still considered one of the most impoverished countries, challenging individuals to give $5 per month is still difficult, especially when they are still picking up the pieces from the devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010.

As all of the partners assess their future involvement, a container of approximately 1 million servings of nourishing soup mix from the Fraser Valley Gleaners in Abbotsford, BC., is being put together. Additional funding from supporters is also being considered since it only costs less than 75 cents to feed a hot meal per day to one of these students, which is only fifteen dollars a month!

“Children should not have to deal with this! Everyone involved just wants to provide the kids with crucial nutrients that they would not otherwise receive so that they could learn in school and achieve their aspirations in life,” comments Schacter.

Rene, eldest of five, grew up living on a riverbank in a rural part of Haiti.At the age of eleven, Rene’s parents could neither feed him enough food nor pay for his education. As a result, they sent him to the Ca-Ira orphanage in Leogane.

One day, it rained heavily in the countryside and the river next to his parent’s house flooded. As the house started to wash away, Rene’s family quickly escaped.

With no home, his family was forced to rent a house in Gran Guave, which was several kilometers away from the land they still owned and farmed.

Not too long after this unfortunate incident, another unexpected event took place. Within seconds, the January 12^th, 2010 earthquake destroyed the house Rene’s family was renting.

Discouraged and upset, 22 year-old Rene shared some of his story with Linda and Waldemar Ewert, Global Aid Network’s (GAiN) Project Managers for Ca-Ira’s rebuilding project.

“Since that day my family now lives in a tent and I need to help them because I love them so much. How can I help them? I need to work to help my family but I need to have a trade,” shares Rene. “But to learn a trade I need money. I don’t know what I can do.”

Unsettled about Rene’s story, the Ewerts decided to go visit his family.

“What we saw didn’t give us any peace. There was a self-made tent two meters by three meters for six people,” Linda comments. “It was very clean and well kept, but the mattress was directly on the ground and two curtains separated the bed. You could see how much they wanted to have a more normal life.”

In the next few weeks the Ewerts looked for a post-secondary school for Rene. However, the underlying problem remained – there was no money for his tuition.

Unsure of where to look next, the Ewerts decided to share Rene’s need with GAiN.

Since GAiN’s desire is to come alongside those at Ca-Ira and help build into each of their futures, GAiN gave Rene a loan for school, food and all of his other needs for the next nine months with the intent for Rene to return to Ca-Ira to work on the site construction once he finishes the program; all the while paying back the loan little by little.

As a result, Rene enrolled in a plumbing program in Port-au-Prince.

Like many countries in Asia, increasing population, and economic, agricultural and industrial expansion in Thailand are the major causes of the deterioration of water quality in various water sources. High loading of pollutants from human activities beyond the water-resource-carrying capacity has contributed to degradation of water quality throughout the country.1

As a result, most Thai people are at a health risk due to the poor quality of drinking water. Approximately 43 million are drinking contaminated water. This, along with poor sanitation and insufficient hygiene, contributes to the spread of serious diseases such as helminthes, diarrhea, dysentery and typhoid.

The northeastern part of the country, which occupies one-third of the country’s total land area, is the most populous and lowest income region. Although Thailand is considered to be economically relatively advanced among developing countries, rural people are still poor, earning between $3 to $5 a day working in the fields (when there is work).  Sources say that there is about a six-fold difference in average per capita income between the citizens of Bangkok and the rural areas.2

Since this northeastern area is considered mostly rural, most people don’t have resources to purchase bottled water at $0.25 for approximately 15 liters.

Due to this need, in November 2011, GAiN drilled their first water well in the village of Nong Kung, which is in the northeastern part of Thailand.

As a result, 5,000 people from across four villages now have access to disease-free water. The well is 48 meters deep, with a six-meter tower and two 2,500 liter water tanks.

At the end of November, Dennis Fierbach, Director of Water Strategies, and Bill Blaney, CEO & Executive Director of GAiN Canada, attended the well dedication.

The head chief overseeing the four villages gave a speech at the opening ceremony in which he shared how thankful he was for the well. He said that though he was a Buddhist, he saw that Christians loved to help people.

Wenei, a staff member from GAiN’s local partner, expressed how this water well was a great bridge for him to connect more deeply to the community.

Local ground water authorities in Karisin welcomed GAiN with open arms. The official in charge gave GAiN a long list of villages that they could assess as potential drilling sites.

For now, GAiN has committed to drill ten wells over the next six months. People will not only receive fresh, clean water and better health – but experience the love of God, in both word and deed.

“The strategy will be different than in Africa but there is no doubt that there is a real need that we can help meet,” comments Dennis.

1www.wepa-db.net
2www.unesco.org

“The stark contrast between life with clean water and the struggle for existence without it stood out the most to me,” shares Rebecca Hey, GAiN’s Senior Grants Administrator, from her first trip to the Lindi District in Tanzania.

In July 2011, Rebecca, Dennis Fierbach, the Director of Water Strategies, and Jennifer Mullan, GAiN’s Marketing and Communications Manager, visited the Water for Life Initiative project in Tanzania. Over five days, twenty eight villages were visited in order to monitor the progress of the project as well as capture video footage.
In village after village, reports were given about the tremendous impact the project was making. Elderly women, who once had to rely on family members to walk long distances to fetch water for them, could now collect water from a well located right inside their village. Young children that previously experienced stomach illnesses on a regular basis were healthy and full of life. Students that used to miss hours of school a day for a single bucket of water, now attend all their classes.

But among the stories of hope, were moments of heartbreak. In the village of Tandika Nachunyu, GAiN’s well was situated near three open shallow wells. Each of these shallow wells only held a small amount of surface water, nonetheless dozens of women were busy drawing water. As the team talked to these women it became evident that GAiN’s well was not enough to provide clean water for this community of over 15,000.

One woman explained that in the height of the dry season women would sometimes fight over the little bit of water available. To avoid this, she wakes up at 2 a.m. to make sure her bucket gets a place in line for water. She lifted her leg to reveal a large wound on her calf; a result of falling as she tried to make her way to the well in the dark.

“Please, I want to impress upon you how much we need water” another woman exclaimed with fervency. “The line up for the (GAiN) well is long so all we can do is fish the garbage out of the open wells and continue to use them.” She went on, explaining that shoes, drowned animals and even feminine hygiene products had been found in the open wells. Her children that drink this dirty water often suffered from diarrhea and other waterborne diseases. Her moving plea was heard and Dennis assured her that GAiN would do what it could to help.

Less than 48 hours later, the team visited Tandika, a village with a similar name but with dramatically different circumstances. The atmosphere was bursting with anxious anticipation. Approximately 300 villagers crowded around to watch the GAiN crew complete the last few steps of the well installation process. Everyone held their breath as a village elder tried the well pump for the first time. As the water began to flow, the villagers erupted into loud cheers, claps and laughter. Amid the celebration, Rebecca watched as women with buckets in every imaginable color began pressing their way through to the front of the crowd. Their urgency brought Rebecca’s mind back to the women of Tandika Nachunyu and the image of GAiN’s deep water well situated only meters away from a shallow hand dug well. One well is a depiction of hope; the other disease and despair. For Rebecca, the disparity is a sharp reminder of how many in the Lindi region still lack access to clean water.

Global Aid Network (GAiN) sent their first LIFE Team to Mukti Mission in India.

Tony Vanderwal, retired dairy farmer, spending time with the children during their play time

Mukti is a “Christ-centered home where destitute women and children irrespective of their background are accepted, cared for, transformed, and empowered to be salt and light in the society.”

As the team of ten, which consisted of a nursing student, a farmer, four counsellors, a few helpers and GAiN staff, settled in it was evident that God has provided for this ministry in many ways in the last 100 years.

The main Mukti base where the team worked and lived for the two weeks is a community consisting of a church as well as both English and Marathi schools up to the 10th grade, staff and volunteer housing, a home for the blind (these ladies are completely self sufficient and they even cook for themselves), a home and school for the women and children with special needs, a hospital and nursery, a huge kitchen that works nonstop, a dairy and agricultural project as well as housing for the hundreds of women and children residents.

As the team toured around, Mukti’s staff continually repeated “every soul is important to God.”

“You could see this simple statement put into practice wherever we were,” comments Schacter. “The way the women and children were cared for, the servant hearts of the staff, the setup of the base…it was everywhere.”

The team focused on a variety of tasks from painting two of the older homes that needed a overhaul, visiting and helping at the special school, visiting the nursery, having a standing play date every evening with the kids to play soccer before dinner and a nightly visit to the flower families, which are groups of about 15-20 girls who live together and have house parents or a house mother and guardian.

The ladies on the team also spent time with the elderly and women’s residents, getting to share with them and spend some time washing their feet and pampering them. For many of these woman, this was the first time they had ever received a manicure or a pedicure. It was a special time for these women.

During the day, the retired dairy farmer spent time at the dairy and agricultural farms, working and talking with the management on ways to make the farms more efficient and productive.

The mini-team of counsellors undertook the important task of both providing training in much needed topics (like parenting, attachment, communication, addressing trauma) as well as counselling many of the women and staff. Each of the children and many of the women come from very difficult and often traumatic backgrounds. This makes it very overwhelming for the teachers at the school as well as the house parents who are caring for the children. “At Mukti there is a huge need for women and children to know their value and be healed from the impact of societal, familial injustice and abuse,” shares Faith Wilkes, clinical counsellor and LIFE Team member. “Volunteers were given a rich sample of the beauty and need of women and children in India.”

The trip was extremely positive for the team members as they were able to spend time loving on each person they encountered.

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